No - I am still working. Luckily I don't have any pension which relies on the performance of ANY financial organisation. The small print fails to mention that. while investments may fall in value, vast bonuses will still be paid to the people who foul it up.
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Sorry, AS, my comment regarding retirement was aimed at the OP.
For many, Rover still has a 'pipe and slippers' image :-)
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Thanks OS. I have been getting fairly some 'Harsh banter' is response to some of my recent posts and I thought this was more of the same! No offence intended or taken!
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The 45 wasnt a bad car when launched, it had tried and tested technology which had been around for years beforehand. Its not fashionable and its not advanced, but it drove well enough and a good early example pre 2003 owned by the obligatory elderly couple isnt a bad buy, especially if its the diesel.
I worked with them day in day out for years and I wouldnt hesitate in buying one. The MG version is a lovely thing to drive, we had them as pool cars and they were brilliantly chuckable cars, esp the V6 which was a latter day Vectra GSi.
For £2000 you can get a good one - whether you can get a Focus in the same condition as a Rover would be is highly unlikely as they have far higher values, so if its a case of ropey Focus or tidy Rover, I know what id pick.
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Did it use a tried and tested head gasket, Stu???
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Any car which has an engine with multiple websites telling you how to fix a major inherent defect is not worth buying.
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The diesel engines were (at least in the mid-1990s) from PSA.
There are still a lot of Rovers around my area and one 420, for instance, is in daily use as a taxi. That's quite an achievement in a town with a vast number of them, the majority being Skoda Octavias.
Edited by Stuartli on 03/08/2009 at 15:49
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one 420 is in daily use as a taxi...... the majority being Skoda Octavias - which tells me that the car to go for is not the Rover. Taxi drivers are rarely wrong on anything, you know ;-)
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Only vintage and classic cars are likely to turn out as 'investments' in financial terms.
In terms of investing in useful and relaible transport for a few years, £2000 on a Rover 45 might be worthwhile, it might not. Even if the car doesn't have a particularly good reputation, you might be lucky and find a decent and reliable one.
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>>Any car which has an engine with multiple websites telling you how to fix a major inherent defect is not worth buying.<<
That would be an awful lot of cars then, infcat most of them - look how many Corsa 1.2s there are around. As for the HG issues, they tended to be on the 1.8 model and were often down to poor servicing, but regardless, a modified gasket has been around a long while.
The diesel isnt PSA, its the Rover L-Series, which while it isnt very refined, its very tough and reliable, hence its my preference as it avoids the only real weak link in the K-series as you dont have to look after them to keep them reliable. Saw very few 1.4 K-Series HGF, nearly always 1.8s and the T-series 2.0.
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stunorthants>> we had them as pool cars and they were brilliantly chuckable cars,
What's the point in buying something you plan to chuck???
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>>The diesel isnt PSA, its the Rover L-Series>>
From the early 1990s, the PSA diesel engines were used (I remember because I had an exclusive story at the time that they were going to be used); the Rover Metro had the 1.4-litre oil burner in the early 1990s.
See: www.honestjohn.co.uk/carbycar/index.htm?md=341
popular.ebay.co.uk/ns/Cars-Parts-Vehicles/Rover-40...l
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I know when they used the PSA engines in Rovers up until 1995 ( plus a few 115 diesels until about 1997 ), but they didnt use it in the 45, which is the subject of the thread.
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I can confirm the 45 used the rough old L Series.
Although the 1.8 K Series was by far the worst offender for HGF, it was not the only one. The 1.4. 1.6 and very early KV6 engine fitted to the 800 were prone. The later KV6 in the 75 was sorted.
A pal of mine had a '03 plate 25 with the 1.6. HGF about a year ago and now the block has cracked.
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Friend of mine worked for a parts supplier to MG and was well versed with cost down projects. Also says that during the last few months (when they all knew the writing was on the wall) parts that had been rejected on quality grounds were being taken back out of reject bins to enable cars to be completed.
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I hda a VW Polo with HGF, my Rover 214 didnt though.
The 1.4 was never that prone when I worked in a Rover service department. Virtually every car we dealt with was powered by K-Series engines and those serviced using correct fluids at the correct intervals, the cars we saw every service, didnt seem to have this problem.
The HGF cases were the outsider breakdowns in nearly every case and the few that we did put through were little used MGFs and 420/620 T models. I left there in 2001 which was a few years before quality started plummeting although I clean a 130k ZT 1.8 that the company wont get rid of because it has been so reliable, but then it gets used well and serviced on the dot.
Ive never bought into the HGF thing as its been made out to be a more common problem than I ever saw in my years dealing with this very engine in all its permutations. You never hear about all the good ones.
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Thanks guys - to all those who chipped in with your comments.
My original intention of buying this car was because for my budget, I was able to get a Rover 45 with low mileage and a fairly recently registered model. For the same cost, If I were to compare it against a Ford Focus or Pugeot 206/307 series, I would have to settle with a car which is either got a relatively higher mileage or has been written off as a Cat D.
And Rover (or any other car) is definitely NOT for investment purposes (for me).
Having read the replies here and in other threads of HJ, with the kind of problems that look eminent with Rover, I feel, i'd better keep off the Rover thing for the time being...
Once again thanks for all your replies.
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and i never said a word :-)
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Brother had two 45s.
One major failure - the clever Steptronic switchable manual/automatic gearbox, which I think was made by BMW.
Ironic, huh?
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One major failure - the clever Steptronic switchable manual/automatic gearbox which I think was made by BMW.
Didn't a third party German firm - Sachs-ZF - supply those gearboxes to both Rover and BMW?
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...Didn't a third party German firm - Sachs-ZF - supply those gearboxes...
Quite likely - motor manufacturers these days are increasingly becoming motor assemblers of parts maufactured by others.
I think the 'box turned up in BMWs first, so you can see why people at the Rover garage would call it "a BMW gearbox" when it appeared in the 45.
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My mate has a 2001 Rover 45 1.4 impressionS that he bought in 2004. In the last 5 years it has had only home servicing - oil, filters, plugs, cambelt at a garage, a couple of sets of tyres, new disks and pads and very recently a back box section of the exhaust. In all that, its probably cost no more than £600 in 60,000 miles that he has done.
He bought it for £3500 and pound for pound mileage is probably the best you could hope for. Maybe he got a good one but I had a very similar experience with my Rover 214 which I took to over 140,000 miles .
If you buy well then you will get a lot of car for your money and will be no less reliable than anything else if you look after it. A facelift 04 onwards 45 will be well priced now. If you fancy something a bit sportier then the ZS is essentially the same package underneath although they do cost more to buy.
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I wouldn't hesitate in buying a diesel. A bit loud, but tough as old boots, brisk and frugal.
My dad and my old K-series Rovers had HGF, so I could not reccomend one, but I would happily have a diesel MG Rover or a post-800 KV6
Edited by tanvir on 06/08/2009 at 23:22
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i wouldnt hesitate either
but
they are so last century dorling
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they are so last century dorling
what do you expect for 2 grand?
A Golf at that price would be from the last century!
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>>they are so last century dorling<<
Give me simple last century cars anytime over todays complex ' one big bill away from scrap' modern cars.
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