1996 Rover 114 SLi Goes for a Drive

join me today at the wheel of a fun little british super mini from the uh mid 90s this is of rover one one four it's different it's a rover metro now they re-badged it you fool now before we get into this review i want to say a quick thank you to our channel sponsor diamondbrite and especially for sponsoring the current giveaway prize uh spectacular happening at the moment if you haven't seen this already check the link in the description below to the video announcing the prize giveaway of christmas gift cleaning sets for your cars i have to say the reason i'm so happy to have diamondbrite on board as a sponsor is because i've been using their products for a long time and i'm continually impressed with the way they make my disgusting cars look like new so i'm sure you two will be very happy indeed if you try some of their products on your less disgusting than my cars right on with the review so this is the rover 100 yes it is of course the austin metro dating back to 1980. however there were significant changes through his life most significantly in 1990 after austin had stopped being a brand for a little while it became adopted by rover and became the rover metro it didn't actually look entirely like this but the substantial changes were there most significant of course being under the bonnet it went from an a series to a k series in line with other modern rovers the k series unlike what a lot of people say it's not a bad engine it's a really good motor it just needs to be looked after it's like an italian car if you love it it will love you back if you abuse it and ignore it it will hate you back so yeah a well looked after k series is a brilliant engine ignore the haters they don't know what they're talking about so clearly the car is still substantially the same shape because it is the same pretty much as an original metro obviously there were styling changes through the years the rover metro brought in other changes softening of this thing this front end though the rover 100 front end is quite new and quite exciting though because this front end treatment this grille these lights this whole shape of the bumper although it's been slightly morphed to fit onto the square shape of the 100 series this is actually the second choice the runner-up for what became the r3 bubble design this face could have been on the mid-90s new bubble shaped rover 200 but it wasn't they adopted the one which we all know and love now but this new fresh look designed by some really young designers actually really awakened and enlivened the look of this car made it look really fresh for the 90s even though it was by then a 15 year old design and while we're down here looking at the design of the car we really can't ignore this color nightfire red this is beautiful it's a pearlescent color which cost 229 pounds extra when the car was brand new from bates brickhouse rover dealers these are the original dealer plates this car is astonishingly low mileage and amazingly original and it's only got i think three owners on it from new and they're all documented one owned it until 2013 then two enthusiasts in the rover community so this car is known and documented throughout its life i actually had a 1996 bubble rover 200 in nightfire red and it's one of the prettiest cars i've ever had what a wonderful color but then you've got these amazing colors like amaranth purple which had the coupes in as well which is a really kind of deep cadbury purple they've got kingfisher blue which is like a lovely turquoisey metallic blue amazing colors on these cool little cars you notice even on a fairly high spec mid-range car it's still only got hubcaps not alloy wheels i should point out this car was absolutely immaculate when i collected it but i drove off into rain and it's now come back a bit grubby and the reason i've done it the way around is because we're losing the light right now and i didn't want to be doing the driving in the dark we couldn't really see what was going on wow this engine bay is like new i mean this is just utterly utterly spotless so difference between this and cars prior to the rover metro in 1990 is this engine this is now the k series because this is just a single cam version and it's not all the plastic cladding it looks more basic in old-fashioned but this is the fuel injected 1.4 liter if you want specifics it's a 1396 cc four-cylinder fuel injected in line it develops 74 horsepower and 117 newton meters of torque that means it'll do 103 miles an hour which is frankly terrifying in a car this small and it gives it not to 60 of a very respectable 10.7 which feels incredibly rapid in a car this tiny i think my favorite affectation on this entire car the newest thing which is the best thing are these speed holes these air intakes through the bonnet to the engine bay which don't actually go anywhere but they do look kind of cool and in the mid 90s it was all about holes in the bonnet now when i said this car was in low mileage astonishing the original condition i was not kidding this goodyear gt65 is what it left the factory on and it covered 309 000 miles in its life and there's no way i would consider driving on it