Description
Well - sooner than expected up for sale is my Rover 600. She has to go because I've now got a tediously long commute and need something a little more practical.
She's a very early 1993 car, in absolutely boggo spec; no air con, no sunroof, velour rather than leather and even very little wood - they are getting quite rare now and I think actually looks cooler than the high specced roverised versions. She has later Ti spec alloys.
Good bits
Sills welded by a previous owner and looking very solid. There are no rust bubbles coming through which must be fairly rare for one of these.
Engine is very strong indeed. Starting almost instantly and settling to idle quickly. She has a partial stainless exhaust, which whilst loud when you want it doesn't drone and looks remarkably period. This combined with a cold air intake means she sounds rather addictive, especially when being wound up toward the redline after she's been warmed up. In fact, I wouldn't be surprised if it isn't the original engine, it feels that good. The old line of "it feels like half the mileage" is a cliché, but it applies here.
Clutch and gearbox are strong- can be a little bit stiff occasionally going into first but nothing out of the ordinary, and only when very cold.
Interior is mostly very clean and complete apart from the headliner (which I'll mention below)
The not so good
The bodywork whilst it polishes up nicely when clean is actually pretty rough. There are various stone chips, scratches and dents and the replacement bonnet has been badly resprayed with some white coming through (but touch up paint will fix this I suspect). However she's normally covered in dust and muck because she gets, you know, driven!
The headlining is stapled up and a bit mucky - it ideally needs replacing but the value of the car combined with what it is means this hasn't been done by either me or the previous owners.
I don't have the original radio, but rather a aftermarket halfords special. I actually prefer this as I can connect my phone but it's not for everyone. The speakers are alright.
She had a chronic overheating problem when I got a hold of it - fine when driving but not in traffic. This was originally though to be the cooling fans not kicking in and was traced to a diode buried somewhere deep in the bulkhead. Rather than take the entire dashboard apart to find it, there's an almost period looking rocker switch in the centre console that allows manual control of the fans. This, and having flushed the radiator and various other bits she now runs cool. However I think this is a weak point on this particular car so one to be aware of.
She is on Polybrushes so crunches a bit over some bumps but handles a bit better than stock.
So - there you are. Retro, a bit scruffy but with a strong heart and MOT till 2026. She's really quite good fun and I'll be sorry to see her go.
Am open to swaps or PX; think old Volvo estate, silly big french things, SC430 etc etc. Cash either way but I doubt anything is around cheaper than this that * works*!
Offers invited. Come for a brew and a view - I'm not into messing people about with cars and will always try to be as honest as possible.
