gregh

Look interesting, and probably worthy of a test drive when it's time to change my Scoob.



Greg

chiark

Yes, the ZT-T looks quite interesting (flyer in this month's evo)

gregh

>> flyer in this month's evo

Yep, nice flyer, that's what peeked my interest.

Greg

RussP

don't encourage me! Keep looking at them and thinking that, but it's still just a poxy MG, i mean, what will myt mates say????


Rus

JoeyDeacon

So get a pipe and slippers Rover add a few MG badges and suddenly its desirable?? I think not!!

Remember the last time the MG name was added to some rather crappy cars?? just think MG Metro, MG Montego and MG Maestro..

gregh

Err JoeyDeacon, have you read anything about these saloons before you slag them off? Much more than sticking some badges on.

Greg

JoeyDeacon

I know they have tweaked the engines and made suspension changes but the Rover 45 is now a VERY old car. The Rover 25 is just an old car.

What do you think of when somebody tells you they own a Rover??

If you want an ancient, unfashionable car with crappy build quality and unreliability that will depreciate faster than virtually any car in its class then by all means buy one.

And before you say it yes I have owned one in the past and would NEVER get another..

gregh

Joey,

I think they've done more than tweak, the one based on the 75 will be rear wheel drive for example.

cheers,

greg

JoeyDeacon

Above all it's (still) a Rover....

The Zohan

I hope these car re-establish MG as a sports/performance mark and sincerly hope that the build quality and reliability issues are sorted. Before someone jumps down my throat - MG of old (30/40's) have held world speed records and turn out some tasty motors for their time. The Midget, MGA/B/C whre all nice looking cars with reasonable performance for their day and well priced having scourced alot of their parts from other less 'exotic' models. Yep things went sadly wrong when they put an MG badge on the Metro, Maestro and Montegos proving that you cannot polish turds!

Saw the piece in Evo and i recon they look pretty good. Best of luck to them.

Now where did i put my pipe...ah yes, next to my slippers

Paul

DavidBrown

I think Rover deserve all the encouragement they can get, following the ar$e raping they got from BMW.

Support British Industry I say !

James Adlington

Before you all jump on the Rover crap build quality/unreliability bandwagon please bare in mind this sad confession: I get to drive a Rover 400 diesel on business which does 30000 miles a year yet has had less time off the road than my Impreza (<6000 a year). The Rover may handle like a barge & accelerate like a snail, but it doesn't breakdown or fall apart like Rover's of old (a miracle given you have to drive the nuts off it to get anywhere). I for one will be taking a test drive when the hot versions arrive.

The Zohan

Just to temper James argument i was directing a photoshoot on a Rover 820 a few years back, shooting their car phone installation - the wood trim literally came off in our hands - not a press car, just a run of the mill Rover Our company had three 800 series - the trim/interior used to fall apart around you as you drove them.

IMHO
The problem with their quality is consistency and has been for a long time, i am sure that the new management will sort it as the old management had not got a clue.

Good luck to them and nice looking motors!

[This message has been edited by Paul Habgood (edited 11 June 2001).]

Scoob99

iTrader: (1)

Joey, Don't knock the M.G. Maestro I had one for 10 years before I owned my Scoob she was a great little motor and never let me down, Just a shame the bodywork fell apart before the engine otherwise I would still have it.
Colin

BugEyed

OK - so I'm showing my age!

MG stands for Morris Garages. They have always been at best warmed over Morris / BL/ Austin / Rover products. Do you believe they will change now? I don't.

Yes, my (our?) Scoobys are not as well engineered as a BMW / Mercedes / Bentley etc, but they are purer than an MG.

SD

<BLOCKQUOTE><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial">quote:<HR>Originally posted by JoeyDeacon:
<B>I know they have tweaked the engines and made suspension changes but the Rover 45 is now a VERY old car. The Rover 25 is just an old car.

What do you think of when somebody tells you they own a Rover??

If you want an ancient, unfashionable car with crappy build quality and unreliability that will depreciate faster than virtually any car in its class then by all means buy one.

And before you say it yes I have owned one in the past and would NEVER get another..[/quote]

Sorry Joey, I can't let that comment slip, tongue-in-cheek or not! I own a Rover Coupe VVC and it's a great car for me. Let me respond to your points:

"The Rover 45 is a VERY old car" - 18 months old actually. And it is based on the 400 (as I'm sure you're aware), a car that is 6 years old. How old was the original Impreza before it was replaced? 8 years old I believe.

"The Rover 25 is just an old car" - Ditto above.

"What do you think of when somebody tells you they own a Rover??" - Depends what model, but at least I know they're not swayed by popular misconceptions of what the cars are like. I know you've owned one, but that doesn't make you're opinion the be-all and end-all on good/bad cars.

"If you want an ancient, unfashionable car with crappy build quality and unreliability that will depreciate faster than virtually any car in its class then by all means buy one." - Really? Ancient, (The original scooby is more ancient and that was only replaced 8 months ago). Unfashionable? I never ever buy anything because it's in or out of fashion, I buy a car because it's what I want and for what I think of it. To do otherwise is a bit 'weak' IMO. Crappy build quality and unreliability - In almost 25,000 miles of hard driving of the last 18 months I've only needed a new set of spark plugs and a rubber hose changed on my car, with the later being replaced under warrenty.

And thanks to the depreciation, I bought my car when it was 2 years old to the day, with only 16,000 miles on the clock for £11k. It was immaculate, and impecibly maintained. Air-con, 0-60 in mid 7's, half leather, and a recent motorways and A-roads fast round trip managed 42mpg.

I don't want to start a flame war, (especially considering my pitiful post count on here), but as a package Rovers are great cars, and I'll be first in line to test the MG-ZR 160 and Ultimate models when they are released. The engines are way ahead of a lot of the competition, and IMO my Coupe is still one of the best looking cars in the sub £20k bracket.

I would ask you to consider where Subaru were a decade ago. A manufacturer famed for vehicles popular with farmers and little else. Their image did an enormous about turn when people woke up the fact that they were also performance bargains. With the new Management at Rover I'm sure we'll see some great cars emerge, and as a performance car enthusiast I applaud them for their stance, and especially for taking a direct shot at BMW with the fab looking MG-ZT.

Simon.

[This message has been edited by SD (edited 11 June 2001).]

mook

Joey, I'm a little surprised, you never showed such vehemence when you were on the Rover mailing list?1?

Anyhow, you may know by now that I own a Rover, it's my fifth one and I think they are pretty good car for the money, and mine's just a lovely beast *lol*. The new MGs appear to have pretty good credentials to me, especially the one off EXTREME versions they say they're going to make - 75 version with 450-500 bhp from a V8 and rear wheel drive, and an MGF extreme with 450bhp to the rears, sounds pretty good to me

DavidBrown

<BLOCKQUOTE><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial">quote:<HR>Originally posted by BugEyed:
<B>MG stands for Morris Garages. They have always been at best warmed over Morris / BL/ Austin / Rover products. Do you believe they will change now? I don't.[/quote]

Yes, and you could have an evening out at the movies, a bag of chips and a ride back on the trolley-bus for 2 shillings.

Times change.

(PS the earth is no longer believed to be flat, in case you were holding on to that misconception too)

BugEyed

David

Oh no! If the earth isn't flat, I might fall off.

The sooner MG's start being engineered as cars in their own right rather than having a badge and some dodgy styling stuck onto another car, the better. Gregh is right, the look interesting.

Also, bring back trolley buses!