2003 ROVER 75
The classy 75 was the star of the 1998 Motor Show and a link to MG Rover means that this particular car’s owner won’t be parting with it
‘I’m proud to say that I’ve only ever owned cars from BL or Austin Rover – my first was a Maxi – and I’ve had this lovely 75 for 15 years, now. I could see where things were heading with Rover back in 2004, so I decided I wanted the last one that I bought to be a bit special. MG Rover itself first registered this car in May 2003 and its keeper, Gordon Poynter, became the Commercial Director of Powertrain Limited, so there’s an interesting link to the company.
‘I was in the office on Christmas Eve 2004, trawling the internet, and came across it for sale at a dealer, SMC in High Wycombe. After a bit of thinking I knew that it was the car I wanted and a dealer friend helped source it for me for £12,500. That was a fraction of its eye-watering £31,565 new price.
‘Connoisseur SE trim already had plenty of kit, but they really went to town on the options, including sports seats and suspension, satellite navigation and television, plus 18-inch wheels. The Odyssey Blue paint is pretty unusual, too. ‘I gelled with it straight after the first drive in a way that I hadn’t with the Rover 820 it replaced. It became my daily-driver and has now covered 196,000 miles. I swapped to 16-inch wheels to improve the ride and although it proved very reliable after that, 2017 saw a few jobs needing doing.
‘The water pump was replaced twice, and the original clutch was renewed at 166k miles along with the slave cylinder. Unfortunately, the latter failed again just 22k miles later, which meant another gearbox removal, and I’ve also needed to replace the rear springs on three occasions along with a corroded rear suspension arm – that last item is a common issue although I’m not convinced that the quality of some replacement parts is as good as the originals.
‘Other issues have included a water leak from the windscreen and troublesome rear parking sensors, and I’ve disconnected the television because it just drains the battery. The handbrake is poor, too, but that seems a common problem.
‘Those things aside, though, overall reliability has been good and it’s just been case of keeping on top of regular maintenance. I’ve actually retired the 75 from