1998 Rover - Austin 200 SDI 2.0 turbo diesel from UK and Ireland
Summary:
An absolute blast to the end!
Faults:
Nothing went wrong with the car until the end, and then it was the oil pump. Sadly this rendered the old beast uneconomical for repair, given its tech engine, which meant simply swapping a part out wasn't an option.
General Comments:
Fantastic fun and huge amounts of power. Initially when it started to smoke, I was blamed for not driving it hard enough. I explained in the city I live in, I'd have ended up in someones living room!
For comparison, we had a few pool cars at work. BMW 1 series, a Golf TDI, an Audi A1 and a couple of Skoda Octavia's. Having driven them all, the only one that outperformed my little Rover was the Golf!
Comfort was excellent, all the trim was firm. It makes me laugh when people say "interior was plasticky". Well duh, 99% of the interiors of cars are plastic!
Only criticism is that the front pillars obscure some of the view, and the clutch was a bit heavy. With wide alloys, it stuck to the road like glue, and fuel economy was excellent!
It gets my goat when people run down Rover. The survival rate of Rover vehicles, given the ratio to sales they made (after BMW clobbered them for being better selling fleet cars!), is much higher than most of the competition. Just look around at how many 93 onwards Rovers there are still in everyday use, compared to say, Fiesta's, Escorts, Cavaliers, Punto's. The company may have died, but the vehicles will live on longer than most of their competitors!
Would you buy another car from this manufacturer? Yes
Review Date: 5th August, 2012
3rd Sep 2007, 17:42
Do not listen to this guy and the vegetable oil fines, they only check for the green red.
And the new law (sorry this is after your comment) you can use vegetable oil now with no penalty ie... fine or duty so keep going and going and going.