A Class of its Own...Just not in BMW's (Rover 400)

Member Name: RayBanUK

Product:	Rover 400
Date:	31/07/02 (5259 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Great Secondhand Bargain, Good Equipment Level, Comfortable

Disadvantages: Suspect Build Quality, Handling, Depreciation

I?ve just sold my Rover 400 after owning it for the last 5 years so it?s an ideal time to reflect on owning this car. If you are thinking of buying a Rover 45, then this will also be applicable as it?s an updated version of the 400.

Two weeks after starting my first time job after university, my old university runabout car, an E Reg Astra decided to blow up on me. So with a proper job, came proper money and the urge to buy a new car! Well I didn?t buy brand new, opting for a nearly new car instead (the most sensible option in my opinion).

At the time, a lot of the newer cars such as the Focus, new Astra, and Mark 4 Golf (which is my current car) weren?t out yet. So there were Escorts and old shape Astras and Golfs, which I wasn?t fond off. The only medium size hatch that appeal to me was the Peugeot 306, which was at the time, the best car in its class but due to the more expensive price, I couldn?t afford one. My budget would only stretch to £8000 and after a lot of consideration, I decided to buy the Rover 416SI. I think at the time, there was all the hype surrounding the takeover of Rover by BMW so it was like buying a cheaper BMW. Well in theory anyway! We all knew what happened to that relationship!

Looks
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Right, the Rover 400 series won?t turn any heads at all, its rather conservative looking. I?ve personally seen a lot worse. There are 2 versions, the 5 door hatchback and the 4 door saloon, which is the better looking of the 2. The hatchback, which is the version I opted for, was based around the Honda Civic 5 door at the time, sharing the same body shell with minor alterations to the front and rear lights. This was mainly due to the fact that Honda and Rover were in partnership when the 400 was developed, hence the similarities. The 400 hatchbacks reminded me of a shorter version of its bigger brother, the 600 (also based on the Honda Accord) and it does actually look like a saloon until you open the hatchback. The gr
ill does actually look quite good with its chrome look which gives it a slight prestige look about it.

Interior
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The borrowing from Honda is also reflected in the interior, which is identical to the 5 door Honda Civic apart from the patterns used. Rover are infomous for using wood effect inserts in their cars, which can a first look like they add a touch of class until it becomes apparent that its only fake plastic wood. In fact the major criticisms with rovers are their use of cheap plastics, which with age begin to look tacky and creak at every opportunity. It?s not well put together and with age this is more than apparent with bits falling off left right and centre. The layout is actually quite nice though a lot of people think it?s rather conservative. I didn?t have any gripes against its design as I found it quite easy to navigate around the controls and switches.

The seats are quite well design with good side support, but aren?t the most comfortable for long journeys as the back support leaves a lot to be desired. Rover later addressed this problem, putting in new seat designs in the Rover 45.

What really lets the interior down is the lack of space for anything! For a car that was released in 1995, you would have expected better storage space. The glove compartment is minute because of the passenger airbag sitting right on top of it. The top of the dashboard is just one solid bit of plastic with no recess, so putting anything on top is a impossible unless you want it sliding everywhere when cornering (but I think most manufacturers are guilty of this with new cars). Even the side pockets were limited for storage space. Don?t even think about cup holders! On the car that I got, it also came with a centre armrest, which offered some extra stowage space.

Specification
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The car comes standard with driver?s airbag, power steering, adjustable steering wheel, electric windows and sunroof. ABS w
as an optional extra but the car I bought was fitted with it. Some models are fitter with air conditioning in lieu of the sunroof. Security comes in the form of remote central locking as well as an engine immobiliser.

Apart from the above, there are a few nice features that I have to give Rover credit for. First of all is the door warning system, which alerts the driver if the any doors or the boot are open whilst the engine is running. Now you wont need someone in the next lane passing you making loads of funny gestures at you when your doors are not closed properly. Even more impressive are the automatic rear wash wipes, which activates themselves if it?s raining and you are reversing the car.

Drivability and Handling
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The Rover 416si uses a 1.6 Twin Cam 16 Valve Rover K Series engine which provides 112BHP doing 0 to 60 Miles in about 11 seconds. Though not the fastest engine around, it does have good acceleration and mid-range and it really only begins to lack power at the top end. I would have to point out the K series engine do sound very harsh and unrefined. OK some people might call it grunt, but upon starting the engine, it reminds me of a Taxi! In other words it sounds like a diesel, but without the padding. With age the engine sounds even noisier especially when driving over 80mph. Acceleration is moderate to start off with but working through the gears and the mid-range, it does pick up speed quite quickly. I must admit this was the best range to drive the Rover.

Generally the ride quality is very smooth, soaking up bumps and potholes effortlessly with its soft suspension. However because of this, the car handling suffers when it is chucked about and the backend looses it. This is true of both 14 and 15 inch wheel as I changed from the former to the latter in the time I?ve had the car. I think the main reason for this is down to the suspension being too high hence making it a bit too top heavy w
hen cornering. So just take it easy around those corners!

