How did your ZT/75 love start and do you feel the same now?

[oldcarguy]

We had a Honda Jazz which we bought from new but after 5 years I'd had enough, the wife's health was deteriorating and she needed a mobility scooter, browsing through ebay and the like we saw a diesel facelift tourer in gold with sandstone leather which we drove across Yorkshire to see, unfortunately it had an alternator fault, we returned a week later, took it out on road test and the belt sheared leaving it without power steering, water pump and alternator. Took it back but was hooked, found one in Leeds in ski blue with smokestone leather, did a straight swap for the Honda and never looked back. Fitted cruise control and a webasto heater plus one of Radioguys early double dins. bought a BMW 320 ci convertible this year with the intention of selling the Rover but it never happened. it sits at the back of the house ready to roll when the colder weather comes.

[clf]

I started my 'nice car' phase in 2010, with a beautiful absolutely immaculate X-Type. Always wanted a Jag XJ but I couldnt afford to run one as a daily driver (cant have a second car right now) so looking to replace the '96 B4 Passat, my first diesel, I was looking for a B5/ 5.5 Passat to replace it with until I saw the fuel consumption figures of the X. They were better on paper AND in practice. But after three months it wouldnt start and a grand later, no one could find out why. So it was traded for a B5.5. Dull boring and quite heavy, but economical and reliable. Never really gelling with it, I kind of resigned myself to it. Previously I had ruled out the 75 because Rover had been gone for 5 years, and I thought there would be an issue with parts. Besides it was a Rover and not a Jaaaaaaggg. To me a 75 was going to be second best to what I wanted. In some ways it still is, because I do still want an XJ. lol.

Anyway, one day, I was at a friend's house and a family friend of hers, Tony called round. A former traffic cop in the town I live. When we were young, everybody knew who he was and hated him, all because he was doing his job. A nicer genuine guy you couldnt meet! He pulled up in the ZT beside my polished up Passat, commenting on how nice it looked. I walked around his very very clean ZT, the gridspokes just stuck in my mind. He noticed me looking around it, and inside it, I complimented him on it, and that was it really. I noticed at the time, too, the registration was a newer equivalent to my father's old Metro. Both Belfast registered, A**7356. Fate? This was in the March.

Roll forward to the November, at the same mutual friend's now new house, and house warming. Tony approaches me and says 'when are you going to buy my car' He apparently expected me to rebuff his suggestion, but those gridspokes were still in my mind. I honestly thought he would be going to advertise it at £4-5k, so told him I would not be able to afford it. I didnt want to be nosy, but asked out of curiosity how much would he likely sell it. He said £2.5k, which got me interested. My Passat, was still relatively sought after, and prices were still quite favourable. I figured I could get the £2.5k just from selling my Passat, but it was coming up to Christmas. So I warned him, if I couldnt get it sold, I couldnt do it.

The following night, I searched values and information on the ZT, whilst I prepared an ad for Autotrader. It was then I found this site, and read through as much as I could, as well as sites such as Honest Johns etc. I was a little nervous on the potential reliability issues, but reasoned that they would be no difference to the Passat at the end of the day. The enthusiasm from this site really set my mind at ease though, and made me go ahead with the Autotrader ad, and a Gumtree one. I contacted Tony, telling him I had placed mine for sale, but if he got an offer to take it, and no hard feelings. He responded that he would hold it for me as long as I needed to. But I didnt want to inconvenience him at all. So I told him, that the add expired on January 12th, so if it didnt sell then, I would pull out, to allow him to sell the ZT and his wife would then be able to buy her new car (he was due to get hers).

Just after Christmas, I though to check out the tax on it. Entering the registration online, it kept popping up as an auto. It never occurred to me that it was an auto, something I swore I would never have, unless I needed it. But I had kind of given my word.

So to cut a very long story to just a long story, around about the 8th, a guy who actually turned out to live in the next street came to view the Passat, but went away to think about it. He phoned to offer £2000, but we settled on £2100. So on the way home from work, knowing I could only lift £300 at a time from the ATM, I lifted the £300, in anticipation of needing the £400 to make up for the ZT. Between me coming home from work, and him coming around, was the longest two hours. But as soon as he did, I contacted Tony, and said, 'you still want to sell the ZT? I will be around in the morning' lol. He was quite insistent on having it cleaned before I called.

