Just Wondering if anyone has any experience with these cars? from what I've read if you are handy with mechanics they are a pretty cool car for the money...

Anybody on here owned or know much about the cars?

Thinking of selling probably the lowest milage polo mk2 saloon left to get one so I don't want anything unreliable!

Mike.

Don't buy one if u want reliable. For the money surely an mx5 of similar value woukd be more worthwhile and reliable.

everyone says that about the mx5 but they look so crap in comparison, have you had one mattie? there seems to be a lot of hearsay surrounding these cars! most of which is every time you go to the shop you will have to change the headgasket lol

Don't get me wrong there both pretty much the same car mx5 is proven to have a better engine and chassis in terms of handling. But the mg is still a good car but the engine being a k series isn't great pretty tunable if u like fiddling with engines. Head gaskets are a real problem on the mg though u need to find out if it's been down before or not if it has be careful make sure it been done properly and with the new design metal gasket. Apart from that you choice really and how much money you have to spend if it was me I would go with the mx5 but there down side is gearboxes if been driven hard all there life they tend to be hard to change gear when getting to the higher milage ones and rust I haven seen one yet to not have rust on it.

I wouldn't get a MGf awful build and they suffer with head gasket issues also. Mx5 much better car. Just check body work on older ones. My brother was looking at getting one last year and we had a look around some and they are good value for money.

I've had an mg tf and my mate had an mx5 and for me the better car was the tf.

The mg is harder to get the tail end out on as its mid engine and rear wheel drive.

The mx5 was easier.

The mg has a much stiffer chassis and if you go for the 160 it would eat the mx5 alive.

Mx5s rust and i mean rust. The mgs less so.

Check the subframes on the mg and also all the horror stories about headgaskets gets on my nerve.

If the headgasket goes then its cheaper to fix than a service on a runaround.

The other thing that looks like hgf is the inlet manifold gasket when they break.

Also check the coolant pipes from from to rear.

Hgf can affect any car and there are enough threads about vw suffering hgf.

If you need advice from somebody that is unbiased then send me a pm. Alot of people jump on the mg /rover bashing bandwagon and it winds me up.

Much as I hate Rovers in almost all guises - Here's a mind bender for you.

Mk2f Polos are just as bad for headgaskets as K-series Rovers, no one complains about them though.

Build quality was very variable on the TF's though.

hgf yo.just kidding,i had a zs tdi for a bit and for the money they were it was an awful lot of car and with just different injectors and a cone filter (and a tweak of the turbo actuator) it went from 115 to 140-150 bhp and cost me less than £100.

Much as I hate Rovers in almost all guises - Here's a mind bender for you.

Mk2f Polos are just as bad for headgaskets as K-series Rovers, no one complains about them though.

behave yourself

I've been messing with polo's now for 8/9 years and only ever had one hgf which was due to a mixture of fan switch and temp gauge not working. I have a couple of mates who are well into their rovers and they openly admit to how shit they are for them, one of them has only had his current 45 for like 6 months and its already had one hgf... so its probably due another one soon

I keep telling him to scrap the fucking thing cause I'm fucked off with it ending up on my garden being fixed every time something fucks up on it, but he's adamant that its a good car

stevie davidson (not sure what his user name is on here) has one of these tf things and after reading his stories of ownership on FB I would never consider buying one

Just text my mate for a Rover lovers opinion on this

Cheers for the advice although if I'm honest I still can't decide! Head gasket failure only costs £160 for parts to be done properly. Main issue with hgf is being stranded I guess.

I would say go for it.

I've had 1 head gasket failure in all my time driving and surprise surprise it was a vw golf vr6.

If the headgasket is fixed properly it should never go again.

I've taken my old rover to a garage for an mot and they said oh headgasket gone yet and i turned around and said this is a t series not k and alot of the time its the inlet manifold gasket. I just took my car somewhere else. I'm going to admit I'm not an enthusiast of vw products(apart from my polo) my friend has had so many vag products breakdown on him and he still buys them. His mk5 golf has had a new dash fitted and so many other problems.

