Nice Rover 75 4.6 Connoisseur for sale

[EricLC]

It is with regret that I want to sell my wonderful V8, but as I have now retired and moved to the South of France I have less use for such a large an powerful means of transport. I have difficulties finding enough opportunities to find long(er) stretches of motorway, to keep the car in good condition: I avoid using it to do the local shopping as the engine hardly does any revving then.


I bought it in 2013 from Dominique (some of you might know). It has now done approx. 80.000 miles. It has been yearly serviced and up and above that I have had the following work done to the car:




renewed disk brakes with uprated version from 260 club (2016)
repainted the wheels in chrome shadow (2014)
installed rear parcel shelf with Harman Kardon woofer and electric sunblind (2014)
installed uprated heater valve (260 club) (2015)
installed power folding mirrors (2015)
renewed the sunroof rubber seal: preventive, there was no leak (2014)
installed new hydraulic lifters for the bonnet (2016)
renewed underside anti-rust coating (2016)
removed surface rust from sub-frames and treated them with Hammerite black coating (2016)
flushed the automatic gearbox and filled it with new oil (done by specialist in 2016)
changed front light bulbs for Philips Blue vision ones
repainted the roof, bonnet and front bumper, which was completely renewed with a premium bumper Roewe 750 style (see photos)
apart form the above, the fuel clip had already been done, as has the resistor for the cooling fan.
had the rear silencers and pipes polished to a high gloss
Rear Dana LSD had to be refurbished as a number of gears were worn, causing a constant whine (2015)
French MOT valid till June 2019



Needless to say the car is in excellent condition inside and out; the leather interieur is unmarked and in very good condition. Paint has a few minor marks, but nothing serious. Whilst in my possession the car has mostly been garaged.


Color is Starlight Silver (paintcode: MBB), leather interieur is Charcoal, with grey piping.


All electrics work and even the navigation system works fine and has a new set of CD-s (2015). Aircon is ice cold and very effective.


The engine runs smoothly and uses no oil whatsoever and the gearbox has very smooth changes.


There is one minor problem: the enige light is on, caused by fault code P0443, which has to do with the fumes from the fuel tank that are rerouted to the inlet manifold. Environmental system, which has nothing to do with the functioning of the engine itself: that runs fine. You need a specialist to sort this out and they are difficult to find, if not non-existant, here in France.


I hope the above gives you a good impression of the car. I would expect to see offers around the GBP 6.000 mark, which I think is reasonable for a car in this condition.


PM me for photos and information if you are interested.


If we come to an agreement you need to import the car from France; I am willing to take the car all the way up to Calais for the handover, or we can work out another arrangement. I live 70 minutes by car from Nice airport.


Thank you for your interest and reading all of the above.


Eric Le Coultre.

[Tim]

For that price very good value Eric. Sorry to see you sell.

It's a RHD chaps.

[EricLC]

***** This car has now been sold! ******

[scoubix]

***** This car has now been sold! ******

Will it remain in France or did you find a buyer in the UK?

[EricLC]

No it will come back to the UK; I found a very nice buyer who will cherish it as I have done over the past 5 years.

[EricLC]

Hi Tim, thanks for your kind message. I am also sorry it has to go, but it has gone to a UK buyer who no doubt will cherish it and care for it as I have done. So I have a good feeling about it. And keeping the car in France was not an option, due to lack of a proper garage who could keep it in top condition. They are just not existant here in the South of France. You can't have it all I suppose.
Many thanks for all the help and support over the past years. Both the Two Sixties and the Rover 75 forum are great communities for keeping these wonderful cars alive.
Kind regards, Eric.

[SJR]

Hi Eric,

The car is really nice, it performed faultlessly on the journey home, and was so relaxing. Thank you for your help making the sale as easy as possible.

I just thought I should let you know, my Mum broke her wrist when she fell over at the airport, but she didn’t say anything, even though she was in a lot of pain, as she thought I had enough to deal with???? We spent six hours in Macon hospital leaving there at 1.30 am. I won’t easily forget the trip!

Thanks again for all your help.

Best Regards,
Justin

[SJR]

I have already purchased a new gear selector from Dominic.

[David]

Congratulations on your new purchse, Justin. Looks nice!

David.

[Nich]

Many congratulations Justin, how many does that make now?

:)

Nich.

[SJR]

David, Nich,
it is a lovely thing!

I must admit I don’t need 3 V8s, especially when I don’t even commute! I’m just starting to wonder how long we might be allowed/able to drive cars like this, so I went for it. And how often can you buy a car, that only 100? were produced for that kind of money?

[David]

I make it 154 Saloons, of which 36 were LHD. On top of that, 16 'real' R75V8 Tourers, of which 3 were LHD.
That's just what MGR said, and reality may well be something else!

The number of RHD R75V8 Saloons still in existence will be at best near to, or probably a good deal less than your "100", let alone 118.

