Shed ahead... 75

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Muddle238

Original Poster:

3,871 posts

112 months

Wednesday 21st March 2018
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Here she is, my first foray into shedding. As it turns out, there's a lot of cars out there and you can get a lot for your money. I've had this a few months now, piling the miles on it and generally using and abusing it. Today it got a rare wash, so decided it was time to introduce my shed, my Rover 75 Tourer.







Bought for peanuts, it's a 04-reg, one of the last pre-facelift cars. Because it spends most of its time on the motorway, I went for the 2.0 CDTi engine with an autobox, slightly less frequent visits to Shell. It has a towbar bracket and electrics, but no actual tow neck - anyone got a spare one? hehe

Otherwise it wafts along, it has a diet of V-power which returns me 44mpg at the moment. Recent expenditure included four brand new Goodyear Efficient Grips, some wiper blades, a headlamp bulb and a Renault 5 thermostat stuffed in the top rad hose.

Good points:
- comfy
- practical
- no rust
- everything works
- cheap to run, ish

Bad points:
- stone chips to die for on the front
- scratched side windows
- tailgate leaks somewhere
- a few rattles
- rear washer jet is akin a gnat having a piss

One of the best features; opening rear glass



Currently approaching 100,000 miles, planning to run it into the ground/200,000 miles. If it makes it as far as 200k, I'll keep it anyway and see if I can stretch to 250,000+.

Usually it's not so clean....



Will report back driving

ian316

4,150 posts

104 months

Wednesday 21st March 2018
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These seem to be getting a bit of a following and i'm starting to see why tbh

SiT

1,163 posts

200 months

Wednesday 21st March 2018
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Great car for shed money, has ‘limo like’ wafts quality which is probably quite pleasant on motorway.

It cleans up very well too - good work.

I am sensing the dawn of shedding seems to be taking over ‘Readers Cars’ of late.....

Si

Muddle238

Original Poster:

3,871 posts

112 months

Wednesday 21st March 2018
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I can see where the limo-likeness comes from. I think it's actually quite an elegant design, certainly aged well over the last 17 years of Tourer models.

stewjohnst

2,442 posts

160 months

Wednesday 21st March 2018
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I was hopeful of more lunacy/bravery and expecting an Alfa 75... biggrin

I do need a shed/dog car and need something like this that I could not care about and not get attached to, something different to a V70 or SAAB 9-5 too.

I drove one once as a hire car (saloon) and it did feel like I was peering out of a letterbox, felt the windscreen was too small somehow.

davebem

746 posts

176 months

Wednesday 21st March 2018
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Yeah these are gathering a following, this is the 3rd or 4th on here recently and a lot of love developing, they also seem to be surviving well and coming out the woodwork in better condition than Mercs. BMWs and Alfas of similar age.

Muddle238

Original Poster:

3,871 posts

112 months

Wednesday 21st March 2018
quotequote all
stewjohnst said:
I do need a shed/dog car and need something like this that I could not care about and not get attached to, something different to a V70 or SAAB 9-5 too.

I drove one once as a hire car (saloon) and it did feel like I was peering out of a letterbox, felt the windscreen was too small somehow.
I looked at V70s and 9-3 Sportwagons, both seemed to have their drawbacks, the V70 of similar age had a dreadful turning circle. No regrets with the 75, I'd have another.

Interesting comments regarding the windscreen, I find the 75 screen raked more steeply than my previous and more modern daily, certainly catches more road grime and uses more screenwash. I suppose when it was designed in the 90's, this was the norm though.

Muddle238

Original Poster:

3,871 posts

112 months

Wednesday 21st March 2018
quotequote all
davebem said:
Yeah these are gathering a following, this is the 3rd or 4th on here recently and a lot of love developing, they also seem to be surviving well and coming out the woodwork in better condition than Mercs. BMWs and Alfas of similar age.
There appears to be an active owners club, this and the MG ZT-T. I've been able to get parts easily through them, very useful given that main dealers are a thing of the past with this car. Not sure whether the current MG brand has anything to do with the MG Rover era in terms of parts or servicing.

davepoth

29,395 posts

198 months

Wednesday 21st March 2018
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Muddle238 said:
davebem said:
Yeah these are gathering a following, this is the 3rd or 4th on here recently and a lot of love developing, they also seem to be surviving well and coming out the woodwork in better condition than Mercs. BMWs and Alfas of similar age.
There appears to be an active owners club, this and the MG ZT-T. I've been able to get parts easily through them, very useful given that main dealers are a thing of the past with this car. Not sure whether the current MG brand has anything to do with the MG Rover era in terms of parts or servicing.
Parts are surprisingly available - Chinese 75 variants were being built as late as last year. Quite a few other bits are BMW, and as the petrol engines and gearboxes were common across the whole range for the best part of a decade there are plenty of cars to give demand.

The other advantage is that they were "classic" in 2005 in a way - and have been taken good care of as a result.

That said I mercilessly thrash mine 60 miles a day to work and back, and it's so dirty I'm not entirely certain what colour it is. biggrin

SebastienClement

1,950 posts

139 months

Thursday 22nd March 2018
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Nice to see another Rover owner on here!

I’ve had plenty of these, most of which have been documented here. In my opinion they are a fantastic car - the sort of car that Rover should have been building. The design was signed off in 1993 (pre-BMW) and then BMW got involved with the underpinnings - I think that combination has really worked.

As a car they are generally robust, and as someone else mentioned, they seem to age well with regards to maintenance. It’s rare to see a disastrous MOT fail sheet with one of these. Of course they have their niggles; water ingress into the boot being common (but sortable), eating droplinks and top mounts (heavy car!) etc... But they are solid, and they don’t rust... much.

As for mileage, I’ve had 2 diesels (one auto, one manual) that have both seen north of 250k with clean MOT sheets - and they were still good to drive. I’m doubt you’ll have problems seeing those mileage’s if you keep on top of basic maintenance!

I love that green on the tourer - it looks just right! Looking forward to keeping up to date on this one biggrin

Muddle238

Original Poster:

3,871 posts

112 months

Thursday 22nd March 2018
quotequote all
SebastienClement said:
Nice to see another Rover owner on here!

I’ve had plenty of these, most of which have been documented here. In my opinion they are a fantastic car - the sort of car that Rover should have been building. The design was signed off in 1993 (pre-BMW) and then BMW got involved with the underpinnings - I think that combination has really worked.

As a car they are generally robust, and as someone else mentioned, they seem to age well with regards to maintenance. It’s rare to see a disastrous MOT fail sheet with one of these. Of course they have their niggles; water ingress into the boot being common (but sortable), eating droplinks and top mounts (heavy car!) etc... But they are solid, and they don’t rust... much.

As for mileage, I’ve had 2 diesels (one auto, one manual) that have both seen north of 250k with clean MOT sheets - and they were still good to drive. I’m doubt you’ll have problems seeing those mileage’s if you keep on top of basic maintenance!

I love that green on the tourer - it looks just right! Looking forward to keeping up to date on this one biggrin
I've just seen your thread on yours, going to get a coffee and have a long sit down and read through it! hehe

I agree regarding the colour, for a long time now I've had a soft spot for dark green on large British cars, it's almost the "correct" colour in my eyes. This one cleans up well, although I'm considering fitting front mudflaps to help keep the sills a little cleaner - we live down a a road not much more than a farm track.

I've settled on servicing every 5000 miles to keep it in line with my other cars, a little more frequent than suggested but it's good to keep on top of things. Does yours suffer the roof spar vibration around 1800rpm? This is the one annoyance this car has, will be dropping the headlining and fixing as soon as the weather warms up a bit.

sinbaddio

2,357 posts

175 months

Thursday 22nd March 2018
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One thing that always intrigued me on these - what if you need a replacement rear number plate?

Great car OP!

Muddle238

Original Poster:

3,871 posts

112 months

Thursday 22nd March 2018
quotequote all
sinbaddio said:
One thing that always intrigued me on these - what if you need a replacement rear number plate?

Great car OP!
There are a few places online which specialise in specialist shaped number plates. There are actually a surprising number of cars out there with non-standard shape plates, including the 75 there's also the S-Type, X-Type, RRS, Chrysler Crossfire, RR Phantom to name a few. They're not too expensive either, but in my eyes they look wrong with a standard oblong-shaped plate fitted to the back.

ajprice

27,322 posts

195 months

Thursday 22nd March 2018
quotequote all
Muddle238 said:
sinbaddio said:
One thing that always intrigued me on these - what if you need a replacement rear number plate?

Great car OP!
There are a few places online which specialise in specialist shaped number plates. There are actually a surprising number of cars out there with non-standard shape plates, including the 75 there's also the S-Type, X-Type, RRS, Chrysler Crossfire, RR Phantom to name a few. They're not too expensive either, but in my eyes they look wrong with a standard oblong-shaped plate fitted to the back.
Halfords do them, or at least they did about 5 years ago when I got a 75 shape plate for my Smart (the recess on a Smart is just the right shape).

rxe

6,700 posts

102 months

Thursday 22nd March 2018
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Renault 5 in the top hose rather than fixing the real one: full marks for quality shed bodging! biggrin

cbmotorsport

3,065 posts

117 months

Thursday 22nd March 2018
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I got excited from the title...was thinking Alfa 75.

Benjijames28

1,702 posts

91 months

Thursday 22nd March 2018
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Nice car and nice shed.

Actus Reus

4,229 posts

154 months

Thursday 22nd March 2018
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Muddle238 said:
- tailgate leaks somewhere

- rear washer jet is akin a gnat having a piss
Related?

SebastienClement

1,950 posts

139 months

Thursday 22nd March 2018
quotequote all
Muddle238 said:
I've just seen your thread on yours, going to get a coffee and have a long sit down and read through it! hehe

I agree regarding the colour, for a long time now I've had a soft spot for dark green on large British cars, it's almost the "correct" colour in my eyes. This one cleans up well, although I'm considering fitting front mudflaps to help keep the sills a little cleaner - we live down a a road not much more than a farm track.

I've settled on servicing every 5000 miles to keep it in line with my other cars, a little more frequent than suggested but it's good to keep on top of things. Does yours suffer the roof spar vibration around 1800rpm? This is the one annoyance this car has, will be dropping the headlining and fixing as soon as the weather warms up a bit.
To be honest I no longer have a diesel one because I decided I was fed up with the noise / smell! I don't remember it being terribly rattly inside though.

I've got a V6 saloon now which is a "Sunday best" car and a petrol Volvo as my daily.

The V6 literally has no interior rattles at all which of quite something for a car on 107k miles!

sinbaddio

2,357 posts

175 months

Friday 23rd March 2018
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ajprice said:
Muddle238 said:
sinbaddio said:
One thing that always intrigued me on these - what if you need a replacement rear number plate?

Great car OP!
There are a few places online which specialise in specialist shaped number plates. There are actually a surprising number of cars out there with non-standard shape plates, including the 75 there's also the S-Type, X-Type, RRS, Chrysler Crossfire, RR Phantom to name a few. They're not too expensive either, but in my eyes they look wrong with a standard oblong-shaped plate fitted to the back.
Halfords do them, or at least they did about 5 years ago when I got a 75 shape plate for my Smart (the recess on a Smart is just the right shape).
beer Thanks for the answers, my mind is now at ease.