RE: SOTW: Rover 825i Sterling
Discussion
Justayellowbadge said:
Graebob said:
I've got one 
827 Coupe.
£350, 12 months ticket 6 months tax.
So basically, a free car. Brilliant. 827 Coupe.£350, 12 months ticket 6 months tax.
The best part is parking it at work next to the '59, '60 and '61 plate Merc C's and A4's. Colleagues can't understand how I can afford a 3 litre petrol which only does 24mpg ish and is as plush inside as their cars.
plfrench said:
300bhp/ton said:
SWoll said:
300bhp/ton said:
SWoll said:
300bhp/ton said:
lol a 5 Series, which new would likely have been double the cost. Great comparison then.
You might want to check into that 300, wouldn't want you making sweeping, unresearched statements just for effect now would we.... 
827SLi > BMW E39 525i BTW. let me know what you come up with
I reconsidered and thought maybe that was being rude, so edited before submitting. I see now that I shouldn't have bothered.
)Rover 827SLi £25,745 BMW 525i SE £25,540
Certainly not twice the price of the Rover.
So actually more expensive then? Amazing really.
SWoll said:
No.
My dad had an 827SLI many moons ago and will happily admit that for the money he paid it is the worst car he has ever owned..
Unreliable, badly built, wheezy V6, bad gearbox, drank like a fish and wallowed around through corners.
Had the misfortune of driving it a couple of times myself as a young un. primary memory is of it feeling like piloting a stenna ferry...
He replaced it with a similar vintage 5 Series. Like night and day.
I had one as a company car in the early 90's. Never broke down, but lots of stuff fell off, including the interior rear view mirror the day I got it. That week end I did London (actually Woking) to Aberdeen in 7.5 hours door to door. Did the same Journey recently in a 996TT and it took 9.5 hours!!My dad had an 827SLI many moons ago and will happily admit that for the money he paid it is the worst car he has ever owned..
Unreliable, badly built, wheezy V6, bad gearbox, drank like a fish and wallowed around through corners.
Had the misfortune of driving it a couple of times myself as a young un. primary memory is of it feeling like piloting a stenna ferry...
He replaced it with a similar vintage 5 Series. Like night and day.
Surprisingly both did it in around 27 mpg.
.
Thing is, we wont really be having any more SOTW big Rovers as these were the last really, ok maybe a 75 but as has been said they were really quite a bit smaller, even the 75/ZT hasn't been made for what seven years. Amazed at how positively that these, in the absolute last knockings of their lifespan have been received on here, they weren't the best car in the world, granted but they did their job and had a sort of middle England cachet for a while, think we may miss them and their ilk (a little) when they have totally dissapeared.
My old man had an early 825i, he traded in an Audi 100 (the low CD model) for it and then five years later traded the Rover in for a BMW 7 series. it was the first big car I ever drove, I even had an option of buying it when he was looking at the beemer, but I could not afford it at the time.
I was a great comfy car and had a great way of forcing me to control my speed when it was my own cash going in to the tank - an instant consumption read out on the trip computer.
Only thing that ever went wrong with it was the auto-gear box - which was a Honda part. Prhaps we were lucky, but we did do high mileage in it including annual trips down to the south of France.
One thing others are confusing me over is the engine - was a Rover 2.5 introduced later on - as the original 2.5 was a Honda enginge, not a Rover one, the 2.7 that followed was a rebored/tuned version.
I was a great comfy car and had a great way of forcing me to control my speed when it was my own cash going in to the tank - an instant consumption read out on the trip computer.
Only thing that ever went wrong with it was the auto-gear box - which was a Honda part. Prhaps we were lucky, but we did do high mileage in it including annual trips down to the south of France.
One thing others are confusing me over is the engine - was a Rover 2.5 introduced later on - as the original 2.5 was a Honda enginge, not a Rover one, the 2.7 that followed was a rebored/tuned version.
Its a terrible car! I used to drive these in my first job at British Steel as a company car. I remember the windscreen wipers flying off the side of the screen when the link arm snapped; the exhaust cracking off the engine; the truly awful auto-boxes; the tiny plastic buttons which snapped off in your fingers; the cheap shiny door sill covers; uncomfortable leather seats etc etc. Fortunately, if it broke down we also had a Saab 9000; funnily enough I drove that a lot and it was so much better.
dapprman said:
One thing others are confusing me over is the engine - was a Rover 2.5 introduced later on - as the original 2.5 was a Honda enginge, not a Rover one, the 2.7 that followed was a rebored/tuned version.
Answered my own question with some quick research. Rover replaced the 2.7 Honda v6 with the 2.5 litre KV6 engine not long before prodction was stopped on the model.The perceived wisdom on these is that it's the age old head gasket problem that plagues the K-series, but it's actually worse than that. On the early 2.5 KV6 it's the cylinder liners that move because of imperfect tolerences, and once this happens your engine is scrap. There's no fixing it with a new head gasket. It must have cost Rover £millions in warranty costs at the time and one of the first things MG Rover did when they took over was to cease offering engine swaps for these cars because they couldn't afford it. I suppose if you get one that isn't broken yet you could get a good few miles out of it but just be prepared to scrap the car when it does break.
