Buying a secondhand Rover Metro

mikey72

pendulum wrote: »

"£600 for a Rover Metro is a good price" - - Forgive me for spitting my tea out and calling you some obscenities!

Metro's are poorly built unreliable deathtraps. Best advice you will ever get is DON'T buy a Rover, especially if you're not capable of fixing it yourself WHEN it goes wrong. Get a Micra or something instead.

Put up the link to a decent, low mileage, decent micra owned by a pensioner, with a full years ticket for the same price. Not a knacker that's had 28 owners, been round the clock twice, and last had a service in 2002. Otherwise that'll be the main difference, the op wants a real car, not a pipe dream.

dacouch

My memories of driving a couple of Metros is Hydrolastic suspension and head gaskets

[Deleted User]

My grand parents had a R-reg Rover 100 from new until it got written off in 2005. Someone didn't give way on a roundabout and went straight into the side of it. Dented the door and front quarter in. No injuries.

I'm sure they would still have it if that hadn't of happened.

Bradfield

I had an N reg Rover 100 for ten years and just scrapped it. It was very reliable and economic to run but underpowered compared to my friend's Nissan Micra 1.3

The ECU thingy went once and took a lot of fixing. The suspension always seemed to be iffy (down at the front). One thing I did not like about it was the alarm. It could suddenly kick off for no apparent reason.

Over the years the heaters stopped working and the door mechanisms failed (eventually they would not open with the key but would with the fob).

Finally, the engine started to overheat. I had a look under the bonnet to see where the thermostat was located but it was so cramped in there I decided not to bother. There was lots of rust and decay there and the radiator hoses (and the radiator) looked like they might fall away if I disturbed them so I decided it was a scrapper.

Sad to see it go as it was so reliable and cheap to run. Now I cant wait to get a motor with a little more power and PAS. The Rover 100 might be a little car but it can be real difficult to reverse park it without power assisted steering (well for a pensioner anyway).

alastairq

It will be a petrol. The metro wasn't offered with a diesel engine, IIRC.

The very last version [Rover 100?] which really bore little resemblance to the old BL Metro, could be had with a [peugeot?] diesel.....or, I think, a K-series engine[not sure about that one...but certainly no the old pushrod A-series, anyway]


I recall a lady hillclimb competitor who used the rule book to modify a diesel rover metro..by removing [and selling] the diesel engine, and fitting a peugeot 1.9GTi engine to the gearbox....

benham3160

When you can buy a Fiesta/Corsa/106-Saxo/Polo for the same money, I do wonder why anybody would buy the Metro......

Regards,
Andy

mikey72

benham3160 wrote: »

When you can buy a Fiesta/Corsa/106-Saxo/Polo for the same money, I do wonder why anybody would buy the Metro......

Regards,
Andy

mikey72 wrote: »

Put up the link to a decent, low mileage, decent micra owned by a pensioner, with a full years ticket for the same price. Not a knacker that's had 28 owners, been round the clock twice, and last had a service in 2002. Otherwise that'll be the main difference, the op wants a real car, not a pipe dream.

Same challenge for a Fiesta/Corsa/106-Saxo/Polo

benham3160

mikey72 wrote: »

Same challenge for a Fiesta/Corsa/106-Saxo/Polo

To the post a few above, yes there was a diesel Rover 100 (or a Metro as I prefer to call them, otherwise it sounds a bit 'Alan Partridge') it used the 1.4 XUD engine from Peugeot, solid as they come but painfully slow.

Why is it of benefit the car was owned by a pensioner, never taken out of third gear regularly travelled over speed bumps as it'll have rarely left town, the gearbox being used as a jukebox, a clutch that'll fall apart as soon as it sees any normal road speed and bumped up kerbs? I'm sure not all pensioners drive like this (indeed I KNOW they do not) however generally in my experience, small low mileage cars owned by pensioners are abused every time they are taken out.

This is where "mileage" falls apart as an argument towards mechanics, indeed I've never found a correlation between mileage and engine health or reliability.

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/1997-FORD-FIESTA-ENCORE-RED-/270982217138?pt=Automobiles_UK&hash=item3f17cc7db2#ht_500wt_1202

£500, more miles admittedly but the 1.3 OHV engine literally will rattle away to itself for all eternity with cursory servicing, parts are cheap and easily available, spend £100 on a full serivice, and Bobs' ya' uncle, no Metro!!

Regards,
Andy

mikey72

98,000 miles, 7 owners. only 7 months MOT?

sunshinetours

Rust would be main thing to check I would suggest. Any half decent back street one man band should be able to fix anything else at reasonable prices. They are old technology whoch often makes them easier to fiz when they go wrong

For a pensioner poodlinga round I am sure a decent one would suffice

I had 3 in my younger years, two MG versions and a 1.4 HSE I think it was with the "new" K series engine. Was surprisingly quick and refined for its time espeically when you were comparing it to a (real) Mini at the time!

No sneering here from a BMW owner , just some happy memories