RE: Shed Of The Week: Rover 820Si
Discussion
...
The 2 litre engine is woefully small for a car of this weight.
Putting your foot down in one reminds me of Roland Browning doing sports day in Grange Hill many moons ago.
Once you get up to speed it's an alright place to be, but just make sure the stereo works.
Turn it up and you can't hear all of the creaks.
Me and three mates did a road trip up to Sheffield from Essex one weekend, (student birthday party obviously) the creaks were so bad, we made the driver pull off the motorway and head to the nearest supermarket for several crates of beer (good boot by the way), in order that we got wasted (not the driver obviously) as it was the only way we could take our minds off the bloody creaking!
3 hard shoulder pi55 stops and we were there! Smashed!
In summary, big roomy car, but can kill you if you get drunk in it and have to keep stopping for a pi55 on the motorway hard shoulder!
Would I have one? That's a bit like asking if you would like a dose of crabs!
Putting your foot down in one reminds me of Roland Browning doing sports day in Grange Hill many moons ago.
Once you get up to speed it's an alright place to be, but just make sure the stereo works.
Turn it up and you can't hear all of the creaks.
Me and three mates did a road trip up to Sheffield from Essex one weekend, (student birthday party obviously) the creaks were so bad, we made the driver pull off the motorway and head to the nearest supermarket for several crates of beer (good boot by the way), in order that we got wasted (not the driver obviously) as it was the only way we could take our minds off the bloody creaking!
3 hard shoulder pi55 stops and we were there! Smashed!
In summary, big roomy car, but can kill you if you get drunk in it and have to keep stopping for a pi55 on the motorway hard shoulder!
Would I have one? That's a bit like asking if you would like a dose of crabs!
Geoffcapes said:
The 2 litre engine is woefully small for a car of this weight.
Putting your foot down in one reminds me of Roland Browning doing sports day in Grange Hill many moons ago.
It does 0-60 in bang on ten seconds, that isnt super quick but neither is it glacial, perfectly adequate for its job and on par with other 2 litre large saloons of the time, it was the cheapest variant and things have moved on, not sure you can get large N/A petrol 2 litre saloons anymore.Putting your foot down in one reminds me of Roland Browning doing sports day in Grange Hill many moons ago.
soad said:
This is a real OAP's special!
At the time they werent generally a pensioner car, maybe the odd wealthy ex colonel in an 827 but the 2 litre one like this was generally middle managers and reps, the pensioners went for Metros and 214's.BMW's, Audis and Mercs generally werent on company car lists, only the directors got them, it was Ford, Vauxhall and Rover for your average company driver back then.
They're decent cars and quite handsome. The earlier version with its razor sharp lines deserves to be seen as a classic in my view. Nothing looks more eighties.
Still, any Rover will always suffer the problem that people seek out and highlight the negative stories, whilst shunning or disbelieving the positive. In reality, whilst the Rover was not a paragon of Japanese style reliability, it was not the definitive 'bad car' either.
The opposite is true for their German competitors - whose cars will seemingly be forgiven almost anything. Truly odd, but PH strangely reflects society's car prejudices whereas I would expect the average PHer to be able to see that Audi and BMW and Mercedes-Benz are not the only cars worth having.
Still, any Rover will always suffer the problem that people seek out and highlight the negative stories, whilst shunning or disbelieving the positive. In reality, whilst the Rover was not a paragon of Japanese style reliability, it was not the definitive 'bad car' either.
The opposite is true for their German competitors - whose cars will seemingly be forgiven almost anything. Truly odd, but PH strangely reflects society's car prejudices whereas I would expect the average PHer to be able to see that Audi and BMW and Mercedes-Benz are not the only cars worth having.
Got a soft spot for these my Dad had 2 of them. both 820 fastbacks, a 90 'G' and a 95 'M' facelift.
Both ex-Rover management cars bought cheap under a year old at about 40% less than list price. They were tough old things, managed to withstand a me and my brother as teenagers trying to destroy them with our driving antics.....apart from the headgasket on the 'G' plate one!
Both ex-Rover management cars bought cheap under a year old at about 40% less than list price. They were tough old things, managed to withstand a me and my brother as teenagers trying to destroy them with our driving antics.....apart from the headgasket on the 'G' plate one!
In general, I like Rovers. But this is one of the worst sheds for ages. Why would you waste £750 on this?! It has no redeeming features unless you need an enormous boot for transporting bodies in.