now but look at the condition of it look at that tread that's got more tread than my car is on it right now that's on six month old tyres now would you look at this interior this is the kind of trim that the cars rivals just couldn't come close to emulating the fiesta the nova weren't even close the only thing was really in the same ballpark was going to be things like the french special editions like the roland garros and the gentry from peugeot and the uh the renault five whose name i've just instantly forgotten the moment i tried to say it um never mind there were a few trim levels on this there's the i the si the sli which this is the gsi and the gta no gti you'll notice only a gta which are the sportingest but not completely sporty hot hatch or match we'll call it because rover knew that their buyers were going to be the older demographic who were less worried about performance and more worried about comfort and specification and being you know being pampered really rather than going fast although this being the 1.4 this is actually quite rapid for a car of the size certainly in the 80s naught to 60 in 10 seconds would have been a hot hatch by this point the sli which is a fairly solid mid-range car is only a warm hatch of course the gta is a little bit quicker now we have got a really really nice plush interior they stepped up their game significantly for the rover 100 over the rev metro and it's not even the same car as the austin metro if you're going to compare it all the way back to its original roots obviously it's the same dimensions but they've squeezed a lot more in here to make it feel like a proper car now these seats are big and supportive they kind of bucket around you they're very soft and padded beautifully that's so comfortable they've got headrests which the original metros didn't have there's no headrests in the back they are still quite a low bench in the back but you know still the same nice squishy comfy fabric but virtually no knee room at all i'll try and sit there in a minute over on the door it's a full door card you notice there's no bare metal exposed no paint completely covered in this lovely this is this is velour this is paisley velour gray and blue swirly patterns it's a really classy thing it looks like a fancy silk dressing gown or something from off of the 70s but you will notice there's still only manual windows in the sli no electric windows here very tiny plastic door handle which is carried over from earlier versions very small hard plastic door handle again carried over from earlier versions and still set far too back in the door to comfortably use but there is a nice big door bin so you can lose detritus and stuff in there with a big speaker in the front of it so we have got audio no no separate tweeters anywhere you'll notice just one mid-range in the door and of course we've got movable mirrors not electric again still manual stuff i guess you have to go really high in the range for electric ottomans those mirrors are absolutely tiny it has to be said they are very very small mirrors indeed and moving onto the dashboard it's an all-new dashboard for this car as well they updated it a lot some things may look familiar but apparently it's pretty much all new we've got the big square binacle which is a metro design trope going back a long way to the originals it's not like the originals where you could perhaps move it side to side like on an original range rover it is a molded thing so it's really just for design purposes to kind of carry over the feeling of continuity rather than to make it easy to switch left to right on this particular car we've got twin banks of rover standard switches they feel really high quality as rover switches did they did go to a lot of length to put themselves above the rest of the manufacturers so they were a cut above the forwards the voxels the peugeots so they could justify their price premium and it was things like the quality of the plastic and the tactility of the switches that did that so they've got a lovely click on the fog light switch there's three blanking switches underneath there we've already got rear fog on this we haven't got front fogs um whatever the other two may well have been and on the left hand side we've got a heating and ventilation controls on vertical sliders which i seem to remember goes back to the original metros the tiniest little rotating switch ever for the fan risk rain heater and the alarm which is quite irritating because if you turn the car off and leave it for more than 30 seconds it arms the immobilizers you have to use the uh one of these rover key fobs to lock and unlock the car to deactivate the immobilizer ask me how i'm familiar with that this has still got the original baits of brig house key fob on a rover key rover badge on one side their phone number 01484 on the other i wonder if they're still going with something other than rover yes this is the the old flexi bendy rover key designed not to break off in the uh in the lock but inevitably that little pin would snap and so you had a tiny nubbin of a key the dials are big and clear for such a small car they're very big dials on the right hand side is the speedo but