Featured in FLEET NEWS May 22nd 2003
The 75 is an extremely under-rated car. It might be a little too retro and too placid a drive for some tastes, but most who have a 75 grow to love its calm assurance. BMW's influence in the top notch construction is obvious. Never has a Rover been so well screwed together. New diesels offer more power. Fleet News Choice: 2.0 CDTi Club SE.

(as featured in May/June 1999 edition of RoverTorque Magazine)
The New 75 - What's it really like?
Lets start this article off with a price tag of £30,000 for the all new Rover 75 Connoiseur. To a lot of people that is their mortgage and they will never be able to afford such a vehicle, unless they win the lottery. So, you pay a lot of money for the car, do you get a lot of car for the money? The answer has to be an emphatic YES!

Years ago, the larger Rover cars were known as the 'Aunty' car. Reliable, Sturdy, Comfortable & Capable without being blaze'. They were the sort of car that was aimed at bank managers & solicitors etc. Then we went through the days of BL & somehow the company seemed to lose its way. But now, Aunty is back....big style. Aimed at a younger bank manager or solicitor. So, sit back, take a deep breath and for a short time, at least, wallow in burr walnut, air conditioning & satellite navigation.............This is the Rover 75.

The first thing that hits you about the new Rover 75 is retro-styling. Chrome is everywhere. Along the waistline, including the door handles, along the sills, chrome door mirrors & even a little oval badge on the lower edge of the front doors, declaring the engine size....very retro! It doesn't stop outside either. Inside, we have the latest fad, white dials, piped seat trim, more chrome & so much burr walnut it oozes from everywhere. Rear passengers not only get their own air vents, but drinks holders fitted in the centre rear seat squab.

With a top of the range model, you will get:- Air con., P.A.S, Electric windows all round, Electric rear sun visor, Electric sun roof, central locking, Electrically operated & heated front seats & a navigation system which turns into a T.V. when the car is stationary & the handbrake applied.

The seats are a little like your favourite chair back home, you just don't want to get out. And that smell of leather is everywhere (kinky). To say the car is quiet would be an understatement. You have to look at the rev counter, just to make sure the car is ticking over. This can make it difficult to know just when to change gear if you are in a manual version. Talking of gears, the automatic box comes with 5 gears as well as the manual. Safety hasn't been forgotten either, with driver & front passenger air bags, front seat mounted side airbags & door side intrusion beams.

Generally, I feel that Rover have a winner. Some of the inner chrome trim doesn't fit as well as it should, but that is the only niggle I could find. At first, I thought the car was being slow to respond, then realised that due to its quiet nature, what I thought was about 50 mph was in actual fact 80 mph & I had to slow down & not drive it so hard.I could quite happily live with a car that is well designed, well built, drives beautifully & oozes class.

But don't just take my word for it, here is the opinion of club member Dave Palmer who attended the launch & test drove the new Rover 75
Steve Wright

Following the purchase of my 600 some 22 months earlier, I have kept in touch with the garage. I guess this went some way to securing my invite to the launch of the Rover 75 on 17th June. I accepted & went along.

I arrived & was quite surprised to see that the majority of guests were into the 'autumn years'. At 40, I was one of the youngest. Now retro styling is one thing, but with all this cutting edge technology, I was a bit surprised that the dealership, if not Rover, seemed to be aiming the car at 'retro' customers. That won't help the 'old man' image we are trying to lose with the modern 200, 400 & 600 models.

As we assembled, it became clear that there was a schedule & the timing somewhat critical. As the time approached, we were all ushered, very quickly into some theatre style seating, to watch TV? It turned out that there was to be a simultaneous nation-wide launch 'managed' by a central televised event in London. What followed was quite boring as my mind wandered, I just wanted to see what was beneath the blue sheets.

Then the order came from London. "Do it now!"
The blue dust sheet was removed from the 1.8 ltr Club at the same time as a 2.0 ltr diesel & 2.5 ltr V6 were driven from opposite ends. "Dig in Ladies & Gentlemen" said the sales manager. To what?, food & drink, or the cars. I chose the cars.

Why do we always make a beeline for the top model? Everyone else did, so I started on the 1.8 ltr Club, & yes I liked it! There was one let down, this one had the cloth trim. Absolutely no pets, children, keys or combs in back pockets, & no studded denims in this car. To do so would be to destroy the interior in one journey. The material is just not man enough for the job. An opinion echoed by more than one.


