I've just come back from my christmas party in some adequate but dreary newish Mercedes something class or other I've no idea what.
It's the trip out that surprised me. My street has no lighting so I was met by strong headlamps that obscured my vision of the car but I climbed in the back of an enormous saloon. It was luxuriously appointed in cream leather with brown piping and the legroom in the back was enormous despite the driver adopting an arm-stretched laid back position. What impressed was every surface inch was adorned in great-smelling leather and the rear seat-belt buckles recessed neatly in their own little alcove rather than flapping around aimlessly like they do in my 406 V6. The dash was all leather as were the doors, trimmed with wood. I could tell it wasn't a recent model with its 90s angular styling but couldn't for the life of me see a logo anywhere that revealed its heritage. Despite seeming to be older than my car, it was screwed together like a Merc, not a rattle or roll after a decade of Polish roads, it was auto and had a wonderful gearshift, a cracking pace and was just a pleasure to be a passenger in. Frustratingly, I could see a steering wheel logo but it was so subtly embossed I couldn't make it out. I was starting to think Alfa Romeo 164 or at least something I'd never had the pleasure of riding in before. Whatever, I thought I wouldn't mind a piece of this to replace the old Peugeot.
After some 25 minutes I arrived at the club, paid the chap and headed rear to satisfy my curiosity. Can you tell what it is yet?
It was a Rover 825. Make of that what you will.
Best part of the evening by far. I resisted the urge to urinate on the new art director from the first floor mezzanine level but couldn't get this wonderful motor out of my mind.
Those of you who recognize my tastes will know that motoring for me is all about wafting in luxury and this car satisfied it by the bucketload. Would I have one? Probably not. A Rover? Are you joking?
Edited by Big Bad Dave on 15/12/2007 at 02:00
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The old 825's are lovely and sumptuous.
Part of me would like a Vitesse of that era but as you say, it's a Rover and I wouldnt have the time to keep sorting out all the niggles.
I had an 820si ten years ago and that was a nightmare with the usual electrical problems.
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I also have mixed feelings on these. I had an 820i auto when new in 1992. Hardly top of the range, but when it was going it was actually a very pleasant place to sit. Sadly though, it broke too often to recommend it to anyone else. One particularly memorable occasion was when sitting at a junction in the rain. The traffic lights had failed and the junction was being temporarily manned by a police officer. The cop was standing about three feet away from my car when the drivers' side wiper arm flew off and hit him squarely in the chest ! He very kindly picked it up and passed it to me through my open window before waving me through the junction. He didn't seem at all fazed by this so I can only assume that his force must have had Rovers on the fleet !
But, Dave, I do agree, they were very pleasing cars on the days they stayed bolted together. I remember taking it on a business trip to Paris once and receiving more than one compliment. At least I think it was praise...my French is bit rudimentary !
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I took my boss's old 820 Vitesse Sport out for an hour once, and it was an absolute blast. Fast, half decent handling, lovely half leather Recaro seats and at 90k it still felt taut and responsive. Far more capable in the twisties than an Omega or Granada IMHO, and the T16 is a lovely engine to use hard.
You could pick these up at a year old with tiny miles for under £10k. So much car for the money!
cheers
DP
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04 Grand Scenic 1.9 dCi Dynamique
00 Mondeo 1.8TD LX
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It's just nice to have your expectations shattered in such a charming way every once in a while. I've never had a strong opinion about Rover because I've never driven one and rarely been in one. I do remember my x-wife having a new smaller Rover saloon while hers was in for repair but my only clear memory of that car was the shock of seeing its shut-lines. A slim person could have got in without opening the door.
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I took my boss's old 820 Vitesse Sport out for an hour once and it was an absolute blast. Fast half decent handling lovely half leather Recaro seats and at 90k it still felt taut and responsive. Far more capable in the twisties than an Omega or Granada IMHO and the T16 is a lovely engine to use hard.
Agree in all respects but for the handling, fine engines, fine looking in pre facelift form, well built, quality feel, reasonable ride though the chassis was wobbly, wallowy and uncommunicative and it struggled to put the power down. Where as an Omega and later Granadas / Scorpios were fine handling RWD cars that rivaled BMWs and bettered Mercs of the era in that regard.
The '89 200 was a class leading FWD chassis which only served to show how poor the 800 was in that regard.
The facelift 800 was pitched at ex Austin Ambassador owners rather than the BMW alternative that the original 800 was said to be. I loved the 80's Vitesse ad, "Britischer Arkitekt".
