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Car Of The Month :
May 2015
'A New Zealand Club' by Rovering
This is my New Zealand 2001 Arden Green Rover 75 Club SE 2.5 V6 Automatic; photos were taken beside the Waikato River, which divides the City of Hamilton, where I live, in two.
I have only owned this car for a month or two. Saw it advertised at a local Auto Auctioneers, took it for a drive and then two days later it was mine!
My Rover history started off with a 1995 416 Tourer, which has since been sold to friends. I then owned a 1971 P6B briefly, though for me it was too small a car interior wise for me,
but it was my first V8! I have also had three of the 800’s, a Mk1, a Mk1 Vitesse and a Mk2 Sterling. The Club is my third 75, though I now only own the 2003 2.5 Tourer and the Club.
I currently also own a 1986 SD1 Vanden Plas and a 1988 Sterling.
I am the fourth owner, ownership history is known. The Club SE started out life as a company car, since then it has had three private owners including myself.
The last owner traded in a Rover 420GSi and still paid the sum of $25,990 NZD for the car in 2005. He travelled only 50,000 odd kilometres in his 10 years of ownership.
The condition of this car is a credit to the previous owner. I also have all the receipts for work done on this car whilst in his possession.
Interestingly though, this car was built on 19th October 1999, but was not registered as a new car in New Zealand until September 2001.
I have yet to go to the dealership who supplied the car from new, Roverland in Glenfield, Auckland, to see if they can shed any light on the delay in registration.
It was sold with 14 kilometres on the clock, so the car must have sat somewhere for some considerable time until sale.
What I like about this car, compared to my Tourer, is that whilst it looks the same specification from outside, it has cloth seats which I find more comfortable than the leather in the Tourer.
The lack of trip computer and cruise is a little disappointing, and as much as I would like to retrofit cruise it probably won’t happen due to the lack of T4 agents over here.
The Club also feels a bit livelier than the Tourer, though I think that might be down to VIS motor issues with the Tourer.
I have fitted Crofts door finishers, a driver’s side cup holder and a K & N panel air filter since purchasing the car. Future enhancements are likely to be the fitting of an electric sun blind,
something that will protect the rear seats due to our high UV over here; I would also love to get a Navall 2 or 3 for this car….and the Tourer. I am currently sourcing a reversing sensor setup and will install them soon,
I’m also looking at fitting heating elements to the front seats; luckily my car has the wiring in place for reversing sensors, electric blind and heated seats.
Issues I have found with this car since purchase are; the radiator cooling fan only works on high speed, I intend to try re-bushing at first, failing that I will purchase a new fan setup from Club member Jules.
The heater has the infamous “cold on passengers side output”, this is something I will tackle shortly especially as we now head towards autumn and winter.
There are a few scratches and scrape marks on the left side between the doors due to the previous owner having an argument with a rhododendron bush in his driveway.
I really like the 75 as a model, to me it has a lot of presence and class, they are a great cruising car. My mother described the Tourer as “posh” when I recently took her for a weekend away.
It also amazes me how I am ridiculed by my work mates about owning Rover cars, but they soon change their tune when they see my 75’s, especially if they have a ride in one of them.
Article written by member Rovering
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