Public Servant Lifestyle

Styling which evokes nostalgia for a more elegant, relaxed age, combined with behind the scenes hi-tech wizardry, could, in less skilled hands than Rover's, create a bit of a Frankenstein.

What I found in the 75 Tourer is a stylish estate car, with an excellent 2.0 litre turbo-diesel engine, married to a five-speed manual gear box, resulting in better performance than I expected.

Comfortable, spacious seats, manually adjusted for height, and rake/reach adjustable steering wheel, made getting a good driving position easy, and so eased the aches and pains, associated with longer journeys, in less ergonomically designed cars. The retro-styled instrumentation is easy to read, and well laid out, with a very pleasant sepia glow, when back-lit for night driving.

Ride quality is excellent, and although I didn't try the 75 at maximum load (with the rear seats down, capacity must be among the best- in- class) I imagine the suspension would cope well. Precise steering means the car goes where you point it; however, I found the grip through bends, at higher speeds, occasionally

Equipment & Interior

Whilst not being overwhelmed with goodies, I found the standard equipment levels reasonable. One notable omission in this class of car was the CD player, which is standard only on the top of the range Connoisseur SE. Strange, when so many other manufactures are fitting them to models much lower down the range.

60-40 fold flat rear seating gives impressive load capacity, which is added to by the inclusion of solid, satin- finish roof rails, ideal for coping with extra bulky items.

Rear passengers have ample leg room (but can feel the pinch as far as head room is concerned) and will find the seating comfortable.

Value For Money

Residuals should be marginally better than the saloon version, but depreciation is still likely to be fairly high. Drive a hard bargain, get maximum discounts, and you can end up with lot of car for your money.

Key Features

More information available in Test Drive