My old man had one of these as a company car. I used to drive it too which was pretty cool for a nipper in a V' Sport. I do remember it being pretty fast, alot faster than my trusty ford Orion.
That said when you got to a bend it was turn and hope, there were a few moments the horses head was out the stable door as I was touching cloth hoping not to wrap it into a barrier, though thankfully never did.
At the time I remember short service intervals (or the old man did a lot of miles) and bills that made you pleased you had it in a company car. Lots went wrong, random things stopped working but the seats were great and looked pretty good too.
I wouldn't buy one now and turned into a German car fan, remember the 220Gti and the 620ti was a good alternative. From memory the 620 ti would do over 200bhp and was mad fast for what it was and very subtle, worth a punt to find one of them, though many have been buried under a chavalanche of bling, big bore exhausts and blacked out windows by Barry Larger and the Steve Stella.
That said when you got to a bend it was turn and hope, there were a few moments the horses head was out the stable door as I was touching cloth hoping not to wrap it into a barrier, though thankfully never did.
At the time I remember short service intervals (or the old man did a lot of miles) and bills that made you pleased you had it in a company car. Lots went wrong, random things stopped working but the seats were great and looked pretty good too.
I wouldn't buy one now and turned into a German car fan, remember the 220Gti and the 620ti was a good alternative. From memory the 620 ti would do over 200bhp and was mad fast for what it was and very subtle, worth a punt to find one of them, though many have been buried under a chavalanche of bling, big bore exhausts and blacked out windows by Barry Larger and the Steve Stella.
SWoll said:
plfrench said:
300bhp/ton said:
SWoll said:
300bhp/ton said:
SWoll said:
300bhp/ton said:
lol a 5 Series, which new would likely have been double the cost. Great comparison then.
You might want to check into that 300, wouldn't want you making sweeping, unresearched statements just for effect now would we.... 827SLi > BMW E39 525i BTW. let me know what you come up with
I reconsidered and thought maybe that was being rude, so edited before submitting. I see now that I shouldn't have bothered.
)Rover 827SLi £25,745 BMW 525i SE £25,540
Certainly not twice the price of the Rover.
So actually more expensive then? Amazing really.
I quite like these Rovers, they do have a certain charm. By the mid 1990s they were an old car and outclassed really. Strange to say, the design didn't last as well as the XJ Jaguar, also released in 1986. The Jag managed to soldier on until 2003 and was still reasonably competitive in 1997. Likewise, the (slightly newer) BMW 5 and the 7 series were still fairly modern when replaced.
DrGP said:
I remember the windscreen wipers flying off the side of the screen when the link arm snapped; the exhaust cracking off the engine; the truly awful auto-boxes; the tiny plastic buttons which snapped off in your fingers; the cheap shiny door sill covers; uncomfortable leather seats etc etc.
I don't remember any of this on the ones I've owned. Cheap shiny door sill covers? What would you rather they had, plastic ones? I found the seats very comfortable, the only criticism I had of the interior was that it looked dated. It certainly wasn't short on space or comfort IMO.For me the 800 is the perfect example of buyers desperately attempting to buy British, even if far superior machinery was available elsewhere for cheaper.
Rover basically took advantage of these loyal customers by providing a poor quality. overpriced and inferior vehicle.
Shame on them, I have very little sympathy for them. as a company, going bust. My heart goes out to the workers whom lost their jobs (by dad/uncles where amongst them) but loyalty only lasts so long in the face of s
te products/service.
Rover basically took advantage of these loyal customers by providing a poor quality. overpriced and inferior vehicle.
Shame on them, I have very little sympathy for them. as a company, going bust. My heart goes out to the workers whom lost their jobs (by dad/uncles where amongst them) but loyalty only lasts so long in the face of s
te products/service.dbdb said:
SWoll said:
plfrench said:
300bhp/ton said:
SWoll said:
300bhp/ton said:
SWoll said:
300bhp/ton said:
lol a 5 Series, which new would likely have been double the cost. Great comparison then.
You might want to check into that 300, wouldn't want you making sweeping, unresearched statements just for effect now would we.... 827SLi > BMW E39 525i BTW. let me know what you come up with
I reconsidered and thought maybe that was being rude, so edited before submitting. I see now that I shouldn't have bothered.
)Rover 827SLi £25,745 BMW 525i SE £25,540
Certainly not twice the price of the Rover.
So actually more expensive then? Amazing really.
I quite like these Rovers, they do have a certain charm. By the mid 1990s they were an old car and outclassed really. Strange to say, the design didn't last as well as the XJ Jaguar, also released in 1986. The Jag managed to soldier on until 2003 and was still reasonably competitive in 1997. Likewise, the (slightly newer) BMW 5 and the 7 series were still fairly modern when replaced.
SWoll said:
For me the 800 is the perfect example of buyers desperately attempting to buy British, even if far superior machinery was available elsewhere for cheaper.
You have to remember it was conceived in the time of the Ford Granada and Vauxhall Carlton, and at the time was arguably a better car (in some ways, not in every way). It just failed to move with the times through lack of investment.Gassing Station | General Gassing | Top of Page | What's New | My Stuff