At £250 it would make for a decent value proposition. Or at £750 but with a full MOT, a doddery old owner who had put 40k on it, and the leather seats.
At £250 it would make for a decent value proposition. Or at £750 but with a full MOT, a doddery old owner who had put 40k on it, and the leather seats.
These were perfectly capable cars in their sector.
I remember the Police using the 2.7 models back in the 80s. They do have some presence about them.
Incidentally, there was a BRG Vitesse coupe in the supermarket car park the other day, and I certainly did look at it a few times.
Still had some class about it, with the magnolia piped leather. And also had quite a beefy exhaust note.
I remember the Police using the 2.7 models back in the 80s. They do have some presence about them.
Incidentally, there was a BRG Vitesse coupe in the supermarket car park the other day, and I certainly did look at it a few times.
Still had some class about it, with the magnolia piped leather. And also had quite a beefy exhaust note.
J4CKO said:
People compare them unfavorably to BMW's Mercs and Audis, they were a hell of a lot cheaper, more a Granada/Carlton competitor, more an upscaled 200 series than a genuine premium/luxury alternative, for the same money as a hellish puritan spec E39 518i you could have a bells and whistles Turbo or V6.
Surely you mean E34? I agree with what you say, but the build quality of the E34 compared to the 800 was on a different planet!All depended on what people were after and what they wanted to pay for at the time.
A perfect way to celebrate 10 years since MG Rover (or whatever they were called that week) went t!ts-up finally.
It's the quintessential British shed and I think may people would be quite surprised at how comfy they are if they were driven in it blindfold for a few miles.
Mind you, it's no PB5 Coupe.....
It's the quintessential British shed and I think may people would be quite surprised at how comfy they are if they were driven in it blindfold for a few miles.
Mind you, it's no PB5 Coupe.....
Dad had a BRG Sterling liftback with the KV6 for a good number of years. If would have been 4 or 5 years old when he bought it and cost buttons then, with every toy under the sun at the time.
It looked smart, was comfortable in the front or the back and sounded very nice. We broke down in it maybe 3 times over probably 8 years, and my Dad's the kind of guy who considers an annual MOT to be servicing for his cars.
Happy memories, good shed.
It looked smart, was comfortable in the front or the back and sounded very nice. We broke down in it maybe 3 times over probably 8 years, and my Dad's the kind of guy who considers an annual MOT to be servicing for his cars.
Happy memories, good shed.
luckystrike said:
Dad had a BRG Sterling liftback with the KV6 for a good number of years. If would have been 4 or 5 years old when he bought it and cost buttons then, with every toy under the sun at the time.
It looked smart, was comfortable in the front or the back and sounded very nice. We broke down in it maybe 3 times over probably 8 years, and my Dad's the kind of guy who considers an annual MOT to be servicing for his cars.
Happy memories, good shed.
If they'd put the Honda V6 in the mk2s they would make great sheds nowadays. But the KV6s in these are not to be trusted. And that's not typical "lolz Rovers head gas kits fail init mate"... they were essentially prototype engines, and known to be dreadfully unreliable.It looked smart, was comfortable in the front or the back and sounded very nice. We broke down in it maybe 3 times over probably 8 years, and my Dad's the kind of guy who considers an annual MOT to be servicing for his cars.
Happy memories, good shed.
And if you stand back and squint, you can see echoes of the SD1 in it. Does that make a redeeming feature or not?
I remember seeing a large billboard advert for these at the entrance to the 1988 Motorshow at the NEC; Fast there, fast back. That's quite clever, I thought at the time.
The ad copy made more of an impression than the car ever did.
I remember seeing a large billboard advert for these at the entrance to the 1988 Motorshow at the NEC; Fast there, fast back. That's quite clever, I thought at the time.
The ad copy made more of an impression than the car ever did.
I remember my ex FIL having a BRG Vittess Sport one ~1998, after dropping them off at a dinner one night I gave it a pasting on the way back...blooooming ek did it shift, arrived back at their house with the brakes smoking lol
In the day they were good cars and actually drove well, Recaro interior too!
FWIR the Tony pond vid was an 827 Vitesse (V6), still remember watching that vid thinking "I could do that" hahah...kids
In the day they were good cars and actually drove well, Recaro interior too!
FWIR the Tony pond vid was an 827 Vitesse (V6), still remember watching that vid thinking "I could do that" hahah...kids
Gassing Station | General Gassing | Top of Page | What's New | My Stuff