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The last fleet admiral

131K views 902 replies 18 participants last post by  Dorchester 
#1 · (Edited)
Hello pals!

Very soon (D-5) I'll be delighted to present you my last purchase.
As a Rover addict, it couldn't be another car but a Rover.
Not even a Jag, and I love Jags nevertheless. But the Jags are no longer the Jags.
It will be the fourth Rover in the family since 1990.

I had chased her very long since but I knew what I wanted:
Actual burr walnut, leather, two-coloured wheel, hi standard stereo, automatic clim, highc spec interior, good powerful & reliable engine, petrol and no diesel, nice looking body colour, good condition, not too many miles and so and so.
And - don't forget - reasonably priced (in France of course. In the UK it's cheaper).
To make it short outside the UK as rare as hen teeth!

I bet you've already guessed what...

But found her 250ml far from home. A brave journey by coach.
I'll go next Thursday to pick off my second ladylove...

So I wish to be able here to write a little chronicle with pics (that's for @Roverlike ;) and others indeed) to show the mistress and eventually to inform day by day about my fortunes and good surprises (I've never driven with an automatic gearbox...) and - hope not - disappointments or misfortunes.

But I do keep my bonnie lovely 25, now on my wife's car, and I've sold yesterday the Italian convertible (Fiat Punto 1.6 90bhp ELX Bertone 1995).

Two Rovers in my garages: what a joy! :bgrin:

Coming back soon...
 
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#4 · (Edited)
Have a closer look: "Actual burr walnut" I told.
After 2000 due to the restrictions it was only copy of genuine one.
My future 75 V6 2.5 Connie SE was built (*) in the beginning of the year 2000, a few weeks between the desertion of BMW.
Hence Mk1 of course. :wink:
EDIT: (*) in Cowley, Oxfordshire, not in Longbridge.
 
#5 ·
I'm just a little bit jealous. You've managed to get what I was looking for, for over a year and failed. Mind you. I wanted a Rover 75 in dark blue with black leather.

Trust me. You'll love the automatic gearbox. The Rover 75 is very much a 'Waftmobile'. Very grand and very relaxing to drive. I can't be bothered with manuals now. I've found that moving that stick thingy an inconvenience as I sit in my leather armchair.

I know what you mean about Jags. The whole Mondeo thing is still quite funny. As for the Diesel X-Type. That had a Transit van engine. Ho ho ho.

Oh wait. Didn't the MGB have a Sherpa van engine?
 
#6 ·
I'm just a little bit jealous. You've managed to get what I was looking for, for over a year and failed. Mind you. I wanted a Rover 75 in dark blue with black leather.

Trust me. You'll love the automatic gearbox. The Rover 75 is very much a 'Waftmobile'. Very grand and very relaxing to drive. I can't be bothered with manuals now. I've found that moving that stick thingy an inconvenience as I sit in my leather armchair.
@spudgun, guess who put me that KV6 2.5 Connie in mind?! ;)
Mine will be an Atlantic blue one with cream leather inside. I don't know exactly which is the very name of the colour. What I know from pics is that it is not too light, and not blue. I have the CD changer too but not the GPS which isn't a concern. Just a bit more km than I had liked: 97.5k miles. But I can't complain. It's a beauty. :petevick:
 
#8 · (Edited)
I can't see myself retrofitting the hi-line with a screen on which GPS is now dreadfully obsolete (non longer any update - rubbish!). It might be nicer on a cosmetic side, I love genuine cosmetic especially in that type and category of cars, but I am equally interested in functionality and practicability.

So my first problem (which isn't really one for me) will be solved in this way: connecting my very recent 6" luxury TomTom GPS on the cigar lighter socket. Not too elegant would grumble the purists, but very efficient nevertheless, and that's the point.

My second concern: I chose a very good Bluetooth hand free Pioneer radio for my 25. And I was delighted to be able to answer when called (and only in that case - I don't want to call myself when driving - it's boring and over all forbidden) and over the moon to hear all the musics I've recorded in my LG playlist.
But what to do with the 75 genuine radio tape and the 6 CD changer?
I don't mind to get my whole CD library in my new car. Obsolete as well on my point of view. Like the old kind of phone which can be implemented.
And I don't want to make any mods in that brilliant executive car. Purists would feel outraged. I understand that.
The seller solved the problem: he bought a mock tape provided with a cable to connect to the I/O of a cellular phone. Brilliant! When you push on tape, you can hear the music play list, and it's possible to be called the interlocutor voice coming from the car speakers and your micro being the one of the phone.
Job done without costing a penny!

