MK1 Vitesse Genuine I think not.

[Trev boy]

Ok.wellthats a load of nit picking about my car.thanks lads
Does that mean I have to dig a hole or crawl back under my rock,I don't think so.
At the end of the day it's not a perfect car so it's not £2400 quid,but it's bloody solid and straight including inside the sunroof
Now I've got it working,and it goes like stink.
Anyone who had this car with their name on the log book wouldn't let it go for a couple of hundred quid
Yes it used to be a auto model,so what.i travelled the length of the country to get it cos of what it is now
Paul is right ,yes I'm in two minds on selling it so am going to hold on to it for a while.ive never been in a hurry to sell it
I just thought someone else would like to enjoy it an I could get my space back
The body issues are minimal,I've cut and polished it once.if it was done again it will be very presentable

Ok I've now got that of my chest and in writing
We should be supporting these cars not nit picking like little school girls

[BlueRover]

Good response.

With the recent threads on here regarding prices, it's probably high time that we all made up our minds where we see the future of the 800 as a modern classic.

£10,000 for a Mk1 tickford?

You've got a nice car there trev, don't take less than £1500.

I'll take £7,000 for mine.

[traineefarmer]

That's the spirit!

[Trev boy]

It shouldn't be about boasting about how big mine is to yours and what flavour it comes in.
These cars need looking after,if the price rises aren't tomorrow or next week so what.the time will come but these cars are certainly not scrap value cars.mk1 escorts were once remember,now look at them

[dollysprint]

Here you go Paul, it was converted to a manual due to failure of the ATF cooler pipes :

http://www.rover800.info/forum/viewtopi ... 15&t=12908

Would have been easier to chuck in an aftermarket cooler for £30 complete with new rubber hoses! Or use some 8mm rubber hose and jubilee clips to replace the OE pipework. Seems a lot of work and money for the sake of some rubber hose but there you go!

Why not? The failure of the pipes meant that the owner had the perfect excuse A Vitesse should be a manual, anyway - just as Sterlings should be autos (my opinion, of course).

I like the look of this car and would be seriously interested if I didn't live a whole continent away from it!

Couldn't agree more, and although my 2.0 litre Coupe isn't a Vitesse I do believe the 2.0 litre is a better car in manual form restoring performance and economy but slightly sacrificing leisure. And so when the autobox started rattling and despite having spare autoboxes I chose to take the opportunity to convert to manual, but did I just devalue the car by converting it??

Some will say yes, some will say no and many will say a 2.0 litre nasp Coupe has so little value anyway it probably hasn't made much difference in all honesty.

In converting a Mk1 Vitesse from auto to manual then the previous owner made a rare car into an even rarer car so should the value increase??

I remember Triumph Tr6 owners converting their de-tuned 125bhp cars back to the original 150bhp and feeling very happy with themselves. These same owners (who absolutely hated the 2.0 litre TR7) would raise their noses in the air when a genuine TR8 pulled into the car park and positively wipe you off their shoe if you pulled in with a TR7 V8 conversion.
Okay so that was just unjustified snobbery, but some conversions do add value but there will always be those who will say it never left the factory that way.

As too values, I'm one of those who have enjoyed the days of £50 800's, it also meant I had way too many of them at the same time, with no real worth and thankfully those days have gone. Not because the cars increased in value but because scrap prices rose and made any lump of metal with 4 wheels worth £150-£200.

So is the 800 a classic, what determines that? and won't the marketplace always determine the price??

We can ask whatever we like for our cars, doesn't mean we'll get it but we can live in hope but for the moment we still face a situation where certain spare part prices are determining the fate of some cars and we do need that to change otherwise they will all but disappear.
We on here now know how rare an 827 i manual fastback is (34 uk registered from new) but few will search one out on here let alone newcomers who will all search for Sterlings and Vitesses in the same way that I once searched out a late 5 speed drophead TR7 and never considered an early 4 speed fixedhead. Rarity doesn't guarantee classic status, rightly or wrongly, and yet most agree that there is a certain charm to poverty spec 800's.
Perhaps my early venture into classic Triumph's has skewed my views, nearly all of those were classics within 5 years of their demise or the demise of the Triumph name in 1984..............but Rover has been gone 10 years come May and the last 800 will be 17 years old come September, lets hope we haven't missed the boat.

