As above, For a 51 plate MGZS 2.5 V6,

97k, New everything and no expense spared, In pristine condition -

Full T&T..

This is worth more than say mine @ £1500

Im seeing these up for £2k plus minimum,... I know id probably struggle to sell the MG, But cant be as hard to shift as a 20vt at the minute?

Any thoughts? On the deal, As this IS the coupe related section.. I know MG's are generally shite so no need to tell,.

Chrissy

Actually this is supposed to be a very sorted car.

I would say go for it.

Be very careful... parts are VERY VERY expensive and hard to come by.

A mate of mine smashed his main front grille on a P plate 216..£197+vat - 3-5 weeks

I wouldn't swop a Yoga Sarna for a MG

lad at work has one and he barely does a full week what with it letting him down, his is newer than that too....and the cost of repairs????

well slow n thirsty

I like them - and I've raced one at brands. I prefer the ZR 160 handling wise, but they are pretty good IMO, slower than a coupe - I had no idea that parts were so expensive, surely you get get a fair bit of stuff from a breakers yard etc...

Not a direct comparison, but my son has the ZR 160, and apart from the usual K series head gasket issue, which he had fixed with the modification, it's never let him down - and it doesn't get much care and attention either. Drives and handles like a go kart.

As JimO said, I have also heard that the V6 ZS is very well sorted. Aren't they RWD?? Look a bit boring (IMO) but apparently a hoot to drive and very involving, bit of a sleeper.

They aren't slow, but they certainly aren't as quick as a 20VT in a straight line. The handling however is excellent, much better than the coupe IMO.

Timing belt changes are a real PITA and consequently expensive if you use a dealer, but that shouldn't be such a worry if you are coming from a coupe! Slightly more worrying is that conrod failure is not unheard of in high mileage engines, though it's not a common problem. The KV6 doesn't tend to suffer from head gasket problems like like the 4 cylinder variant does.

Personally I think they are good value cars at the moment, I wouldn't hesitate to own one.



The only RWD Rover/MG is the 75 V8/ZT 260 and I'd swap my coupe for at ZT 260 in a heartbeat, though might need to re-mortgage the house to pay for fuel. This is a video clip of a friends ZT 260 with a Dreadnaught garages supercharger conversion which ups the power to around 400bhp. The rather battered looking Pug is also an interesting car, just shy of 270bhp from a normally aspirated 2.0 liter engine, and it only weighs about 650kg.

Here's a similar thread from a while back now and here's my verdict on these.

Re: the straight line bit. My coop was making 254bhp at the time. They are slow by modern standards.

My mate's garage recently took on MG, he's been going on loads of courses at Longbridge.
He said to me NEVER buy an MG, parts are over priced, cars poorly built & MG technical know less about the cars than you do.
However i went out in the small model (ZR 160 maybe ?)Good fun i thought

Compared to the 20VT of course they are, but then so are lots of other cars because the Coupe was extraordinarily quick for it's time.

Look at the true competitors for the ZS, the 20VT certainly isn't one of them. It's quicker than a Focus ST170 and ST24 (but similar performance to the ST200), quicker than the non-turbo'd Astra SRi, quicker than the Golf with everything up to the 2.3 V5 engine.

It's certainly not a tarmac rippling monster, and there are many modern cars that are faster, but for it's size, age and budget I don't think there are many cars that are faster.

I used to have a 200Vi - which was the forerunner to the barry-boy ZR's - was a great little car - and 0 - 60 in 7 seconds dead.

depends on your reasons, why are you moving away from coupes?

at the moment, its not worth it, its a buyers markit. im getting a coupe to do up and fiddle with at the weekends, in a year it should be as new condition

when we come out of this resesion. they will be classics, and due to the resesion, there are going to be a hell of a lot of coupes in 5x5 cubes because people have sold them for silly money, fools who dont understand the time, effort, and cost of keeping them in top top cindition buy them
write them off, let belts snap, dont service them.

make my words, 3 years from now, you will be looking at 5k for a coupe, and thats in bellow par condition..they will be collectors cars.. supply and demand, and there will be no supply

As this is based on a Rover, with a Honda engine, why should they be unreliable? Do you really need MG to service it when there are loads of garages that will maintain Rovers, and surely many parts are common too.

I also heard that MG did a great job with the handling and it is a quick, well sorted car. tbh, I was considering these before I got the Fiat which of course looks cooler, goes faster and is way better value.

As to real world experiences, why not check out one of the forums, eg. Pistonheads, which has an MG section.

My mate's got one of these... I love it to be honest. I'm not too keen on the ironing board spoiler on the bootlid, but other than that, it's a really nice car.

I'd suggest that as he is considering swapping his 20vT for an MG ZS 180 then it has to be considered a rival It would be 10 lengths down over a 1/4 mile which is a HUGE negative factor to me.

I really don't see how these things are a better owner's prospect than a 20vT unless you wanted to strip it out for a cheap track day thrash where its light weight and handling poise would make it the better choice.

The V6 engine thats in the ZS 180 is not a honda based lump. As said its an engine made by Rover. Put an induction kit on or similar and they make a wonderful smile inducing noise (though not as nice as a 20vt coupe). I agree with what people say though they are great handling cars.
I'd go for it...hell if all else fails you can sell it and buy another coupe and probably make a few quid.

I think they handle pretty much exactly like a coupe that's had a few handling tweaks personally...

Not bad cars at all, and they are pretty damn cheap now.

i dont mind the Mg i prefer the ZT though.
but i wouldnt swap a coop for one.
unless your hoping to make cash by selling Zs on to buy another coop.

I think they are good cars and Tiff seemed to like the ZS 180 when he tested it on 5th gear, however I dont think it's worth any more than £1500 at this time and would you not be paying £400 a year for tax?

They look ok if a little brash and dated (much prefer the zt which looks v smart imo) but not even a patch on the coop, the v6 is supposed to be the engine to go for, fairly quick and a great engine note, handling is v good for a fwd but its up to you???

Friend of mine has the 180 on a 54 and yes £400+ tax

dont do it lol my mate works for mg rover and knows they are the biggest pile of S**t the coupe beats it anyday but that just my view

I had one of these for two years as a company car, the price of keeping it on the road was shocking, I'd say keep the coop, cheaper to run, keep going, better looking etc etc etc, I could go on!

my bros had a zs 180 and zt 180.

both cars a hoot to drive,v6 is smooth and sounds good at high revs.not hugely fast but not slow at any means,handling is great on zs.
on the downside,the zs was a poor quality build.bargin money for one i think tho considering.think it would be great track motor.

zt on the other hand was quality build,deffo bmw based.even after 120k on lpg on the zt everything working and felt tight.

Absolute dog poo. Avoid at all costs. My neighbour had one from new. It blew one of its oil pipes on the motorway and by the time the oil pressure light came on the engine was destroyed. Rover would not replace the engine under warranty and it ended up sitting on his drive for over a year, rotting itself away. It had covered a whopping 26k miles... British build quality and engineering at its best.........

these thngs do happen to,my old coupe had a new engine at 24k.

Sure, but at the end of the day its just not acceptable given the current degree of technology availble....

I wouldnt have an MGZS as a gift. IMO they are badly engineered junk and look like a chavved up old mans car.

Keep the coupe, you will regret swapping.

I remember a post on here probably more than 4 years ago saying something similar. The coop owner had had a tear up with one and in his vs post (remember those ) he said the ZS was 'the automotive equivalent of a pensioner in a shell suit'