1994 Rover - Austin 200 220 GTi Turbo 2.0 turbo from Australia and New Zealand

Summary:

No wonder there aren't many of these 200hp GTI turbos left.. probably all crashed!

Faults:

Clutch cable snapped.. but managed to crash the box all the way home.

Occasionally leaks water from around the pump.. strange, but true.. it sorts itself out.

Nothing serious has ever gone wrong with this car.. ever.. it spends most of it's time commuting.. sprinting from one set of lights to another.. although there are signs of the clutch starting to slip when accelerating hard.

General Comments:

Interior is quite nice in half leather. Air con and power windows. Although it's a bit basic by todays standards.. not a single cup holder or curry hook!

The Rover badge must put most people off this car.

It must be my age, but I love it. Very quick off the mark if you can get traction, but suffers from torque steer quite badly.

Top speed.. when you can get near it.. is fairly astounding for age and price of these cars.. talk about bang for your bucks.

Would you buy another car from this manufacturer? Don't Know

Review Date: 6th November, 2005

1994 Rover - Austin 200 216 SLi 1.6 16v from UK and Ireland

Summary:

The best cheap runabout available

Faults:

Drivers side electric window jammed. Drivers seat falling apart, never diagnosed transmission judder.

General Comments:

Excellent build quality throughout.

Powerful and economical engine. (32 mpg)

All the extras you'd need.

Rust finally killed It at approx 190,000 miles.

Would you buy another car from this manufacturer? Yes

Review Date: 1st October, 2005

1994 Rover - Austin 200 Sli 1.6 16v from UK and Ireland

Summary:

A good all round quick car

Faults:

No faults to report so far.

General Comments:

The model I have has the Honda engine which is proving to be exceptionally reliable.

The car is comfortable to drive and for its age handles fairly well.

Performance is also good and the car pulls well through each of the gears.

The interior quality is surprisingly well put together for the age of the car and has so far shown little signs of any wear.

Would you buy another car from this manufacturer? Don't Know

Review Date: 18th July, 2005

1994 Rover - Austin 200 214 Si 1.4 DOHC from UK and Ireland

Summary:

Good fun car which surprises you

Faults:

The alternator has gone several times.

The boot lock has stopped working.

The driver seat has locked in its position.

General Comments:

For what this car is it is a very enjoyable car. Although it is only a 1.4 liter k-series engine in has good acceleration and is a very torquey car (for its size). I have fitted a racing air filter to it which makes it sound beautiful. I honestly do not hear many cars that sound better then mine. The interior is nice and the seating position is low, but I do find some of the plastics inside the car a bit fragile. I have also had to repair my roof as the material came off and was hanging in my car. My only major complaint is that the power steering is very light which although makes it good for parking, it makes it too light for driving fast as you cannot feel the road very well... oh and the remote control is not very powerful.

Would you buy another car from this manufacturer? Don't Know

Review Date: 2nd March, 2005

1994 Rover - Austin 200 220 GTi Turbo Coupe 2.0L S4 turbo from Australia and New Zealand

Summary:

A lot of car for not very much cash

Faults:

The rear arm bushes had to be replaced with third party urethane bushes as they had completely ripped apart.

The alternator gave up and the lack of battery charge caused the computer to over-boost and blow the throttle body hose off.

The turbo coolant hose kept leaking, although that may have been an earlier repair issue.

The idler gear bearing in gearbox is noisy and needs overhauling. I'll probably fix it with a new Integra box. The Tomcat box takes very little more than the standard 200BHP and will die with any performance modifactions.

The interior trim - as an ex-Asia import to NZ - had received little attention by its first NZ owner and the leather is suffering.

The clutch cable needed lubrication, as it was real stiff. Some HHS2000 fixed this, though a hydraulic conversion would be a better idea.

The gear change was real sloppy, so a Honda Civic short shift assembled with old Prelude parts fixed this really nicely.

General Comments:

I bought the car at pretty high mileage, and it has taken a fair amount of work to get it going nice. The suspension and differential work really nicely, but only when inherent faults have been addressed.

The stereo was pretty shocking, and throwing some Sony 6x9s in the back and some 6"s with a good headunit has made it heaps better. The Japanese market version, which is all you can get in New Zealand, is pretty nice with leather interior and air-conditioning, although the key attractors are the performance and handling.

This car is a modders dream, becuase most Honda parts will bolt on if you try, and once the gearbox is made stronger by some modification, the W/T25 Garrett, 2.5" exhaust and other parts make squeezing another 50BHP out of the car really easy.

It does around 400ks to the tank if you drive normally, and if you are careful, you could probably do around 500. Thrashing the car will only result in low economy and a broken diff.

Would you buy another car from this manufacturer? Don't Know

Review Date: 6th November, 2004