Older diesels will be much more reliable than modern ones - the emission requirements mean that a modern diesel engine is a very fancy piece of kit, and like all complex mechanical things, tends to go wrong, and is expensive to fix when it does. Your Rover presumably dates from 1999 or earlier, since Rover finished in 2006, so it's a Euro 3 engine at best. A modern Euro 5 engine has to emit 1/16 of the particulate matter and 1/3 of the hydrocarbons of a Euro 3.

 

so that makes modern better? i think not.

 

I don't think electron does either,re read his post.

 

as with any car some are better than others. i worked for mg rover in the 90s, the problems wernt the cars but the management. the 75 wasnt the easyest to work on but the bmw engine in the diesel was quite a good one, some did have butterfly valves in the inlet that desided they wanted to visit the pistons sometimes but overall were very relyable. the diesel in the 25 and the 45 were very relyable and i ran a 420 sdi for a couple of years with no issues, quite fast for its day and atleast you could adjust the wastegate to give a bit more punch. now working at ford and lets say the modern diesel engine does like to spend time in the workshop. love my jag but better still its a petrol.

 

I've touched on this subject before.
I tend to agree with ssc1 - I've only had the Jag a few weeks but I am leaning towards my old Rover as being a better overall motor.
By the way I cannot see the reasoning behind the assumption that the Rover must be pre 1999?? (Electron Shepherd)

 

I've owned a couple of 75's diesels and if I could have found a low mileage pre facelift one I would have bought a 3rd. Apart from a fuel pump, they were 100% reliable. Only had the x type a couple of weeks so can't comment on the reliability issue but would say the build quality is a good match and the 2.2d engine feels much more responsive than the 135bhp 75 I owned.
Still go a bit weak at the knees when I see an early 75 though!

 

I recently had a 53 plate MGZT 135+ CDTi Auto, sporty version of the Rover 75. Had it for about 18 months & apart from front suspension issues (top mounts, broken spring, drop links) it was a very comfortable reliable car & very nice to drive. I fancied a change & decided on a diesel Alfa 147 or a diesel X type, The alfa turned up first so I bought that.........3 months later the Alfa has gone & Im looking for the X type now!
The Alfa was good on fuel, quite nippy & nice to drive but it felt fragile & I just didnt trust it or get on with it, hence looking for a Jag. The MGZT was very nice & would still be tempted if another mint low milage one came along but Ive got my heart set on a Jag now..........hope I dont regret it.

 

It is coming up to 1 year of ownership of my X-Type and completed just over 10,000mls in it, all I can say is that it has been a super reliable car, Hasn't caused me any embarrassment, actually I do get looks from other X-Type owners as we pass by.
I had a Renault Laguna 2 for over 6 years and travelled 100,000mles in it and never once let me down at anytime. I was ridiculed for owning the Laguna by my family, laugh at by my friends for having such an unreliable car!!! I was told dozens of horror stories about friends of friends who had one and it was nothing but trouble blar blar blar, so I thought I would start calling their bluff with there stories and low and behold most of the horrors about their so called horror car turns out to be mainly brakes going, suspension going, steering going, turbos going. When I asked about these so called travesties 99% of the times the fault were brake pads/discs, ball joints, like general wear and tear on any make of car that is used. On the odd occasion there was the turbo suffering from 'wear' and broking coil springs, not the car manufacturers fault but the coil spring manufacturers that supply the car makers using cheap quality steel Most people get poisoned against certain models mainly because a friend of a friend's Ex wife girlsfriend young son had one and broke it! My view is( and this is my very own personal view) that a car's make and model is in the beholders eye and if they don't particularly buy the model there heart is set on and something small goes wrong with the car it is the worse car out and then it is compared to other makes which starts this compare war.
And my point is.....I wish my heating system in my X-Type was as good as the Laguna's heating system, don't get me wrong the Jags heater is good but gives an artificial heat whereas the Laguna gave comfort and warm feeling. Strange
Oh and one more thing every week I have to put diesel in my tank of my X-Type....Whats that all about!!!!!!!!

