Faults:

Major fault caused by water getting into the ABS unit \ wiring loom and causing serious corrosion, which took out the whole car at 31000. Garage quoted over £2k to do the work, I did it mainly myself for £700 though (yes I'm nuts).

Fuel pump came apart at 28000. Garage didn't put the seals on properly after screwing it back together and it dumped fuel all over the petrol station. They also charged me £220! Read up on this fault.

General Comments:

I had the upgraded suspension. The car was excellent in the main, everything seems well put together. Lovely to drive with a quality interior, decent stereo and nice looking too. Usually understeered when pushing it too hard so very predictable handling.

Now here's my word of caution, there is a lot of info out there detailing the common faults on this model. Read up on them and know them like the back of your hand!!! Get on the MG ZT forums and avoid the problems. Here's a few...

ECU gets drowned due to plenum chamber blocked (clear it!).

1.8's blow head gaskets - avoid at all costs.

Fuel pump comes in two, fit a screw into it to stop this happening.

ABS wire (sensors) come loose and rub on the wheels, make sure you're haven't come off.

VIS valves go causing tapping in the engine (replace).

Cam sensors go causing problems starting when the car is warm (replace).

Buy a Haynes manual

Main wiring loom attached to the ABS unit gets wet and the whole car is stuffed (all electronics are routed through this). Take the battery and cage out and have a look. AVOID upward firing car washes at ALL costs. Take it the loom off (use a screw driver to slide off the loom locking catch), don't just pull it upwards it won't work. Spray with De-ox and Pro-gold to prevent problems.

Good Luck!!!

Faults:

The car has blown rear brake bulbs at an alarming rate which is annoying as the dash indicator keeps telling you to change the bulb and over-rides any other messages you wish to view.

General Comments:

I am so pleased I bought this car.

Very unfortunate the history of the company, but the quality of the car is fantastic, the drive, acceleration and feel to the car is that of how Rover always used to be in there high.

The handling is purely down to the Tyres you fit, this can turn the car from a cow to a train on cornering.

All the gadgets fitted to this car make it a better buy than any BMW or Lexus in my mind and when I change, I will probably go for the V8 version and fly the British flag!

Faults:

Temperature gauge has never worked properly. it rises quickly to the mid-point when first started, then just stays there. It has now been back to the dealer three time, twice for faults and once for 15k service, but they have not fixed it.

Boot lock stopped working from button inside car, it clicked away merrily, but did not unlock the boot, only way to open boot until fixed was to force lock to stay open with key - was always worried was going to break key doing it this way!

Coolant leak (not sure whether air con or engine, as was spotted by dealer during service and was fixed, although had to wait two weeks for parts and take back)

Front bumper/spoiler section not aligned properly with bonnet - also still not fixed - has caused NSF wheel arch liner to pop out.

Biggest problem whilst driving (it's an auto) is a serious flat spot (gear box in normal/economy mode) at about 75-80 mph. (or between 2,500 & 2,900 rpm) really HAVE to change down to get any decent acceleration.

General Comments:

This was my 1st new car for 10 years, having had a Cavalier prior to that, which I had purchased nearly new and put an additional 160,000 miles onto the clock. Cars prior to that had always been Vauxhalls and Fords.

When I first picked up the car, I ran it in, then drove it down to Rome, at first I was not that happy with it, the acceleration was poor, as was the top speed and it seemed to suffer from power loss when pushing it hard over the Alps. I cannot be sure that this due to over-heating, as the temperature gauge did not work properly.

However, the car just seemed to take a long time to run in properly and after a few thousand miles started to show its full potential. However hard I have pushed it it has never broken loose and its cornering capabilities are fantastic, considering the size and weight of the car. As long as the revs are kept above 3,000rpm it accelerates incredibly quickly.

The drive, the handling and the acceleration of this car have more than compensated for the faults, which especially when you consider this is a British car are not significant.