Comfortable but very unreliable (Rover 75)

Member Name: Pilotgavw

Product:	Rover 75
Date:	14/09/09 (141 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Very good climate control and very comfortable

Disadvantages: Engine

The Rover 75 I had was the 'Club SE' version, it was a 1.8 litre petrol engine and came with climate control. The reason why I am talking in past-tense is because the car eventually gave up in typical rover style and was sent to the scrap yard a couple of months back.

Please don't misunderstand me if I sound like I didn't like this car, I was very found of everything but the engine! The car its self was a 2000 model (W reg), and the bodywork and interior was very good in many ways.

The Rover 75 is a neo-classical style, very similar to a Jaguar released around the same time and I personally think that the Rover 75 looks the better of the two (I am not for one minute saying it is the better car, only that it looks better). The interior was very comfortable, very large cushioned seats that could move back, forwards, up, down and probably upsidedown if you tried. The steering wheel was leather coated and the walnut dash looked fantastic. The intergrated climate control was one of the best I've encountered, indepedant controls for the driver and the passanger, and the air conditioning could turn your breath to ice if it was turned down enough.

Driveability wise, the car was very smooth and comfortable, especially at motorway cruising, making any speed effortless. Its noise-proofing was excellent, which has only really been appreciated after moving across to a Fiesta and hearing the difference there is. The power wasn't always as much as you needed, but ample given it was only the 1.8 version and a V6 can be had if you wanted. The fuel consumption was not the best however, achieving a best of 48mpg, pretty much all motorway driving at 60mph, around town it is common to get low 30's as an mpg value.

The body work was very good and although the car was 9 years old, not one single bit of rust was present. All the electrics worked which in my experience tend to be the first things to go on cars. Even all four of the windscreen washer squirters functioned well.

Finally the Engine, and where to begin...After buying it with a reconditioned engine with new valves and sleeves, etc. after the head gasket went on that one, I drove it for around a year with no real major problems, then it started to use quite a large amount of coolant, probable cause, head gasket. After having this replaced, it started to use quite a lot of oil, probable cause of this, worn piston rings. This however, would have ment a new engine, so I decided to put up with the oil usage for now as it wasn't going through all that much (I'd had worse in the past). But then again, suprise suprise, it started overheating for another time, head gasket had gone again! In total I have had 4 rovers, and of these, 3 of them had head gaskets fail. It was purely the engine that let it down, if it wasn't for this, it would have been a great car, but once the reliability and trust in a car goes, its time for the car to go.

Overall, this car was the most comfortable car I have owned but it was the engine which was the problem. Shame!

Summary: The engine lets it down

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Reliability:
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