Another thing is the cars you are looking at will be 18 years old for the oldest and for an mg rover one will be newest will be 8 years old.

Its an old car and have niggles but should be no worse than any other car.

Pretty close to going for it, how long did you have your tf for monty Tom? any body after a clean as feck mk2 loon with a h&r cup kit...

MX-5s rust to pieces and are slow. MG-F isn't so slow and can suffer from HG failure - though potentially properly fixable with a new composite gasket as long as the liners are okay.

I guess it depends whether you prefer waving a spanner around or a welding torch.

Always said that if I was going to buy a car that needed welding it would have to be a beetle, I still can't decide really its a bit of a leap when my polo wants for nothing and I could end up spending on tf, the idea of a bit of top down motoring sounds a laugh though.

I sold cars for 8 Yrs mate, in the trade nobody wants an MG, they're bad news.

Last TF i soldwas all running fine & had been for a couple of months, took it for a new rear screen before collection, hgf on the way.

Recovered it to a garage up the road from the car sales (about 2 miles away & does all our hgf's),

Collected it & it went again on the way down the road

Half the reason they're an issue is people just replace the HG without measuring the height of the liners to make sure that the block and head mating faces are still flat. K-series owners I know that've had HG failure and done it properly haven't had it reoccur. Sounds like your garage were bodgers, because if they'd done it properly it'd last a lot more than 2 miles!

because if they'd done it properly it'd last a lot more than 2 miles!

yeah should last a lot longer than that, isn't it generally about 2 weeks?

Much as I hate Rovers in almost all guises - Here's a mind bender for you.

Mk2f Polos are just as bad for headgaskets as K-series Rovers, no one complains about them though.

behave yourself

I've been messing with polo's now for 8/9 years and only ever had one hgf which was due to a mixture of fan switch and temp gauge not working. I have a couple of mates who are well into their rovers and they openly admit to how shit they are for them, one of them has only had his current 45 for like 6 months and its already had one hgf... so its probably due another one soon

I've got to disagree there, I doubt there's many 2f's about that have done 100k and not had a HG done. They're generally regular as clockwork between 70 and 90k.,

Technical section seems to disagree, how often do you see posts where they have genuinely blown the head gasket?

my neighbour has an mgf, in the two years he has owned it, it has never gone wrong. It gets thrashed like crazy too! The k series isn't half as bad as people make out. Once the head gasket issue has been sorted properly, it is actually a pretty reliable car. They don't rust half as bad as mx5s do, they are generally quicker and cheaper to tune. In standard I think they are a better looking car than the mx5, but modded the mx5 can look really good. Whether they handle better is open to arguement. The mgfs are however a total bitch to work on. Anything to do with the engine is a pain in the arse.

They are both good cars and had the mx5 never been built I am sure people would have raved about the mgf. If you want a cheap rwd soft top for banger money though, the mx5 pips the mgf imo. Easier to work on, require minimal maintenance, go well enough to be fun and handle superbly well. A really great car if you can find one that isn't riddled with rot.

Another car worth considering would be a mk3 mr2 if you are in the market for a cheap fun convertible.

Technical section seems to disagree, how often do you see posts where they have genuinely blown the head gasket?

The original AAV in mine had done 130k+ on its first HG before I started buggering around with it. Yoof's original GT engine had done similar mileage on the original gasket too. Having said that, both those engines hit those mileages about 11 and 9 years ago respectively. If you've got a low mileage Mk2f and the HG goes today I'd not be that surprised, they're not exactly young cars any more.

An mx5 is closer to a real mg (mgb) any day compared to a mgf/tf that was why people raved about them so much my sister in law has a 03 mx5 no rust reliable it just keeps going just not fast suppose you could buy a mgf/tf if its cheap enough when it breaks down you could weigh it in for scrap at least it would be one less on the road, why not buy a good golf mk1 gti cab if you don't mind not having a proper sports car !!! easy to wok on vw build quality etc etc

The MR2 is such a better car, were talking ten times over. we're talking ten years ahead. like, you'd have to be the extreme of patriots or corrupt to in for aTF over an MR2.

Basically, get an MR2 or regret it.