Enough conjecture has been written about poor old Rover of late. Fact is it once made some smashing cars. The Rover 200 is not one of them, but it’s nowhere near as bad as everyone thinks it is.
Old People:
More elderly folk drive Rovers than any other car. We have not tallied this up you understand, but a quick glance down the car park at our local bowling green gave all the answers we needed. On the flipside, minority Rover drivers are idiot boy-racers who still can’t figure out which vehicles get right of way at a roundabout. Assuming you do not fall into either of these categories, what can a now defunct manufacturer’s car do for you, the decent people?
Everybody knows the coolest dudes in the world have no money. They are under-appreciated in their time, still have a full head of hair and don’t just live for those two nights of the week after Thursday. Even if you have no cash you still have plenty of options over what used car you can buy. A Rover 200 has to be near the top of the list. It has the reliability factor, a series of damn good engines and, calming any bubbling fears, plenty of spares to go round. Put it this way, it will be long dead before you run out of bits and bobs to put in the dashboard.
Those Engines:
One thing everybody always raved about with Rover was their engines. The Rover 200 was a joint platform venture between Honda and Rover, so the 1.6 gets all-Japanese power as standard. Not a better choice as such (that model drinks fuel like it’s free), but Honda makes such unbelievably well engineered cars it does ensure the rush hour is just that little bit less stressful. Ever had some yesteryear bucket break down in the middle of a traffic jam? It almost requires therapy.
Sit inside a Rover and the going gets strong. The 1989 arrival of the Rover 200 made any thoughts of the SD1‘s slide and stick build quality vanish rather quickly. The sensible 200 is no Audi, but its finish is exceptionally well crafted. That must be one of the reasons why old people like Rovers so much, they remind them of their lounge set.
Popular:
The 200 was a massive seller for Rover. With the company closing its curtains in 2005, some of us have already forgotten just what good stuff they were made of. The gallant 200 revitalised Rover more than any other car they had produced in the past twenty years. In retrospect it was nothing more than a reprieve, but it did keep the incontinent moving for a few years and – for anybody out there with ancient relatives – that was a bloody big help.
The coupe 200 looked very sexy indeed. It was a flatter, meaner Vauxhall Calibra and sold new (along with the cabriolet) for a good couple of years after 200 saloon production finished. Word is that the coupe’s performance was a touch ropey because the chassis was not quite up to the job of the engine’s grunt. Though it always seemed to pull out of the petrol station with a screech whenever we saw one – so many moons ago. The definitive mark of a quality car.
There Must Be a Future:
You can find Rovers as cheap as Panda pop nowadays (just scour eBay for five minutes). Obviously recent news has caused dealers to stick them out on the forecourt with free flowers and a lifetime’s subscription to Saga. Fools.
For much less than a £800 you can find a dependable, well cared-for Rover 200. About another £700 will buy you a solid coupe or even the still desirable cabriolet, if you look in winter. Much smarter however to stick with a four-door 1.4 and save enough to buy a very big hat so nobody sees you driving it. Because, make no mistake, while a Rover 200 is the future of car boot sales on a Sunday morning, nobody anywhere will ever believe they are cool.
[story by Chris Laverty]
Rog says
Factual but only to the point of calling it a Mark 1, it was in fact the mark 2. The feature misses the first Rover 200 range introduced in 1984 and replaced in 1989 by this model codenamed R8, previously AR8 before the company name was changed from Austin Rover to just Rover. Then in 1996 the Mark 3 version arrived (R3 commonly referred to as the Bubble 200) which was faclifted into the Rover 25 in 1999 and spawned the MG ZR in 2001.
The Rover brand generates a number of preconceptions and throw away comments, but the reality is that there is a much greater depth behind the badge and the individual models for those who care to look. Whether it makes any difference to the individuals perceptions of the brand or models is another thing but many critical comments are made not from direct experience, but from comments of others. But then what’s new about this many different things suffer this!!!
The Doctor says
You’re a fool. What you think is a mark 1 is actually a Mark 2.
My Rover 25 would kick your cars arse, and hard.