1997 Rover - Austin 600 Ti from UK and Ireland - Comments

Coolant leaks - top and bottom pipes replaced under warranty. Okay since.

Slow power steering leak - hoses, remounted, and clips tightened up. Okay since.

Oil system failure led to permanent engine damage. New engine provided under warranty. Okay since, though 'running in' period was a bit of a pain...

The previous owner/driver must have thrashed this car! Thank goodness for a top notch warranty and excellent dealer service. The car is everything I hoped it would be and more - I love it!

The best bit is pushing past sports car drivers when you have one adult up front reading a book and two children playing in the back!

Drove a Ti once. Awful.

Being FWD you can never pull away from traffic lights without shredding (and I mean SHREDDING) the front tyres. This was without even trying...

Try pulling away from a side road when you have to get a move on and it's back to Quickfit at £130+ a go!

The engine delivers close on 200 brake but you can never use it because it's FWD.

The only saving grace for this car is the price - due to it's anonymous styling you can pick one up for £2.50.

I'd rather have a kebab - at least that lasts longer than the tyres!

...and your point is??

Do you:-

A) dislike Rovers?

B) dislike FWD cars?

C) dislike the Rover 620 ti?

The 620 ti is meant to be a powerful, yet practical family/business saloon car. When driven properly this car can move 4 adults + 4 pieces of backage for several hundreds of miles, swiftly, safely and comfortably. It does exactly what it says on the box.

If you want a mean street racer then this is NOT the car for you! Consider an Escort Cosworth or BMW M3 if that's your bag.

My point (opinion) is that the car has power that it cannot deal with.

BIG-TIME!

Anybody can drive in a straight line and you can stick a powerful engine in any car you want but there's more to it than that.

I drove the Ti because I was intending to BUY one. Every car has a label and the Ti does, almost, everything it says on the box. When I said the car was anonymous that's because IT IS! That was, actually, the main attraction. A quick car that doesn't advertise the fact. And it's relatively cheap, too. Great!

However, the big, big disappointment was that the car is almost impossible to drive and there is absolutely no pleasure in that.

Every time you pull away the front scrabbles for grip and you get MAMMOTH torque steer. Not just a bit, A LOT.

It's a bit like sticking an RS Turbo engine in a fiesta (and that's been done a few times) ; You can tell all your mates your engine has such-and-such an output and can go at such-and-such a speed - but you can't do it and you have to fight the car all the time.

The Ti is the same thing - too much engine for the setup. Great on an open road or motorway, yes, but dreadful from a stand or under hard acceleration and an absolute bugger on tight corners (frightening understeer).

The 2.0i suits the car best, not the Ti (have sampled both).

So, in summary - I'm not slagging the car for the sake of it, after all I wanted one, but it's just not been thought out enough.

You say "scrabbles for grip and you get MAMMOTH torque steer"

1. Scrabbling for grip is always a possibility because it's FWD; so dumping the clutch with 200BHP on tap takes some discipline! However, it can be reduced if you have good tyres. I recommend Good Year NCT3 (maybe NCT 4 now...) or Pirelli PZero (a great tyre).

2. I've NEVER experienced torque like you describe. The 620 ti has enough weight up front (unlike 220 turbo) and a decent L.S.D. to negate any torque steer. I wonder if (and I'm guessing here) that the car you drove had an ordinary 600 gearbox and diff setup? This can sometimes be found in used cars where non-Rover dealers have replaced the gearbox under warranty with the WRONG type by mistake!

I totally agree with the previous gentleman's point. I once drove one as a courtesy when I was having my 620GSDi serviced, and as soon as you're passed 1st gear, then you can floor it and you're off. Just have to go easy with the clutch in first gear, that's all.

Over all, I thought it was a bloody amazing car, and I well recommend it!!

I've had a 600 ti for almost two years (from new), it is one of the best cars I have ever owned bearing in mind the cost.

It's quite fun looking at BMW 323 drivers faces in the rear view mirror. I haven't found anything under 2.5 (normally aspirated) that can touch it.

Bad news is I'm selling it coz it's nearly two years old, good news is the ZS will be it's replacement, maybe not as fast in a straight line but boy does it handle!

This car is NOT a sports car. It is a fast saloon designed for effortless and safe cruising. It is also a big car, so throwing it around corners is a pointless exercise. It seems that people buy this car thinking that it will perform like a Ferrari. It doesn't. It is instead an excellent cruising machine with shed loads of luxury features and superb performance.

Also, in terms of reliability, if it is looked after and driven with respect, it is a perfectly reliable quality car.

If you buy it and thrash it, you deserve to have it break down on you.

I have owned a 98 Ti for a year and it is slightly tuned. With up-rated front bushes (£50) and Pirelli P-Zero's I get no loss of traction/torque steer at all.

In fact I cannot make the wheels spin very easy at all.

For the record the car is making 201BHP and 214Lbft of torque and goes like stink...

What a car for the money!

I just read some of your comments, and I have some views that I would like to share.