Dave

[SJG]

Do you think that about the Triumphs Dave? The TR7 is only just starting to move upwards, certainly more than 5 years. So perhaps some cars just take longer? Salient points as ever Dave, pleasure to read.

[dollysprint]

I do think that 7's levelled out very quickly, I paid £1500 for my 1982 drophead in 1988, okay it was only 6 years old but I can't remember decent dropheads ever going much below that. In the same year I paid £600 for an immaculate series 3 Allegro, also on an X plate. By 1990 you had the likes of S&S Preparations and Robsport and Rimmers and Cardinal Triumph amongst others all catering for various Triumphs with the first 2 almost exclusively TR7. By 1995 I had agreed insurance on the 7 for £3400 and in 2002 I viewed a TR8 priced at £7000, which almost exactly mirrored its 1982 list price in the States(converted back to pounds). Okay so Triumph, MG, Austin Healey et al are probably in a different league and the late eighties/ early 90's saw a massive rise in the classic car scene but there did seem to be a different feel back then. But like I say perhaps my view is skewed by the cars that I was into. Perhaps we should view 800's in the P6, SD1 class, which is what they really are but even here P6's and SD1's did provoke interest quicker than 800's and a £500 basket case SD1 could make a rough 800 look concourse! Maybe it was just a different world.

Dave

[zedoner]

No one has mentioned insurance. When I converted a Mk2b Vitesse using Mk2a 827 Sterling auto running gear many insurance companies would not quote on it. Some quoted silly money and one or two quoted high. Insurers do not like deviation.
If the DVLA are not notified of the change then the MOT station should pick it up as they are all computerised now so higher premiums may be incurred.

Of course, there is nothing wrong with changing your own car to suit your own needs. My Mk1c Vitesse auto has a Honda legend steering wheel and Honda cruse control. Mk2 skins on the front seats, Mk2b black door card inserts in the cream door cards. Mk2 door pockets. Honda Legend upper front strut stays, Mk2b Vitesse anti roll bars back and front and a host of other non standard stuff. Do I care? Not a flying Fcuk but could my car ever command a premium as a future classic – No.

Some 800s might make classic status and command good prices in the future but just like any other classic they will need to be unmolested, well cared for, all original and lower mileage examples.

As I see it, the Vitesse in question is ripe for a best of breed project. Fit cruise control, fit Mk2b anti roll bars, fit wider Mk2 front door pockets, fit a Mk2 centre lamp in addition to all the other interior lamps. If you can find any, fit Honda Legend Mk1 front strut upper stays. Make it your own and it does not matter if it will never command a huge price because you will never want to sell it.

The looks I get from drivers of modern cars when a 25 year old Rover is setting the pace on the motorway for miles and miles is quite satisfying.
As is the roar from the induction kit when plebs in their hot hatches think they can blow an old man in a big old Rover from the lights.

In the mirror, I see the smiles on their faces as I pull away from them and the sticker in my rear window becomes visible – “Drive it like you nicked it”.

[Richard Moss]

Re: TRs.

I have always found the TR scene to be one of the most snobby around - even worse than the "separate chassis" (ie: pre MGB) MG scene. A TR8 would run rings around a TR6 - in fact, my old Sprint engined TR7 did just that.

[midnite]

Re: TRs.

I have always found the TR scene to be one of the most snobby around - even worse than the "separate chassis" (ie: pre MGB) MG scene. A TR8 would run rings around a TR6 - in fact, my old Sprint engined TR7 did just that.

richard, i find that a LOT of classic car clubs/owners are like that now, because the cars have appreciated so much in the last ten years, you have a completely different demographic of people that own them, i.e., mk1 and 2 escorts rs, i had tons of these back in the day, and going to rs shows was great fun as owners back then were ford and driving sideways enthusiasts, now most of them are obnoxious self obsessed nasty people, the only interest is to run down other peoples cars, and harp on about how much theres is worth, and to try and make out there various clubs are some sort of exclusive membership.

dsg is similar to now, few cars about, values not over high, and some club members charging extortionate prices for rare parts, if people can't afford to restore or repair there cars, there will be no club and zero interest in the cars, and then no value in the cars.

a club or forum is only as good as its members, if they are shit, then the club will be worthless and the interest in the cars will die out eventually as only only the top end cars will survive in the hands of boring investors who have no interest in the cars only profit.