I got my mother to drive me to his after going to the ATM for the rest of the money. But on the way, it occurred to me, that I had never even been inside it, never mind driven it. In fact, I hadnt even seen it since March the previous year! As we pulled up, I looked at it shining on the cold January day. January the 12th, the day the ad was due to end! It wasnt quite as shiny as I remembered it, however I still wanted it. I had been absorbing the enthusiasm from here. Tony insisted on letting me test drive it, insurance was already in place at this time, but he said if I didnt like it, I could just walk away. But I was already smitten.

I wasnt scared of any issues that may arise, I had found my old confidence from reading this site. 13 days after I bought it, someone drove into the side of it. I felt I had in some way let Tony down, because he really seemed to love the car too. But it was subsequently repaired, and since then I have poured quite a bit of cash into it. Mild customisation, and upgrades. His wife even commenting that it never looked as good as this when he had it, and she wished he still had it lol. A small argument broke out, as it was her desire for him to part with it, as she couldnt get out of it easily.

Anyway, it is mine now, and I feel an obligation to it. So much so, I have a fear for its safety at times! lol. It did play a small part in my break up with my last girlfriend of 8 years too, but I still will not part with it.

[LotusLC]

My journey into owning the MG/Rover brand started about 3 years ago.
I was on the lookout for another car that was cheap'ish and i could get mine and Lydia's fishing gear in.

I kept an open mind and looked at all sorts of cars on Autotrader and a Green ZT popped up. I thought that looked nice but it was a saloon car so kept searching through the ads. i then saw a nice Red ZT-T 190 so went for a look.
It was not as nice as it looked in the photo's so i carried on the search.

By this time i decided a ZT-T was the way forward as i really liked the look of them. Only trouble was i kept returning to the Green ZT advert and Lydia said she would like to just go for a look as she loved the colour.



When we saw the car, Lydia said lets go home and get our fishing gear to see if it would fit into the car. My head said i needed a tourer version but we both really liked the car. Loaded up my gear and off we went back to the garage, could not believe i managed to get all our gear into it .

We got the car home a week later and used it a few times to go fishing in ,as my previous car was now scrapped due to tin worm.... I then decided it was too nice a car to take down to the river bank and then bought a 75 tourer to use for fishing. This car lasted a year till the clutch went and had corrosion issues on the sill and suspension parts.

I now have another tourer which i call my Fishing truck lol.

[sworks]

We've had a need for a tourer for almost 18 years now. We've owned 4 400 tourers which were perfect for our needs. We never really looked at 75's as they were too expensive. With the closure of MGR prices dropped and a Royal blue 1.8 turbo tourer that was a one owner car that we'd looked after all it's life was traded in as the owner wanted away from a car that was no longer produced. This became our first 75 tourer and we loved it. This was an incredibly quick car and I always felt it was over boosting. We had this for a while and it had a few issues which were easily sorted. Then, over a period of two weeks I had to rebuild 3 1.8 turbo engines, all were 'extremely' fast according to the owners and had all been over boosting due to vac pipe issues, each rebuild was around £2000 as they had cracked liners and damaged Pistons. This started to worry me as we needed 100% reliability due to the use of our car and it was approaching 70,000 miles which was usually when we changed cars. Another 1 owner car came in with low miles, this time a facelift 04 silver tourer 1.8 nasp. We took this for a run and it was incredibly slow compared to the turbo so we decided against it. However, every time I walked past it I stopped and looked at it as I actually preferred the facelift look. We ended up buying it anyway. This was a fantastic car, again a few issues that were put right but was an incredibly reliable car. Fast forward to 70,000 miles and we started looking for as late a car with as low miles as possible as we felt that the later cars were getting rarer and this might be our last chance to get a 'keeper' to last as long as possible. A rare yellow 75 tourer appeared on eBay and looked sorry for itself, the pictures did nothing for it and it was obvious it had been used as an emergency vehicle due to extra ariels etc. Little was known about the car and it ended up being bought by Tony, Tony doesn't seem to post as much these days sadly but is well known for saving the rarer 75's and MG's. Once in Tony's ownership the car looked better but unfortunately he had to move some cars and put this tourer and a v8 up for sale. Like the previous silver tourer I kept coming back to this car, I'd previously put a 'wanted' add for a yellow ZTT but even those are quite rare so having the chance of a Rover variant wasn't going to happen again. I spoke to Tony a few times and then went away with work for a while, Mrs sworks spoke to my boss who then bought the car on her behalf and organised collection. A few weeks later I was asked to speak to a customer and left what I was doing to go outside where my family and the yellow tourer was, this was the first I'd seen it and it was my 'Christmas present' as it was December. The research then started and we found out that there were actually 3 cars produced. Generally if you read anything about these three cars on the internet it's came from me as it became quite addictive. So, we ended up with the last sold ordered 75 tourer to be built at Longbridge, paid for by the Phoenix Four, handed over by John Towers and spent its first few years saving lives...... Pretty special!

