Any opinions on early 90's Rover 214s?

[Lankytim]

My Grandad-in-law is getting rid of his. M reg 5 door hatch 80k 1400 K series engine, had a bit of welding on the rear sills and has got slightly scabby arches, but apart from that its in pretty good order. Loveley half leather trim inside. Ive heard good and bad about these old Rovers, especially the ones with the K series lumps in.

I could get this car pretty cheap. I'm just wondering if it would be more suitable for use on a daily 55 mile commute up the motorway than my current daily driver, a 1988 F reg 1300 OHV mk4 escort L.

The escorts in good condition, very reliable and economical but feels tinny and I wouldnt trust it in a motorway accident, I also feel a bit guilty racking up miles on a 1 owner from new 40,000 mile car that, up until I got my mitts on it lived all its life in a garage.

Any opinions?

[lordyoung1980]

The k series is a great engine IMO.The rover sounds ok and given the choice between a Rover214 and a mk4 escort i'd rather have the rover.But thats cos the escort i had was a piece of curse word and i would never ever have another ford because of it ;D

[Hirst]

My dad had one and ran it into the ground pretty much, it kept on going strong, he was doing hundreds of miles a week in it on the motorway and it had something like 140K on when he stopped using it. After a few weeks it wouldn't start again, make of that what you will.

[PhoenixC]

MK4 escorts feel tinny but are actually quite a solid car. Rovers feel a solid car but are actually fairly lightweight. I don't think there will be a great deal of differences with regards to strength of either.
Is the rover a single point injection or multi point. Multi points are quite a bit quicker and generally more reliable in my experience.

Rover is probably the better car of the two but they are not particularly good handling and have quite a light front end with too much assistance on the steering. But they are quite good on the motorway

[daverapid]

:)Biggest worry is head gasket failure on the K series engine. Common faults on the Rover include the rear of the sills rusting as you know, corrosion of the front crossmember where the tie rods fit, dodgy central locking/immobilizer, rear suspension radius arm bushes,water pump and radiator failure,and other stuff that I've no doubt forgotten! I make the Rover sound terrible, but it isn't. The Escort has just as many, if not more common faults, particularly corrosion,but it is more straightforward to work on.

The Rover is definately a better motorway car than the Escort, especially the MPi version, the SPi is a bit "boomy" under acceleration.

Is having both cars an option?

[arthurbrown]

LANDFILL.

[st182]

he hee not keen Mr pog?

I quite like them . The engines are great (i've had a multipoint 1400 and a 1600 k series in the past) and they rev forever, especially the 14.

My brother ran a 214 SEi for a couple of years when he bought his house, and despite being a low miler (57 K i think) he still had a few problems with it, alternator wiring I think, and a couple of other things.

So I think compared to the equivalent hatch (Eg mk5 escort, Mk3 astra of that era) they are more fun to drive and have great engines, at the cost of reliability. Also cost of parts is dearer than ford / vauxhall arent they?

My 2p's

[akku]

Ford fans close your eyes...

The Mk3/Mk4 Escort is deplorable in a crash, especially side impacts where even when new they ripped apart at the sills leaving no strutcutral rigidity.

IIRC they were rated red/red in the Swedish insurance assessment list back in the lat 80s when I last looked at one. That is to say the risk of injury is higher than average when involved in an accident in one and that the risk of any occuring injury being severe is higher than average.

They were also rated in about the lowest safety group (along with the Sierra) when I saw data when I worked at Vehicles Ergonomics Dept at a local University. Of the 5 groups the Escort was in the bottom. The 2CV and Reliant Robin were rated as safer.

Remember thats compared to other cars of the 1980s which often aren't the most roadsafe cars anyway...

So if safety is your concern do not drive a mk3/mk4 Escort.

My experiances with the Rover are that I had a 416GSi auto which was a low mile car and fairly new when I owned it. Nice car. Rode well, handled OK, reasonable economy and very reliable. Only issue to report is that the front brake discs are liable to warp.

A mate also owned a 218D (non turbo!) and although it was slow as a slow thing to drive he beat the snot out of it for a few years (did like 90miles a day in it and it had 140K on the clock when he bought it for like £350) He only serviced it once and was still going strong right up to the moment the cam belt snapped....

Clutch cables are apparently a weak point on manual cars.

[vicsmith]

A well looked after, well sorted 200/400 is a really nice car to drive and not bad on the motorway, a neglected one is head gasket city plus the immobilsers f*ck up and eventually ECUs pack up if they're left standing for too long. Having said that, I always had more bother with the newer bubble shape ones on both fronts, the square shape ones I sold were always less trouble despite being older cars. (I no longer buy any apart from the diesels).

