1997 Rover - Austin 200 214si 16v 1.4 from UK and Ireland
Summary:
Cheap and a little cheerful
Faults:
Speedo Has never Worked. due to sensor (i think) working on the problem.
Fuel Gauge is shocking. On empty it still hold 3 gallons of fuel.
Exhaust system is falling apart and making some strange noises. (Will fix only if I can get the speedo working)
Clutch is extremely bad for a city car.
Sun roof is starting to rust badly around the frame causing leaks into the interior.
So many sounds in the cabin.
Heater Controls are falling Apart.
Immobiliser died leaving me stranded, called out the RAC and they soldered the battery in the fob (works fine now) but I decided to have the Immobiliser permanently bypassed.
Speaker Cover just fell of the drivers door.
Power Steering pipe roted away (£40 to fix)
General Comments:
Okay so there are a lot of problems with this car! But it only cost me £250, and drives around 550 miles almost every weekend.
The car handles well a lot better than my Volvo 850 T5, but that's no surprise really.
I wouldn't say the car is that quick on the motorway its great driving around town though.
The good thing about having a car like this is that you can jump in it with a smile on your face because you just don't care about it.
If you're looking at buying one of these or even a new 25 or mg, I wouldn't. Build quality is shockingly bad, the glove box doesn't line up correctly it creeks and groans, its starting to get rusty.
Would you buy another car from this manufacturer? No
Review Date: 16th December, 2006
25th Aug 2004, 04:31
If youre loosing coolant at the rate you say, it sounds like the head gasket is failing. VERY, VERY, common on K-series engined rovers and landrovers, and why I wouldn't buy a rover.