[The Exile]

Hi all, I'm new to the forums and new to owning my 2004 Rover 75 2.5 V6 Connoisseur. As the title suggests I've not had very good luck with this car, I literally purchased it Sunday afternoon and I hadn't even got the car halfway home when the car suddenly lost power and the AA recovery man informed me that the timing belt had gone... now this isn't 100% confirmed, he didn't go as far as taking the covers off and checking but the signs point towards this being the case.

Before anyone comments that I should have taken it back... I'm not going to try and argue with the seller, it was his dad's car who passed away about 18 months prior and the car has barely been driven since, I don't believe he knew the belt was on its way out and he took me out for a test drive in the car and it was driving beautifully up until the point it wasn't.

So now I've got to work out what I'm going to do with the car... I know economically it doesn't make sense to spend any real money on these but the fact is this car has been loved, its in beautiful condition, has had a lot of upgrades done to the car and has a mere 55,000 miles on the clock so I really want to get this cat back up and running provided it's not going to financially ruin me in the process.

I don't know a load about this kind of thing so I really need some advice on how to proceed... i know it's difficult to say without knowing exactly what damage has been done but let's say the timing belt has gone, is the engine likely to be completely knackered (as in needs swapping for a complete new engine)? would I be able to just replace parts of the engine? is the engine itself likely to be OK but valves and pistons knackered? What would be the first steps I need to take?

I've already phoned around a couple of garages who didn't seem overly keen on taking on the job so that could be my next issue but depending just how involved it is I may even consider doing the work myself. Thanks in advance for any advice.