Description
This Royal Blue Rover 75 Club SE has a Sandstone Beige cloth / Ash Grey interior. It was the 161st Rover 75 2. 5V6 Club SE A to be made out of a total of 708. It came off the production line on Tuesday 1st May, 2001 at 10h10am.
The Club SE is something of a Cinderella model – and is potentially the more interesting Rover 75 by dint of its rarity. It is also an early Longbridge model built in the “sweet spot” of Rover 75 manufacture before the “project drive” changes cheapened the cars from mid 2003 onwards. One example is that it has the real wood veneered dash – deleted on models from the third quarter of 2002.
As the vast majority of customers at the time wanted the Connoisseur model with leather interior and all the bells and whistles, this mid-range Club SE, BP51FZA – despite its (comfier) cloth seats - remained on the showroom floor, a tad unloved until it was bought by its first owner, Mr F on 24th December 2001 for £16733. 85 including Diamond Bright Paint Protection. This was a significant discount on its published price of £23515.
Over the next 18 years, the car was treasured by Mr F and covered only 43, 000 miles in regular use. He cared for it extremely well and had it looked after and maintained annually – a file of the annual receipts attests to this.
I purchased it on 31st December 2019 at 43000 miles and have continued the maintenance and updating of the service handbook. The mileage today is only 48, 200. This may very well be the lowest mileage Club SE in existence. The other point worth mentioning is that because everyone wanted the Connoisseur model, so few Club Se models were manufactured that they are now extremely rare.
After purchasing the car, I got in touch with Mr F, the first owner by post – who replied to me in some detail about the car – and his correspondence confirmed that it was his “best car ever” ! This information will accompany the car as part of its rich provenance.
It has a FULL documented no expense spared service history; the Rover service booklet has had to have extra servicing pages inserted to contain the detailed history.
This Rover 75 Club SE has always been garaged, used sparely but regularly in dry weather and this can be seen via the excellent MOT history. Please do take time to investigate the BP51FZA MOT history on - details above
I complete around 1, 000 miles annually and each summer I do a couple of long motorway trips of around 400 miles return.
A car is only original once – and this is an original. It has never had any welding or repairs of this nature. Everything works as it should – and there’s not a rattle or a squeak. It still smells new as it has never been smoked in.
It drives as if it were only a few years old – it’s simply magnificent and must be the one of the best and lowest mileage Club SE’s in the perfect colour scheme.
It would suit a collector – looking for a beautiful car that enjoys being driven; the creamy smooth V6 is an utter delight – with the switchable automatic gearbox able to assist it to an excellent burst of power when required. This car feels like a “mini-Bentley”. The extremely comfortable sandstone cloth leather seats and the real wooden veneer on the dashboard add to the sense of occasion.
The car will come with two files of documentation in date order from its SMC Rover sales invoice to Mr F in 2001 to its most recent full ‘C’ service at 44803 miles. In my ownership it has had the full cambelt replacement procedure at a (formerly) Rover dealership. Two sets of keys accompany the car.
Features:
Rover Radio/ cassette player, Cruise Control, climate control with ice cold air-conditioning, power steering, switchable sport and economy mode gearbox,
This is for a Rover 75 enthusiast. At the time of the launch of the Rover 75, I was given a Rover 75 Club SE to road test – as I was thinking of purchasing one in 1999. In the end, I bought a BMW roadster instead – but always admired the Rover 75 Club SE – and decided I had to have one. After a long and exhaustive search over many years, I finally located this one-owner , fully documented, low mileage Club SE (not Connoisseur) with its extremely comfortable (and preferable to me) cloth upholstery.
