Shed of the Week: MG ZT-T
Rescue this vibrant MG estate from apparent use as an actual garden shed
By coincidence, Mrs Shed is very proud of her voluminous leylandii hedge. She has green fingers. To help her with that, Shed has advised her to stop smoking smelly Montecristo cigars, especially if she is serious about her interesting horticultural ambition of getting some Old Man's Beard in her bush.
Returning to the matter in hand, the MG ZT-T merits your attention as a handy estate that is also a handy drive. Despite the weedy pics the Tourer is a stylish and well-built machine powered by a smooth if not overly powerful 2.5-litre V6.
The main worry on these sixes is the cambelt. Changing it is a long and expensive job, with three main belts to sort, plus the aux belt, water pump and pulleys. Special tools are required to position the cams. This job is meant to be carried out at 80k miles. Our Shed has done 73k miles.
Read into that what you will. If, as seems somewhat likely, the belts haven't been done, there would be very little point in paying for this work. Just drive it and hope for the best. This is contrary to best advice on ZT-T 160s, which is to look after them as well as you can. But when the asking price is only £750, best advice does have a tendency to go out of the window. Plus, the original cambelts do have an excellent reputation for longevity, so you have a better than even chance of getting plenty more miles out of this car as it stands.
That's assuming you don't get caught out by other ZT-T glitches of course. Getting into any area other than the cabin will be awkward if the boot lid lock motor is bust or the bonnet cable is snapped. Handbrakes give up too, but none of these faults are difficult to rectify.
Upper inlet manifolds were badly designed and famous for breaking. Uneven tyre wear was a reported problem on early cars. This is a 2002 model. The ZT ran from 2001 to 2005, but of course the Rover 75 on which it was almost entirely based came out in 1999, so again you should be all right.
Waterlogging of the plenum chamber can fritz out the ECU. If the cabin seems more than usually smelly it might need a new pollen filter. You need to see clear drains for the sunroof and the boot, unless you are daft enough to think the phrase 'spare wheel well' means it should also be a natural repository of water.
Another liquid you will become friendly with is petrol and, quite possibly, tears when you get the annual VED bill. An illuminated airbag light might not be quite as financially emotional an experience. It could be a failed control module or side impact sensor, but you could be lucky and find it's simply a loose underseat connector.
No major worries, then. Your cool mates may sneer, but who cares what they think? The true Shedman doesn't.
MOT until July 2017
2002 model.
73000 miles
Tow bar fitted
Kenwood Cd multi changer.
Cosmetic scratches, but good bodywork.
Clean, drives well, and well maintained.
The cambelt issue is the shedders biggest dilemma. In the past I have always paid the big bill. What do others think. I have usually found big potential bills for other stuff (esp auto gearboxes) kill cars more frequently than belts snapping
Don't do it. Not unless you're handy with the spanners and you can change the cam belt yourself.
The cam belt replacement should be done at 7 years regardless of mileage (somebody else said 6 - fair enough, that gives an extra "margin of safety"). Plastics and rubbers are continually curing from the day they are first manufactured. This means that the plasticizers in the polymers are continuously evaporating, and this is why polymers get brittle as they age. This old MG/Rover is now 15 years old. If the belt has never been changed the risk of failure in continued service is getting rather high. If you can't do this job yourself, and the cost of getting it done is actually more than the car is worth, then forget it.
(Personally I never liked these myself, but that's another matter).
Yees I do drive a saloon version of the ZT, albeit the diesel version. As a used car they're a lot better than their price, in my opinion. I've run mine for 4 1/2 years with barely an expense and only now I'm probably spending more than the car is worth (financially) to replace the clutch and front shock aborbers.
blander than a bland thing thats bland and painted beige ... not even does the red excite me ... NEXT
blander than a bland thing thats bland and painted beige ... not even does the red excite me ... NEXT
And the best bit was they were all good examples, not spotters....
I don't see the comparison with German marques, you just need to check out the poor quality of. Much of the interior trim to understand why the phrase 'premium brand' is attached to thr likes of VMW, but not the MG.
Plus, as said elsewhere, not a particularly fast car despite its 190bhp (I'd like to know if standard cars actually made, or even approached this, on rolling roads...?)
As such, I always think they look like
but go like
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