The end of the Rover 75 as a useable car ?

[clf]

Originally Posted by Avulon

Different to what? Different to new? Of course it is - mine is nearly 15 years old






Wet? as opposed to dry water? Mine has never leaked around the bulkhead. While it's true that many will leak somewhere or other at some time: it's not a given, and most don't leak in every possible place. Almost every car I've ever had with a sunroof has had leaks related to the sunroof regardless of age. Go back 20 years and most cars over 15 years old were either collectible classics or buckets of rust that leaked like sieves. Many 'modern' cars suffer just the same as soon as water gets into places it shouldn't (but should really be expected too: shame on optimistic designers).



In general, and from my experience and what I have read here over the years: apart from a few shining gems - many back street garages can't be trusted to carry out a straight engine replacement with care to detail. Let alone any engine related jobs. Many fail to replace/refit items correctly that need to be removed/loosened to access the part they are trying to repair. E.g - after having an alternator changed I had to return it to the garage to get the power steering pipes refitted with the correct routing - They were rubbing on the radiator matrix!!



You won't be the first to have to strip out the carpet and dry it. Sounds like you've been really unlucky to get most of the leaks all at once - I'll refer you back to
If it's that wet - then he'd have known.



Yep, sure - there are many potential places any car can leak. Helpfully for the 75/ZT they are all listed here on the forum many with proven solutions to cure them.



Well, If you actually read the forum, it's clear that there's plenty of understanding of the problems and pitfalls of 75/ZT ownership - There's a wealth of knowledge here and as yet unwritten but for the asking.

Viable for most people? All cars are holes in the road into which money is thrown. The 75 is no worse, but a lot better than, many of it's contemporaries and a lot of newer cars as well. I do feel for you, if you've ended up with a bit of a 'lemon' but that's always a gamble with any secondhand car 3yrs old or 10 it really doesn't make much difference apart from the purchase price.

Tell us, how much did you purchase your's for and with what mileage? I'm genuinely curious to know.

I am still curious to know the lad or lass's age. I remain unconvinced that they have a licence let alone a car.

If it is a decade old car, it is likely to have been lying around for at least three years doing nothing. Additionally, I find it curious amongst the whining, there is no mention of the extortionate tax that a 10 year old 75 would be subjected to. I am surprised that those 'advising' him or her, would not have been a little more 'clued up' on these cars to advise.

The unfortunate thing about the forum for the op, is that commenting cannot be turned off by themselves, when it does not go their way.


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[grivas]

Originally Posted by roverbarmy

I've spent a fair bit on service items (parts only) but have managed to do everything myself (apart from the new head gasket due to a bad back and knee problem at the time). A couple of door and lock niggles also fixed myself. Much of the rest has been cosmetic issues to make it more "minty"! It runs just about every day and will continue to do so. It is one of the last to be made ( 05 ) so I shall continue to enjoy it as long as poss.

I agree fully, these are remarkable cars and when they are gone please bear in mind this will signal the very end of British car making, I am talking about actual car building, not assembling cars for foreign owned car makers, whether they are called Jaguar, Rolls Royce, Land Rover, Aston Martin etc, the reality, is we no longer have a car manufacturing industry, same as aircraft building, train building, ship building, the only thing we make is weapons and armaments, we are quite good at that ( not so good at making aircraft carriers, apparently, they let in water, embarrassing for something that cost the tax payer 3.1 billion!, there you have it you just can't escape a little water.

