A girl reviews a car. Whatever next...
 Dec 13th, 2002
Advantages:
This car just goes on and on and on . . .
Disadvantages:
So boring I never even gave it a name .
Recommendable:
Yes
Detailed rating:
Safety
Comfort
Road Handling
Looks
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  xadoc
About me:
Dear John...
Member since:26.10.2002
Reviews:54
Members who trust:43
Review rated by 29 Ciao members on average: very helpful 
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Please bear with me. I am a girl. I have no idea about such things as horsepower/0-60 times and all that jazz. If you want to find out all that stuff, I’m sure someone knows it. Or you could get a Glass’s car guide. I do know what my experience of this car has been though, so I shall start there. We bought our 1991 416 Rover almost exactly 2 years ago now. It had 69,000 on the clock, and cost us £635. A strange amount, you might think, but we bought it at auction, and you have to pay a buyers premium on top.
There are some risks associated with buying at auction. You only get a limited amount of time to look at the car before you buy it, you can’t take it for a test drive, and you can’t take it back afterwards if something goes wrong with it. However, if you know a bit about cars (I don’t, but my
boyfriend does) and like to take a gamble once in a while you can pick up absolute bargains. You get the thrill of bidding at auction, and there is also the benefit that you don’t have to check the ownership is correct or that it has outstanding hire purchase payments owing, as the auction house has to do this for you. In our case, it turned out to be a very wise buy, although I do know other people who haven’t been so lucky.
Our Rover is red. It has four wheels. You would recognise it immediately if you saw one, but you may not be able to think what it looks like right now as they are so ubiquitous as to almost fade into the background. What I am trying to say is that this car is dull. It’s not an interesting car; it’s not an exciting car. It doesn’t look sexy. It’s not fun to drive. It’s not exciting inside, and has no kudos. People will not stop to gaze longingly at it. Nor will owners of the same model beep and wave.
On the plus side, it's fairly unlikely that anyone will want to steal it, although some little bugger has prised off the badge from the bonnet. Grrrr! I hate school summer holidays! It is almost identical to a Honda (Accord?), and in fact has a Honda engine and gear box (a good thing, apparently, as the Rover ones have a reputation for the head gasket blowing prematurely). The interior is grey plastic and the seats are grey fabric. If this car were a person, it would be Carol Smillie. Nice enough, but really quite boring, and everywhere you look, oops, there she is again!
It's a fair size inside. You can fit three people in the back, but you probably wouldn't want to for a very long journey. The boot is capacious enough for shopping, but if you want to get anything long in, you're stuck as the seats don't move. Don't expect fun driving. Putting your foot down doesn't really achieve a lot. Cornering is ok, but unremarkable. It can be a little noisy on motorway drives. There are 5 gears and top speed probably isn't much above 100. You'll get from 0-60 eventually, but you probably won't break down.
However, it has run and run and run with almost no problems for two years, is fairly economical, and relatively practical (although we now want to get rid of it for a hatchback or an estate) and has cost us peanuts. In two years, we’ve done about 25,000 miles, and all we’ve had to do is replace the tyres, the ignition control unit, the windscreen wiper blades, one CV joint and both boots. This probably hasn’t come to more than £250. In two whole years. As far as I’m concerned, that’s pretty good for a 10 year old car. Another bonus is that because these cars are so widespread, it’s easy to get parts. They’re almost always in stock and come relatively cheaply. It hasn't even got hardly any rust.
Oil changes are recommended at 6,000 miles rather than the 10-12,000 you might normally expect (so my boyfriend tells me). Other than that, everything else is pretty much what you’d get on any other car. One thing that does seem expensive is the insurance, but we do live in a “dodgy” area, and I suppose everyone’s insurance has been going up recently. Either that or it's a car people have accidents in. I don't know.
We will be getting rid of it soon. The back seats don’t fold down, and we’ve taken on an old house that needs considerable renovation, so it would be easier if we had a hatchback. I’d like something sporty, but I don’t think the Mazda MX5 comes in an estate version. We’ll probably just end up with something equally dull as the Rover, but less reliable.
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by (10%):
23.12.2002 13:09
Being an ex-Rover driver, I can see where you are coming from in terms of the dull factor! I had no end of trouble with mine though but thats maybe due to the fact that I didnt have the Honda engine in mine and instead had a Rover K series engine which was in my opinion not very reliable. I doubt I be buying another Rover again, not even with the MG badge unless their reliability and style improves. Regards, Ray
20.12.2002 11:30
An excelent opinion. My neighbours Rover 414 was nicked off our estate in Coventry 6 months ago. It was days later found in A deprived part of Birmingham smashed to peices. Sam Williams
13.12.2002 13:34
My brother in law has a Rover and it gives him nothing but trouble and the spare parts are very costly! :O) x