Faults:

Stereo packed up at 27,000 miles.

Both front window motors failed at 39,000 miles.

Tyres wore very quickly.

General Comments:

Aside the two electrical faults and quick wearing the tyres, the Rover 820 turbo was a faultlessly reliable and well built luxury car.

Performance was also excellent, but running costs were very high.

Good value at £17,000 for a one year old high performance luxury car.

Residuals were good with a £10,000 private sale two years later.

Comfort and equipment levels were both superb.

Faults:

The ECU sometimes decides not to work, and won't allow me to start the car.

General Comments:

My brother bought me the car for only £95 as he knew that I am a fan of the Rover marque.

On first driving the car it was a lot quicker than I thought it would be.

At first I thought the styling to be quite ugly, however I have now fallen in love with the thrusting eighties styling.

The engine purred as a smooth V6, but I felt the need for a gruntier noise, so I attached a k&n air filter what made it sound like an Alfa V6. However this lost some engine power, but it was worth it for the soundtrack. This was also when the ECU started to play up, so I put the original air filter back on.

The power is amazing, it's a real street sleeper and I love blowing boy racer away in it, both of the lights and down the local dual carriageway.

Faults:

The wiper linkage broke in a downpour on the M62.

Had some problems with the electric windows.

General Comments:

This car was excellent. It was such good value for money, being fully loaded with every gadget you could ask for.

It was very fast, and handled quite well for a huge automatic.

I found that on long journeys, with the automatic gearbox and cruise control, it was an absolute pleasure to drive, and I could move my friends and I around in absolute comfort with more space in the back than I have ever seen.

Service costs were high, and when tyres and brakes needed replacing it was not cheap at all. Insurance wasn't a bargain either.

If you want luxury for no money, and don't mind some higher costs of ownership, then this is perfect. But when you sell it it will be worthless!

Faults:

Electric windows stopped working.

Wiper linkage broke (mended it with an elastic band!).

Clutch (£220).

Exhaust.

Battery.

Starter motor.

Leaks oil.

General Comments:

This car was £22,000 new, I brought it for £700!!!

Lots of car for the money, much faster than all the hot hatches.

Faults:

Having owned it for over 7 years and 100,000 miles, it has been a dream to maintain. Used as a motorway car almost all it's life, it has hardly needed maintenance (it's still on its first clutch). In 100,000 miles I have done no work to it apart from the exhaust, brakes and services.

The only problem is the electrics (central locking, roof and windows) are playing up and don't work in the damp. Apart from that it is a tribute to Rover.

General Comments:

Great cars for long journeys. Powerful and very comfortable.

Unfortunately a 10 year old one that cost £8000 ten years ago is now worthless, I have to say I have spent mere hundreds on it and it just keeps on going. I'll see it for another 100,000 miles!

Faults:

I had read about suspect reliability before I bought the car which made my slightly hesitant but it was so cheap as to be ludicrous. It has never let me down a single time and apart from wear and tear items I have hardly had to replace anything. Wiper linkage broke at 58K in a downpour like you've never seen!!! No other unscheduled pit-stops. It does like its front brake pads though. Swapped the exhaust to a bespoke stainless item so never have to fiddle with that again and makes a great, beefy noise.

General Comments:

I'm highly impressed with what this car does for the money. For a two litre in such a big body it's really sprightly, seeing off Golf GTis at the lights and accelerates convincingly at over 100 on the German autobahn. Still gives me 30mpg on average.

Interior comfortable (great Rover smell!!!) but quite a few sqeaks and rattles although nothing has come away. Chassis dynamics the crap of crapness. Chassis flexes on bumpy B-roads like crazy. Bad start. Inadequate dampers give wallowing, pitching and vagueness. Quite disconcerting but not unsafe due to stiff springs (stable on the motorway at speed). The springing seems to be covering an inadequate chassis set up to make sure drivers don't kill themselves. Overall this gives a a jiggly ride and scuttle-shake (in a solid topped car! One for the records)but since they are so cheap to buy one can put up with it. Nobody ever said it was a serious driver's tool. Grip is fantastic though due to v. wide tyres. If you need space, luxury and power on a v. modest budget they're unbeatable.