Rover 75 Club Review

Overall Rating

First off, I am writing about two cars here:

- A Rover 75 Classic, 2.0 CDTI which I owned for one year with over 100,000 on the clock (please note - ex company car)

- A Rover 75 Club, 1.8 auto with 27,000 miles on the clock, 2 careful private owners in 6 years. owned for 6 months.

Good points are very smooth and quiet to drive, no rattles, creaks or knocks at all. Incredibly comfortable, ergonomic and very well speced even in basic trim.

The 2.0 Diesel - amazing fuel economy, very strong engine which with a lot of torque, it could overtake most. This was an almost indestructible car!

The 1.8 petrol auto - Very, very smooth. The club trim is worth it for the climate control, incredibly comfortable and perfect for stop start (i.e London) driving conditions with no heavy clutch to worry about, and smooth auto transmission.

They both have great cruising speeds, recommended for motorways. 70 mph at 2,200 rmp with the diesel - 2,400 rpm with the auto!!

2.0 Diesel - remember that this is an ex-company car, with 96,000 miles of abuse on the clock.

Two wheel bearings replaced for when I purchased the vehicle (and four completely bald tyres!)

The light bulbs!!! All of the light bulbs (mainly headlights at £8-£16 each depending where you buy) would blow continually - no idea what caused this.

The car would occasionally not start; this was eventually found to be a problem with the immobilizer. I did not bother getting this fixed, as it would fix itself after about 10 minutes of turning the ignition on and off, and only happened rarely.

The rear spring broke - £60, fair enough. The front spring broke whilst driving at over 70mph, blew the front tyre, whilst I was taking a corner on a thin country road - the car came to a very straight, very neat stop - £120 for new spring and new tyre. (both of these springs were on the drivers side, and about 2 months apart?) nothing else was damaged, these are tough cars!

Brake pipes corroded and needed replaced as I live by the coast - again fair enough.

1.8 Petrol Auto. No problems with light bulbs in this car!

It is slow, especially in comparison to the diesel. It has a great cruising speed, but will take forever to get there - I kind of like it now I'm used to it.

The automatic transmission slips between third and fourth (garage said they couldn't find anything clearly wrong, so I put up with it, easing off the throttle as it goes to change).

The head gasket blew, yes, its a K-Series Rover engine. I checked the coolant weekly as I was aware of their reputation, but after 4 months the engine would overheat, even with very gentle driving - but only for 2 short trips over 2 days - I took it to the garage and it run perfectly?! 2 months later this happened again, and this time it was clear what had happened - upon draining the oil mostly water came out.

I love these cars, their looks, their handling, their build quality and spec. The only criticism I have it the k-series engine; I admit it was a revolutionary engine being made out of aluminium etc but it is fragile.

Do not labour these engines, rev them higher instead. Check coolant weekly, keep some in the huge boot just in case. I have had my head gasket replaced (along with a cylinder head re-build) with a Land Rover Freelander type (the k-series has a layer of silicone making it even more weak).

I will let you know if it goes again. Three month warranty, but upon reading other reviews it will need another one after that.

If it happens again, I am going to chuck the k-series as it has an obvious fault that Rover never sorted and replace it with something such as a Volvo 2.2 5 cyl......

The cars are great, Don't go for leather - the velour is much nicer. If you want a petrol over the superior diesel (which I do, for some reason) replace it with Volvo etc over repair.

Do not buy a V6 - these cost about £3000 to repair a head gasket, where a 1.8 costs £700.