I own one too. It's a 75 Tourer in British Racing Green built in 2001. I bought it used with only 32000 original kilometers (19 883 original miles). It's simply the best car I've ever driven. Extremly luxurious, great looks and simply a joy to drive. The 75 Saloon is a rare car these days but the Tourer is even rarer (at least in Germany they are). Everytime I park the car somewhere or just drive it through the city, it gathers thousands of looks by almost everybody walking by. I've driven quite alot of cars and the 75 is hands down the best one, followed by my dad's Jaguar S-Type which is an amazing car as well. If you consider buying a 75, go for one. You will not be disappointed unless you don't like the fact of people looking at your car all the time. ;-)
You'd be surprised to hear, in the UK as an 18 year old, not only are they dirt cheap if you get a pre-facelift one(I prefer those anyway) they are very cheap in terms of insurance for any other car in its class.As I always have to explain to people when they see a 15 year old Rover, I drive it because its the cheapest all round car( albeit except the 45 which is cheaper still), which is true, but I've always really had it because next to an A4 or a 3 series, it looks very refined, and not like some car you buy for the badge, only concern is the head gasket going as it's the 1.8 not the more expensive diesels, or the rarer V6s.
Mine went last year and it's definitely not the end of the world. Make sure to always check for water and oil at least once every week. If it does go (which will happen one day or the other), take it to someone, who is an experienced mechanic and knows these cars. There are quite a lot of things you can do wrong when changing a head gasket on these K-Series engines but since you're in the UK, finding someone with a lot of experience in these cars shouldn't be very difficult. Also, make sure that you DO NOT use the exact same Rover gasket again, as they will fail again shortly after. Use the replacement one made by "Payen" (Payen BW 750 K-Series), which consists of two layers of massive steel. I'm using one of these now and the car has been absolutely faultless and except for the head gasket failure, I've had no problems with it whatsoever and I continue to enjoy it everyday. Cheers!
It's not fake wood. In that year the dashboard was real wood veneer. Later models, with the word "AIRBAG" on a badge (rather than printed) have fake wood.
I also have a 75 Tourer with the KV6 as well as my Coupe. It's an absolute joy to drive, so smooth. So much better than the BMW equivalent of that year :)
@austinrover2005 it's about driving dynamics, and rwd is better, ask anyone who knows anything about basic physics and automobiles. If the 75 was so great Rover would still be going, but any serious car of that size is rwd or awd. I've driven a few hundred miles in a mg-zt, and owned a couple of e46's and the e46 is better in every way as a drivers car. If the BMW is so bland why did it sell far more the old man targeted/inspired Rover 75(?) and why did Rover, not BMW go out of business?
@austinrover2005 I did my history dissertation on the collapse of BL. BMW actually invested more money in rover (trying to ape vw's success with skoda) than the Heath/Callagham/Thatcher govs did, and bankrolled the 75. Not my fault it was styled to appeal to pensioners. Perhaps if they had gone for a contemporary look it'd have sold more. My remapped 330d was almost the same bhp (246) and had over 400ft lbs of torque and did 50mpg so I don't think that even the supposedly 'hot' mg was much cop. People also didn't buy rovers because of the fragility of the K series engine, who wants head gasket failure at 60k?! It would be nice if the rover group survived, but in the end it was making old Honda's (25&45) and had its head in the past. I drive an xe now, I have nothing against British cars that are decent. By tge way, those businessmen gave themselves huge salaries and wasted a ton of money on touring cars and the xpower mg. After a government investigation (wanted by former Longbridge employees) at least one of them (possibly more)isn't allowed to be a company director.
I had a 75 as a hire car at he time for a week or so....lovely comfortable seats and dash. Good to drive and it had the old charm and heritage of the P5. They should bring an updated version back out, whoever owns the brand now. Such a pity.
