I bought a Rover

[Alex H]

The Focus served its purpose well, but I fancied something a little different. Went off to look at MX5s, Mk2.5s, as the Mk1 doesn't really light me up. Sub-£1k budget - test drove five - all dogs.

So, bought this instead. Headgasket jokes etc etc etc. Bodywork is fairly messy, lots of scratches, some gouges, naff blow ins, mechanically it is pretty solid though, no rust underneath, been dry stored over most winters since 2003.

Fairly nippy 135ps version, decent on fuel, sounds alright. It's only going to do about 5000 miles a year commuting and the odd weekend blast.

Just had new discs and pads, brakes are not that confidence inspiring, there's a lot of bulkhead flex and the standard brakes are fairly pony. There's a bulkhead bracket mod and the Trophy model has AP 4-pots - so I'll probably upgrade to those if I can find some cheap - and some cheap 16s. Tyres are a mismatch, T1Rs going on soon. Depends if I upgrade or not.

 

[DaveDreads]

That's an MG, or is that the Rover on the other side of the fence?

 

[Inequality Street]

My parents had one of these. Red 1.8 TF. Garage queen, 03 plate with 16k.

f**king terrible cars. Sorry!

 

[Ol’ Tarby]

Was hoping for a rover 420 gsi turbo

 

[DaveDreads]

I was hoping for a V8 SD1 or a P6.

 

[imprezaworks]

I love these cars. Had one years ago for six months, no issues whatsover and ragged to death. I prefer these to drive over the mx5

 

[Feirny]

Gay

 

[Djw John]

I assume you know everything about every previous owner already?

 

[DaveDreads]

I owned a Golf once.

 

[rctempire]

I spoke to a guy at Le mans about his . He had 5 of them.

Said he really enjoyed them.

 

[Mork of Ork]

Get the uprated head gasket kit and it should be fine, Lotus ran the K Series in the Elise for years with no issue. They only started to get problems when MG Rover started to cut corners.

Or you could go insane and put a T16 in from the 220/420/820 turbo, the Maestro guys comfortably see around 300bhp from that engine.

 

[Gally]

Nice drive and at least you went for a good colour and facelift.

HG/

 

[AdDaMan]

Its an MG.

 

[Adam G]

No point uprating the head gasket until it goes. They're great value cars. The V6 Civic ZS180 is the best modern MG though.

 

[Tunst]

Fun cars, check the water pipes that run in the exhaust tunnel, they corrode quite badly near the ends and on the mounts and piss coolant out..

HG is a piece of piss to do aswell!

 

[Luke0103]

these are good fun to drive and cheep mum has one and never had any problems with it is an 02 plate done less than 60k and still not had the hg replaced

 

[Gally]

Pray the handbrake cable doesn't fail.

 

[Daniel]

I think they're great cars for the money. Thumbs up from a fellow ginger!

 

[Niall]

Did you not consider the Mk3 MR2? Similar looking car to this yet I’d imagine a lot more reliable.

 

[Daniel]

Did you not consider the Mk3 MR2? Similar looking car to this yet I’d imagine a lot more reliable.

And twice the money.

 

[.GAZ.]

FLOL! Some folk on here make me chuckle. Financed up to their eyeballs for a 172. That's a good buy for sub £1k IMO.

 

[midge]

Ive had a couple of these, Awful cars imo.

 

[Jason_E]

They are terrible. But you can put the roof down and forget about how terrible it is. The joys of Convertibles!

 

[Alex H]

No point uprating the head gasket until it goes. They're great value cars. The V6 Civic ZS180 is the best modern MG though.

44k miles on its original gasket, so it's a case of when, not if.

Pray the handbrake cable doesn't fail.

Handbrake is already a bit dodgy :/ hoping it's just the rear calipers being a bit sticky.

 

[Gally]

They're just a c**t to change.

 

[Edd]

If that was less than a grand then it looks like a good buy to me!

I've never driven one and have read a lot of bad things about them. But recently I've started to think getting a 160bhp version for around the £1500 mark, think I need to have a go in one.

 

[Alex H]

It's the internet, you can read bad things about any car. The ride is quite firm, same as a clio. Understeers, same as a clio. Poor build quality, same as a clio. Leaks, same as a clio. Rattles, same as a clio.

Other than that, perfect.