[Astraeus]

Originally Posted by mcd840

I sold my 75 around a year and a half ago, I felt it was a fully loaded classy car however with it being a project drive car the build quality internally was in a word "NAUGHTY WORD-NAUGHTY WORD-NAUGHTY WORD-NAUGHTY WORD-NAUGHTY WORD". Since then I purchased a Signum elite, again a nice car with all the toys but maybe not a classy inside as a 75 although slightly better built...the money I have thrown at the Signum's engine / gearbox and other bits to get it to a level that I was happy with is shocking and I am still not happy with it hence why its getting sold one year after purchase for something with cheap running costs and cheap tax, on the other hand the engine and gear box on the 75 seemed bullet proof and apart from servicing there was zero spent on the engine and gearbox, I stopped yesterday to look at a 75 contemp se cdti auto for sale in Broxburn, when I looked inside I thought wow! Granted there was no c/c, h/k or powerfolds but still very nice, I had all that in mines along side that lovely black oak (until I ripped it out for a real wood dash) Perhaps I should have stuck with the devil I knew at the time...

astreus will be along just now to say "I told you so" lol

'Told you so!!!!!!' 👍

[bl52krz]

Originally Posted by SCP440

The problem with a car model forum is most people will not come on here and say '' there has not been anything wrong with my car today and it has performed perfectly''

On the other hand as soon as there a problem you will be on here saying '' my $£%^"£ has failed how do I fix or replace it'' And of course this makes us all think these cars are always having problems. It is exactly the same on any forum.

Well my car has performed perfectly today, as it does everyday.Went shopping and delivering Christmas cards around the general area this morning. Also went to bank to pay a bill and take some out, then went and picked a package up from post office that could not be delivered because we were out. This afternoon took Granddaughter to Birmingham Airport to fly back to Germany for Christmas. I was told that ‘Granddad , your car is really lovely and smooth.’ Do I need to say anymore? Apart from, the only leak I have had was the near side rear light leaked very slightly 3/4 years ago which I sealed and have had no leaks since. For a 15 year old car, and I have owned it for almost 10 years now, I can say with honesty, it’s been boring.............................because nothing has gone wrong to stop it running. This car will be my last more likely than not. Long live Rover.

[Mike Trident]

I have skimmed through most of the posts so sorry if what I say has already been said. These are just my thoughts.

I bought my Rover as a replacement for my classic motorbikes that i have decided to stop riding due to health issues and ages related problems. I have nearly had it a year and I love it. (touch wood) Mine has proved to be a good example it would seem. I did pay a bit more than the going rate (peanuts) but I didn't want a nail.

I bought it because it represents the end of British car manufacturing, it was the end of Longbridge. I would go as far as to say I believe it is the best British car ever built. I absolutely love driving it, it gives me a nostalgic feeling everytime I get in it. I bought the car as a long term thing as I would love to be still driving it when it's 30 years old never mind 13.

I did buy it as a second car though, it is purely for pleasure. So if if needs to be off the road, or it ever lets me down, that wouldn't bother me. I will spend whatever I have to to keep it running.

The problem as I see it is with cheap cars or cheap anything, if a repair is needed it usually costs more than the purchase price. Because of this people are reluctant to throw money at it.

I must admit with my modern cars I feel the same, if I have to spend money on it for anything other than servicing I know I will not get it back when I trade it in, it's money lost. However I lose £££££ each and every time I trade it in for a newer car. Money lost and gone forever!

My point is that unless something really serious happens to my Rover it will cost less to keep it on the road than I lose in depreciation each and every couple of years when I trade in my newer car. My last car, a VW up which I only owned for 18 months cost me £3500 in depreciation. As you can see I am only talking low end small cheap cars. Move up to family size cars and it will get much much worse.

By the way, the VW up that I owned was 10 months old and only had 7500 miles on it when I got it. We had a sudden downpour of rain once and I had to drive through a flood across the road (about 4 to 6 inches of water). Guess what I found in the boot a couple of days later? I went into the bottom section of the boot to get something out and found the spare wheel well to be full of water with no visible signs of entry.

[David Lawrence]

I have added a few routine checks to the service schedule to check all the common areas for leaks, and it is through this forum that i know where to look, and what to do if i find a leak. To date on both my cars the only issues were the plenum drains (solved before they developed in to wet carpets) and rear light seals (a bad design that started leaking after only 3 years, so far from being an “old car issue”) i solved it the first time by rejoining tge split seal with staples, then. Finally through the forum with the improved one piece seal. This leak i also caught before the bootwell filled up and reached the carpet.