 

I don't know about the diesels but why did Rover never do anything about the head gasket issue with their petrol engines ?

EVERY marque has its problems. The Rover head gasket issue killed many of their cars.

When you weigh up the difference in cost between sorting out a blown head gasket vs a pump and injector replacement there isn't an awful lot of difference.

 

I don't know about the diesels but why did Rover never do anything about the head gasket issue with their petrol engines ?

EVERY marque has its problems. The Rover head gasket issue killed many of their cars.

So Rover could stay in business for many years after the first head gasket issue by selling loads of head gaskets

 

Good idea but it didn't work.

 

The K series petrol engines were a great little engine, apart from blowing the head gasket at 60,000 miles! regular as clockwork

 

It's been voiced many times before. Rover / Leyland / Jaguar, call them whatever you want, collapsed because of appaulling management. Now that Jaguar is owned by Tata we are seeing significant re-investment back into the company rather than greedy managers creaming off the profits. Since Tata took over, the company has come along in leaps and bounds and we are now producing World leading cars again.

We are currently building our own PowerTrain factory and will soon be able to shed the Ford mantle. It is rumoured that Jaguar will have the first 9-speed Auto Box. Let's hope that they have learnt their lesson about gearboxes after the Leyland fiasco.

The new Jaguar engine is already in prototype and is being tested as we speak.

 

Has this turned into the Rover forum now? Thought I had logged in to the wrong page...

Joking apart the head gasket issue was solved with the Payen double layer Landrover gasket, and any car that suffered a second gasket failure would have either been poorly repaired or not fitted with the uprated gasket. I have two MGF's bot running the K series 1.8i engines. I have both variants, a standard 1.8i, and a Trophy running the VVC engine uprated to 160BHP. I have owned the standard 1.8i for over 8 years now, and head gasket had been done about 18 months before I got it. I have the full service history so know the payen was fitted, at about 40,000 miles or so. The car has now done over 110,000 miles, and hasn't touched a gasket in nearly 10 years. A doctor had it before me, so not sure of his driving style, but I have upped the throttle size, fitted an induction kit, and a sports exhaust, not to mention a power valve. I drive it hard quite occasionally, and it never misses a beat. The Trophy I have only had a year, and I drive that harder, that again had the Payen fitted just before I got it. Again a few mods, and again it doesn't miss a beat. The whole gasket issue is due to the cooling system design, and that the fact the engine is mid mounted, and there is a lot of pipework in between. As long as you keep an eye on the water level, and don't thrash them until warm you will not find a more reliable engine, and this includes my Jag diesel.

As much as I love my Jag, and wouldn't swap it for the world, I have to be honest and say the most reliable car I own, and have ever driven is a 1997 1.8i MGF.

 

There you go. We all learn something every day. Unfortunately not every Rover was repaired due to the cost.

 

Well, for 2 years I was looking for the right 75, but, each time one turned up, I wasn't in a position to buy. Recently, I had a bit of spare cash, and my x type was amongst those cars that I went to look at. So far, it has been the worst Car that I have ever owned. I hate the thing with a vengeance, at this moment in time, and even considered breaking it for scrap. It is still in the garage awaiting repair to the brakes, then it will need the updated pulley tensioner and God knows what else. I should have done my research before buying, I know. How I wish I had bought a Rover....

 

IMHO Rovers problem's went a lot deeper than the suggested later years appalling management, Head Gasket issues was only one of a litany of issues over many years. Words like lack of investment, including dependence on old technology, bearing in mind the
A series engine was first produced in 1934 from memory and they were still churning it out as late as the 80s in the guise of a Mini, Hydrolastic suspension, great idea,. poorly executed. The Rover SDI fantastic looking even now, had two of them, also talked my then company into making them available to middle management..........build quality was absolutely crap. It was embarrassing.......I once had a conversation about British cars with an Aussie Hire Car owner in Perth WA,, I was cringing as he related the horror stories about poor quality.....Who was to blame?, Strike at the drop of a hat workforce ( it couldn't all be British Press right wing rhetoric) Weak Management, indulgent Labour Laws.......you tell me but again IMHO a lot of it was self inflicted wounds over a period of 50 years not one issue but death by a thousand cuts!

