J4CKO

iTrader: (1)

Last year I sold I perfectly good if dull Mondeo to buy a Fiat Coupe Turbo, that turned out to be an oil guzzling pain in the ****, I got shut and lost 2 grand and with what I had left I bought a Rover BRM, great little car, I really enjoy it, anyway its been using water and today its p1ssing water out of the head gasket, its been done before at great cost to the previous owner hence why I went for one that had been done.

So now I have what is effectively a scrapper, cant find and engine and cant be arsed repairing that one being as its already been skimmed plus a crack repair as pound to a penny it will fail again within six months.

Therefore my 7 grand dwindled to 5 grand, paid the savings back 2 grand, bought the BRM for 2900, now basically stuck without a car.

Maybe the words Fiat and Rover are the key things here.

Anyway, I am stuck, was almost considering buying a brand new Ka on finance, shudders (at the Ka and the finance), all I need to do is to get to work and I dont really want to take a loan out, I really dont want a 1.0 car as I will get p1ssed off in no time and want to change it thus p1ssing my already very annoyed (about cars) wife off further, she moans that I sold a perfectly good new shape Mondeo to buy two nightmares, she is correct of course but I really struggle with cars that are too slow, not interested in anything sub 150 bhp. Even worse thing is that I need to get to work tommorow and I will need to use the wifes car, thats going to go down well.

Your suggestions (not to include firearms, ovens and ropes) please !

dba

er,Golf Mrk IV PD150 s/h?

workshy_fopp

put the Rover through an auction or trade it in if it's a runner.

J4CKO

iTrader: (1)

Tried the trade in thing, Motorpoint offered 1400 quid, can sell it on the MG ROver forum for more than that, they generally go for between 3 and 4 grand (if they do actually sell, thats what they are up for).

Would like the Golf but I think they may be out of my (basically non existent) price range.

Joescoobs74

FIAT and ROVER you sadist you!!! Your best bet is to trade in against a second hand car from a dealer who has more profit margin to work with and take out a small amount of finance. I would suggest a Golf GTI Mk IV, SEAT Ibiza Cupra or a Scooby WRX!

The_Titanium_Knob_Man

J4CKO,

Sorry to hear about your luck with your last 2 motors......

If you want reliability in cars then I got one word to whisper....

HONDA..........

If you want the faster side of 150 horses then a older shape Civic VTI would do the job...160ish.....check out the car ads but a few grand should get you a decent one.......try to find a nice standard low mileage owned by an old bloke who didn't know what vti was rather than a max power'd caned one.

I have owned quite a few cars, mainly Honda/Ford and never had any kind of mechanical breakdown in 14 years......good luck. I still well clear of anything French.........

J4CKO

iTrader: (1)

TTKN, cheers for that, I had never had any bother until recently, bit emabrassing given my status as 'the bloke who knows about cars' at work etc !

Did have a Rover Coupe for a bit, that had the Honda motor and had done 120,000 miles without any bother, though I still reckon the K series is quite a good unit, you are lucky if you manage that many miles without bother, good, yes, relaiable, er no !

RS Grant

Agree that Honda is the way forward mate... For reliability I dont think there is anything that comes close.

A Civic VTi would be my choice, or if looking for something a bit less mainstream.. How about a Prelude 2.2 VTEC, you get lots of car for the money, Full Electrics, Climate, Cruise, TCS etc.. it just so happens that my friend has one for sale circa 2k as well.


Cheers,
Grant

Jeff Wiltshire

There are lots of 5-Door Civic 1.8 VTi (178 BHP) around with low mileage for around £4K...

My wife has had one from new and we've had 0 warrenty claims and apart from the center section on the exhaust no other mechanical issues in 6.5 years. Excellent buy.

dome

I picked up a Nissan Primera eGT cheap, 150 BHP, 7.5k red line, cracking handling and no-one will look at it twice. By cheap I mean £200

Plums!

J4CKO have you written to rover?

I know that on the VVC engines they have had some serious problems with head gasket failures......

Something to do with a metalic gasket not expanding and contracting at the same rate as the block and cylinder head!

