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MG ZR ZS ZT Technical - ZR Interior
| The ZR range has been criticised for having dated switchgear inside - particularly the column stalks. Why doesn't MG Rover transplant parts from the 75 to the 25/ZR |
| John G Hackett |
| Cost, complication, available time and engineering resourse. That is the sort of answer I got when asking some similar questions, but not on these switches though. Rog |
| Roger Parker |
| IMO I am not bothered by the switch gear, looks fine to me. No, what really annoys me is that I wasn't able to order my ZR 160 with a full leather interior. I hate half leather. Surely if a customer is happy to pay for it they should be able to have it! Had the same trouble on my Trophy. Had to take it straight to Mike Satur for a retrim. MGR should sack whoever was responsible for that cloth! Guess where the ZR is going when it arrives! (and the wallet can cope!) Looking to pinch a few styling ques from the BRM interior. IMO when will MGR get a whole car right, not just interior / exterior / engine etc? A lot of it could be solved with options! Again, surely if a customer is happy to pay for it they should be able to have it! And I love MGR!! Just my opinion. Anyone agree with me? |
| Chris |
| The general interior styling is great - super seats and nice dash. Love the heavy chrome door handles. But the column stalks are plain crap and IMO the centre console section should be changed for something considerably more modern. Surely these are cheap parts? It would help to improve interior ambience and quality. There should also be aluminium inserts on the doors. |
| John G Hackett |
| Hi John, I agree the seats are great, just would like mine full leather, maybe the same colour to match the bolsters. Love the door handles too, but sorry just can't get emotional about the stalks. Know what you mean about centre console, maybe something nice in carbon fibre... For inserts on doors, you'd like ally, I'd like carbon, know what you mean though. Oh for options... I know these things add to the cost, but if the customer is happy to pay then what's the problem, MGR? |
| Chris |
| I hope they offer options like these as part of the XPOWER range they've been talking about. Another nice touch would be soft-feel interior door pulls. The current ones feel solid but a bit placky. Carbon-fibre would be nice on doors and dash. |
| John G Hackett |
| I confess I really liked the BMW approach to maximum flexibility with options that they intoduced into Rover and am a tad disappointed that MG Rover seem to be rolling this back. An example of the BMW approach with the huge scope to spec up the 75 and a worrying trend with MG Rover is the approach with the Z range and in particular the ZT. I was at my dealer (cars not drugs!) last weekend as I am thinking about a 75 Estate as our next second car (F will always be first!). They had a ZT-T in in one of the colours that make you eyes bleed with the same garish interior. I mentioned to the dealer that however good the ZT was there was no way I would have anything so loud on my drive and would have zero chance of getting sign-off from 'er-indoors. Dealer said the Guy (with the Greek name) who looked after the launch of the F is now in charge of the whole MG brand and he has got the message that loud colours are not to everyone's taste and his view is that MG should produce what the customer wants and not just what excites the designers. Apparently the lack of interest in the trophies has not gone unnoticed. The good news is that MG Rover will shortly be announcing a wider range of colours for the Z range and hopefully toned down interiors. They will even have an automatic ZT available before Christmas. Cheers Patrick PS isn't the Z brochure just the most vile and off putting sales aid you ever saw? |
| Patrick |
| Patrick, about the Z series brochure, I like it, better than the normal boring brouchures you get from car companies. But with everything, some will like it, some won't. I would hardly say there was a lack of interest in the Trophies, all the models that the factory made have all been sold, you can only pick from the ones left in the dealers now, which ain't a huge amount. Although, yeah - the yellow is a tad bright and as for colour co-ordinating the interior with the exterior, the current Z cars have got it about right, with miminal co-ordination, leaving it to the seat side bolsters, which you can't see when your sat in the car anyway. The Trophy dash is ott, IMO. - Saying that, the Trophy blue is nice, the Antracite is even better. I've only seen one yellow ZT and that was one of the press cars, I can't really see many of the ZT and ZTT models being yellow, a little to boy-racerish for the image of those models. The ZT did look nice though. As for giving the comsumer choice, at the Frankfurt motorshow, they announced their "MonoGram" concept, press release : http://www.mg-rover.org/articles/showart.php?ArtID=70 (copy & paste as normal) "Available across the entire MG and Rover ranges, the Monogram programme will offer a wide choice of carefully selected exterior paint colours, trim materials and technical components, thus enabling customers to personalise their vehicles. The elements of this programme will be introduced on a progressive basis with completion planned for spring 2002." That to me sounds like the consumer gets quite a choice when buying a new car. Of course, what it will do to the second hand values I'm not sure, not much if you have a mainstream taste, but if you have a wacky taste in colour schemes, it might not be good for residuials ;) Steve. |
| Steve Childs |
| Steve, I confess my views on the Trophy are driven by my dealer taking delivery of their first as a yellow one soon after it was launched. They still have not sold it and the price has dropped quite a bit. Accept a sample of one may not be statistically accurate! In my defense the dealer also said the interior of the trophy did not get many complementary views. Looking at the Monogram offer it does seem to be just more "outrageous" colours. I just loved the orginal 75 brochures and the scope to personalise your car from a huge range of option including 15 colours. I quite like the 75 estate brochures even if the cost savings are a bit more obvious and the options a bit more limited... The Z brochure however I just hate. However looking on the bright side, the FT reports that MG Rover's sales are up 37% in Spetember compared to a market growth of 26% so they are clearly doing something right and they have my best wishes. I will be even happier if they do a 75 Estate with the undedrpinnings of the MG version and appointments of the Rover version! Must say I love the comfort of the ZT seats! Cheers Patrick PS Wooden wheel is the dog's danglies |