One way you guard against Head gasket failure is to change the coolant and flush the system regularily. The radiator is only half the size of normal ones so its efficiency can be compromised more easily than most, which is probably the root cause of these head gasket failures in the first place.

[bstardchild]

Nice pedal position excellent for heel and toe work

Engine pulls well for it's size

Head gaskets are a problem as stated above

Lovely Pensioner image ;D

[surprisingskoda]

it looks nicer than the escort.
SORTED.

[Lankytim]

Saying about how unsafe escorts are, ive seen pictures of atleast 2 mk3/4s that have ripped apart flush with the end of the sills and been told its a feature of the model if you have a serious smash, rust in those areas doesnt help matters at all. I remember talking to a retired traffic cop a couple of years or so ago who said "most cars are pretty good, one car id NEVER travel in is the mk4 escort" something to do with the roof bending in a head-on and the sunroof taking the top of the drivers head off. My model is also a 3 door, so theres a vast expase of tinny sheet steel and a door trim protecting you from the outside world in a side impact. If it were a 5 door it wouldnt have been so bad as atleast theres a door pillar right next to you.

Make no mistake, I think this mk4s a great car, its reliable, nippy handles well and feels really "factory fresh" with it being a low miler. I was told the original owner never took it over 50! The only rust is a few blebs on the rear arches. Its too young to be "retro" in my eyes but its still a great old motor thats been looked after. In the back of my mind though......... I just don't feel comfortable on a busy motorway in it. I see bad accidents on the motorways at work with brand new cars and cant help imagining how my litttle escort would have stood up in that situation. Morbid I know.

This Rover is IIRC 16valve MPI but id have to double check. Its recently had its water pump replaced and had the rear bushes done about 6 months ago. Never had any HG problems while the old guys had it. The clutch cable is tight and needs doing, infact I was going to do it this weekend but Grandad-in-law has been offered a 2000 Skida Felicia dirt cheap so hes having that and this rover is now homeless.


The problem with the ECU'S packing up is far more common on later models where the alarm/immobiliser is ran from the the same ECU as the engine and apparently it cant take the load and eventually the ECU breaks and locks you out forever.

Thanks for all the input guys!

[dollywobbler]

Not a huge fan of modern cars but we had a later "bubble" 400 with the K series. Cracking little motor. Nippy and we used to regularly get over 40mpg, even with "iron hoof" me behind the wheel!

The earlier boxier Rovers are known by their development code of R8 and if anything, seem more resiliant to HGF than later 1.4s. Change the coolant every two years and keep your fingers crossed!

Can't even begin to compare one with an Escort to be honest. The Rover wins hands down.

[Lankytim]

daverapid said:

Is having both cars an option?

Not really, Any car I have that ends up off the road and in a garage for a long amount of time often never sees the road again. Much better to pass one of them on to someone else to enjoy now, besides these are both just daily drivers, automotive white goods (don't know where i stole that quote from!) theres no sense in having two of them.

[Mr_Bo11ox]

I like em, a 1400 multipoint K one is a great little chariot, they love a proper caning (just like ya mam, etc etc) Handling is not astonishing but its not bad either, they are great to tonk down a backroad in, much better than they look.

[milfordcubicle]

I've had two of these, a wedgy 200 and a wedgy 400 (basically the same) - both great cars. The handling is very good for what is a mass-market slab of blandness, neutral and chuckable. Neither had terminal or MOT-failable rust despite being a bit shagged and

I've never had any problems with the K-series motors, must be lucky... The underpinnings are practically indestructible, I took my 200 serious off-roading a lot, just for the comedy value ;D, and nothing dropped off and it still handled and steered as usual.

[daverapid]

Slightly off-topic, but I haven't seen a 400 Touring for ages! I reckon they will become rare and collectable.......maybe!

[Lankytim]

I see a touring parked up on someones drive in Willenall every day, its got nice wheels on and looks the bizz, Estates have aged much better than the hatches/saloons IMHO.

[J.P]

2 experinces with Keries engines, first 8v K the headgasket went. Then a 16v K the thermostat stuck and boiled, lucky no HG damage.

Just keep the water in check and thermostat, remove/replace probably straight away.

The 1400 16v K rev's to 7k No problems, engine swaps are a plenty too. MGF VVC 18 engines are as good as a straight swap bar one mounting and gear linkage AFAIK.

[Pillock]

There's a guy where I work with a 416 (i.e. Saloon) 2-door.... just looks weird! Wouldn't have thought the limited numbers would have made all the tooling worthwhile, last time I saw a mass-produced 2-door saloon was a Cortina.

I hear they're pretty good cars, better than the reputation suggests. I also hear that if you're sensible with servicing, especially coolant, then headgaskets are no more of a problem than in any other car. However I also sometimes hear voices, so don't listen to everything I say