The Rover 416i typically does about 340 miles on one full tank of unleaded petrol, but I have got 370 miles of it before. A realistic figure would be around 320 miles though.

Insurance
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Another minus point for this Rover is the fact that it sits in Group 11 in terms of insurance. Considering that its a 1.6 and its not overly desirable, I found this to be quite steep. Typical example for someone with about 3 years No Claims Bonus living in Bedford was about £600 for Fully Comprenhensive. When I first bought it with no NCB, it cost me nearly £900!

Value For Money
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When I first bought the Rover 416si in 1997, it was 2 years old and cost me £8000 pounds. I didn?t think it was bad value considering it was relatively new and had the level of equipment that it did. It was certainly a lot cheaper than buying new, which was a whopping £14000 at the time. It may seem a bit excessive but at the time, the Rover 400 series were pitched at the Mondeo size market hence the higher price tag. This was an idea by BMW to up the Rover?s residual values and image, but this majorly backfired and when Rover was sold off, residual values really slumped on these once expensive cars. One minute £14000 from the showroom, when driven out, only worth £10000, and that?s no exaggeration! BMW were accused of severely price fixing with these unrealistic values.

As a second-hand buy however, it made sense. The car was indeed bigger than your Astra?s and Escorts and when buying second hand it was the same price as the older rivals and had more equipment to boot. It was because of this that a lot of people bought nearly news instead of brand new making it one of the most popular second hand buys at the time.

The only thing I would say is that Rover never tend to hold their values at all, which made the whole exercise by BMW to up Rover prices more absurd. Curr
ently Im seeing P and R registered Rover 400?s for about £3000, which is nothing short of a bargain for the specification you get. So my advice is to not buy too new as it devalues really quickly and shop around for second hand bargains

Servicing costs are moderate at around £170 for a full service going up to £290 for a service with timing belt change. Generally though, Rover parts are quite expensive. These may be due to the fact that there aren?t a lot of third party parts. An inexpensive way to get parts is to buy second hand from scrap yards; you?ll be surprised at the savings!

Reliability
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Right, this is main area of the Rover that I?ve been disappointed with. I?ve always heard people say how reliable Rovers were but in the last 5 years, I?ve had quite a bit of trouble with it. I?ve always serviced it on time and at Rover garages. During the first 2 years I had it, the ECU (chip that manages the engine) went haywire and needed to be replaced. Luckily that was under warranty. I had to take the car back several times due to the electric windows not working properly. Again under warranty. But nothing prepared me for when it turned 4 years old and then everything started to go on it, from the clutch to the gearbox and then the engine packed in at 82000 miles! I couldn?t believe it but the engine blew a hole! Naturally most people will see this as a write off and the insurance company never pay for engine failures, but I had contacts in the trade and refitted a nearly new engine from a Rover 45 for about a grand.

What caused it? Well I?m quite a high mileage driver, so I did something in the region of 25K miles a year up and down the country for work and personal purposes. Obviously this put a strain on the engine, but I would have never thought that the engine would pack in at 82000 miles though! I can accept the fact that my driving style may have caused the clutch and gearbox to go, but I was certainly no boy racer!
After the engine refit, I decided to pass on the car to my mum and she?s been driving the car for one and half years and she hasn?t had any trouble. The difference being she mainly does town driving! I guess it just highlights the Rover?s inability to handle wear and tear.

Rover 45
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Just to finish off, the Rover 400 series had a facelift in 2000 and got re-badged Rover 45. Naturally, I went for a test drive! The main differences were a new front end with new grille and Rover 75 round lights (if that?s your cup of tea!), new seat designs which were much more comfortable, and improved handling with stiffer suspension (hooray!). Apart from that its still pretty much the same car with the same chassis and interior. It?s starting to look very dated now in light of all these tardis like MPV-style hatches such as the Focus, Civic and 307 but there are no plans to change it until at least 2004. So if you can afford a Rover 45, then buy one instead of the Rover 400 just for the better seats, suspension and ever so updated looks.

Conclusion
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So would I recommend it? Well if you are thinking of buying new (with the Rover 45) then I would definitely say a big No! Its not worth the money and it devalues too much and too quickly. If you do a lot of motorway driving, then once again I cant recommend it due to its suspect reliability.

If on the other hand you are looking for a decent second hand buy for mainly using in town and some moderate motorway driving for around £2000-4000 and equipment levels are important, then it?s worth considering. There are plenty Rover 400 on the second hand market so look out for better and newer examples. Some models even have air conditioning in lieu of the sunroof and leather interior, so look out for these.

I personally wouldn?t pay more than £4000 for a Rover 400, as there are better cars out there for the price such as the Ford Focus and Mk4 Astra. Above all, it?s a Rover (
So don?t pay too much for it!)

Summary: