Hi all,

I racking up some mileage in the old scoob and need to commute in a second car. Something I had in mind was a Rover 45 2Litre diesel. Seem to be able to pick these up for reasonable prices which I guess is down to the current company situation.
Have previously owned the same but in petrol form many moons ago which I was happy with.

Anyone own one that could offer some positive feedback or negatives?


Comments appreciated!

 

The diesel in the 45 is very old school, it's not bad on economy but the power and torque delivery of the 2litre diesel lags modern stuff by around ten years.
If it's just a economy mule then it won't be too bad.
The 45 does suffer a fair amount of reliability issues and unless you are going to keep it forever the resale value would be poor.
Why not have a look round the supermarket sites for a used mid-spec Octavia TDi. The taxi ranks are not full of Octavia's for nothing.

Cheers
Lee

 

Duck_Pond has done the very thing you are considering and constantly bores people with how much he can get out of a tank of derv

I suggest PMing him

 

Cheers Daz

I bought a 420 Di for a grand, 6 months ago for the same reason, and have already racked up 10k in it. Mine has done 78k now, on an R plate, and averages between 47-52 mpg.

Usually get about 470 miles before the light comes on, but the reserve must be huge, because I can only get about 45 litres in even then.

Insurance is a problem though, if like me, and all your no-claims are on the Scooby. Shop around, but HIC gave me a good deal (mirrored) my ncb!

The car itself - nothing spectacular really. Not that slow for a diesel, even by today's standards - about 11 sec to 60. I'd recommend using a bottle of diesel injector cleaning stuff every 3 months or so, that you pour into the fuel tank when filling up.

It's comfortable, even on long journeys - I drove over 1600 miles in a week, whilst touring Scotland in it, and suffered no aches. Mine is a hatchback, so the boot is huge, and the seats go flat in the back, to make it more useful.

I'd just recommend buying a tartan picnic rug, flat cap and a pipe for driving round in it Oh, and get a better stereo unit in it - the Rover ones are fecking awful!

 

I've driven the Rover 25 version a few times and they're actually pretty nippy when rolling and do 50mpg when being thrashed. If you can't afford a VAG PD engined car, I'd recommend one of these as next best (faster than a 306 TD by some margin, IMHO)