Before you jack it in with Rover
 

(and I haven't) take a long look at the forum for the car you're thinking of swapping your Rover/MG for.

I bought a 54 plate Mercedes E270cdi a couple of weeks ago and I'm well pleased with it. Not as a replacement for the 75 because she is going into my workshop for a full (long drawn out, no doubt) overhaul soon.

I bought the E class because I've always wanted one and it is a great car. Such a well built car, and £40+ grand when new. but spending some time on a couple of MB forums, as I have for a few weeks now, and you notice a lot of people are have the same level of problems as us Rover and MG owners. And most of then very costly. Much more so than our Rover/MGs.

The grass is not necessarily greener on the other side. Just saying.

Exactly, the same can be said for any marque really, my dad used to say " until such time as you're constantly throwing money at it, the devil you know is better than the devil you don't."

Club saved my car
 

Excellent club and especially members and regional secretary saved my car from the scrappy.All the problems on my car that I mistakenly thought major after reading forums are easily sorted with a bit of time and patience.Even learnt today clutch I thought was on the way out for years because of creaking just needs lubricating:duh:

My 1.8 won't go the way of my former Rovers sold on after the odd costly repair,this is a keeper :}

there's not a car on the road that does not have common issues.:shrug:

My local Jag showroom has a display that has a car up in the air (so to speak) and I am one of those saddos that looks underneath. I'm glad I did. The lack of rust protection leads me to believe that there will be a lot of problems in later years. I wouldn't be surprised to find that most modern cars are similar.

The use of imported parts from areas of the world that are still learning how to produce longevity (dodgy metals and dodgy manufacturing processes) also worries me. It took most manufacturing companies decades to learn the skills and processes properly. Some of these "manufacturers of quality" are still experimenting. :shrug:
Mike

Cars have a built in life span. Designed to fall apart and be replaced. Didn't someone post on here about the current VW Golf having a projected life of 8 years, showroom to scrap heap? I suppose if they stayed like New we wouldn't need to buy another. Not good for sales and manufacture.


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And the economic life of modern cars becomes even shorter as they increasingly become "owner unfriendly" to do even basic repairs and servicing and needing specialist equipment to fault find etc. So much so that there are many jobs that even good independents can't do due to specialist tools/knowledge and/or electronic equipment needed and are MD only.

We ourselves are experiencing this to a degree with the lack of T4s about now meaning owners can be many miles from one.

I agree with everythig in Jonathan's opening post, havng recently spent time on MB and Volvo owner forums whilst considering the E-class and Volvo V70 estates as possible replacements for my Omega estate which is now 17.5 years of age.

I've alway held the view that cars have three phases in their lives - 0 to 8 years, 8 to 16 years and 16 years onwards. At each of the phase boundaries, they need significant expenditure in order to provide trouble-free motoring during the next phase.

My Omega was purchased early on and I went to the garage with a very long list of items to replace when it reached 8 years of age. It has been absolutely trouble free since. Now, at 17.5 years, I have taken the decision to keep it until 20+ years. It is now going to get the same treatment and is currently in for welding, having stripped out all the trim so that the welding can be done properly without setting the car alight. It will get a complete set of brake pipes, discs, pads etc. in the next 2 months.

Our 75 CDT was purchased at 8 years and went through the same process.

Last year, we bought an 8-year old Twintop and that is now undergoing the same process at the chosen garage. It will get a thorough inspection including diagnostics, belts, clutch kit, waxoyling etc. etc.

I find that the above regime works really well, although the expenditure at 8 and 15ish years in very significant. I see no reason why it will not work even on the newest cars.

Sorry for going at a slight tangent but I think it is relevant. :}

I reckon mine is one of the last cars designed by engineers to last, rather than designed to be marketed and sold. Built in obsolescence common these days seems rather at odds with the environmentally friendly ideology that's being touted rather a lot recently!

Similar story here, a driveway full of rover/ mg rover products and my 2008 merc e220cdi is no less immune to being an old car and playing up, judging by merc forums often in quite expensive ways.