Pages

Monday 8 November 2010

And the new arrival is...

RELAX. It's a Rover.

The long-gone Longbridge concern's old ad slogan couldn't have rung more true the first time I gave the latest arrival on the Life On Cars fleet its first proper run, heading for home up the M57. Sporty this £300, 1995 Rover 214 isn't, despite it coming in a rather fetching shade of British Racing Green. If there's one word to sum up this icon of Hyacinth Bucket motoring it's... comfortable.

Thanks to it being winter I've only actually driven it in the dark so far, hence the car you see above not being the exact one sat outside, but already it's impressing me with its plush trimmings and soothing suspension. I like the tasteful - if restrained - styling, both inside and out, and the way the revvy Rover K-Series engine seems to mate perfectly with the Honda heritage in the engineering. I like the half-leather seats and the (plastic) wood trimming, and the way it comes loaded with things like electric windows and an immobiliser that works. And my mates love the fact that - for the first time ever - I'm driving something with five doors!

Where the Renault, with its flyweight engineering and suspiciously powerful engine, was a hot hatch in disguise, the regal old Rover's much more grown up, but there's lots to like about it. On wet, nasty November nights, it's nice to step into something that soothes your brow as you head home.

I'm so relaxed, in fact, that I haven't even bothered to ask the obvious questions yet. Is the notoriously fickle K-Series engine going to blow a head gasket? Are the strangely solid-looking sills hiding a lifetime of rot? And - most worryingly - is my choice of a Rover as my latest purchase meaning I'm about to prematurely celebrate my fiftieth birthday?

All, I'm sure, will be revealed in the coming weeks.

UPDATE: No more reading the manual for me, thanks to a Top Gear tuition video in all things Rover 200! Cue a very 1989 looking Chris Goffey...

6 comments:

  1. After read your articles from your website i have found a lot of information which you have described about a new arrival car because traveling is necessary for us and people are find a best travel services so that he can be easily travel. Life on car is one of the best company which is providing a affordable services for all customer. Beside this many business man go into another country for starting a new business so for this purpose you find a cheap airline ticket according to your budget.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Most of the people are searching for opposite of enhance. You will be amazed to know that augmented reality is the opposite of virtual reality.

    ReplyDelete
  3. what does augment means? augment is defined by the lexicographers at Oxford Dictionaries as Make (something) greater by adding it to increase.

    ReplyDelete
  4. your article is to nice..Visit my Website..
    url = http://sstravel.pk

    ReplyDelete
  5. Your Article to nice...Visit my on Website..
    url = http://sstravel.pk

    ReplyDelete
  6. Having answered the question, ‘what does augment mean?’ let us bring it into the context of augmented reality.

    Following our definition, to augment reality would simply be to ‘make reality greater by adding to it.’ Is this what augmented reality does? Oh, yes! It is a technology that ‘augments’ our ‘reality.’ What that means is that it enhances what we know as reality, that is, our real-world objects and environments.

    ReplyDelete