I recently bought a Rover 600, 2.0 TI, from 1998 and I live in Denmark where we have 187% tax on cars + 25% VAT. I paid approx. £10.000 for the car, which is a good price in my tax infested country.

I agree that it is a fantastic luxury car, at a bargain. The leather seats, the electric sun-roof and the cruise control + everything is electronically controlled, windows, mirrors etc.

The car does have some problems like, a boring steering wheel and a boring shift notch and very boring dials.

I have installed a wooden steering wheel and a wooden shift notch along with creme colored dials from Lockwood, and now the car looks and drives like a dream. Once you get used to the somewhat strange clutch, it is fast and comfy to drive.

Next month I am getting a chip tune-up and a K&N filter along side a sports exhaust system, this should put the car @ 245-50 Horsepower and an additional 45-50 NM.

In the rest of Europe cars are relatively cheap, but here we have insane taxes as the only country in Europe, so I find the Rover 600 2.0 TI a fast and wonderful car at it's price, so don't compare it to BMW or Mercedes, because there is a huge price difference (at-least in my tax-hell of a country)

I think the 'scrabbling for grip' is a problem with earlier cars only, I don't think the LSD was not fitted until 1996. I had a '95 model and I agree, grip is a problem in first. The trick was just to use first to get you moving then change up quickly and floor it. If you floor it in first you hit the red line before the turbo comes in anyway because of the lag. Torque steer was also a big problem with my car, but that adds to the excitement of the drive. If you want something that will accelerate in a straight line without the excitement use a train!

I got mine with 18K on the clock and drove it for another 110K on top of that. The only major repairs I had were a head gasket and clutch at around 80K and having to spend £600 on the brakes to get it through its first MOT. As most of my mileage was on the motorway I was getting 40K plus from the Pirelli Pzeros on the front and 36mpg at 75-80 mph.

I loved the car and only changed it because I now commute twice the distance so have had to opt for a diesel.

'Being FWD you can never pull away from traffic lights without shredding (and I mean SHREDDING) the front tyres. This was without even trying...

The engine delivers close on 200 brake, but you can never use it because it's FWD.'

Try telling that to the B18, H22 and K20 Civic boys across the pond, 700 bhp through the front wheels! oh and there are more powerful version than that, giving high power RWD cars a good smacking on the 'strip as well I might add.

RWD is an outmoded, dated concept, FWD is far technically superior! If you're going to say why are there no FWD F1 cars then my answer is simply packaging! it's not a concept that would lend it's self well to the constraints of the design of an F1 car. Witness BTCC FWD cars clobbering RWD cars also. and so far as I recall, there are no current RWD rally cars out there, they're all FWD or 4WD, and by current I mean say, 2006 WRC championship.

If RWD was so much better, then the manufacturers would be building homologation specials based on the mundane staple stuff left right and centre to cash in on the 'advantage' RWD offered.

'Being FWD you can never pull away from traffic lights without shredding (and I mean SHREDDING) the front tyres. This was without even trying...

'Try pulling away from a side road when you have to get a move on and it's back to Quickfit at £130+ a go!'

£130 for a 16" tyre?! Are tyres on ration where you live?! £238 for a full set of four Goodyear NCT5s fitted on my ti. Also try to practice clutch/throttle balance, the throttle isn't an on/off switch.

RWD is the best way to find a ditch in my opinion, I've seen a couple of BMWs in particular display this happy knack of facing the way you were coming from in brief moment! Good for show-boating, not good for going quickly or having proper control over the car.

Stop being a Rover hater because you think it's fashionable, it's not big, nor is it clever!

Fortunately there are some people who actually know the score, I'm one of them ;-)

The comment above this is absolutely splendid, well done.

I agree, but just want to add how seriourly crap bmw 3 series E36 really are they don't even come with electric driver seat and the tool kit in the boot really makes you think the car is not going to break down.

Great car, the 620Ti, but there's no way that FWD can hold a candle to RWD all other thing being equal.

The uncorrupted steering feel of a RWD car is unachievable with FWD, and the rearward weight shift under hard acceleration increases traction on RWD cars, and reduces it on FWD cars. There's also the matter of breaking traction on FWD cars causing at least a partial loss of steering control. On RWD, you still have full directional control, and you have much better directional control with the throttle too.

There are some very good FWD cars, don't get me wrong, and I have the utmost respect for the Ti, but a good RWD car will always be preferable.

I don't think the ti is just a fast safe cruiser, IF you're a good driver it can handle the corners just as well as some smaller cars. It can't out perform the scooby or evo, but with a decent driver it can hold them off. I was always getting them trying it on when I had mine, you know the story, I'm in a scooby, I'm fantastic, but my ti (running 218bhp) could hold them off, yes they were all over the bot, but they couldn't get round me.

The only problem with the ti was the paper gearboxes, and the front windows that always come out of the runners, I spent a fortune on mine but never got them 100%. I'd have another ti any day, they're fantastic cars, I don't know of any other that give you so much for so little.