David

[SCP440]

If this can be believed this might help with the numbers.
https://www.howmanyleft.co.uk/?utf8=%E2%9C%93&q=rover+75+v8&commit=Search

Steve

[David]

If this can be believed this might help with the numbers.
https://www.howmanyleft.co.uk/?utf8=%E2%9C%93&q=rover+75+v8&commit=Search

Steve
Probably not far off, Steve, although there could be some LHD cars registered in the UK to muddy the waters, I suppose. Of the 118 RHD R75V8 saloons, 14 were not originally destined for the UK anyway (Malaysia, S. Africa, New Zealand etc.) which leaves 104 for the UK. Some of the 14 "non-UK" may never have made the intended destination, or been re-imported into the UK. On the other side of the coin, some RHD cars may be residing abroad in between times like EricLC's car! 2007 Q4 show about 90 total registered, and we know of a few that had not be registered at that stage, so about right-ish?

If that is roughly OK, I suppose you could assume that current figures indicating around 70 R75V8 saloon cars still surviving in the UK, would be about right?

David

[SCP440]

Looking at the same site they reckon there are about 300 ZT 260 of all types left in the UK, not a bad survival rate.

Steve

[David]

Looking at the same site they reckon there are about 300 ZT 260 of all types left in the UK, not a bad survival rate.

Steve For the R75V8 Saloon that's 2/3 survival rate, and over 90% of the Tourers. which I guess may be 'better than average', whatever that is!. Then again, the car has a certain appeal that, dare I say it, something like a Marina or a Viva have not. MG ZT survival figures sound pretty healthy too, but still under 50%, much less so than the R75V8 by the sound of it.

David

David

[SteveTD]

Isn't this just an indication of who is using theirs (i.e. getting them TAX'd etc) rather than how many are physically surviving?

[David]

If you add the two columns (including SORN'd cars therefore) you get the number known to the by the DVLA as still registered and existing in the UK and NI. At least that's the way I read it? That will include any UK registered LHD cars too of course.

Abroad for adding up the south-paws is almost impossible that way; they are too scattered, and not all local licensing authorities in different countries make similar data available.

David

[Les4048]

Isn't this just an indication of who is using theirs (i.e. getting them TAX'd etc) rather than how many are physically surviving?
It should be a good indicator as every vehicle should be either on SORN or taxed but I dare say a few will slip through the net

[EricLC]

OK great, that makes one less item to worry over. Let me know how you get about sorting the 0433 fault code.

[David]

The stats of last month's sales, many with actual sales-price achieved, are here Jerry, including EricLC's (sorry SJR's !!) nice R75V8 away down at the end.

https://www.two-sixties.co.uk/mgoc260/html/f0rum/showthread.php?17546-Cars-For-Sale-the-Ins-and-Outs&p=184396#post184396 (https://www.two-sixties.co.uk/mgoc260/html/f0rum/showthread.php?17546-Cars-For-Sale-the-Ins-and-Outs&p=184396#post184396)

David

[David]

... I have to be honest, I am little disappointed the price I paid is in the public domain...

Dreadfully sorry about that, Jerry. I ALWAYS ask seller and buyer (if I know their identities) for email or PM permission to use the figure for the Car Values section, a members only section, explaining how useful it can be for Insurance purposes and judging 'sensible' price-levels for advertising. In this case the seller provided the information. I have removed it immediately, of course, since it would not apparently have been your wish to make it public, even at the 'members only' level.

Apologies again !

David.

[Les4048]

I think everyone knows by now David! :) :)

Keep up your fantastic research.

Don?t worry Jerry as some of us are at an age such things are forgotten :D

[SJR]

Wildrover,
I wouldn’t be too concerned, the true value of these cars is priceless! My brother in law changes his cars every five minutes, he seems to turn up in something different all the time. I have a look over his latest car, go out in it, but I have never thought, that I would swap my 260 for it, even though these have been cars that have cost up to £60,000.

Also, I think my 260 is a really nice example, which I would not sell cheaply. You do see cheap cars for sale, but normally I think that is probably for a reason. I feel I have just had a really good purchase with Eric’s car, but it was for sale in the South of France, coming up to Christmas time, with an incorrect front bumper, and a fault code showing. So that would effect it’s ability to be sold for a top price. I feel that if the car was in the UK it would have sold quickly and at a higher price.

Your recent purchase looks fantastic, enjoy it.

cheers,
justin

[SJR]

It also cost more than you might imagine to get it back into the UK. So to an extent the purchase price is slightly irrelevant.

[David]

Sure you're right there.
However you do it, car-train or driving + ferry/'chunnel', tolls and fuel, not to mention flight to pick up, hotels and food .....
(Even from Holland, I find I'm always around a grand short when I visit the POL on a 5 day trip).

What about the actual costs of re-importing and re-registering (re-testing?) the car in the UK though, Justin?
I assume that's a lot more than the zero you might assume, the car having been 'born' in the UK and exported.

David

[SJR]

Hi David,
I have just sent you a pm, regarding just that.

Justin

[David]

'Sold Price' of BIOMORPHIC re-instated in the Car Values Section, Ins and Outs ... thread.
Thanks for the permission, Jerry. :) It does help a lot to make that list as complete as possible each month.

David