1996 Rover - Austin 400 420SDi review from UK and Ireland

To clarify things, I had a few faults with the car when I first got it, but I reckon that most of these faults were caused by the fact that the car (an ex Rover staff car) had been sitting for a year unused before being delivered even to the dealer that I bought it from.

(1) Drivers side head lamp filled up with water fairly soon. Service Manager at Rover dealer said that they all do that, just drive around with lights on for a few days and that'll sort it. I tried that, it didn't work, but the garage changed the head lamp under warranty.

(2) Electric Door Mirrors; both of them failed within a month or two of buying the car. Dealer changed them under warranty, never had any problems since then.

(3) Car Heating System; when I bought the car one of the coolant pipes was burst. hence no heating. I didn't notice this really until the winter set in and I endured some very long and extremely cold drives.

I explained this to the dealers Service Manager who said that all diesels are like that, they just take that bit longer to warm up!

This was without even looking at the car, that was parked outside his office at that moment. The garage identified the fault by the next spring; again fixed under warranty. Strangely enough, the service manager left just after that!

(4) Rear Wheel Alignment. Unbeknown to me, the rear wheel on the driver side was out of alignment. I found this out when I got a puncture quite literally in the middle of nowhere. Still, at least it was a warm dry evening! When I changed the wheel over I noticed that the damaged wheel was completely scrubbed through to the bare metal on the very inside part of the tread, just where you don't see it when washing the car.

Garage sorted this out with poor grace, but I'd to pay for their work, plus new brakes all round, extremely expensive. Not impressed, as I reckon this fault was with the car when I bought it. It's been fine since then though.

I've rated the car very high for reliability as it has never had any major problems in the last 2.5 years; since all the above issues were sorted out.

Overall, I really like the car, it might not be this years model any more, but it still looks pretty good and is extremely comfortable over long drives.

The turbo diesel engine is a gem, extremely powerful and economic, returning close to 60 miles per gallon on long drives and 50 mpg driving around town. I can keep up with just about any car, without even trying hard. The torque of the engine when you are climbing hills is quite extraordinary compared to my previous car; a 1.4 litre petrol engined Escort.

It just passed its latest MOT, after initially failing on the emissions test. Soon fixed after a quick dose of Redox and a blast down the M74. I noticed somebody else had the same problem too.

One thing it is quite sore on is brakes though, but then it is quite a heavy car with that big diesel engine upfront. Don't go to a Rover dealer to get them changed though as their prices are exorbitant.

Main niggle is the ridiculously poor access to the passenger side headlamp, when you are changing a bulb; caused by the battery being right up against the rear of the headlamp. I've never managed to do this properly yet; even after nearly 3.5 years with the same car. You need small hands and a lot of patience to tackle this job. This doesn't apply to petrol engined models, as the battery on these cars is in a different position.

PS I noticed a recent survey, which rated the Rover 400 to be one of the most reliable cars in its class. More reliable than VW Passats for instance.