Holy Cow, you get a lot of MG for your money now!

[keith1983]

Just seen this,
http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/2004-53-MG...item5ae5640e84

Are they decent engines? I'd seriously consider chopping the Vec in for this.

[Beardy]

looks nice but says its a Cat C total loss, prob why its so cheap

[paulvectrac]

Horrid cars mate eat head gaskets aswell for fun plus gear boxes and diffs

[john norris]

you can sit inside and pretend its the early 80's again

[keith1983]

I guess that makes sense then!

[Whosane]

I'd prefer a MG ZT instead.

You can get a decent one for a grand easily.

1.8 Turbo for £895: http://www.autotrader.co.uk/classifi...1500?logcode=p

2.5 V6 for £995: http://www.autotrader.co.uk/classifi...1500?logcode=p

[Beardy]

Horrid cars mate eat head gaskets aswell for fun plus gear boxes and diffs

Yup a common Rover prob them headgaskets

[XPCobra]

I had one, I loved it, The same spec 2.5 v6 180

the kv6 engines very rarely suffer headgasket problems (I have heard of a few, like the vectra)
the PG1 gearboxes are build very well, Again very few problems with them.
The Interior isn't the worst, especially compared to the vectra.
Handle reasonably well too.

You can pick them up for under a grand now,

problems to look out for;

clutch hydraulics (highly recommend a' sheddist kit')
inlet manifold bar falls off (req new manifold, again expensive)
timing belt replacement (not a problem as such but expensive and special timing tools are needed for the 3 belts)
leaking thermostat

Good cars, but I definetly prefer my 06 vec sri.

[Dan_BlackSRi]

Horrid cars mate eat head gaskets aswell for fun plus gear boxes and diffs

Very common on the 1.8's, not common at all on the V6, very good engine, but the price of the belt change is quite high, that's normally when people sell them, when the belts are due, other common issue is with the VIS motors, but this is a quite inexpensive repair.

As said, the ZT is where its at, get a decent CDTi and you have a great car, had two now and really enjoyed both of them.

[Yugguy]

Horrid cars mate eat head gaskets aswell for fun plus gear boxes and diffs

Sorry mate but this completely wrong - I know, I had one. The 1.8s were prone to overheating as they had a very small reserve coolant capacity and if not checked regularly could cause issues.

The 2.5 Kv6 was a belter of an engine and what the engineers did to the suspension with probably less budget than BMWs executive cake bill was amazing. Best handling fwd car ever in my opinion. Light, nimble, sure-footed. It did help that the base Honda actually had a good setup as standard.

Clutchs were only an issue because MG used things like plastic mounting brackets and not metal ones like Honda, however sheddist on the xpower site sells a modded honda kit that solves it completely.

Yes, it is dated inside but if you want a fast, revvy, great handling, great sounding car, the ZS180 is a steal these days. There are a few about though so you don't need to go for a gash one.

VIS motors can be changed for better ones too.

It can also take supercharging nicely - get up to mid 200s bhp.

I get passionate about these cars cos I loved mine and I got fed up with people who knew nothing about them thinking it was just a 45 with a spoiler.