Mk1 Rover 800: Retro Classic or Banger?

Fugging hell i've wanted to see that for years!!!!

PS mk1 Sterlings KICK ASS, i not long scrapped my Mk1 Vitesse manual due to rat. What a great car though, 35mpg no sweat, smooth and rapid. Lovely.

Low-rent? Yeah, I guess so, still hard to beleive that the one I have was £24,500 in 1990 - and not one airbag in sight. Electric rear seats are kinda cool...
Kev.

woof! We had an 827 Sterling, 4 door. Horrible car. Slow, unresponsive, liked water. Quite comfy. Dad despised it, urgent buy from an auction. Cutout on the m-way on the way back from enfield doing 80mph, was not amused. May have been a bad apple mind, i thought the V6's were quite nice but this one weren't! Was a blobby one mind.

Even better though - it was in champange colour ;D

I like the boxier shaped ones though, yea, the mk1's and the coupes are nice

Coupe ones are a bit 'wife swapping' IMO, I like the Mk1 saloons, the hatch is more practical though.

You could well be right there.
Kev.

Funny you say about the price - I remember when they came out how shocked people were at the cost of them, something like £17k just for a normal one.

Doubtful I'd ever splash out cash on one, unless it was very cheap with MoT and everything and could be treated as disposable, and then I'd probably go for a V6. Are there any of the 2.5's left? I remember they got panned.

820e saloon was my first drive of a big car only a few weeks after I'd passed my test, and the boss's V6 was the fastest car I'd driven until I had a go in a Montego Turbo a year or two later, so I will always have fond memories of them. Hatch a bit too much like Cavalier MkII for my liking.

Mr B, is Honda Legend coupe also a bit wife swapping?

i don't think i have ever seen one, but i remember when i was younger i had a matchbox town thing and amongst all the cars it had a rover sterling and my sister always used to be that car...always used to look out for one because i had a toy version.

Saw a clean Legend coupe recently and thought it rather fine, and your description fits me perfectly I think you'd agree?

Perhaps this could be a separate topic? You know, what personality or character traits should someone have to drive a particular car....

I do the ocassional/little work on a relatives.

He's had/got two 800 series, the first one a 4 door hatch F reg with just 33,000 mile on clock the other a P reg 'facelift' (Chrome grill) Saloon with 22,000 mile on clock . Both are the 4 Cyl.

If you want to by a Rover 800 as a Jalopy consider the 4 Cyl. it's easier to repair/do work on. The V6 can be a nightmare/not worth repair/excede value of car (Although I respect that the V6 is what more people like).
Apart form cosmetic corrosion such as door bottoms, all four arches and tailgates the 'killer' corrosion area is the rear end suspension turret mounts (get underneath and you will be shocked how little paint protaction was applied round here.) and rear 'chassis' rails/rear floor going up and over the back suspension onwards towards the boot floor / and including boot floor.

As the years progressed water leaks were virtually eliminated along with improvements in build quality.
In my experiance buy the lastest good example you can find.