[scoobyh123]

Insurance is a major scam - i renewed my Sterling insurance the other day at a cost of £177 for the year. While on the phone, i got a quote for the (recently acquired) SLi and to my horror, was quoted £1159.85. I simply said "Why?".

Apparently it's not a classic. It's about 6-7 months older than my coupe and about the same younger than my Sterling, both of which are insured with the same broker and underwriter (Lancaster and Allianz respectively) on classic policies. They argued that it wasn't old enough (under 30 years) so i pointed out the above. They then said because it wasn't a Sterling, Vitesse or a coupe, it still wasn't a classic.

As such it had to go through on one of their "normal" policies that they "don't specialise in and are therefore not so competitive".

I could insure it for about £300 a year with Brian the Robot but frankly i don't want the grief of keeping track of No Claim Bonus or paying nearly double the premium for a car that won't even be used as much as either of the other two. The only advantage would be a "spare car" in case both of the other two ended up off the road. Unlikely but it could happen i suppose.
For the time being the jury is still out on it's fate. I've had a tentative offer already, i've fixed most, if not all the minor faults it had when it came to me so is more or less ready to put in for an MoT which to the best of my knowledge, it should pass.

The other alternative is strip it for spares, sell the factory grey leather interior and the 17" Vit Sport alloys (with near new tyres) and any other bits i don't/won't need. Most of the reason i bought it was to save it from being scrapped when the previous owner was "PCS'd" either back to the USA or somewhere else round the globe. As such i'm reluctant to strip it.

The big question for me is why the hell should i do either because one broker can't recognise the fact that although it's not a top of the range car, it is still a classic in it's own right and if i do strip it for spares, that's one less car for them to collect a premium on?

By the way, i disclosed the factory leather and 17" alloys (optional at the time i believe) and the only thing they wanted to know is if it had locking wheel nuts! As pretty much everyone knows, the OE Rover locking nuts aren't exactly hard to remove so i replied "Yes, for what they are worth!" - sadly wasted on the girl the other end though! The leather and the wheels didn't effect the premium either, so why ask?

Rant over!!! Insurance for most of us is just a necessary evil and a licence for some less than scrupulous individuals to legally print money in the form of insurance documents.

[traineefarmer]

In these days of purely online policies, keeping track of your no-claims is not so difficult. It would be a shame to break a good car just for the sake of petty brokers.

[scoobyh123]

You're right Paul, not only is my broker taking the p!ss, i think they must be on the p!ss as well!!! Either that or on drugs and if they're not, they should be!

As i mentioned in my long post above, i can insure it through Brian the Robot aka confused.com for about £300 and start building up a no claims bonus again. Been on classic policies for about 7 years now so haven't got any NCB for a "normal" policy.

Tom - i didn't even think about the NCB being easier to keep track of thanks to online policies. I can't remeber all the in's and out's of it now but last time i had NCB was on my old work van about 8 years ago and i had transferred my car NCB to my van as i didn't have a car at the time, just the van. Long story short, the policy ended and i had sold the van and despite there being nothing owing on the policy, i couldn't get my proof of NCB from the insurers. It was done through GoCompareVan but i can't remember any more than that. They claimed they had sent it to me but they hadn't and refused to send me a duplicate.

I mentioned i had a tentative offer on the car anyway which changed to a definite offer today. Just waiting on the deposit to be 100% certain then it's fate will be sealed. It won't be going far, just round the corner in fact.

[traineefarmer]

I've been using online policies for 10 years now, Privilege, Swiftcover, and Admiral. Never had to make a claim thank goodness, but being able to set up a policy in the late evening after work rather than spend 2 hours on the phone during office hours counts for a lot. They have all had facilities to print off cover documents, full policys and NCB proofs from their sites.

[scoobyh123]

That counts for a lot, being able to not only insure but print off documents in the wee small hours.

Had a bad experience with Admiral 20 ish years ago that nearly cost me my licence, a monumental fine and would have cost me for several years after when i changed cars and instead of changing from Car1 to Car2, they changed from Car1 to Car2 then back to Car1. I got it sorted plus an admission of their mistake and an assurance i would have been covered on the correct car faxed to the court else i would have been done for no insurance, collected 6 points and a hefty fine all due to their incompetence.