This week's Shed seller is a gardener, and a serious one too. The two pics he's given us were presumably meant to be of his car, but in fact turned out to be very nice ones of his floribunda gloriosa in deepest Gloucestershire.
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.
Before you ask, this KV6 engine didn't suffer anywhere near as much from head gasket failure as the regular four-pot K-Series unit, which was stretched beyond its design capability when BMW stepped in to kill off the plan of using Honda lumps in bigger engined cars. The half wet, half dry 'damp' cylinder liners that were a consequence of this corporate botch-up were very prone to moving around when gung-ho mechanics poked around the top end without using the proper securing bolts. Happily, the V6 motors were designed from the off as 2.0-litre and 2.5-litre units, with wet liners properly supported by webbing.
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.