Oh my god what am I doing - is this right?!

PMKeates · 15 Apr 2006 at 13:04

As you all must know by now, my used car preference is a Rover 220 Coupe Turbo.

But, a car has come up for sale near where I live. It's a Rover 820 Vitesse Coupe. It's basically the 220's bigger brother, with slightly poorer performance due to the weight, but with more luxury such as full leather heated electric memory seats.

For those that can't picture one:

It's had one lady owner since new, not a single modification, a full service history and has a "low mileage" - need to confirm the figure.

It's up at £2,000, but could probably get it for £1,750. Am I getting a REALLY old man's car far too early, or would I be passing up a really great car?

Something else important is can these barges go round corners!?

PMKeates · 15 Apr 2006 at 13:22

Being the T16 Turbo, are they mated to a limited slip differential?

PMKeates · 15 Apr 2006 at 13:27

GT3 said:
Hang on, weren't you looking at £25k brand new jap sports cars last week?

I said I was curious as to what the options and opinions were on such brand new cars, which with OcUK's help I decided weren't very good

PMKeates · 15 Apr 2006 at 14:34

GT3 said:
Just seems like one extreme to the other, what about a nice £5k MX5 or something?

That's because I'm only really interested in the extremes. I don't want a car that's an all rounder.

All the old MX-5's I've seen have been horrible for the money, thanks to their booming second hand market. Would be nice, but I'd rather not.

PMKeates · 15 Apr 2006 at 14:34

agw_01 said:
I'm not sure about the 800's. I know the 220 GSi's and Coupe's had the torSEN diff... wasn't true LSD though.

TorSen is limited slip enough for me

PMKeates · 15 Apr 2006 at 14:37

geiger said:
Just get a nice MX5 unless you do 50 mile + motorway journeys all the time, why would you need a car this big.

It tends to be that the bigger the car, the more comfortable it becomes. I want a Rover 220 Coupe Turbo - staggering performance for the money. Trying to find one that I want to spend my money on, however, is much harder. Whereas there seems to be a wealth of well-treated 820 Turbo's around.

PMKeates · 15 Apr 2006 at 15:16

Not a chance, I'm afraid, aj. Basically, no where near fast enough for my particular liking

PMKeates · 15 Apr 2006 at 18:23

[TW]Fox said:
Don't these have all the disadvantages of the Honda Legend (no handling, soft mushy feel) without the advantages (reliability)?

Get the 220 Turbo.

Not a penny over £500 for an 800.

Fair enough.

I therefore propose a challenge to all OcUK - nay, the entire Internet itself.

If one individual can propose to me a Rover 220 Coupe Turbo for sale I that I do not know about, that I eventually buy, I will reward them with the sum of one hundred pounds sterling, and a pair of BHS tartan effect slippers in a size of their choice!

Let the games begin!

PMKeates · 15 Apr 2006 at 18:40

Just so we all know, I'm looking for a particularly good 220 Coupe Turbo - in the region of two to three thousand pounds worth.

PMKeates · 15 Apr 2006 at 22:56

I considered the VVC for a long time, but decided against it as the Turbo worked out virtually no different in cost with the added benefits of another 55HP, a TorSen diff, and my preference of the Mk.2 dash.

If you find yourself not enchanted by the VVC's performance (The lovely 7200rpm redline mainly), then I'd say go for a Turbo. Heck, I'm 10 days younger than you and am going for one, so you should definitely be okay with it