1993 Rover - Austin 200 214 SLI 1.4 petrol from UK and Ireland
Summary:
Cheap as chips to buy, cheap to run and easy to work on, but watch that head gasket
Faults:
Head Gasket failure, sometime below 30,000 miles. Failed again at after DIY repair 43,000. Moral of that story, get the head skimmed.
General Comments:
An old car, and it shows compared to more modern options, handling and ride comfort are not fantastic, but acceptable.
The 1.4 K Series 16v engine was, and remains a radical design, but true to the build quality of British cars, the corners cut always lead to problems, notably with head gasket failure that's hard to repair adequately.
That said, it's a good engine, the older single point injection SLI models are not as quick, but surprisingly economical.
The body wears reasonably well too, rust starts around the rear and front arches, but can progress a long way to quite a tatty looking car before it's an MOT failure.
Cheap as chips to buy, cheap to run and easy to work on, but watch that head gasket.
Would you buy another car from this manufacturer? Don't Know
Review Date: 15th February, 2008
5th Jan 2005, 07:53
Go to the garage immidiatly. Losing most of the (visible) coolant each 100 miles means you have a serious problem with either a head gasket leak or some tube leak. This means your engine will sooner or later overheat with disastrous consequences. You should not put water, but coolant for two reasons:
(i) water freezes at low temperatures and the ice will blow up and destroy number of tubes and the motor itself. Most coolant do not freeze up to -20° C or even -40° C
(ii) the coolant protects by certain additives the metal of which motors are made from oxydation (rust) which will destroy the engine on the long term...