MG ZT would you reccomend?

[monkfish24]

Well,
I need a car which is large,comfortable, reliable, economic, Nippy and looks good,

So far the ZT fits the first and the lastof this list, but my choice is between the 1.8 non turbo and the 2.0 diesel due to insurance as i'm 20 with no ncb (0 crashes i hasten to add lol)....

which one would you recommend as i've not owned or driven an MG ever.

[Kermit power]

You can get a tuning box from a bloke known as Rover Ron for the diesel version which gives it pretty respectable performance.

[andymadmak]

ZT diesel,

[cyberface]

My ZT doesn't fit your insurance or economy requirements but the cars were all engineered *properly* - there is a world of difference between a ZT and the other cars in the MG Rover range at the time.

I'd go for it - if you want performance then you really either need to tune up a 190 or get a 260 and sort the engine out to give proper power... so I'd forget the petrol and get the diesel. Assuming it's not a killer on insurance, a diesel chip can make the ZT produce some rather decent mid-range torque figures and it'll be a LOT quicker in day-to-day driving (not to mention more economical) than the petrol.

I personally don't like diesel but my normal recommendation (something like my ZT!) is utterly irrelevant to your requirements, but I'd still say that all ZTs are damn good cars. Mine's been as good as gold (touch wood) and feels like it's been very well built, and properly engineered. It is noteworthy that there are a few V8 owners out there who *also* own a diesel ZT... you have to really like the car to do that.

They are rather undervalued cars and very good bargains. As a result some people buy them and then neglect them as 'bangernomics' - so get a good one that's been looked after. A tuned diesel engine will last with regular oil changes for a long time - it's the people that don't change their oil that cause the problems.

[monkfish24]

Brilliant, as i say i've never owned an mg and the diesel does fit my requirements better, also it being easily tuneable to give a bit more power is nice! ha ha

Cheers for the recommendation, as you say it sounds like you've got the 2.5 which is a bit too far out of my insurance budget!

thanks, james

[Kermit power]

monkfish24 said:

Cheers for the recommendation, as you say it sounds like you've got the 2.5 which is a bit too far out of my insurance budget!

In my case and Cyberface's, we've got the 4.6. The only difference is that the lucky git has his supercharged, so it's a teensy bit more powerful again!!

[cyberface]

monkfish24 said:

as you say it sounds like you've got the 2.5 which is a bit too far out of my insurance budget!

Heh. Kermit's is a ZT260 (i.e. the 4.6 V8, thankyouverymuch ) and mine is a ZT400 (heheheheheheeee )

The numbers approximate to the horsepower, though mine is basically the same engine as Kermit's but with a sodding big supercharger bolted to the top of it. It has more power than grip and will spin the rear wheels at any speed in any of the first 3 gears in the wet. It is absolutely ing hilarious to drive, unfortunately the rear tyres have lasted 5000 miles and I've only just been running it in around town.

As to insurance, you may be surprised with the faster ones... I'm (shockingly) paying less than £500 a year on my supercharged V8 and that's a like-for-like replacement... there aren't many of these cars around so finding me a replacement V8 and then getting it supercharged is a bit of a risk for an insurer. It's the cheapest policy I've had on any car since I started driving (the most was probably the £1500-odd I paid when I had the Noble). And it's not as if I'm ancient with a squeaky-clean licence... I got banned in the Noble and have had plenty of 3-pointers (all for speeding, no accidents, dangerous or drunk driving). Current licence status is 3 points, the ban has now expired. I'm 33, and paying twice as much to insure my other car (VX220 turbo) which is worth a lot less.

MG ZTs are not renowned as 'boy racer' cars so as a 20 yr old you may get a surprisingly low quote. I remember very well, at the age of 19, trying to get insured on a Golf GTI mk2. The insurer laughed and said that 'oddly enough I could do you for £500 fully comp on a Merc SL500 worth £80k, but we won't touch you on a Golf GTI' - I'll never forget that conversation. Perhaps the MG ZT comes in as 'old-man' territory and the usual young-bloke claims are few and far between.

Have you tried getting a quote on a V6? I'd struggle to recommend the V8 to a 20 yr old unless you've got experience of RWD, since they're heavy and LOVE to wag their tails...

