[Ravinder_Tomcat220T]

was ur misses pleased with the maestro ? i mean... its not exactly a sexy girly car is it haha. and not bad going that ravinder... what was ur insurance like at 19 on a coupe... and now on a turbo at 21 ur either loaded or telling porkys haha

Not porkys! My insurance at 19 on the vvc was £1500 3rd party f&t then went down to like £1000 the following year. I still have it and its around 800 3rd party and the turbo at 21 with 2 years no claim was £780. Renewal is next week so have an extra years no claims so should be around £600ish. So all is good!

[whiskeyonesix]

Right. Ancient at 33yrs old here My first car was actually a Volvo 740, followed by a Granada 4x4 (stupidly fun ), then a Sierra, finally ending up with my Rover - so I appear to be regressing somewhat. You can bet by the time i`m 50 i`ll have a corsa Gsi or something!

[Tim_Burgess]

By the standards of this forum I'm an old git!!!

I was 29 when I got my new H reg 416GSi company car. I'm 45 now and I've been through

Montego 2.0 SLXi Estate, Mk2 820Si Fastback, 416 K Series Tourer, 214 SEi, Very late KV6 Sterling Coupe with lots of Moto-Build bits, 75 CDT (Chipped to CDTi). Currently running 75 1.8 as daily drive and 1.6 K Series Tomcat with a few Moto-Build bits for weekend fun. Oh, and SWMBO runs an MGF

[Gibbo214]

*laughs*.. is the 75 a 1.8 turbo? does anyone know anything of maybe fitting a 1.8 k series turbo into an r8 ?

[Tim_Burgess]

*laughs*.. is the 75 a 1.8 turbo? does anyone know anything of maybe fitting a 1.8 k series turbo into an r8 ?

No, it's a Y reg so normally aspirated 1.8.

Toyed with the idea of changing the engine in the tomcat for a 1.8T but I seiously doubt if there is room for the turbo between engine & rad. Also think it would require an ECU change.

Anyone had any experience of 1.8T engine - aren't they even more likely to suffer HGF than the standard unit?

[anton]

25 going on 26 but i only passed in 2005 and of course the first car was a 1.0l a series metro followed closely by a 91 gti special i had a mk 5 escort cabriolet somewhere inbetween but now im in the 214 bubble. but the picture everyone seems to paint is that rovers are just for old gits, however ive seen much proof to the contrary over the last few years

[eat more curry]

Good question Gibbo
Though I can only think that you may be drooling over the cars other members can afford to insure.
Thanks Gibbo

[Gibbo214]

huh like what?

[Smithy]

I am 27 now, but I have been mad about Rovers/Austins/MG since I got my first car at 21.

Since 21 I have had a Police Maestro which I stll have, now under restoration to its former glory. It was an excellent car, the car that wouldn't die. It has been written off twice (not by me, by previous owners - hence how it was passed on to me in the first place), and blown its engine up. It still surives though, and now has a low mileage mint engine in it.

We have a habit of naming cars in our house to the rainbow theme.

So this is George about 4 years ago now,



This is how George is planned to look when he is finished. It is a car of the same age and in the same livery that George would have had. The holes for the light boxes match up to the filled holes in the car.



I have also owned this Maestro Vanden Plas which was seriously mint. Only problem was it was too mint so I was scared to take it out except to shows. Hence it sat in the garage most of the time and I thought it is no point insuring, taxing and moting a car which you hardly use.



So I sold the car on with the aim of getting a 220 GTi Turbo as a replacement. I initially wanted a J plate preferably in black. However I spent 10 months on actually trying to find one for sale at all Mine was the first one I found and pearlescent carribean blue does look nice.

Our everyday car till a few months before we got the 220 was this a Rover 214SLi which was a fantastic car. We did over 60,000 miles in the car and iI really enjoyed driving it.

[Paul_1978_yorks]

I'm 29 and currently drive a silver 214 SEi. The wife has a nightfire red SEi which I drive quite often too!

I passed my test when I was 18 and my first car was a Mk2 Fiesta, and I've had Mk3 and Mk4 Fiestas.

I first started driving Austins or Rovers in 2001 - a 1989 G-reg Austin Metro City X. The "X" basically meant it had a rear wash/wipe!

My first Rover was a green SEi (M-reg) which I bought in 2002 and owned til 2005. I had a lot of coolant trouble with this - head gasket, inlet manifold gasket etc. Seem to be in the garage every few months for something doing.

I then decided to sell it in 2005 and bought new Rover 45 GSi - full leather interior, air conditioning, the full works. I enjoyed the car for 10 days - then on my way to work one morning, and with only 600 miles on the clock, someone crashed into the back of me.
From then on, I went off it - I just didn't have the same passion for it any more. People said "you've driven bangers since you started driving - you get a new car and someone crashes into you!"

The wife ended up selling her Rover 25 and she took over the 45. I then bought a silver SEi with only 27k on the clock from eBay in the summer of 2005. I still own and use this on a daily basis although it has now got 56k on the clock.

As for the Rover 45, someone keyed it when we has a weekend away in Ludlow, and during last winter, we had gale force winds and a ridge tile blew off the roof of the house and landed in the middle of the car roof. The car is jinxed!
So after a new roof panel was fitted we decided to sell it after 20 months of ownership. Good riddance!

We bought another low mileage SEi (nightfire red) again from eBay - we travelled a long way for it (Cannock in Staffs) but is was worth it.

So me and the wife now have "his 'n' hers" SEi's and they're great little cars really. I can't imagine driving anything other than Rovers. I know they don't make 'em any more but old cars are much cheaper to run than new cars. I fancy an SD1 at some point in the future - we shall see!