I bought a 620 rover in the day great car never had any problems with it I sold it and bought the 827 sterling with the Honda engine what a car you could fly down the motorway without a sound one of the best cars I’ve ever owned
Used to work in a Rover dealership back in the early 90s, I remember these well, my favorite was the 827 SLi saloon with a manual box, that was the Q-Car of the range.
My Dad had a 620Si i had many fond memories of that car, it was a cracking motor, ended up doing 350,000 miles before it got scrapped, Thats what got me into Rovers. so ive now got a nice little Rover 200 R8
im sorry you are wrong, the best engine was the 2.5 v6 made by Powertrain. I had a K reg Vitesse and a V reg Sterling. Lovely cars, but they had faults. Good luck to you. Maurice, UK Expat now in Namibia.
a friend had one of these way back in 93.....it was stunning in white........this ones obviously been cared for and wouldnt take much to make it into a show car HOWEVER it can die at any minute with age of its electronics.
Did they solve this later on? I've a 1996 827, had it 3 years, got it at 57,000 miles now has 71,000. Only faults during ownership abs light came on (new speed sensor fixed it) and climate control flashes error when starting car for 10 seconds, it never used to but after 10 seconds it goes off and everything works 100% including air con. What were the issues? Done many a long drive with no hassle whatsoever unless I got really luckily or the later models are better?
I actualy drive an 800 vitesse turbo and even today goes like a scalded cat . Its economical and the build quality is great , Interior almopst on a par with my series 3 Daimler V12 . The Rover is easy to drive and no problems even tho it has done nearly 400k miles (no missprint) however its achiles heal is the front suspension or lack of it as mine suffered excessive play on the suspension bushes and nobody could supply spares as obscolete . Cost me over £1000 to get parts made that should have cost £80 . Be careful !
more than a Jag ingoing model when new lovely car! i had a few 820s as an employee at rover cars never one this high up the range they kept us in our place lol
A very handsome saloon and a rare survivor. The Honda legend underpinnings offered a great drive and handling. Much nicer Honda V6 engine than the later KV6. The 4 speed auto might be a Jatco unit - I'm not sure? Someone out there will know.
Wow what a lovely timewarp of a car, 32 years old & still looks stunning inside & out! However nice these cars were, and please don't take me wrong but sadly rust brought them all to an untimely end as well as plenty of gremlins & problems with all those electrics on the car! A common fault with most Rover cars was electrics issues & it gave owners no end of grief & hurting back pockets as well!
I had a D reg sterling fir about 18 months. No electrical problems at all. Car ran flawlessly. I had it fitted with a body kit. I also installed a audio kit. Beautiful car and that example in the video brought back some great memories. Thanks.
Rust. Yup. My Father had a 2 year old 800. Beautiful car but . . . It had serious rust issues. Rover declined the 6 year rust warranty as they claimed it hadn't been registered correctly. . . The car was a Rover head office executive company car. They hadn't maintained the warranty correctly. Needless to say that it was the last Rover he or any of our family ever bought.
Not all Rover Sterlings had headlamp washers as standard I am sure of that. Depends on the particular model & what the original owner wanted on the car at the time of order/purchase but I do stand to be corrected on proof. You could try beating out the rear quarter panel but that will not be easy & as you state, not cheap to rectify. Indeed a lovely car in great timewarp condition!
We had an 827 Sterling, blue with the stunning quality light grey leather. Took it from 60k to 190k. Engine was 100% reliable and required nothing but filter changes etc. Then we bought the 30k miles 825 Sterling Coupe which was a superb car, oozing the quality of a hand-built car but the KV6 engine was such a disappointment after the Honda Legend lump. It lacked power and was unreliable Fond memories of the 827. After the Coupe we had the 820 Vitesse Fastback in BRG. Exiting car but suspension rock hard after the Sterlings !!
That's a hell of a lot. I'm judging from my Capri knowledge as it's a similar price to the Tickford Turbo special edition, compared to the top "standard" edition (2.8i V6) was around just £15,000. Which itself was a very expensive car at the time with 2 4-cylinder engine options below it.
Great cars best rover but can't drive them in London anywhere because of emissions controls especially from next year on is going to be bad please help stop this
What goes wrong on them? I've had a 1996 model for 3 years and no major issues. Speed sensor for the abs that's it? Got it 57,000 miles now at 71,000 miles. They share a lot of parts with Honda as well so things are easy to find, I guess it's labour cost for anything repair wise suspension maybe?
Hope you realise what you're going to take on with all of those electrics & there is that rear quarter panel which will want sorting out eventually! Hope you have plenty of money available as you will need it with this car however lovely it is & there is no denial of that!
Yes it's a cat C which is a shame. If anyone cares I have a 1996 model, owned 3 years. Done 15,000 miles with no issues apart from needing a new abs speed sensor for mot. Maybe the later ones don't have as many electric problems as the early ones? Or I just got very very lucky!
good engine the honda v6 but for me the best engine to have in a 800 is the super rare mk1 820turbo tickford or the mk2 820 vitesse the mk2 vitesse with the t16 turbo 200bhp and any of the 220 420 620 with them are great cars have a the rare mk1 820turbo tickford saloon and a early 220gti with the m16
Wonder what this beautiful example will go for! There was or is a red 1985 Renault Fuego on the website with a 9k estimate on it, which when considering that was a terrible car even when it was new, leaves me thinking this baby will be at least 15k or more.
The Honda V6 was nice, but I disagree with his claim that all Rovers were best with a Honda engine... the original 2.5 Honda V6 was rather gutless and the move to a 2.7 was at Rover's insistence to improve the lower-range torque. Furthermore, Mathewson clearly doesn't know that the vast majority of Rover 800s had the Rover-designed & built very modern M16 engine, a twin cam 16v 2.0 four. He clearly never drove an 820 turbo with the M16 turbo, which was more powerful and more economical than the Honda V6 and (with SAAB) presaged the current move to high-output 4-cylinders in executive cars. Also, the 620ti with the newer T16 turbocharged engine was also superior to the rather anaemic Honda 2.0 engine in 'cooking 620i.or 618i cars, the exception being the 2.3 Honda motor, which was a rarity.
Stateside the Sterling had horrible quality problems and as I remember all of management was fired. New management were supposed to have improved the later year models (like this one) but by then the damage was already done.
I had a Sterling which I enjoyed very much but beforehand I had a Rover 216 Van Den Plas which was the biggest piece of unreliable crap I have ever driven - it was total rubbish and in the garage for fixing EVERY WEEK !!!!
Either I've got really lucky or the later Sterlings fixed these issues. I bought one 3 years ago (827 Sterling 1996) with 57,000 on the clock, now has 71,000 on it. Abs light came on during ownership which was speed sensor luckily and the climate control has decided to flash error upon starting the car sometimes but goes off after 10 seconds and everything works fine climate wise even air con. Never let me down, nothing has gone wrong and all electrics work. So don't be scared of a later example maybe?