TATA Motors own the car brand right now with no plans to bring the brand back but probably because SAIC motor of China owns the MG Badge and wanted to buy the rover nameplate but when TATA motors refused to sell they created the ROEWE 750 which is just a rebadged Rover 75/MG ZT that was only sold in China.
The Rover 75 Tourer Estate was a great car, which added more practicality and useful space, over the standard saloon. The only problem with it, was the limiting rear legroom for taller rear passengers of six foot height and stature criticised by many car reviewers and car magazines. Rover did answer this by bringing out a longer wheelbase Rover 75 Tourer Estate Limousine version and a longer wheelbase Rover 75 Saloon Limousine version - these had a much longer wheelbase than the standard saloon / tourer estate versions, giving more rear legroom to rear passengers but not many people bought them, making them harder to come by, but it's good if you can get one though.
Not that it matters now but that year of the 75 didn't have a fake walnut dash it's deffinatly real walnut. Owned one for a few years, check any owners club and they would say the same. Great car sadly hurt by undeserved image.
The image was generated by the British media that actually hates all thing British and loves all things European yet none of them actually live in Europe.
Rover died because too many middle-class people now are tacky and image conscious. Have you noticed? - the age of British reticence is pretty much dead!....
Hmmmm, seems she hasn't done her homework,,,,,, this car and all r75 models had real walnut wood dashes up to 'project drive' in 2002. 'Fake' review me thinks!
Yes Rover 75 dashboards were real wood until the 3rd of December 2000 then they did go to plastic but it's the best looking plastic wood you will ever see, not like a Honda v6 Luxury where the plastic wood is obvious!
Steve Goddard Sadly, It was the cherry picked, asset stripped by BMW remnants which were allowed to fall into receivership which were shut down Steve. Then then Government turned its back on those asset stripped remains which were after all, then a private company. Meantime, those huge assets retained by the Bavarian owners are all doing rather well as are the assets BMW sold off, JLR (Jaguar Land Rover ). Some will tell you its beneficial to have so much of our infrastructure, property, national assets, energy supply, manufacturing, commercial interests you name it in Foreign Control and ownership. I disagree. The passing of time will show if in the longer term, it will be beneficial as those we entrust to our Nation's well being assure us it is the case. Longer term interests, who needs it. Sell off, asset strip and run. It's one one the things we as a Nation do rather well at. Unlike the French, Germans and all who will be sorry they hang onto and invested sensibly in theirs with the longer term in mind, particularly the Germans who are laughing all the way to their banks for years now with their massive trading surplus. I have never driven a Rover 75, but I have two examples of the sportier version, the MG ZT. Fine cars although quite ordinary, like most production cars ... unexceptional and ordinary. Despite that, when giving a lift to a Porsche Boxster driving friendly neighbour in one of my ZTs, he was visibly impressed. He'd never visited an MG and Rover showroom when these fine cars were available new let alone put one on his shopping list when the time came to by a new car. I wonder why... no I dont, I know why. My always buy German friend is not the only one impressed by these cars they have previously dismissed for what ever reason when I gave them a lift.... not by a long chalk.
