Motoring
Roving eye
Alan Judd
Those who know about case studies are rightly wary of submitting themselves. Nev- ertheless, my friend the biographer conced- ed that his car at least might have nothing to hide and that its costs and characteris- tics, five years on, might interest owners who are not themselves followers of auto- motive fashion, (i.e. most of us). He also has a message for Rover and its new pro- prietors.
He bought his new Rover 214 SLi in Jan- uary 1990 for £10,400, since when it has done 39,000 regularly serviced miles. Park- er's Guide puts its trade price at about £3,270 but his local Rover garage offered more, depending on what he bought in part exchange. Sold privately, it might make something nearer £4,000. Running costs, excluding depreciation but including tax and insurance, have worked out at about £1,450 per annum: £350 on petrol, £300 on servicing and about £100 on things that crop up. It returns 42-44 m.p.g. at a steady 75 and 3,500 revs, tyres were changed at 35,000 and it has had one new silencer.
The excellent K series engine has never missed a beat but the car broke down once because a faulty alternator flattened the battery at two in the morning, in the rain, somewhere in Suffolk. The AA were prompt but there was a moment of near- despair (for the biographer) when the jump-leads locked and alarmed the car with the keys inside. Fortunately, it took all of 30 seconds for the patrolman to demon- strate the black art of manipulation with a hacksaw blade. Tamper-proof locks are not always a benfit.
Other faults have had nothing to do with the car but all to do with garaging and ser- vicing: a wrongly fitted tyre, a faulty horn unfixed, an ill-fitted new windscreen and the Piranha alarm system which, until par- tially disconnected, thought its task was to warn against low-flying aircraft. There is a chronic creak from the region of the near- side door pillar which he's stopped asking the garage to locate because he's got so used to it that it's comforting. His one design criticism is that the lip of the bonnet (it is a pre-grille model) displays a conspic- uous appetite for stone-chips.
The coded radio-cassette is basic and, like the rest of the car, doesn't seem to attract the passing trade of London streets. He chose hand-operated windows and sun- roof partly because there's less to go wrong and partly because he finds it no trouble indeed, a pleasure — to wind things. One luxury that has become a friend, however, is the illuminated ignition socket, while central locking has proved so insidious that he now takes it for granted.
A selling point was the burr-walnut dash (what does burr mean in this context and how much of it is walnut?) but the door- trims seem subtly different. The biographer suspects they may be plastic but no Rover dealer has yet been able to answer. Seating is good, firmer than in the sister Honda model, and the hatchback and dividing rear seat make for surprising capacity. My friend once got away with a young weeping willow in the back and on another occasion 320 books plus the old Olivetti.
It was the first British car he'd bought, having previously run a French and Italian stable, and it was a 'shirtsleeve decision': the test drive was easily arranged, the ride solid and superior and the good feeling of the first 60 seconds has lasted five years. It has proved his most reliable vehicle and he especially likes its sense of quiet, long dis- tance determination and its 'stoic and com- fortable anonymity'.
It is also the first car he hasn't named. The relationship is different: more materi- al, more adult, more solid friendship with none of the emotional engagement of earli- er exotica.
Would he buy another Rover? Well, he's not sure about BMW ownership since for him, as perhaps for many others, part of the reason for buying Rover was its British- ness, and he wonders whether the compa- ny's reported 13 per cent drop in sales has anything to do with foreign ownership. Nevertheless, his answer is a provisional yes: he would buy another Rover provided the new management ensure that their dealer network is as good as their product. Too much of the servicing — and service has been slack, with custom taken for granted, in contrast particularly with rival Honda dealerships. Biographers are patient, watchful creatures, and this one is waiting to see.
Previous page
