[Roker]

Hiya guys,

New nember here, recently took early retirement at a significant birthday last month. Done enough and 60 seems a nice round number to do not much more unless i want to and the chances of that any time soon are very slim.

As you will witness, i am very much in the "why use a few words when many will do" genre. Please forgive an old man his foibles.

Having owned numbers of vehicles way in excess of my 60 years and being some 43 of those summers since first sat in the driver's seat, i am now looking for something a little different, not everybody else has and that has a bit of a heritage, yet still modern enough to keep up with traffic and still be capable of giving a pride of ownership that makes you smile like a prize clown when you sit in it.

Originating from the NE of England and now having resided in Oz since 1982, my vehicles of choice have had distinct Pommie leanings for a very long time. Anything from a mini to an XJS and all points in between. Being 6'3 in stockinged feet saw the mini consigned to someone of a much more diminutive stature and the V12, well that was just one of those moments of madness when boy meets car and falls head over heels in love knowing full well that she will break his heart once she finds he does not have the funds to keep her happy. It was a stupid decision to purchase a tarty dogs appendage red Walkinshaw body kitted one anyway and especially a car that had been on UK roads for far too long, then imported into Oz by some migrant rat sporting a gold tooth in pursuit of a cashed up mug was just one of the daftest things i have ever done and there are plenty of not so smart things in the memory banks to choose from. Anyway, the planets aligned, the wife had her own moment of madness letting me buy it for my 40th birthday and I became that mug. The years were not kind and the iron oxide Gods took my fair maiden away to Jag Valhalla, but not before rendering me impecunious in the process. Not wishing to repeat that learning process again any time soon....

So. All this waffling is just to set the scene as background information to an obsessive mechanical nature that has no basis in either sense or practicality. I have always loved the Rover marque, regardless of model, but whilst the ones in Oz seldom succumb to metal rot ( as we prefer to put our salt on our chips and not on the roads) they do not, however, suit what I am now searching for. I am now needing something that at least purports to be reliable if you keep up the maintenance and are prepared to lob up some folding stuff and a bit of free time on a regular basis to make it so. The heart says P5B coupe, but even I know that my head tells me that scale of impracticality would not match the reality of owning one.

Long story short. I have been trawling the pages of Carsales and Gumtree in Perth and the 75 series Rovers caught my eye. I have done my research and, thanks to the treasure trove of knowledge and information on this site, now have half an idea what to look for and subsequently embarked on my quest to find "a good one" that has a decent log book history, with the right amount of fruit to keep me lustfully pressing buttons from tbe drivers seat. Unfortunately right now, most of the current crop appear to be on the Eastern seabord and whilst a flight to, followed by a road trip from, of some 2000km in a car that is perhaps upwards of 16 years old and questionable reliability smacks of an adventure, even I am not prepared to be that stupid.There is a vast area of stinking hot nothingness twixt Adelaide and Perth that we have traversed several times and have no intention of thrill seeking to that extent in a newly acquired old vehicle of unknown abilities to keep going for extended periods of time.

There are 4 presently for sale in Perth as contenders for driveway space, ranging from Club Spec to Connoisseur SE. One has only 78,000km, but is the lower spec model, but immaculate. The rest are all around 120-135K km with most of the desirable features, but a litle tatty here and there in places. Not a huge amount of mileage for cars that are 2001-2003 vintage. There is a very tarty looking 2005 ZT190 that I thought i might like, but discovered my boy racer tendencies of yore, have morphed into a propensity for armchair comfort with lashings of wood grain. It seems sportiness is no longer my thing and, sadly, after inspecting it the MG just didn't float my boat and i didnt even bother to drive it. Not flashy enough, or
Is it that I am just growing up/old? I do have a 2010 Alfa Spider as my daily driver, so maybe I can have both flashiness and old NAUGHTY WORD-NAUGHTY WORD-NAUGHTY WORD-NAUGHTY WORD- practicality by having my two totally opposing personal character types (in sort of a vehicular Dr Jekyll/ Mr Hyde kind of wsy) in the garage and render our much more staid by comparison, 4WD to caravan towing duties from here on in.

Having driven only one V6 car thus far and been smitten by the smoothness of ride, levels of opulence reserved for someone much less Chavvy than me and a sense of "where have these cars been all my life and why havent i succumbed to their siren-like charms until now" about me, i am forcing myself not to be impulsive and not just pay what the guy is asking. A far cry from the head strong young man that I used to be and am finding the process very cathartic, if interspersed with thoughts of suicide if i let this one go..

So, for now, the quest will continue, but I already believe that I have found my car, but for once will heed the sagely advice from these pages of much wiser, experienced heads and drive a number of them first. Wish me luck.........