it's not a separate dial it's not like a lot of cars i've got a separate circle for the speed on separate circles for the sub dials it's all one panel and this is a sweeping thing zero down there zero is down to the left and 110 is over to the top right so it sweeps clockwise past you and the left hand half if you like of the cluster is big separate dials for the fuel gauge and the water temperature and in the middle you've got a whole bunch of warning lights so just kind of those ones are the colored plastic with the emblem printed in white and then you turn it on and then it glows up behind it so you can see it's basic and effective at the bottom orange backlit lcd clock which thankfully is now fast i thought it was really late for a second then but it's getting dark quite early now moving ahead you'll notice these very very very familiar uh instrument stalks which are on pretty much every rover in the 90s you'll have seen them on every rover r8 ever and i can't remember if they carried them over to the rover r3 as well but they are basically out of a honda so in that respect they probably didn't carry it over into the r3 so i'm trying to cut ties with honda licensed items at that point so i'm just going to drive an r3 again i haven't driven an r3 in years i do like those they're really good cars then flick on those side lights and you notice that the instrument dashboard illumination is all orange as well though you will interestingly notice it's actually lit from above little orange street lights rather than lit from behind that's that's curious i find that interesting i'm sure no one else does then we have the steering wheel it's a brand new steering wheel for the metro it's got a round center boss rather than the old more angular style and these center fingers kind of slant down making the whole thing feel and look a lot more modern it's nicer to hold it looks more like the rover 200 series and yeah it's just generally a more modern looking wheel it completely transforms surprisingly how much it does transform the interior of the car now over to the left we've got a very important rover item rover do this better than anyone else i think you know where i'm going with this [Music] t-shelf look at that that is a quality t-shelf if you've got your rover 100 you can take that for afternoon tea with pride anywhere it will not show you up at all that's a quality bit of t-shell free no cup holders that's a 10 out of 10 for t shell free n a for cup holders because there aren't any so we're going to give that a 7 out of 10 because you need to use a picnic basket to take your tea to the t-shelf now moving down below this very important t-shelf area you'll notice this bit of timber and that is real timber there's a big slab of it here in front of the passenger and they've even gone to the trouble of putting a smaller bit down here to the right of the steering wheel so the uh the wood theme kind of continues across the dashboard even though you can barely see that one that's that's nice attention to detail this is not fake this is not some little bit of veneer stuck on plastic this is a proper bit of walnut stuck on the dashboard like in the good old days they knew their market then we've got four little tiny square air vents which i think are carry over from much earlier metros sorry rov 100 and in the middle we've got a very modern looking rover r660 radio cassette with auto reverse this does look very modern indeed for a car of actually since 1996 it was bang on time what am i talking about i obviously can't play it to you because everything that comes out of this will be copyright but i did turn it on the drive and it's got a lovely bassy sound it's a nice radio below this nice radio we've got our huge button for the hazard lights it looks almost like that a big space to fill and they needed to fill it with something so let's make the hazard light switch enormous it doesn't light up though when you push it it lights up when the uh when the dashboard lights are on so you can find it in the dark but it doesn't flash on and off which again i find curious and next to that we've got a huge astro i mean they clearly were trying to fill space at this point because the ashtray is enormous and the 12 volt socket slash lighter socket over to the right and down underneath all of this look we have got a little center cubby thing but it's not just any old center copy it's a cassette holder space for five tapes on their end so you can sit down there find your blemish find your depeche mode that's clearly two separate people using the same car um wow cassette holders were great cassettes were great fender cassettes were kind of terrible in a lot of ways but great in others there's a debate for a whole other day and finally one more bit of luxury in this car we've got a little pop-up sunroof oh not a wind-up one just a simple pop-up which gives you a little bit of extra light in the cabin makes it feel far more airy and comfortable and of course a bit of extra ventilation because we haven't got air conditioning in a car of this nature back in 1995. right let's see if i can force myself into the back of this somehow i almost forgot the horn test that's lovely