What car after my Rover 75?
 

After 16 years and almost 250,000 miles of the wonderful Rover 75, I can see that old age (car not me) is soon going to make a replacement necessary. When the roof lining suddenly drops off, the gear knob comes apart in your hands and the door handle trims just drop off, the car is probably trying to tell me something!

My question is, what on earth could replace it? Any suggestions from all you helpful people?

Another one. That's what I did and my "new" one is older than the previous one but was lower mileage.;)

There are loads of nice cars available - it just depends on what sort of car you want.

I personally like Astra, Focus, new Insignia, Citroen C5, Mondeo estate, Renault Megane, Jaguar XE/XF, Mercedes E-class, BMW 5 series, Mercedes CLS.....

Then there are the dream cars - Jaguar XJ 575, XFR-S Sportbrake, CLS63...

If we go back 30-40 years, a droopy headlining & loose handle/trim really would have been the least of your worries on a 16 year old car.....and I doubt very much any model would have seen 250,000 miles !!

As we see from the number of diesels in Trikeys 'Moon Club', the diesels are good for many miles if given regular servicing and some TLC, Marinabrian even knows of a taxi that was approaching 600,000 miles.

With the huge depreciation associated with a new or newish car, why not get these minor issues sorted and keep the car going - probably far cheaper in the long run (as yours has long since stopped depreciating) and at least you know what you've got in terms of servicing & history ;)

Just remember to use the high temperature trim glue if you have a go at resticking that headlining...:o

If the car is in good condition mechanically, and those few cosmetic faults are all that it needs, why not enjoy your 75 a little longer. ;)

In my case, I swapped my Tourer for a BMW 520d SE Touring.
It's a lovely car, but it frightens the life out of me at the cost if/when things start going wrong.
My joints aren't so good these days so will have to be paying someone to crawl under and around it. Even removing one of the 245/45/18 wheels was an effort compared to the 195/65/15 on my 75.
Wisdom may come with age, but strength and good joints don't.
It's like the old saying, "The mind is willing but the body is weak."

The only way you can replace a 75 is with another 75. Moving on to something else is fine just don't try to measure it up to your Rover as whatever you get will fall short in some way. Take the new car for what it is and move on from there. You can turn any replacement vehicle into something different by personalising if that is your want. There are plenty of good cars, plenty of nice cars out there, but none of them will ever come up to the 75. It's a little like that old faithful dog, you can't replace the old one and wouldn't want to. Accept the new one for what it is.

For me, I don't like turbos (quart into a pint pot) or modern diesels with electronics (too many sensors and electrickery), so it limits my choices severely. I started going through other makes forums to try and find a reliable, easy to maintain modern car that was similar to my Rover. Everything that I looked at had problems that an elderly owner would struggle with. I've recently renewed the front brakes and suspension, along with the rear upper arms. That should keep the car going another few years. :shrug:

It sure is - "Fix me!" :D

You do get occasional low mileage examples coming up. Keep your eye out for another 75. Otherwise, it really depends on your wallet size and requirements. Nothing beats an MG-R for value IMO, so you'll probably end up spending a lot more!