04 Plate Rover 25 Ride

[demag]

My son in son in law has just paid his dad in excess of 2k for this little pile of pooh! He has decided to get rid of his V reg Mondeo which was one of the last of the old shape models. Hence it came with all the toys and although I am not a lover of Fords, to be fair it was quite a nice car.

I think he has made a gross mistake in buying the Rover. I had to drive it for a few miles this morning and have to say it felt like a throwback to the sixties. For some reason it reminded me of an old Ford Anglia I had in my teens before I discovered Citroens! The first black mark came as I tried to get in and smacked my head off the windscreen pillar. It is unbelievably small inside and it took me some time to adjust the seat so I could actually drive the thing. The steering seemed WAY too sensitive and it took some concentration to stop swerving from side to side in a rather drunken manner. The strong winds didn't help which easily blew it about. The clutch action wasn't too bad but the throttle didn't take up until I had pushed the pedal down a fair way, consequently I had one or two learner type kangaroo moments!

The seats are incredibly primitive with what felt like a hard bar situated uncomfortably behind my pelvis. The cushioning is very thin and there is no lateral support worth talking about. For a modern 1.4i the performance wasn't really special either. The heating controls reminded me of an old BX with the temperature knob feeling like it was ready to snap off because it was that stiff. The suspension reminded me of an old Mini being hard and bouncy. The two redeeming features were the door mirrors were very good and I liked the white dials on the dash!

If this was the best that Longbridge could produce, and we're only talking 5 years ago, then I'm not surprised they went down. In all honesty I would say my K reg BX is a MUCH better car and that is a 93 plate!

[Citroenmad]

I have had the torture of driving a 1.4 Rover 25 too. It was awful, this was a 54 reg, but felt very very dated inside, very cramped and cheap too. Some friends bought one just after Rover went out of production, thinking they had got a good deal. True its never gone wrong but i cant imagine its done more than 2-3K miles in that time!

Rovers headgaskets are made of cheese too, so it wont last 5 minutes

[demag]

This one has done 23k so not a lot. One point I forgot to add was the noise! Not the engine, that was very quiet, but the tyre noise was very loud even at 40mph. At 70 I would think it will be very unpleasant.

[David Hallworth]

If you got the 1.4 16v Rover 25 on the back roads and kept the revs up so it was permanently on cam you'd be pretty surprised at how sprightly they are. With a good driver they can make real progress on back roads.

There are several different versions of them and the one my sister had was the 103bhp version, the lower powered versions I've never tried.

The reason that the head gaskets on them are prone to failing is because when BMW bought Rover and Land Rover they changed the oil channels in the head from a little metal dowel to a plastic dowel.

Because of the temperatures involved the plastic used started to melt and it forced its way between the head and the block causing the heads to fail.

If you look at the 1.4 8v engines before the BMW era they are bullet proof, it's only the 16v engines that were fitted to the Rovers and Land Rovers that caused the problems as these are the only ones BMW "fiddled" with.

If you do the head properly on one of these using a good head set they come with a metal dowel to replace the plastic ones that melt. Once they have had these fitted rarely do they go again.

There also aren't many cars that you can do a head gasket on in an hour if you know what your doing.

I agree the interior is a bit bland and the seats aren't particularly comfy but they are a nice little car to drive. If you try a Corsa, Saxo, 106 or something similar you will notice how solid and refined the little Rovers do feel.

The point that was made about tyre noise was noticable on my sisters when we initially got the car. This however was short lived as a new set of Michelin Pilot Exalto's on it cured that problem.

I personally wouldn't have one as an every day car after being priviledged enough to have some of the cars I've had however as a first car or something to get from A to B for someone who doesn't really care what car they have they are quite a nice little car really.

David.

[Ciaran]

Aha yes, the good old Rover 'Cadburys' engine.

When I get home I shall post some details and pictures of my dad's 414 thing. To be fair interior, trim, and comfort wise it wasn't too bad (for a non-Citroen anyway), but jesus the engine was terrible.
I sold it to my cousin for £200 a few months ago, though it did have a dodgy thrust bearing...

My sister also had a 220D, until a couple of weeks ago when I sold it to some fella off the internets for £150. He was happy enough to take it as was with a few days MOT remaining. It was mechanically very good but the bodywork and trim were terrible. To come back to your original point Dave, though it drove very nicely (the diesels seem much better), I found the seat back breaking and very uncomfortable to drive for any significant distance, but maybe I'm just spoiled by having XMs for so long.