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wobbly wallowy and uncommunicative and it struggled to put the power down.
Hi Cheddar. Maybe the standard 800 but not the Vitesse Sport. If anything the ride was a little too firm. Thought the steering feel was good as well. Very little roll and good body control at speed, at the expense of being quite unforgiving over poor surfaces.
But yes, a bit of torque steer and very easy to spin up the fronts.
Cheers
DP
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04 Grand Scenic 1.9 dCi Dynamique
00 Mondeo 1.8TD LX
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One of my uni mates used to borrow his Dads 825 auto, one time late at night I think he might have set a record time for getting from Lewes to Brighton! It flew, even with 5 lads in it. Seemed to be a great car.
My Dad had two 820SI's from new, an F-reg (square one) and a K-reg one (rounded off facelift one).
AFAIR the first one was trouble free, my Dad loved it and I used to think it was great; big, comfortable and lots of electric kit in it. IIRC it was 140bhp 16v and manual box, it felt damn quick after driving a Mk2 Cavalier 1.8i.
He had his fair share of problems with the K-reg one and put him off buying another Rover. It had a cat fitted and performance was not quite as good as the previous one. I think it had a HGF at about 2 years old. But it was silly things like the plastic gear lever linkage breaking leaving him stranded; the plastic windscreen wiper linkage breaking twice; electric windows failing when they were down and it was raining..
He got an Audi after that.
From our sample of two cars, it seemed the earlier ones had better quality parts and were better screwed together than the later ones.
Edited by Rich 9-3 on 15/12/2007 at 13:05
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A lot of manufacturers in the past built taxi spec cars which were not on offer the general public but could be ordered by those in the know-usually better quality upholstery and carpets,re-inforced suspension and steering components,better interior/exterior lighting and all at an ultra-competitive price.
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A lot of manufacturers in the past built taxi spec cars which were not on offer the general public...
Did they have to be returned? How would a taxi driver go about acquiring one of these? Must have been more than word-of-mouth, did they advertise them in trade mags?
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For 18 months we had an 'E' reg 1988 light blue metallic Rover 820 SE. Oh, I loved that car - so fast, so comfortable, loved driving it. Sadly, major repair required within a year (at 40k miles and FSH - valves?) - meant that we lost confidence in it and it got traded in for a Sierra. The Rover was our first 'decent' car and although it cost about £1k to fix (bought it for £3,500 I think) I still remember it fondly. Put us off Rover's though. Was there an 800 with a Honda engine? That may have been a better buy.
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Ford-for example-did a separate brochure listing out the specs available-I should imagine other manufacturers did the same-certainly most M/B taxis are different in subtle ways to normal passenger car production.
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Best 800 was always the Honda engined 827. I especially love the Coupe as its that bit more exclusive, altho some of the limos they did were also rather nice.
A good 827 is a very nice way to travel if your not into sharp handling.
Also worth looking at the Honda Legend which is much the same car underneath.
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video.google.co.uk/videoplay?docid=636338748934687...2
Tony Pond IOM TT Record In Rover Vitesse - Google Video
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Lud - your link didn't work for me but I searched Youtube with Tony Pond Rover and found a superb Duke Video clip called TT Challenge. Spine tingling stuff enhanced by Pond's very understated, post event commentary.
From wikipedia.org
On the 6th June 1990 he teamed up again with Austin Rover, some four years after his retirement from Rallying, Tony Pond achieved immortality by taking a standard production Car a Rover 827 Vitesse, together Tony Pond & the Rover Vitesse became the first ever production car and driver to average over 100MPH around the Isle Of Man TT Motor Bike Circuit something that to this date has never been surpassed.
Great thread guys! Esp. BBD and Shoespy. LOL.
Edited by Billy Whizz on 15/12/2007 at 15:58
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superb Duke Video clip called TT Challenge. Spine tingling stuff enhanced by Pond's very understated post event commentary.
That's the one. The nearest to the original youtube job anyway, which covered the whole course in one, very poor quality, take, with a few cuts to roadside cameras. Spine-tingling indeed, especially when the offside door mirror rattles against a stone wall at 110mph...
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Oh wow, fabulous find LUd. Tony Pond was one of my Motoring heroes. I saw him driving the nasty, vicious, dangerous and spitefull but very very quick Metro 6R4.
I was deeply saddened by his early demise some 5 years ago.
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< Ulla>
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