+SANDSCORCHER Too right .... If you have a 260 .. Lucky you... :thumbup: . An appreciating asset as are many tidy well maintained "lesser" spec. 75s and ZTs now. Not by much yet but, nice to dive something which is NOT depreciating. quite the opposite in fact. Nice examples can still be picked up for relatively little outlay as the "Arthur Daley" used car dealers of this world no longer see them as nice little earners. Sadly, part exchanges taken in by them often meet a premature end in breaker yards even though they could provide many more reliable miles. Prices have reached rock bottom because of that ~ like many other ordinary production cars of similar age even those so called "premium" brands like VAG in a word... ;) Clarkson, who can rarely ever be accused of giving any Rover or MG a good word, quite the opposite, when reviewing the MG ZT 260 V8 just had to add his poison by mentioning that 260 was a poor output from such a relatively large capacity V8. Like so many fake Motoring Journalist know-nowts, the advantages of a hugely understressed V8 completely lost on the likes of him and those in their cushioned against reality world.. Never mind the quality, feel the width of this genuine fake walnut ... :) Yow couldn't mek it up ~ that best read with a Clarkson "fake" poor imitation mocking black country accent. Still what do I know, never had what few remaining grey matter cells I possess washed in heavy oil .. ( That's Diesel or as Clarkson has on at least one occasion mentioned .... DEVIL'S Fuel .... :) The boys from the black stuff have been found out. How about that and those plumes of black stuff issuing I see from diesel tailpipes when their drivers floor it for many years are now considered harmful ... according to some now who previously would have you believe was not the case. I did not make that up either. Back on topic... an MG ZT V8 260 in Trophy Blue was advertised in the local paper @ £6999 a couple of years ago. Less than a mile from me. I dived down there straightaway only to be disappointed... SOLD ... the dealer also told me the phone had not stopped ringing since the ad. came out and he wished he had ten to sell... As someone once said ...correction wrote and sang:~ Don't it always seem to go ...That you don't know what you've lost til it's gone.... A Big Trophy Yellow MG ZT 260 taxi .... All gone now .. forever. It's what us Brits do so very well ... get too many things quite simply .... wrong!
+Steve Goddard Part of the problem was Clarkson and co taking the pee out of the retro looks saying it was only for pensioners and so on. Then a year or so after the factory was forced into closure they go wild over the retro Mini, the retro Fiat 500 . . . This car was just a bit too far ahead of its time maybe? I'm thinking about buying one as an extra runabout because a BMW-engine leather-seated comfortable car for the price of an old Ford seems like a good deal to me and it's now or never if I want a reasonably low mileage one.
they went bust because they couldn't afford to develop a new car so when new cars were launched around 2005/2006 their sales collapsed and unsold cars were left in dealerships waiting to rust to death.
Indeed you are correct the wood is real as indicated by the earlier 'Airbag' script not the later 'Airbag' tag of late 2001+ cars. However it does feel like plastic to the touch.
i had a 75 what a pile of junk. nothing but problem after problem. best thing i did was scrap it. kv engine rubbish. and most say its ok with the bmw engine. how about the rest of the crap thats round the engine. poor sill covers that fall off. poor inner door handles that fall off. twin fuel pumps that are an arm and leg to replace. to replace a clutch you need to take out a morgage.poor quality sound system. rear coil springs that break and go through the tyre. no wonder rover went tits up.
The 75 Tourer in the video, Y415 TOL, is still very much alive and well.
I own one too. It's a 75 Tourer in British Racing Green built in 2001. I bought it used with only 32000 original kilometers (19 883 original miles). It's simply the best car I've ever driven. Extremly luxurious, great looks and simply a joy to drive. The 75 Saloon is a rare car these days but the Tourer is even rarer (at least in Germany they are). Everytime I park the car somewhere or just drive it through the city, it gathers thousands of looks by almost everybody walking by. I've driven quite alot of cars and the 75 is hands down the best one, followed by my dad's Jaguar S-Type which is an amazing car as well.
If you consider buying a 75, go for one. You will not be disappointed unless you don't like the fact of people looking at your car all the time. ;-)
You'd be surprised to hear, in the UK as an 18 year old, not only are they dirt cheap if you get a pre-facelift one(I prefer those anyway) they are very cheap in terms of insurance for any other car in its class.As I always have to explain to people when they see a 15 year old Rover, I drive it because its the cheapest all round car( albeit except the 45 which is cheaper still), which is true, but I've always really had it because next to an A4 or a 3 series, it looks very refined, and not like some car you buy for the badge, only concern is the head gasket going as it's the 1.8 not the more expensive diesels, or the rarer V6s.