B.............

 

Mudinureye. Sorry to hear that you are so disappointed with your X Type. You must have a friday afternoon job. Most of us are perfectly happy with ours.

My Rover 420i was the worst car that I ever owned, could have been out accelerated by a Ford Anglia - an absolutely appaulling car.

The happiest moment of my life was seeing it being scrapped.

 

Yeah, Andy, many thanks. I think I am so annoyed not just because the car has proved to be rubbish, but that I was so lax in my examination of it before parting with the cash and bringing it home. I'm old enough to know better. The previous owner obviously neglected the car, I can see that now, but, as I say, the real blame lies with me. The car has become the object of my hatred and the emptier of my bank account not only due to its condition, but due to how it has dented my pride and my trust in apparently respectable human beings. He is a director in a company that produces roof windows, a multinational company, so I'm a bit bemused, to say the least.

 

I bought my wife a Rover 216 back in 1997 because she loved the shape. Noticed a drip of coolant on the garage floor and on investigation it was from the inlet manifold(heated to improve performance from cold start).

Rover dealer told me that it was common for the inlet gasket to go on the ally head and because there was a comparatively low capacity of coolant in the engine design(Honda) this very quickly became critical and caused head gasket problems.

Caught ours early and no problems reoccured while we had the Rover - which she thoroughly enjoyed!

Many Rovers met there end in this manner - glad to hear your 2 aren't amongst them XTYPEFIRSTIMER

 

My Dad has a pre-facelift Rover 75 estate that he bought new, and he still loves it. I considered getting one when I changed my car, but the Jag won me over.

Strikes me that both cars are terrific second-hand buys. Choose carefully & you can get a well-appointed, practical and very good-looking car for peanuts. They both have really nice lines and a certain understated, and definitely British, look. For some reason I think both cars are particularly attractive in the estate version (maybe it's the longer roofline).

The only thing I don't like about the 75 is how low-slung it is - it feels like climbing down into a go-kart! Dunno how my Dad copes with his bad back...

 

Funny this thread, what would Rover (if they were still around) and Jaguar make of it?

One car was pitched by a manufacturer with a soggy (at the time) image to grab a more youthful clientele.
The other pitched towards hairy eared one's in hats.

Yet these days both are regarded as interchangeable by some (not me)

"Grandad had a Rover, the flash **** up the road had a Jag!"

 

It's like every make of car - each will have its followers. There must be a Mini Metro Club somewhere, might be a bit lonely though.

Back in the 60's and 70's Rover and Jaguar were both considered "posh". Both have dented their reputations in the past.

 

Still wouldnt want a fusty old rover no matter how reliable they were

 

Really enjoying my X-Type, never tried a Rover 75 or really been tempted.

A friend of mine has a Rover 75 Connoisseur which he maintains is one of the best cars he has ever driven. He Also has a Bentley 8 and has previously had 7 series BMW's and various Mercs. Including the S Class.

His biggest regret was a BMW engined Rover Freelander!

 

anyway i was trying to compare the rover 75/bmw diesel with the Jaguar x type /ford diesel ,not the crappy K series engine that really did let the side down . I did the usual research and investigations as my transport had to be very reliable and as good as the 75 . Dont get me wrong ,i like the Jag and have found it easy to work on when required ,but as i say what a crap injection system . i did consider the Saab 93 diesel untill i found out that the engine is made by Fiat and fitted to the vectra and not very reliable at all . Why didnt jaguar fit the later BMW engine with the better turbo and inlet manifold ....

 

Have you considered a BMW? Lol!