[Kermit power]

cyberface said:

unfortunately the rear tyres have lasted 5000 miles and I've only just been running it in around town.

You may want to try wider rubber! Seeing as my original wheels were somewhat buggered, I fitted 1/2" wider Team Dynamics Pro Race 1.2s, and have fitted 245/40 on the back and 235/40 on the front. I've just reached 5,000 miles now, and they still look pretty much brand new!

In case you think I'm just being a wuss in my driving style - which I'm not - Paul up in Yorkshire is, iirc, getting 10k+ miles out of 245s on the rear of his, which is also supercharged, and his daily commute to work is across the moors!

I reckon if you can double the mileage on the tyres - I generally wear front & rears at the same rate - it's well worth the investment. I drive around 15k a year, so that's 3 sets of tyres on 225s, or 1.5 on 245s, so a saving of around £600 per year, or, in other words, the new wheels will have paid for themselves within 12 months!!

[monkfish24]

ha ha ok, well i really wouldn't afford the insurance on one of those, i know what you mean abou more prestigous cars being cheaper!?! tried a mercedes 6.0l old man thing and it came out at 600 F/C!

[monkfish24]

well here's my quotes all 3pft for clarity

MG zt CDTI (131) 1,486
MG zt 1800 N/A 1,486________my limit i'll pay!
MG zt 2497 (190) 2,293
MG zt 1800 T 2,570

(all prices in pounds)

so as you can see....

[Kermit power]

monkfish24 said:

well here's my quotes all 3pft for clarity

MG zt CDTI (131) 1,486
MG zt 1800 N/A 1,486________my limit i'll pay!
MG zt 2497 (190) 2,293
MG zt 1800 T 2,570

(all prices in pounds)

so as you can see....

It might be worth getting a quote on a 260 just to see. I seem to remember one of the members of the owners' club having his insured for around £1,500 fully comp at the age of 23. Granted, he was a little older than you and may have had some NCB, but on the other hand, he's in Middlesex, which would up the premium significantly compared to Devon.

[WhoreLex]

have you tried Elephant, there normally better for younger drivers.

but remember the 190 is a group 15 car so it wont be massively cheap to insure

[Kermit power]

WhoreLex said:

have you tried Elephant, there normally better for younger drivers.

but remember the 190 is a group 15 car so it wont be massively cheap to insure

The 190 is, according to Parker's, a group 16. I think it was the earlier 180 that was a group 15. Interestingly, this shows how farcical insurance groupings can be!

If you look at the quotes that have been done for the OP, he has been quoted something like 15% more for the 1.8T, which is, in theory, a lower IG than the 190. However, if this means that more young drivers get the 1.8T, and more young drivers therefore claim on the 1.8T, all of a sudden, insurance companies bizarrely see the 190 as less of a risk than the less powerful 1.8T, so it actually costs less to insure!

[cyberface]

As with all cars of low production numbers, the actuaries can't provide statistically significant numbers due to small sample size, so they load up the premiums to suit.

Big bucket-shop insurance companies that don't see these types of car will go for monstrous premiums because they have no stats on the number of accidents, the typical owner profile, the cost of repair, etc.

I have a fantastic policy from A-Plan in Thatcham (ask for Claire) - yes I'm getting old now and have a string of silly fast cars under my belt so perhaps a reasonable risk (and 10 years no claims is quite handy) but I got banned 5 years ago for ragging my Noble around Wiltshire. So I'm no squeaky clean type.

I wouldn't take the bucket-shop insurers as your base-level average price - with specialist low-volume cars there are insurers that specifically seek out the business, since if they can get a large enough sample size they can take a view on the risk and price it much more competitively, picking up more business, and getting more accurate stats, etc. - a virtuous circle.

I'm surprised at the viciousness of the quotes for what is seen in many circles as a 'middle aged' car and not a youngster's hot hatch. Try the Thatcham branch of A-Plan, and if you get a great quote then tell 'em Lex with the supercharged grey one recommended them...


ETA - try changing your name from 'monkfish' to 'catfish' - it'll make all the difference. Especially if it's 'dog eating catfish'. Trust me, nobody knows what I'm talking about but it's true.

Edited by cyberface on Saturday 5th January 02:39