220 SDi Motoring Review by Dave Swinfen.

[220Deano]

I have been given permission by Dave Swinfen, the owner of this article to reproduce it here for the forum, hope you enjoy it:


"Rover 220 SDi

Last week I was lucky enough to be invited to day three of the F1 testing at Silverstone. I was not overly interested before the event, but I left that Thursday evening with my ears ringing and an Official Flo-Orange Maclaren team shirt under arm. I managed to score a further free ticket for the Friday final practice, only to have it cruelly whipped away from me by my friend, who cut his holiday short and decided he did in fact need to go to all three race weekend days. Gutted. Now if I tried really hard, I could have got some tickets for Sunday from ebay, to the tune of around three hundred quid. I could even have tried the ghastly Ticketmaster Hotline, which has previously taught me that if you hold “0” on the handset and repeatedly hit your phone on the desk, you sometimes get through to a human. And it got me thinking that, as much as I love my cars, that was just too much.

I tend to hold this view also when it comes to my daily drive. There must be a lot of people in the UK who are happy to pay value added tax on the acquisition of a new car, from their already heavily-taxed incomes. To those who do not have the luxury of such carefree disposability of money, the only option of course is to go second hand. When one’s budget is less than a thousand pounds, the choice of involving, practical cars is rather limited. Two years ago I picked up a rather unassuming Rover 220 SDi for buttons. And what followed has been a love affair of Oliver-esque proportions. Before the test drive, I decided that I needed something cheap to run that I could drive to work in that day, and carelessly assumed the Blue Blob would accelerate like a tortoise with a hard-on. Maximum wrongness....

The engine is torquey and strong. The steering is reassuringly meaty on full lock and detailed around the straightahead. I like the businesslike drone of the diesel, mated to the loud acoustic whistle of the turbo. I love the lack of low-profile tyres and sports suspension, because it means I can bounce forward up kerbs when my hangover prevents my brain from computing parallel parking distances. I love the fact it must be comical to 323Ci drivers to see such an inconspicuous shape rocket them past at 115. And I adore the fact a Romanian reversed into her in the Asda car park, removing his back bumper and leaving my front end without a scratch. I love the solid old tape player which negates any need for an auxiliary socket for my tape-adaptor equipped MP3. Some of my friends bemoan the lack of cabin toys. These are people who go into Woolworth’s for a packet of chewing gum and come out with a Lost DVD box set and a plastic light sabre. For someone who cannot understand why their washing machine has fourteen different settings when I only ever use 40 degrees “Normal”, this agricultural simplicity has endless appeal.

The SDi is comfortably faster than my Alfa GTV, massively more involving than my 230k Kompressor and far less tiring on the motorway than my Mk3 Polo GTI. And if ever my lifeplanTM works out and I can afford a sixties sports car whose badge begins with an M, this will still be my chosen second ride, reserved for that frantic 10.25am Macdonalds run, when I am absolutely sure I want a Mcmuffin rather than a Big Mac. I've removed so much litter from my car this weekend that I've probably brought four tenths of a second to my lunchtime Pizza Hut run. Perhaps that was what Alonso meant.

There is no traction control. I do not need some deluded, electronic matron sat metaphorically on my shoulder, chirping orders at me and telling me what I cannot do. That is the remit of the Highways Agency. One day I will own a supercar. I know this because I have been promising myself since I was eleven. But then Ferrari’s are not fun cars. They are driven by Business Development managers who bore their friends with differential settings, and who drive with a serious expression, as if they are trying to suppress a bowel movement. At the end of the day, my SDi gets me from A-B quickly and cheaply and with a smile on my face. Which means you have more time and money to spend with your mates. Which makes it the best lifestyle accessory money can buy.

I like the fact my car never was, and never will be, cool. I become riled when I hear a poorly spoken Brummie on XFM telling me to “get urban.” I am urban, for heaven’s sake. I live in Leamington Spa. Yes I am proud to say my only council-estate-spec mod has been a Cat Replacement pipe, which gives some extra shove and makes the 220 smell like a Cromer lifeboat. Priceless. Thanks, Mastercard.

The only other replacement part it’s required thus far is a nearside shock absorber, caused by a thoughtless and rather narcissistic 30 kilogram fox, which selected my vehicle as a regal and rapid means to a lifestyle choice conclusion. My car is now de-catted. The A45 is now de-foxed.

The FIA is already coming round to my way of thinking by outlawing such fripperies as traction control. Maybe next year when Lewis rocks up at work in a P-reg 220, then finally something may be done about the inflated ticket prices.

All material (C) 2009 Dave Swinfen. Reproduction and distribution prohhibited without consent."


If you would like to read a few other car reviews he has done then please go to his website at the below address:

http://www.catalina.me.uk/index.html

[great_kahn]

Good stuff lol! Some great quotes in there.

[zr-derek]

Good read, really enjoyed it!

Reminded me how i felt about my cars before the ZR, used to drive them callously but loved them really!

[Torkenstine]

i used to really like my sdi maybe even loved it once, but no more, its just fast
and thats cos ive made it that way.

sure countless times ive wound up ********s in beemers and left over eager middle aged men in there new toy in a cloud of my smog,

but its just a car.............just a car

[ZedR 160]

Great read. The most fun cars to drive are the ones without all the computers doing the driving for you, keeping you on the road because you are incapable of doing it yourself. My 1.2 corsa was so much fun to drive and so is my zr because its simple. Although power steering is nice