On to the Connoisseur. This car has everything. The leather seats are much better than the fabric, comfortable & not slippery. Unfortunately, it suffers from the same large wheel arch, high stance of the entire range. 17" rims are an option. No other criticisms at all except that for authenticity, the word 'SMITHS' was missing from the speedo & rev counter, oh, and the clock doesn't tick. Remember them?


No time for the diesel, personally, I'm not into diesel. Suffice to say, same body work & interior, but this time, powered by the more than able, renowned, powerful & reliable BMW engine.
I chatted to the Sales manager. "Any other models on the horizon?" "Not at this time." He replied. "Any sports model?" "Probably never!" came the reply "A sports model would be treading on the toes of BMW" "SIGH" But hang on, this retro lark, are we going to see a 3.5 ltr V8 from the past? Lets hope so!

I booked a test drive for 8.00am Saturday morning (first available). I got there at 7.55am. 5 minutes to spare, I thought, wrong. No sign of anyone. The Sales manager arrived at 8.40am. "Sorry, they should have booked for 9.00am." I then had to wait for a member of staff (John) to arrive to 'escort' me on my test drive.

A quick guide around the 'cockpit', concentrating more on getting the car started rather than the navigation system. This particular car was an automatic. I quickly found my feet down the first mile of dual carriage way, having time to notice how efficient the air-con was & how many heads the car turned, (honest).

Right at the next island, into country roads. No one about, so foot down, no objections from John, eighty miles an hour effortlessly & very quickly, but without any real sensation of speed (as Steve said earlier). Now onto much smaller roads & corners! Considerate of the wildlife, we took things more steadily. Those corner things came up to quickly, but the Conoisseur just ate them in its path. There was minimum body roll & quite responsive handling. I found the kick-down a little too delayed around corners & chose to change gear manually.

The car behaved itself admirably, be it driven with a purpose or as one would on a Sunday. But this was Saturday! (God, I'm beginning to sound like Clarkson). Back up to the by-pass roundabout. Here I have to level a criticism that rather concerned me. Despite a 2.5 ltr engine with 177 ps under the bonnet, from a standing start it is very, very, very slow off the mark. I wasn't after leaving rubber, merely to take my place at the roundabout without incident. On this occasion, I was treated to a good look at the hind quaters of a Renault 19 that set off at the same time as me. At the next roundabout, and with John's permission, the gearbox in sport mode & drive selected, we set off smartly, this time keeping pace with a Ford Escort. With most of the roundabouts in our area being small but tall. it's important that if you do have to stop, & the view to the right is blind, that you can get away safely. John tended to agree.

Back to the garage. Towards the parking lot, correctly positioned to reverse, when suddenly, where is it? I had to double take the fact that my parking space had disappeared from view. The rear window is very high, thank goodness for side view mirrors, these will be used a lot for reversing, I think. The car parked, engine off. I tinkered with radio buttons whilst John fired questions at me. I expected one to be "did you want to place an order" but he didn't ask me. Test drive over & we exchanged thanks.

What more can I say? I like it, a lot! A thoroughly enjoyable experience.
Dave Palmer

SPECIFICATION....ROVER 75....At a glance.
Specification level Choices:
CLASSIC - (plain velour interior).
CLUB - (speckle velour interior/15" 8 spoke contour alloys).
CONNOISEUR - (leather interior/15" multi-spoke alloys/chrome door mirrors).
Engine Choices:
1.8 ltr 16V (121mph, 0-60=10.9 sec, 36.1 mpg, 120Ps(EC)@5500rpm).
2.0 ltr CDT d iesel (120mph, 0-60=11 sec, 50 mpg, 116Ps(EC)@4000rpm).
2.0 ltr V6 (130mph, 0-60=9.6 sec, 30.1 mpg, 150Ps(EC)@6500rpm).
2.5 ltr V6 (137mph, 0-60=8.2 sec, 29.2 mpg, 177Ps(EC)@6500rpm).
Transmission Choice:
5 Speed Manual
5 Speed Automatic with normal/sport/winter selection.
Dimensions:
1.43 Metres high x 4.75 Metres long x 1.97 Metres wide.(1.78 Metres wide excluding door mirrors). Designing Your Own Rover 75:
The new Rover 75 gives the owner a choice of selecting their own engine size, manual or automatic gearbox, specification level plus a choice of 17 exterior colours.

Our thanks go to ALL ELECTRIC Garages Group PLC, who loaned steve the car he tested.
ALL ELECTRIC Garages Group PLC are official sponsors of The Rover Owners Club.
They can be contacted on 0121 585 6003
Remember to mention the club when you call.

And finally, a picture of the diesel engine used in the 75.