Mine went last year and it's definitely not the end of the world. Make sure to always check for water and oil at least once every week. If it does go (which will happen one day or the other), take it to someone, who is an experienced mechanic and knows these cars. There are quite a lot of things you can do wrong when changing a head gasket on these K-Series engines but since you're in the UK, finding someone with a lot of experience in these cars shouldn't be very difficult. Also, make sure that you DO NOT use the exact same Rover gasket again, as they will fail again shortly after. Use the replacement one made by "Payen" (Payen BW 750 K-Series), which consists of two layers of massive steel. I'm using one of these now and the car has been absolutely faultless and except for the head gasket failure, I've had no problems with it whatsoever and I continue to enjoy it everyday.
Cheers!
4:10 I've got a simple test to see how much space there is in the back
It's not fake wood. In that year the dashboard was real wood veneer. Later models, with the word "AIRBAG" on a badge (rather than printed) have fake wood.
I also have a 75 Tourer with the KV6 as well as my Coupe. It's an absolute joy to drive, so smooth. So much better than the BMW equivalent of that year :)
MsBananasmel what?! A 3 series?! Are you on drugs?
No comparison between fwd and rwd 😂
@austinrover2005 it's about driving dynamics, and rwd is better, ask anyone who knows anything about basic physics and automobiles. If the 75 was so great Rover would still be going, but any serious car of that size is rwd or awd. I've driven a few hundred miles in a mg-zt, and owned a couple of e46's and the e46 is better in every way as a drivers car. If the BMW is so bland why did it sell far more the old man targeted/inspired Rover 75(?) and why did Rover, not BMW go out of business?
@austinrover2005 I did my history dissertation on the collapse of BL. BMW actually invested more money in rover (trying to ape vw's success with skoda) than the Heath/Callagham/Thatcher govs did, and bankrolled the 75. Not my fault it was styled to appeal to pensioners. Perhaps if they had gone for a contemporary look it'd have sold more. My remapped 330d was almost the same bhp (246) and had over 400ft lbs of torque and did 50mpg so I don't think that even the supposedly 'hot' mg was much cop. People also didn't buy rovers because of the fragility of the K series engine, who wants head gasket failure at 60k?! It would be nice if the rover group survived, but in the end it was making old Honda's (25&45) and had its head in the past. I drive an xe now, I have nothing against British cars that are decent. By tge way, those businessmen gave themselves huge salaries and wasted a ton of money on touring cars and the xpower mg. After a government investigation (wanted by former Longbridge employees) at least one of them (possibly more)isn't allowed to be a company director.
I had a 75 as a hire car at he time for a week or so....lovely comfortable seats and dash. Good to drive and it had the old charm and heritage of the P5.
They should bring an updated version back out, whoever owns the brand now.
Such a pity.
TATA Motors own the car brand right now with no plans to bring the brand back but probably because SAIC motor of China owns the MG Badge and wanted to buy the rover nameplate but when TATA motors refused to sell they created the ROEWE 750 which is just a rebadged Rover 75/MG ZT that was only sold in China.
The Rover 75 Tourer Estate was a great car, which added more practicality and useful space, over the standard saloon.
The only problem with it, was the limiting rear legroom for taller rear passengers of six foot height and stature criticised by many car reviewers and car magazines.
Rover did answer this by bringing out a longer wheelbase Rover 75 Tourer Estate Limousine version and a longer wheelbase Rover 75 Saloon Limousine version - these had a much longer wheelbase than the standard saloon / tourer estate versions, giving more rear legroom to rear passengers but not many people bought them, making them harder to come by, but it's good if you can get one though.
Not that it matters now but that year of the 75 didn't have a fake walnut dash it's deffinatly real walnut. Owned one for a few years, check any owners club and they would say the same. Great car sadly hurt by undeserved image.
The image was generated by the British media that actually hates all thing British and loves all things European yet none of them actually live in Europe.
It's speaks to how badly the marketing was sabotaged by BMW when not even the motoring journalists were told it was real wood.
my 2002 Tourer is still doing well at it's 480 000kms.