If you had it repaired at Rover last time then you should certainly let them know and even contact rover main office.

Good luck and you never know if you don't try!!!!

The wife has a Ka don't shoot me or anything but it really is a great drive...

Plums........

Dream Weaver

Jacko, if you want a nice reliable cheap to run and fun car, then loko no further than a Toyota MR2, MK2. You can pick one up from as little as £1000 now, and they are the most reliable cars i've ever seen. Also good fun, and great for the work commute (used to commute 80 miles a day in mine).

Failing that i'm selling my 405 Mi16 for £1400 with 160bhp

PG

Go back to what you know

Petem95

Get a late Mk3 Golf - good prices for these as people want the Mk4's. Theyre well built, and should be very reliable. Should be able to pick up a 1.9TDi for sensible money. Ideal for the work slog, good MPG, run forever etc etc

J4CKO

iTrader: (1)

I appreciate the Ka is a good drive but its of as an occasional steer but permanent, I dont think I could stand it.

Mr2, like these but I have 3 kids, dont often cart them about (we have a Sharan as well) but I do need four seats.

MK3 Golf sounds like a good one, had one brand new in 95 (1.8 CL), was very dull but did the job, had a 1.9 MK1 GTI by GTI Engineeering so anything felt dull, what a complete animal that was.

Also looking at Honda's

Not panicing as I have a Corsa to use for a while, trouble is its a 1.4 auto and fairly horrid so I will soon get sick of it, and the fact its no better on petrol than the BRM, it has a sports mode on the Auto bo that serves no other purpose than making more noise, the box on these convers 3% of the power into forward motion and the rest into sound and heat, still cant complain at least its better than the train.

what would scooby do

LOL I had a Corsa auto as a loan car - I feel your pain - they are shoddy

Go for a Ford Focus mate - 130TCDi for economy or boggo petrols - good fun if a little boring

Plums!

I still think you should contact Rover....

It is after all a design fault!

Plums.....

Good luck...

BrettC

J4CKO

Have you considered a Saab mate.
I know they are not everyones cup of tea but you get a lot of car for your money.
Built very well and safe for your family, downside fuel economy isnt the greatest however if you buy the turbo variants they go quite well despite how heavy they are. Also, when you get bored with a standard car you can get a LOT more performance out of them for not too much outlay.

I personally, steer clear of the newer GM 'Saabs' and would go for something like a 9000 2.3T or Aero (200 and 225 bhp respectively) or an early 900 turbo (175bhp) or go for a low pressure turbo which gives quite good fuel economy. Avoid the n/a saabs as IMHO are just too heavy for this sort of power and the turbo is what saab does best anyway.

I think that the last of the 9000s was early 1998 so even if you considered one of these it would still be a relatively old car!

Good luck.

PS All of mine have been very reliable and when they do go wrong if you use a non main dealer specialist they arent that expensive to maintain.

Failing the saab I would have to second or is it third...a honda.

J4CKO

iTrader: (1)

Brett, might well do that, always liked Saabs but have never driven one, had a Volvo T5 though and that was a good car.

jjones

nissan primera eGT/GT

150bhp, nice handling, reliable, cheap to buy/run, well specced. attainable 40mpg

philcrombie

Re. Saab 9k Aero - Get one thats been well looked after - although you pay a bit of a premuim for the Aero. I get 32+mpg in most situations from my 285bhp Aero... struggle to get sub 30 --- yes really. Did get 28 once while sitting at *10mph for about 4hrs in France. (3k rpm = 92mph in 5th)
Full blown 200bhp non-aeros are now very cheap indeed and have the same long economic gearing and easier to find/haggle over than the aero. Don't buy an auto - destroys the economy.
DO get one that's been serviced to the hilt and obviously looked after. They are cheap now so its worth paying a little extra for a bit of confidence.
They are an acquired taste of course but may fit the bill...

Jay m A

iTrader: (2)

How about a 205 GTI for little money and run it for a month or so until you repair/sell the rover. Then you can either keep it if it turns out to be a goodun, or sell it on for the same money you bought it for and get the SAAB/Honda etc

Good fun and a car to be owned at least once in your life