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

New brake discs required at delivery due to severe warping.

New air conditioning pump required at delivery due to extreme noise under use.

Recent water loss from the cooling system although no visible signs of leakage. Dealer unable to find the leak, have to carry water with me everywhere.

Very very quick indeed although heavy wear on the front tyres a consequence. Tyres are expensive P-Zero 205 Z rated asymmetric (approx £100 each tyre).

Also, fuel consumption is significantly higher than my previous 620Si (although this would be expected).

A nice touch is the plain "600" boot-lid badge, only those in the know will be aware of what it is and what it can do (0-60 in 7 seconds, 144mph). I've had it up to 130mph and there was plenty more to come.

Inside is fairly bland, but half-leather is a nice touch.

The Pirellis for the 620 are expensive indeed. Here in New Zealand they are NZ$550 a piece which is about 170 pounds! Besides they wear pretty fast in the front and are notorious for sidewall weakness.

When I faced replacing tyres to my 620ti, I took a look around and found Kumho ECSTA Supra 712 (a very high spec tyre) much better value for money. I got them for NZ$230 each which is about 70 pounds, which is much less than half of Pirelli's price!

So far I've been happy with Kumhos. In addition, with Kumhos the tendency of steering pulling from side to side almost disappeared. Perhaps that's why Pirelli calls the tyre 'Asimmetrico'...

I fitted Fulda Extremo's £70 from an internet tyre dealers, very good - easily the same as the P-Zero's I had before, although not as good as the Dunlops fitted as OE.

I had water loss too. Turned out to be a cracked head, knackered head gasket, dead thermostat and temp sender. P reg ti, 68k. Cost just over £900 to sort, including parts & labour, thankfully I'd bought a warranty which covered all but 10% of the parts!!!

But what a car. Its so funny to watch the faces of RS/GTi owners as theyre left behind by what looks like a Grandad Motor. Love it.

Just a quick note on water loss. I have a 618 which emptied it's cooling system on the front drive. I filled it up again and kept on driving noticing a slight reduction in power. It turned out that the head gasket had blown (at 84,000 miles). As car was three years old I was a bit upset. However car back on the road and running fine. My mechanic was very surprised with gasket failure and stated that this doesn't normally happen till about 150,000 miles with the 1.8 Honda engine.

Unfindable water loss - There's a pipe on the front opf the engine behind the pipe that holds the thermostat. A common fault is for that pipe to warp as it's above the exhaust manifold - any leaks are hidden by direct evaporation on the manifold or from the heat above it - the pipe costs 3.73 from Rover and 5 minutes to replcae - worth a try.

Water loss sounds like head gasket failure. Which is common on this engine I gather as it is a Rover T16, not a Honda if it's a turbo.

Indeed it is a Rover and not a Honda if it has turbo. By the way, I believe the 1.8 is a Rover, and only the 620 and 623 (both not turbos) are Honda's.

Some correspondents seem to imply that if a 600 is unreliable it must have Rover parts. All 600 engines with the exception of the ti are produced by Honda. The Honda units in my experience on these cars and other models are neither better nor worse than the Rover one's The 600ti is however head and shoulders above the rest when it comes to performance.

The diesel engines are Rover units too. Decent engines, but the 600 really shines in its 620ti form!

618 = Honda.

620 = Honda.

623 = Honda.

620d = Rover.

620 Ti = Rover.