Rover died because too many middle-class people now are tacky and image conscious. Have you noticed? - the age of British reticence is pretty much dead!....
First thing I did. with my 114bhp Tourer was remap it to 160bhp. My GOD is it better. And fuel economy was unaffected. I love my 75s.
Hmmmm, seems she hasn't done her homework,,,,,, this car and all r75 models had real walnut wood dashes up to 'project drive' in 2002.
'Fake' review me thinks!
1:55 the airbag tag is in silver not a stick on badge. That means It's actually real walnut. What a no nothing
Len Ross it's wood it's not a great deal
It is a shame the presenter has not represented the car correctly, she pulls a face claiming the dash is plastic, when it is clearly real wood
Yes Rover 75 dashboards were real wood until the 3rd of December 2000 then they did go to plastic but it's the best looking plastic wood you will ever see, not like a Honda v6 Luxury where the plastic wood is obvious!
it's hardly a big deal it's wood
I have Y422 UOM (from the accessories brochure and allegedly the launch car and I'm sure it's real wood ?
michael tarpey no it aint real wood. its plastic.
Allan Armstrong er in the video, it's real wood,
ajo esse carro belo demais podiam continuar a fabricar
empresa faleçou em 2005
She's selling I'm buying 👍
They got Rover right and then shut it down Nobheads,
Steve Goddard Sadly, It was the cherry picked, asset stripped by BMW remnants which were allowed to fall into receivership which were shut down Steve. Then then Government turned its back on those asset stripped remains which were after all, then a private company. Meantime, those huge assets retained by the Bavarian owners are all doing rather well as are the assets BMW sold off, JLR (Jaguar Land Rover ). Some will tell you its beneficial to have so much of our infrastructure, property, national assets, energy supply, manufacturing, commercial interests you name it in Foreign Control and ownership. I disagree. The passing of time will show if in the longer term, it will be beneficial as those we entrust to our Nation's well being assure us it is the case. Longer term interests, who needs it. Sell off, asset strip and run. It's one one the things we as a Nation do rather well at. Unlike the French, Germans and all who will be sorry they hang onto and invested sensibly in theirs with the longer term in mind, particularly the Germans who are laughing all the way to their banks for years now with their massive trading surplus. I have never driven a Rover 75, but I have two examples of the sportier version, the MG ZT. Fine cars although quite ordinary, like most production cars ... unexceptional and ordinary. Despite that, when giving a lift to a Porsche Boxster driving friendly neighbour in one of my ZTs, he was visibly impressed. He'd never visited an MG and Rover showroom when these fine cars were available new let alone put one on his shopping list when the time came to by a new car. I wonder why... no I dont, I know why. My always buy German friend is not the only one impressed by these cars they have previously dismissed for what ever reason when I gave them a lift.... not by a long chalk.
+MG John The 260 doesn't feel ordinary John. :-)
+SANDSCORCHER Too right .... If you have a 260 .. Lucky you... :thumbup: . An appreciating asset as are many tidy well maintained "lesser" spec. 75s and ZTs now. Not by much yet but, nice to dive something which is NOT depreciating. quite the opposite in fact. Nice examples can still be picked up for relatively little outlay as the "Arthur Daley" used car dealers of this world no longer see them as nice little earners. Sadly, part exchanges taken in by them often meet a premature end in breaker yards even though they could provide many more reliable miles. Prices have reached rock bottom because of that ~ like many other ordinary production cars of similar age even those so called "premium" brands like VAG in a word... ;)
Clarkson, who can rarely ever be accused of giving any Rover or MG a good word, quite the opposite, when reviewing the MG ZT 260 V8 just had to add his poison by mentioning that 260 was a poor output from such a relatively large capacity V8. Like so many fake Motoring Journalist know-nowts, the advantages of a hugely understressed V8 completely lost on the likes of him and those in their cushioned against reality world..
