1991 Rover - Austin 800 820i review from UK and Ireland

I had read about suspect reliability before I bought the car which made my slightly hesitant but it was so cheap as to be ludicrous. It has never let me down a single time and apart from wear and tear items I have hardly had to replace anything. Wiper linkage broke at 58K in a downpour like you've never seen!!! No other unscheduled pit-stops. It does like its front brake pads though. Swapped the exhaust to a bespoke stainless item so never have to fiddle with that again and makes a great, beefy noise.

I'm highly impressed with what this car does for the money. For a two litre in such a big body it's really sprightly, seeing off Golf GTis at the lights and accelerates convincingly at over 100 on the German autobahn. Still gives me 30mpg on average.

Interior comfortable (great Rover smell!!!) but quite a few sqeaks and rattles although nothing has come away. Chassis dynamics the crap of crapness. Chassis flexes on bumpy B-roads like crazy. Bad start. Inadequate dampers give wallowing, pitching and vagueness. Quite disconcerting but not unsafe due to stiff springs (stable on the motorway at speed). The springing seems to be covering an inadequate chassis set up to make sure drivers don't kill themselves. Overall this gives a a jiggly ride and scuttle-shake (in a solid topped car! One for the records)but since they are so cheap to buy one can put up with it. Nobody ever said it was a serious driver's tool. Grip is fantastic though due to v. wide tyres. If you need space, luxury and power on a v. modest budget they're unbeatable.