I often find myself thinking of cars from years ago and wondering whether I'm looking back through rose tinted spectacles. So I was intrigued to spot this from Auto Express.

At the time I had involvement in fleet vehicle acquisition so often got to borrow cars for "assessment". I remember being quite impressed with the Rover 200 at the time, and it seems my memory is not too far out in this case:

https://www.autoexpress.co.uk/hyundai/kona/361162/old-car-vs-new-car-rover-200-vs-hyundai-kona

You might have thought the guy who owns the Rover might have cleaned up the engine bay for the photo shoot, though!

I'm trying not to comment too much but all I will say was I worked at rover dealer when the MK1 rover 213 was launched. And wow was it a change from its predecessor the maestro. No oil leaks and hardly anything went wrong. All basically due it being a Japanese car with a rover badge. 😂😂😂.

Then rover ruined it by putting a 1.6  s series engine in. And all went down hill then. Oil leaks, burning oil, crap gearbox. 

 

1 hour ago, iantt said:

Then rover ruined it by putting a 1.6  s series engine

Yes, I remember that being a shocker in other models too. The second generation mentioned in the article had a rather nice Honda unit in the 1.6 though. The K series as featured in the article seemed ok at first - I think it was not originally intended to go beyond a 1.4 - but they pushed that to 1.8 and had problems. Seemed to cope ok in the (obviously much lighter) Lotus Elise from what I've been told.

The good things I remember though - ride, handling, visibility - seem to be borne out by the article.

14 hours ago, Eric Bloodaxe said:

You might have thought the guy who owns the Rover might have cleaned up the engine bay for the photo shoot, though!

Dust & grime is highly valuable on old cars these days don't you know that! A 'barn find' covered in filth can and does fetch more cash than a gleaming restored example 😅 🤣 😳 

1 hour ago, Ian Lanc said:

Dust & grime is highly valuable on old cars these days don't you know that!

Lol, yes, they often say that on Bangers and Cash!  On this one though the outside and interior looked great. Maybe he'd shovelled all the muck under the bonnet.

48 minutes ago, Eric Bloodaxe said:

Lol, yes, they often say that on Bangers and Cash!  On this one though the outside and interior looked great. Maybe he'd shovelled all the muck under the bonnet.

That's a good programme at times with some odd but interesting stuff going through, not only cars & bikes go through, in one show they'd got about 20 large scale RC Tanks in 1/16th & 1/10th, all fully working the lot went for a measly £2000, the sorta RC Tanks cost at least £1,500 to £5,000.....EACH.

Not too far from me is a light metallic blue Rover 214, it never moves but gets washed all the time, it looks well.

45 minutes ago, Ian Lanc said:

Not too far from me is a light metallic blue Rover 214, it never moves but gets washed all the time, it looks well.

A chap in my village is still driving round in the virtually identical looking Honda Concerto version. It's on a private plate so not exactly sure what year it is, but I think he's had it from new and keeps it immaculate. 

3 hours ago, Eric Bloodaxe said:

It's on a private plate so not exactly sure what year it is,

You'll be able to find some of your answers here:

https://totalcarcheck.co.uk/BhpCheck

6 minutes ago, alanfp said:

You'll be able to find some of your answers here:

Not sure I had a question Al, but regarding the Concerto I've been seeing it for all the years I've lived here (since 1990) and I think production only started 1989 so that's near enough for me!😀

What a great article from Auto Car. I enjoyed that read. Which of the two cars would I have? Easy. The Rover. 

I love the cars from the 70's through to the 00's. To me those cars had character. So what if oil leaked from hither and dither. That was part and parcel of ownership. It was also an education into car maintainance. Also it was the era of modernisation. Less cars on the road and speeding along was the norm without the fear of getting caught lol. I could go on but I'd branch off into .....................

I know which one I prefer! 😀