I imagine once you have a soaking carpet it is a real demotivator hence why it is so valuable having a forum full of warnings about the risk spots. So far 2 x 16 year old 75’s with dry carpets and every intention of keeping them that way.

[Gate Keeper]

Next October 2nd LJW will be 20 years old. There was a problem 3 years ago with water ingress through the rearlight cluster, easily resolved. Apart from this, nothing major. The car is a joy to drive

[wraymond]

I bought my 2005 Connoisseur SE 2.5 Auto 8 years ago. After extensive research on here I looked at many, rejecting them all when it felt like I had kissed so many frogs I’d lost sight of the prince I had been dreaming of. I’d travelled and kicked tyres from Brighton and Portsmouth to Northumbria and Chester over a period of a year. Then I found my car on a van hire outlet 3 miles from where I live.

The car had a full service history, 29000 miles, neither the colour I wanted nor cosmetically perfect but everything else exactly what I wanted. Paid a lot for it when the business proprietor it belonged to refused to haggle and boy, I tried. £3500 seemed a lot at the time. I rationalised this with the low start-point on the prospective depreciation scale and was lucky enough to sustain a coughing fit when Celia said ‘Yes dear, but how much?’ When she persisted I interrupted with things like ‘just look at the leather’ and ‘just feel the colour’. After a while she gave up with ‘I’d better put the coffee on. You poor dear, where did you get that cough?’

As with most things the initial enjoyment fades a bit with familiarity, but couldn’t bear to let it go. At the beginning of the year I bought a Mazda MX-5 as a second car and it was fabulous. It became the daily and the Rover was relegated to the driveway for three or four weeks. Then we had to use the Rover to get our luggage in to go on holiday (Mazda can only carry crab sandwiches in boot). That was when I rediscovered just how perfect the Rover was.

The only things I’ve had to replace because they have worn out or failed are a battery, and two bulbs plus service items. It now has 60,000 miles. I know, belts were done 2 years ago. It will definitely last longer than me. I wonder if they can be modded as a hearse.

Easily the most reliable car I’ve owned. Why? Because I waited for the right one to come along. Come to think of it, not unlike Celia, my wife. Beautiful and forgiving of my bad habits, soft and gentle yet always ready to perf….yes... well, a veil there I think.

The moral? Buy an MX-5 for the fun and a Rover for the quality and to regain that sense that the world is a good place after all. Merry Christmas.

[Teflon]

Originally Posted by wraymond

..........As with most things the initial enjoyment fades a bit with familiarity, but couldn’t bear to let it go. .......

Forgive me for snipping your post, but this part really struck a chord with me.

When I fist came across my '75 in a local dealership, I thought long and hard about buying it. At the time, I was driving a small Hyundai hatchback which was proving to be ultra reliable and cheap to run. As much as I liked the Rover, I reasoned that it would be less practical (saloon V hatchback), less economical on fuel, cost more to tax, and cost more to insure. It would also take up more space under the carport.

I also firmly believed that the initial enjoyment would fade as I became more familiar with the car, as has happened with every other car I've ever owned.

Despite all this I still bought her, and have found that much to my surprise, the initial enjoyment has increased with each passing year.

I've had her for 11 years now, and so far she has only needed a new battery, new clutch, and two rear light seals (plus some repairs after being rear ended by a Ford Transit ). Of course, I've spent way more than that on her - primarily on upgrades and beauty treatments .

So far, she's proven herself to be a reliable everyday car, and works equally well both as a daily driver and a show car. Hopefully, this will continue for many more years .

Love my '75!

Cliff

[maxi_crawf]

I bought my Conny cdt se (51 plate) in Feb 06 and still have it, about 18 months ago I bought a 190 (53 plate) I call it mid life crisis

I would have no hesitation in going anywhere in either of them.