So what other interesting feature could be retrofitted in that Connoisseur SE model, already provided with a lot of them?
Maybe the rear parking sensor if there isn't: I don't know at the moment.
Should be very useful with a comparatively tiny rear window: I was used to appreciate my 25 hatchback.
I'll see that next Thursday. D-3!
 
#9 ·
It's hard to make suggestions as to what to retro-fit, until we know what you've got. I admit, I'm a bit of a purist. Everything has to look original. Even when I fitted a switch for the heated mirrors on my old Rover 25. I used an original switch, even though the switch wasn't an original fitment.

I stick to my CD changer as I create my own discs. In a strange twist. The 6 discs that were in my old Rover 400, went into the Rover 25. They're now in the Jag.

Bluetooth is very popular now. Even Jaguar had the Audio Connectivity Module as an add on kit. It connected to the stock radio and over rode the CD changer when selected. Sadly, I never found anything similar for a Rover 75. All is not lost though. There's plenty of aftermarket stuff that'll fit. I've even seen a sat nav unit that'll do just about everything!

We'll just wait for the photo's for now.
 
#222 ·
Bluetooth is very popular now. Even Jaguar had the Audio Connectivity Module as an add on kit. It connected to the stock radio and over rode the CD changer when selected.

.
If I might throw my hat in......

Im retired, ex-IT Projects Manager 1978-2007. WiFi and Blue tooth are inherently insecure, and I personally would not own any vehicle with them. Various versions of BlueTooth havebeen shown to have massive security flaws, and WiFi is a sieve, and always has beem, witness Google getting its wrist slapped a while ago for harvesting passwords off peoples wifi home routers as it drove round in its Streetcars, invading your privacy photographically as well as electronically.

When the Labour government tried to introduce RFID Passports, they ignored a demonstratation by two swedish guys who showed they could read a biometric passport at 100 feet, and then clone it in under two hours. Thank god the plan was dropped, it was an Identity Thiefs dream.

Credits cards can similarly be scanned at remote range unless you keep them in a mumetal sleeve (I saw a White Hat Hacker demonstration at a security conference in 2005).

We have already seen RFID car keys can be cloned without having to break into the house, you just use a sniffer to provoke the key into responding then rebroadcast the signal, and voila, the car unlocks as if you had the key in your pocket.

I do not own a smartphone. I will not use wifi or blue tooth. I dont use a radio car key. My computer connects to the net via a CAT6a cable and proxy server.

You cannot trust technology. Look at the number of times pesonal data has been lost or stolen, the latest example being the Facebook Cambridge Analytica farce. We live in a data collecting surviellance society, where your information is their for the taking, unless you protect it.

BTW, no one has every logged into any account i own without my permission, used my bank cards, or in anyway, fraudulently used my data or identity. Because im careful with it, and wary of tech. And cars + comms tech+ computing is a sitting duck for smart people to abuse. As already demonstrated.
 
#10 ·
Not to spoil your topic, @Spudgun, I am reacting at once here about what you have said about some people failing their MOT for a very trivial and preposterous reason as worn brakes.

Mind you that I'm to purchase my 75 Connie for I bet the same reason: the seller cannot or don't want to afford any money for the sometimes rather expensive service items of his car!

He bought her only a year and a half ago and that's it. Now The front brakes are a bit deformed, sometimes squealing, sometimes vibrating, and I had to insist that I shall not buy this car without any good and reliable repair (discs, pads & fluid will be changed by a good mechanic). The job will be done on the Thursday morning and I'll take the car in the afternoon!

For the remaining of the car, all is in good order. He may have been a bit reluctant to pay the last services, but he is honest, I had the evidences. He sent me many pictures, didn't hide any little detail and I'll have all the garage bills on a five years period. He knows that any cheat will cancel the deal.

D-2.
 