| Patrick |
| ".......I will be even happier if they do a 75 Estate with the undedrpinnings of the MG version and appointments of the Rover version! Must say I love the comfort of the ZT seats!" Aah! A Rover Vitesse maybe? |
| Lee Lord |
| Patrick, Monogram was described to me as something more than a few more extreme colours. This was in discussion with a number of MG Rover people at Press day at Frankfurt. These people, and I am not going to name drop because of other things discussed, know exactly what is coming. The inference was that if you wanted a standard exterior colour but some specific furry trimmed interior bits than this should within reason be available. This does seem to mean that mix and mactch of what are in effect current production parts would be included. This should cover most tastes and to illustrate this I can't live with wooden wheels as I do not feel that driver control is as good, at least not for me. An ideal case for Monogram to cater for. Rog |
| Roger Parker |
| >>I will be even happier if they do a 75 Estate with the undedrpinnings of the MG version and appointments of the Rover version! Must say I love the comfort of the ZT seats!<< Funny you should say that- had a thought that a dark coloured 75 with nice large wheels and MG-suspension would make for a superb Q-car... Rog- I wonder if you could build a 75 'extreme' without the body kits/ grilles as part of the Monogram service? That would be a Rover Vitesse indeed! :o) |
| Rob Bell |
| MGf Trophy, I would not buy one unless the discounts were right, I am told that employees can get up to £4500 off list, I think the effects of these sort of discounts is criminal for the owners of older f's which are now worth considerably less than they paid for them. If MGR are giving such a big discount there must be a reason, poor sales or outgoing model? |
| Andrew |
| >>>>No, what really annoys me is that I wasn't able to order my ZR 160 with a full leather interior. This does seem very silly. Leather just ages a lot lot better - strong, looks good even when ancient, doesn't absorb spillages (I got kids), washable. And surely full leather options are another opportunity for MGR to extract some cash from you? I have an F, and 'full leather' was just about the first option I ticked. Makes cars much easier to sell second hand too. |
| David Bainbridge |
| Roger, Thanks for your extra information on monogram. This is very useful and timely. I am going to see my dealer next week for a big boys talk (about pricing!) and then move onto specifications. This will be the 4th car we have bought in 4 years (2 Fs, a 200 and now the 75/ZT-t)and therefore think it is time he gave me fleet discount! Rob has spotted my desire. It is a black 75 with all the chrome gleaming, full of the Rover toys (sat nav, tele, electric everything, leather etc) and the MG underpinnings. Nicely understated and far more capable of pissing of bimmer drivers than an MG. I confess I have not driven the ZT-T, only the 2 litre tourer. Once I have agreed the vulgar topic of money with the dealer then it is time to try them all - starting with the 75 diesel.... I have this suspicion that we will end up with the 75 tourer with the 17 inch wheels. The only real problem is persuading Ann that black is "safe". All thoughts and supporting arguments will be gratefully accepted. Cheers Patrick |
| Patrick |
| A ZR 5 door with full leather interior trim (still with the body-colour side bits), alloy inserts on doors, head restraints in the rear, electric rear windows and alloy pedal covers would suit me nicely. |
| John G Hackett |
| David Fully agree with you on the full leather option. We have it in the F and also in the 200! Again it goes back to the BMW approach of "here are all the options for your car, now what does Sir want". MG Rover are definitley slipping back into the old habits of restricting choice. I actually noticed on the 75, you can have any engine in any trim level, whilst on the Tourer you can only have the 1.8 and diesel on the base model and the 2.5 is only available on the Connoisseur. No MG Rover, bad move - give the customers more choice, not less! Cheers Patrick |
| Patrick |
| "with the 75 tourer with the 17 inch wheels" Aren't the alloys 18" on the ZT? Steve. |
| Steve Childs |
| Steve, they are indeed 18" Alloys on the ZT. The cause of some investigation at the moment I believe, due to the high cost of replacement types for the fleet market.... Cheers Kieren |
| Kieren Gibson |
| Patrick- exactly on my wavelength. :o) Black 75 but with ZT mechanicals... Nice. Unfortunately unlikely to 'wash' with the MiL (Mother in Law) as black is not regarded highly as a lucky colour in China... ;o) But what excuse is needed? Black 75s are surperb! Nuff said! BUT a bugger to keep clean- shows the dirt rather too well. :o( |
| Rob Bell |
| Quite right about 18" on the ZT-T BUT the largest wheels on the Rover version are 17" and these are the ones on every shot you see of the car. The bad news is they are a £700 option - gulp... Rob, perhaps Ann is also Chinese and sees black as unlucky - I will check this! Well I have managed to persuade her that she will be happier with the 75 than the 200 although I could not persuade her that it was smaller. I will have to work on the colour. No problem with keeping it clean as I am a bit anal about clean cars. Cheers Patrick |
| Patrick |
| You might be interested to know that here in HK I've never seen a Rover (200, 400, 800) that didn't have full leather interior or alloy wheels. As far as I can tell it was standard equipment. Martin |
| Martin Davidson |
| I noticed that too Martin- thought it rather odd. Obviously Rover Macau/ Hong Kong didn't want to compete directly against the Japanese competition? Incidently, I thought that there were MORE Rovers in Macau than in HK! Even saw a couple of MGFs there too... |
| Rob Bell |
| Rob, Not wanting to be rude or anything, but is is true that the fundamental of a lady from cathay runs horizontally and not vertically? |
| Harry the Hormone |
This thread was discussed between 04/10/2001 and 11/10/2001
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