and poppy isn't it good poppy horn pull the little lever on the side try it and creep in there's not a lot of space in the b post in the back of the seat because the seat doesn't slide forward oh dear me that's not commodious and then to put the seat back you have to put your knees either side of it there are three seat belts but that's kids only my head is touching the ceiling my elbows are pushed into the side this is definitely a two-seater if it's adults and they've got to be good friends with that there is a little sloppy cubby hole on either side shorter on this side because the fuel filler cap is just there it's kind of full length of the seat on the passenger side and the passenger side even gets what is an roll out ashtray things in it um other amenities in the back include uh klingon grab handley things this one's got a hook on it for hanging your coat and right in the back corner where there is finally some body color here on the b poster seat post you can see two rear loud speakers right in the back corner of the car in the side of the shelf now this is a beautiful lovely velour which is always nice to sit on it feels lovely and it's got the same beautiful paisley pattern on it but it's not exactly uh spacious so i'm gonna get out look in the boot more originalness another dealer sticker on the car okay the boot obviously hasn't changed shape since the days of the austin metro back in the day this rear bumper is obviously all brand new and gives the car a far more modern look these tail lights make it look much more new and uh fitting with the 90s as well the whole the way everything fits together as well around the rubbers it's got a more modern feel to it so the whole car just even though in some respects is hiding the feeling of a 1980 car a lot of other things that the materials and the fit and finish feels more like a 90s vehicle you get in here and you have got the hard carpeting stuff they put into 90s cars so it kills the vibration it makes it feel a bit more premium when you get in here you're not looking at the metal sides of the boot for example you are looking the metal back of the seat but that's common on super minis right up until today to be honest that hasn't changed there's a little light up in the top corner up there and underneath this floor car but not only do you find a full spare wheel with the daintiest dinkiest little bit of hardboard to not cover the entire floor of the boot just to cover the hole in the middle of the spare wheel we've got the best little accessory i've ever seen in a boot we've got a little bottle of rover paint code caq nightfire red that can't be original that must have been added by someone but there's a perfectly sized hole for it here in this uh polystyrene that funny little bracket with the light hovering there is actually how it's meant to be you just don't normally look under there and observe it it's only nosy people like me who can spot that and of course these rear seats have got a 60 40 split which means this hatchback is quite a useful little tiny load lugger now with the k series 1.4 in it this really is a rapid little metro sorry rover 100. it feels as fun and engaging as the metro always did but the new veneer of poshes and class sits very heavily over it making it feel almost like the rover 200 bubble cars i don't mean bubble cars i'm in the bubble shape for over 200. which is interesting because they've got a completely different chassis and totally different suspension setup this is alex moulton's final development of the hydrolastic which is what i've been pushing to have on these cars for for a long time and they have been looking at coil springs they've been looking updating the existing um rover metro suspension but they uh but molten managed to uh convince a director of the company to come out for a ride in his privately owned and adapted car which he'd put his latest and final iteration of this uh lynx suspension into [Music] oh this does go nicely now the thing is by the time this had come out in 1995 it really was outclassed in pretty much everywhere the handling was still good the feel of quality was actually much improved it was a really good car but newer more recent offerings from rival manufacturers could show it up in a back-to-back test and what rover and their dealers were counting on was that uh the traditional old guard rover buyer who's probably slightly older perhaps a retiree had always had rover or austin or certainly british products and they weren't about to change things now could be counted on to come into the dealership and buy one of these with a bit of wood on the dashboard fairly good spec without really looking at the opposition and that actually does appear to be exactly what happened in this car's case because it was bought brand new in late 1995 by a lady who kept it until she died in 2013 so she had it for 18 years i want to say a big thanks to kgf classics for the letting me out in this absolutely immaculate low mileage metro sorry rover 100 today it's an absolute beauty of a car if you want to see more of this stock have a look at the website in the link in the description below where they've always got an amazing selection