#12 ·
Three years ago.
Haynes 75/MG ZT manual gives 6 years as a normal span.
But here in France changing all the belts and the pump is a pita job for the mechanics and takes a full 8 hours to be done. Hence a jolly good heap of €€€! And you must now find a garage that accepts to do the trick, not so common. The brand no longer existing, lots of people are taken back.

D-1!
 
#14 ·
Thank you.
I've got the beast this afternoon. It's a treat !
But I'm uneasy with my cellular phone and I'll be much more talkative tomorrow evening.
But at the moment my new 75 was worth the 380km disturbance !
 
#16 · (Edited)
Surprise!

My first impressions tomorrow - I'm a bit tired, too much emotion you know! but to help you waiting and still to manage the suspense, here is my first pic:

 
#19 ·
Sorry mate, I apologize.
But come here and show me your Jag before that Brexit has broken everything, and I'll show you my Connie!

Next post today soon.
 
#20 ·
So here we are.
I drove her along more than 250ml and it's a real bliss!

Nice and smooth V6 sound, nervous kick down (I used the trick only once, but what a kick in the ass!), amazing automatic gearbox (never ever had I one before!), very efficient brakes, very comfortable and luxurious armchairs, fantastic quietness inside, glossy and shiny colour, classical refined British quality dashboard, very high quality stereo sound, amazing speed stabiliser, what else?

That executive car (as they told us) is a dream!

Just needed a slight bit of TLC : a few tiny chips on the body (nevertheless in very good general condition), rear bumper not so neat (maybe to be repainted, I'll see), a few bits neglected (a chromium rod not tightly fixed on the right of the windscreen, a strip of liner detached near the rear window, two plastic rod displaced at the bottom of the right doors between the carpet and the door rubber, two missing bolts to attach the cylinder head cover written V6) and a fuel hose likely because there's a slight smell of fuel, but absolutely no leak of any kind: the ground was entirely clean in the morning and nothing to be seen as far as I could have a close look everywhere easily accessible.

Some late good works on the engine (oil, filter, front vented brakes & pads, front silent blocks) the day before the deal, but nothing else has been done during the seller ownership!
Nevertheless the engine and all the electricity is in good working order.
But I need to do:
- spark plugs to change (3 years 1/2)
- coolant to renew (3 years 1/2)
- air filter to change (more than 4 years - I ordered a good K&N panel)
- passenger compartment filter to change
- air con fluid to control and if needed to top
- automatic gearbox to control, to top or to change

I'll see next week at a good mechanic's and at his colleague's the painter.

Afterwards, I would like a parking alarm, but not so sure I could find a complete Rover factory genuine one and above all the skilful guy able to install it. Never ever had I so long a car and it's really an impossible mission to clearly see exactly where you put your back bumper when going backwards.

But what a joy to become the guardian of one of the last finest British cars of a nearly bygone era.
I feel myself responsible of a slice of British motor history, don't I?

Coming next a few more pictures.
 
#22 ·
At our B&B, the English owner was driving a typical old French car and the guests an English one! Entente Cordiale!



And the traditional dashboard with real burr walnut (only 1999-2000):

 
#23 ·
So far, so good. You're doing the things I'd normally do when I acquire a 'new' car.

As for the anti-freeze. Is it blue or pink? Considering the age of the Rover, I'd suspect that it's blue and is due a change (The pink stuff has a 5 year life). The air-con is due a service. I do mine as per the book (every two years).

Again, you're doing everything that I'd normally do. That's going through the car with a fine tooth comb. There are always minor niggles (A missing screw here. A loose piece of trim there). Once sorted out, you can sit back and relax.

Automatics are very relaxing to drive. Although the auto box in my old Rover 400 was a bit jerky (You could feel the changes). The Jags auto box is as smooth as silk. Yours should be as well.

The lack of rear parking sensors is interesting. I thought they would've been standard on a 75. I had them on my old 400 and 25. This does beg the question: Did any 75 for that year have the rear parking sensors? If so, your 75 may be pre-wired.

I'm off to stare at the pictures to see what 'toys' you have.
 