[willshot]

For most of my driving years I’ve has various Fords, Capris, Cortinas, Granadas and Scorpios. I had a brief flirt with a Austin Maxi, Rover 820E and a Rover 820Si. I went to Waddington Air Show in about 2002 and saw a Le Mans green ZT on the MGR stand. I thought “I’m gonna have me one of those”. I bought BX in 2004 from a MGR dealer in Guiseley. I’d road tested a V6 and a “tractor” before but couldn’t see myself in a diesel. Over the years I modded it by adding a body kit and stripes until I had it how I wanted it. The wheels were powder coated white after I experimented with a set of Fox alloys. Now BX is 14 years old and with 72K miles is still going strong and it has been a joy to own for the 12 years of ownership. It’s never let me down but has been regularly serviced and wanted for nothing. Time is marching on and I decided I wanted a new car as I’ve never had the resources to buy one until now. I did consider a new MG6 but in the end settled for a new Focus RS. BX will be missed but is going to a new home soon where I know it will be well cared for and appreciated. I'm still a fan of the 75/ZT and will be attending selective events from this forum in the future, albeit as a punter not an exhibitor.

[Teflon]

Originally Posted by chambl01

............ My Car was the only 2.0 cdt connoisuer saloon model in lagoon produced; So a very exclusive car. ......... Never had a car with such history. Makes me love owning it even better.

I know exactly how you feel - I own the one and only RHD 2.0 V6 in Lagoon supertallic. They made one other 2.0 V6 in this colour, a left hand drive car which was exported to Libya. Doubt very much I'll see that on our roads any time soon.

I personally fell in love with these cars when they were first launched, but never thought that I'd get to own one. It was shortly after MG Rover went bust, and the value of our cars plummeted somewhat, that I thought about getting one. I was originally after a dark blue diesel saloon, but the Lagoon V6 was the first '75 I looked at, and it was in such nice condition, with most of the toys, that I just couldn't say no.

I've had her for nearly 10 years now, and the novelty hasn't worn off in the slightest. Only this year I've bought a walnut steering wheel to replace the faded original, a walnut gearknob to replace an aftermarket one, a reproduction OEM walnut hand brake cover to replace a Freelander one, and a walnut arm rest lid. I've also had the original Serpent wheels refurbed and spent more time than is healthy washing, polishing, and photographing her. Belts were done for the 2nd time last year and she'll hopefully get a full stainless steel exhaust before the summer is out. She gets used everyday in all weathers, and is cleaned almost as regularly!

Smitten? Just a bit.

Cliff

[Nev The Bear]

My love of everything Rover 75, MG ZT and MG ZT-T started in 2012.
It was at the Classic Car Show at the NEC when myself and my father in law found the 75 and ZT club stand. At the time I thought what fantastic looking cars and it is a car I would want to own but I did not think I would be able to afford one.
On the very same day I started looking on the internet and discovered it was a car I could afford and I wanted to own a Rover 75 or ZT, so my search commenced.
I decided I wanted to buy a car from a dealer as the car would be my daily driver and I wanted the reassurance of a warranty in the event or any problems with the car.
I started to look locally but hard no luck in finding a car so I expanded my search further afield and despite looking at several cars which I was not happy with.
It took until February 2013 to find my perfect car.
I found two Rover 75 saloons advertised for sale at Central Garages in Torquay a Classic and a Connoisseur SE model. So I went to look at the cars and I decided to purchase the Connoisseur SE model as I really liked the car, so a deal was done to part exchange the Citroen C3 Picasso I owned at the time against the Rover 75.
I then owned my Rover 75 up until June 2015 when I decided I would like to source either a Rover 75 Tourer or a MG ZT-T. I phoned several ex MG Rover dealers to leave my name and phone number with details of what I would be looking for.
I received a phone call from A E Wilcox at Wickwar advising they had taken a MG ZT-T in as a part exchange.
As soon as I looked at the MG ZT-T I knew it was a car I wanted, so my Rover 75 was put in as a part exchange towards the MG ZT-T.
I have owned my MG Z-T for over a year now and I really like my ZT-T and it is a car which I would not want to let go.
In terms of car ownership the Rover 75 and my MG ZT-T are the best two cars I have bought and the fantastic owners club, members and meets make ownership even more pleasureable.

My 75 I used to own.



My ZT-T.