Square Wheel Award

What was actually the problem Mike?
Trivial compared to Mr Rouse.

I've pieced it together based on a few of the bits of paper I saved with my delivery docs.
On delivery the bonnet release did not function properly and there was a great deal of paint over spray and evidence of general body work having been done, relatively poorly, before delivery. We set off pretty well straight away for Scotland to "run in" the car. Almost immediately one of the fuses blew and after struggling to open the bonnet, discovered that there were no spare fuses. On the first petrol stop the car filled with petrol fumes. Light pressure on the back of the front passenger seat caused it to fall away.
On stopping to jack the car up to look for the petrol leak, discovered oil leaking fairly heavily from the final drive, automatic transmission and engine sump. Thought I'd better check levels and after struggling to open the bonnet noticed quite a bit of oil leaking from the steering box.
Rubber around the front quarter window had come adrift, misaligned bonnet had rubbed paint off front fender.
Car tended to stall when slowing down, yet the transmission wanted to surge away rather than creep. There were clunks in the drive train and front suspension.

So those were the items to which the Rover company was responding.

Subsequently, before the first service, the carpets in the floor wells became totally saturated with water presumably due to lack of proper sealing somewhere in the base unit.
There were numerous other things which have faded in my non-existent memory, but I did take the car up to Solihull and leave it with them for about a week before I left England.

Travelling in Europe when the car was between 12 and 18 months old, the voltage regulator gave up in northern Finland.
At a service in Malmö Sweden they diagnosed that the transmission leak was due to "Plain washer for flange was missing on the gearbox" . This may have lost something in translation but suggests that whatever remedial action was taken by the Rover company previously had missed this item, or perhaps caused it.

Clearly the design of the car was brilliant for its time it is a pity the execution was so lacking.

Anyhow forty-seven and a half years later none of this really matters.
And whilst I shudder to tally how much it has cost over that time truth is it has survived rather well. Getting it out of Europe's climate and salted roads no doubt helped.
 
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Wow, you must have been a very patient man Mike! With a start like that it is very impressive to hold on to it for 47 years, but as you say taking it away from wet salty roads has resqued it.
Regards, Barten
 
Shocking list of faults there Mike, especially from Rover at that time!
Glad you got thing sorted eventually and kept the car all this time. Such a nice spec too, in Brigade red I'm guessing?

To deviate entirely, I noticed from your letter that you were staying at Kenilworth Court at the time. Do you remember any filming taking place there? There was a film released around that time starring the wonderful Edwige Fenech that featured the place prominently.
 
Wow, you must have been a very patient man Mike! With a start like that it is very impressive to hold on to it for 47 years, but as you say taking it away from wet salty roads has resqued it.
Regards, Barten
Basically when I got it home I swapped it with my father (for his FIAT 2300) and he died suddenly 15 months later, so the car was not used for a number of years before I could bring myself to drive it again.
Then it was always an "extra" car in the family. Our son and daughter both had it when they started to drive (decades ago) It has only done 160,000 miles and I think 25k were in the first 18 months.
The grandkids enjoy playing in it, and in mild weather i.e. below 27C I still enjoy driving it, it still feels comfortable. (at 39C it does feel warm without a/c)
It will,barring catastrophic failure, always have a place somewhere in the family circle.
 
in Brigade red I'm guessing? Yes, with Buckskin interior.

To deviate entirely, I noticed from your letter that you were staying at Kenilworth Court at the time. Do you remember any filming taking place there? There was a film released around that time starring the wonderful Edwige Fenech that featured the place prominently.
Not aware of that one Peter but the building did appear in an episode of "New Tricks" which we saw on rerun a couple of years ago.
 
Thanks for the reply Mike.
Apparently almost everyone at the assembly line could not have cared less, which is very sad.
Various faults aside, what impressed me most are the "evidence of bodywork and overspray". A new car could probably have some faults back in the day, but crashed and repaired... well, this is something totaly different.
 
Not aware of that one Peter but the building did appear in an episode of "New Tricks" which we saw on rerun a couple of years ago.

Ah yes, I've remember that episode too.
The film I mentioned came out in '71 I think, probably filmed in the autumn/winter beforehand. Next time I see it I'll look for a red P6 parked up, though I'm sure I would have remembered seeing one!
 
Thanks for the reply Mike.
Apparently almost everyone at the assembly line could not have cared less, which is very sad.
Various faults aside, what impressed me most are the "evidence of bodywork and overspray". A new car could probably have some faults back in the day, but crashed and repaired... well, this is something totaly different.
Hi Demetris
Don't think it was crashed in any major way, may have been scraped and repaired. (But also had that type of repair on a new 1979 Alfasud Sprint, which they happily rectified under warranty.)

An interesting book, which addresses attitudes in the British car industry of the era and shoots home responsibility to management, is "Management Kinetics" by Carl Duerr an American who was brought in by the Norcross greeting card company to run Jensen Motors. Worth reading for his management views as well.
 
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