Faults:

Minor problem with a flickering high-level stop light when new, but this was quickly rectified by the dealer.

After about 5,000 miles the clutch needed greasing. Took the dealer about 15 minutes to put right.

General Comments:

The layout of the car with a mid-engine and rear wheel drive provides an enjoyable and much more involving feel to the drive. I look for any excuse to drive somewhere!

The car corners extremely well with no body roll whatsoever and behaves very well under all conditions.

I am tall, 6'2", and although I have never found the car uncomfortable I would welcome just a fraction more leg room.

The cabin could do with a little modernisation, although we are talking about a car that you should enjoy driving so the shape of the switches and feel of the dash is not so important.

From the outside the car looks 'sharp' and in my opinion there are very few roadsters about which have quite the same line.

It's good to know that you can still buy a good British car!

Faults:

Car history:

Bought ex demonstrator at 1200m.

Door locks intermittent fault - doors sometimes don't lock or unlock properly.

Passenger window stopped working.

Gearbox fault at about 15000 miles.

Exhaust fault at about 15000 miles.

General rattles, squeaks, leaks etc.

General Comments:

Handling: The tail will play only when you really push it. The front end will give first. Makes it safe, until it's wet/snowy etc then the tail end becomes much more as one would expect of a 'sports car'!

Steering: Quite sharp and direct, although from memory the 'new' Mini is sharper and more direct. Makes the car easy to position and control.

Ride: Good for a 'sports car' will not remove all your bones in one journey although it can be a little tedious on longer motorway runs.

Noise: Very noisy with roof up or down very tedious after a couple of hours driving. Noise levels need to be reduced with the roof up on the next revision of this car.

Build quality: Very poor really. Rattles and squeaks everywhere, leaks at the door mirrors, which are apparently fixless.

Rust appearing inside already car age at time of writing: 1.5 years (18 months) (kept in middle England, not coastal location!).

Service: Good, but I shouldn't have had to see them as often in a little over 1 years ownership as I have had to! Normally the main dealer will do all they can to sort the problems I've had as soon as possible. However to start with they did not seem as keen to sort problems, and seemed to try fobbing off instead of issue resolution.

Modifications:

I replaced the original 15" wheels with MG 16" 'multispoke' wheels, fitted with 215.40.16 tyres all round. The tyres were (and still are) Goodyear Eagle F1. I would recommend these tyres to anyone.

I purchased the wheels and tyres from Brown and Gammons.

Fitted Windstop: bargain of the year!

Fitted Chrome bits: makes the interior come together tying the chrome door handles to other chrome bits!

Fitted alloy heater control knobs: as above just tied the car together more fully.

Replaced 'whip' aeriel with a short aluminium unit. looks much better.

Replaced standard 'tape deck' with Pioneer MP3/CD head unit.

I do like this car, but it could be so much better.

Faults:

Electric windows. Noisy valve on cylinder head. Both fixed quickly when I changed dealer thanks to the Rover helpline (the original dealer was very unhelpful when I had problems - the 2nd one could not have done more to help me)

Also Radio/CD needed fixing (not covered by warranty)

General Comments:

This is a very nice looking car, always turns heads. Is fun to drive when you get used to it. Some minor build quality problems (although annoying) do not detract from the appeal of owning this classic British sports car.

Faults:

Driver's door catching on the hood seal, required adjustment of the window position by dealer. Work carried out within hours of calling the dealer.

General Comments:

Very good handling, hard ride, but then I would have bought a saloon car if I wanted a comfortable ride.

Looks absolutely fantastic, even better when the sun comes out.

Fantastic community of MG drivers; other drivers flash whenever they pass you.

Faults:

Nothing so far.

General Comments:

My first sports car so my experience is quite limited. However it's nippy and being mid-engined, the handling is superb and a pleasure to drive on twisty B-roads.

The ride is a little stiff, transmitting most bumps through to the cabin, but it does give you a sense of being connected to the road.

It's a pleasure to get the top down, which although manually operated, can be raised and lowered without getting out of the car.