of beautiful retro cars this is a brisk little car in terms of super minis this mini is pretty super it's a shame there's only a 40 limit down this road because it would happily fly to an awful lot more wow this turns in nicely this feels so so good it's a little sports car and bear in mind there was a 1.1 litre option of these cars which is pretty more in keeping with the size of the vehicle but the 1.4 just gives it so much more volume it's got yeah better potency to it five speed gearbox we're all used to that particular five-speed box in other other rovers but in this one with 9800 miles on it it feels unworn it feels brand new and speaking of showroom fresh this car actually still smells new as well it's got that new car sent to it you can smell the plastics the foam in the seats the carpets it's a kind of sweet slightly plasticky smell it's it's amazing it's absolutely amazing now these seats deserve a mention these are really really comfortable if you look back to the uh original 1983 metro i drove a little while ago it's a link up there i think on the cards um it felt amazing it was it was really was a live little car but the seats weren't that supportive no really low back there's no headrests these are the frame from the rover r8 these are the 200 400 seat frames but really heavily padded and with this lovely kind of paisley pattern material which is going into all the rovers at the time i'll tell you what this car is so smooth on this little country lane it really is good now the rover 100 basically owes its continued existence to the rover 200 the bubble shape from 1995 because they've been designing it this is quite a complicated story which deserves its own video but it was smaller than the outgoing rover 200 400 family and at one point i think they've been planning to make the new r3 bubble rover 200 into a replacement for the metro but it kind of was too big so they still needed a super mini so they had to keep the metro still in production so it got a stay of execution in 1997 they actually changed the names around a bit more so it stopped being the one one for the 111 and the 115d for the diesel they started getting the names kensington and ascot depending on the trim level named after different parts of london well this thing is a nice car to drive it really is but 1997 was also the end that was the year of the infamous and disastrous crash test end cap that ended it all because i'm sure you will have seen pictures video heard the stories at the very least because it was being tested on both passive and active safety abs i think was optional and no airbag and the car folded badly enough to get one star in the ncaa customers were angry and stayed away in droves i believe is the phrase and that really was the final the grand hurrah going out with a whimper unfortunately 17 years on the market but uh yeah that was it that was the end of the the poor old metro by which point of course rover been bought by bmw and they'd kind of been hoping to eke the metro out until the mini came onto the market but it was another four years before that finally happened and the mini came onto the market in 2001 so it's a nice thing to drive though it feels so much more refined than the original 80s metro which was a bit kind of clanging and echoey this is hushed and quiet and that 1.4 k series has got the typical k series rev of get up and go it wants to to fly away they're great engines when they're running properly as this one is and the thing about this car is because it's basically a 1980 design it's got really thin a posts and b posts so the visibility is amazing out of here lots of glass area even though the windscreen is actually sitting quite high a lot higher in fact than the side windows and the roof line actually wraps around quite low in the roof itself so you've got a bit of a letterbox to look through the glass but you don't really notice that the eye levels actually just level with with egg because you do sit quite high in these seats it doesn't appear that you can move them down as far as i can tell only back and forth now one downside of an old design like this is these wipers because this glass area in the front the windscreen is quite small the wipers are very short which means a lot of area is left unswept on the left-hand side of the screen here we go some nice corners great thing about this car is it just really handles so so well you would be going out looking for twisty roads to play on if this is your car a lot of fun well thanks for joining me today i hope you've enjoyed this ride out in this wonderful little mini rover a pre-mini mini bmw era mini yeah i don't know if you like this please do the usual like subscribe bell notification button all that stuff smash it as they say on youtube and join me again next time when i'm driving something completely different

Channel: furiousdriving

Views: 23,440

Rating: 4.9353189 out of 5

Keywords: car, cars, blog, vlog, retro, classic, classic car, retro car, motoring, rover, rover 100, rover 114, metro, rover metro, austin metro, nightfire red, super mini, car review, road test, test drive

Id: pJOcHZ9_8nY

Length: 26min 52sec (1612 seconds)

Published: Thu Dec 03 2020