#25 ·
Parking sensors came among the options, even in the highest standard of Connoisseur SE.
Very much so, low-line sat-nav, cruise control & heated seats.
You're right: no electric sun screen, but it's not the first of my concerns at the moment.
Some days are good days, and some are bad days.
Have a look on my new thread...
 
#29 · (Edited)
So yesterday the mechanic was a bit busy with my Connie:

- new sparks plugs NGK platinum (a pita job for the back ones)
- new pollen filter (compulsory to get it off to reach the back spark plugs)
- automatic gearbox fluid renewal with Texaco ATF 402 from the UK
- a comprehensive cleaning of the throttle body and both VIS motors (error P 1472 cancelled, but P 1477 remaining)

And I changed the air filter myself for a good K&N panel.

But more is to come:
- Duct assembly air cleaner/throttle body PHD103250 ordered at Rimmerbros
- Automatic lower rear engine mount ordered on Ebay
- Radiator
NISSENS 64308A ordered
- 2 dampers TRW
TRW JGM1325T and 2 TRW JGT306T ordered

And some other trifles regarding the recent MOT will be done as well.

Phew! It's nearly a restoration project!
The mechanic will be busy again at the end of next week.
 
#32 ·
- new sparks plugs NGK platinum (a pita job for the back ones)
- new pollen filter (compulsory to get it off to reach the back spark plugs)
Changing the rear spark plugs is a real pain. I suspect that it's the same for a 75 as it is for the Jag. The inlet manifold has to come off. That's the downside of owning a transverse V6.

It's also a faff to change the pollen filter on a Jag. The windscreen wipers have to come off. It was so much simpler on my old Rover 400 and 25.
 
#30 · (Edited)
#31 ·
Thanks once more @Roverlike.
I've had a close look to your links.
But I have better not to do it myself, I don't want to make a mess of my new car and I can't ask the mechanic to do that subtle kind of job: I'm sure he'll not guarantee anything of that sort and wouldn't be keen to do that!
He's a very clever guy & does a brilliant job for a very reasonable fee.

Despite the cost, I want a fine car working as well as she did when going out of Cowley the first day. Mind that she has now nearly done 100k ml and that some renewal & TLC is needed.
I think I'll order both motors from DMGRS and that's it. I'll be more peaceful. I don't want to bother with £130 when such a car is in balance.

BTW, both motors are ordered and I'm glad to help working a good and essential British retail store.
 
#35 ·
Well, you may have read some of my late adventures on other posts (VIS motors, Sat Nav CD reader & Instrument pack), but I'm glad to say that lots of problems have been sorted hopefully.

Thursday & Wednesday morning what a brilliant job made by my skilful mechanic who painstakingly laboured during 14 hours for the princely sum of £400:

- swapped the intake hose & sheath
- swapped the low motor silent block
- swapped the engine radiator (the new Nissens a bit thicker than the old one) and renewed the coolant
- swapped the 4 shock absorbers for TRW ones
- swapped the balance VIS motor (MKE 100110)
- corrected the handbrake and equilibrated the rear drum brakes as well
- corrected the left fog lamp
- changed both front indicators
- arranged the low protection plaque (1 bolt missing beforehand)

And I saw the pictures he took: taking off the old radiator and putting the new one in place was a very PITA job!





But the best was the swapping of the shock absorbers. The old ones were dreadfully dead and the change makes a massive, gigantic & enormous difference! What a comfort now! :petevick:
I hope now the 75 will be at her very best.
 
#37 ·
Both: rear discs for the brake pedal and rear drums for the handbrake.
 
#38 ·
Some new pictures, inside:



 
#39 · (Edited)
I'm not at all an addict to alcohol but in France ethanol is easy to find and much more affordable (£2.44 a gallon - 0.599€ / litre) than 95 or 98.

So without any alteration anywhere in the engine, I am filling my tank with a little more ethanol at every fuel-up.

I'm now driving the 75 with 60% ethanol.
It's amazing!
The start is as immediate as before (even it was 8°C) and the throttle response is brilliant without any lack of power.

I hope to go up to 2/3 ethanol without any problem.
Now that the car is driving brilliantly, I guess that with the normal over consumption due to ethanol, the MPG nevertheless will be good for a KV6.

I'll keep you posted about it.
 
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