Never mind the quality, feel the width of this genuine fake walnut ... :)
Yow couldn't mek it up ~ that best read with a Clarkson "fake" poor imitation mocking black country accent.
Still what do I know, never had what few remaining grey matter cells I possess washed in heavy oil .. ( That's Diesel or as Clarkson has on at least one occasion mentioned .... DEVIL'S Fuel .... :) The boys from the black stuff have been found out. How about that and those plumes of black stuff issuing I see from diesel tailpipes when their drivers floor it for many years are now considered harmful ... according to some now who previously would have you believe was not the case.
I did not make that up either.
Back on topic... an MG ZT V8 260 in Trophy Blue was advertised in the local paper @ £6999 a couple of years ago. Less than a mile from me. I dived down there straightaway only to be disappointed... SOLD ... the dealer also told me the phone had not stopped ringing since the ad. came out and he wished he had ten to sell...
As someone once said ...correction wrote and sang:~
Don't it always seem to go ...That you don't know what you've lost til it's gone....
A Big Trophy Yellow MG ZT 260 taxi .... All gone now .. forever. It's what us Brits do so very well ... get too many things quite simply .... wrong!
+Steve Goddard Part of the problem was Clarkson and co taking the pee out of the retro looks saying it was only for pensioners and so on. Then a year or so after the factory was forced into closure they go wild over the retro Mini, the retro Fiat 500 . . . This car was just a bit too far ahead of its time maybe? I'm thinking about buying one as an extra runabout because a BMW-engine leather-seated comfortable car for the price of an old Ford seems like a good deal to me and it's now or never if I want a reasonably low mileage one.
She's what she looks like tachy. Not like the Rover 75 at all.It's all class.
0:42 we know that the 75 saloon kept rover alive. so why then did rover go bust 4 years after this was recorded????
they went bust because they couldn't afford to develop a new car so when new cars were launched around 2005/2006 their sales collapsed and unsold cars were left in dealerships waiting to rust to death.
4:16 the crew that we use carry loads of gear LOL!!!!
ITS LIKE MY MUM REVIEWING A CAR
AND SHE DOES NOT KNOW ANYTHING ABOUT CARS
6 years later and you're still a knob.
cant wait for this fabulous new rover even though it has fake wood, it will probably be ok in other respects :-)
excellent car better than the poor BMW .
Fake wood in Rover 75 from 2001 and nice aluminium on MG? Speak after me: -Natural wood in Rover 75 and fake aluminium in MG ZT.
Sadly this car is now written off as of 2020.
Mmmmm nice, the cars ok too! :)
It looked like somebody tied Glenda to the tree lol.
Why are people being catty about the goddess that is Glenda McKay?
It definitely didn't use fake walnut. -_-
An object lesson in how not to run a car company. I would not employ a rover exec to sweep the footpath!
What a weird and awkward beginning that was😬
looked like she was tied to that tree for the first bit...
На тебе ездить бы, проверить мягкость, тягу, и ваше кайф.
The wood is NOT fake
Indeed you are correct the wood is real as indicated by the earlier 'Airbag' script not the later 'Airbag' tag of late 2001+ cars. However it does feel like plastic to the touch.
*She may be a bit of a slapper, but her eyes tell you she loves warm tea in her cup*
Watching a 40yr old jumping and trying to act like a cute 20yr old girl is really cringeworthy..
i had a 75 what a pile of junk. nothing but problem after problem. best thing i did was scrap it. kv engine rubbish. and most say its ok with the bmw engine. how about the rest of the crap thats round the engine. poor sill covers that fall off. poor inner door handles that fall off. twin fuel pumps that are an arm and leg to replace. to replace a clutch you need to take out a morgage.poor quality sound system. rear coil springs that break and go through the tyre. no wonder rover went tits up.
I own a 75 tourer with 89,000 miles, the best car hasn't let me down.
Never let me down. M.
Armstrong you have never had one
Must be your driving, never had a problem with mine, apart from ...
Looks like a hearse