Pile of shoite, glad to be rid of the pair of them. (Though to be totally fair, they both had good points)

I do think your son-in-law is mad swapping any Mondeo, nevermind a higher spec one, for a pokey wee Rover 200. Many may disagree, but I've said it before, the Mondeo is actually a very good car for what it is...

Ciarán

[Peter.N.]

I think driving any car especially a small one is a sobering experience after an XM. I was thinking seriously about an alternative to the XM sometime ago, until I realised that there isn't one. I did drive a friend of mine's Rover 75, I must admit it was quite nice, but it it didn't compare wit the XM for internal space and as for engine access it makes the XM look like a RWD car!

I firmly believe that the best cars were made in the '90s and that most 'improvements' since then have been retrograde, there is not another car made now which has the space, comfort and economy of the diesel XM and which you can repair on a DIY basis.

Sorry, Im off again

[Citroenmad]

Id not buy a rover, never have liked them, they have been so far behind ohter makes for years, the (Sh)ityRover was the final straw for Rover, hideous cars. Mind if you want a car for 1p im sure there are still some CityRovers yet to be bought!

Picked up the C5 estate yesterday, it is large, much much wider than the Xm, however there is slightly less rear legroom and the boot doesnt seem as cavenous as the Xm estate is. Still its a spacious car, which returns about 50MPG, has lots of kit and safety features. The ride is good but not near Xm like. The ride on my C5 hatch is very soft (comfort spheres), even slightly softer than the Xm at times, however it doesnt drive as nicely as the Xm. There are some nice features though, i like the boot window which you can open without opening the boot lid, and the switch inside the boot to raise or lower the rear of the car when loading/unloading - ideal for letting the dogs in the boot.

As for reliability, i have heard more good comments about the C5 than bad. They do have their problems but not many cars dont. It will be interesting to see how the fiar up to the miles as time goes by, but at the moment they have no issues at all, touch wood!

The C5 is a nice modern daily car, however i still like Xms much more.
Chris

[Zaphod]

Rovers are actually very good, if they are the real ones... and not Truimph acclain Mk2, Mk3 or Mk4/4.5 whcih is what the 200 and 25's should have been the 600 should ahve been a triumph. Only the 800 had any place as a rover. And this is a far better car than any so calld bar room pundits will ahve you belive. The rise is a bit rubbish compared to an XM, but its a far better made car than the shitty BMWs I have owned. Mind you my current 800 was built specifically for the rover press fleet and used for the launch of the car and subequently handed to R&D and this does show. The 800 and SD1's did suffer badle at the hands of rovers accountants, only when you have examples such as mine do you relaise how badly the accountants effected the cars, and how good they should have been. One other thing form history that is interesting.. every time rover met BMW on the tracks of europe, BMW were trounced (last time by the SD1 then in it's twilight years). And the fastest car to have ever laped the IOM TT circuit was an 827 vitesse driven by Tony Pond.

STewart

[Ciaran]

I must admit I did have a liking for the 800s.

My boss had a nice one, drove very well, and I almost bought it off him.... until it done the classic headgasket death, split fuel line, and seized front calipers, in the space of a week...

Always liked the look of them though, big luxurious things. Not a patch on an XM mind, but still nice.

Ciarán

[Andmcit]

Pitching in my tuppenceworth, I do REALLY like the SD1's and drove two for a while a few
years back. My father had them though once I turned up with a GTi Cx the Rover lost
favour and my father immediately went out and bought two himself...

...still have the 2600S in the barn in fact!

Personally, as far as the newer models go, for me it's all a blur of mediocrity although the
800/Sterling looked to have a glimmer of promise. The Coupe and the MG-X concept
prototypes could've taken the world by storm.

Andrew

[dean]

And me,

I had a 800 series fastback with the 2.7 24v v6 honda engine, it was a nice car, the only thing was the header tank that exploded at motorway speeds other than that it was fine, great engine, the trouble was the saab felt better built so i moved onto that, and the xm was better looking with a nicer ride so i moved to that and stayed.
I also done a lot of work on a Rover 414 i had, L reg, the head gaskets on those K16 series engines are an issue but the engine itself is superb with good power at the top end, very smooth and with very few rust issues which is why they were so popular, what you do have to watch for apart from the head gasket is the gearboxes, the castings are very poor quality and you will see imperfections all over them which leads to them splitting, ive swapped out 3 of these boxes, every one pushed the diff out through the casing

D