Fleet Report;- Rover 825Si; Clutching At Straws

 
So, everything has been splendid for a long while, and I've got lovely spangly floor mats and everything. But as of last Sunday I hadn't actually been able to drive it anywhere. The clutch pedal always did have a lot of travel in it, but about a fortnight ago it got to a point where the pedal had to go right to the limit of its travel in order to let me change gear. On my last journey from work to home, the pedal itself would skulk down by the bulkhead and I'd have to hook it back up with the tip of a size 13. Not ideal.

It also meant that I couldn't do the whole "competitive Grandad" thing away from the lights, 'cos I couldn't change deftly from first to second. So, of course, something hd to be done. Into the workshop we went; a good chance to try out the new ramps my Dad bought only to find that his 540 won't go up them.

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Driven #42:- Land Rover Freelander V6 ('05)

At a funeral, the grieving assembled tend to speak fondly of their dearly departed. Chances are, Great Uncle Derek had a few skeletons in his closet, but it really wouldn't be the right time to let them out. When somebody, or something has passed on, it's churlish to be too analytical, to get too hung up on the things they “could have done better,”

I appeal to you, then, to read the following as a description not a review. I mean, let's get this clear, we all know that the first Land Rover Freelander which admittedly died years ago, was never a particularly good car, just as Great Uncle Derek was probably not that great an Uncle. But we all have to start somewhere.

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Roadwork Summer Holiday 2011:- Part One

 

It took quite a leap of faith to trust the 825 with our holiday transportation needs. There was myself and my girlfriend, a substantial tent, a weeks worth of clothing, cooking apparatus and all the other tat that a week of camping usually entails. The boot swallowed most of it, the remainder spilling out onto the rear bench seat, and when loaded the rear end squatted down sending the headlamps beaming into the sky, illuminating satellites and space debris.

We had a choice of two other cars to take, both proven to be reliable, economical and practical. Either the Peugeot or the Audi would have been a sensible choice. But, then, that wouldn’t have been a challenge, would it? Here was a chance for the Rover to prove that it could still cut it where it counts:-

I sought to prove that a 1997 Rover 825 Si is good at being a car.

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Fleet Review;- The Grand Unveiling of the Official Car of RoadworkUK

Were this a proper website, surely every car manufacturer represented in the land would be tripping over themselves to furnish me with a long-term demonstrator, in the hope of this leading to praise gushing from these pages. As this is instead an amateur, update-when-it-suits-me type of operation, and is of course fiercely independent and won’t be lead by the corporate might of any organisation, I have to go it alone.

So, with no delivery-mileage Maserati glinting at me from the driveway, here, with great ceremony, is the newly adopted official car of RoadworkUK.

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