Rover 75 1.8T

The 75 Tourer is Rover's most prestigious car, and a sporty turbocharged 1.8 engine seems out of kilter with this image. But the K-Series proves worthy in its new guise, providing power and refinement. Good economy and C02 emissions improve its case, but the turbodiesel makes more sense for company car drivers.

Imagine the average Rover 75 driver, and turbos don't really fit in. After all, the mature and sensible image of the big Brit saloon and estate summons up visions of supreme comfort, refinement and unstressed V6 engines, rather than boy racer turbo screamers.

So why has Rover has gone and blown its K-Series-engined 75? The answer lies in those all-important new company car tax rules. While the 1.8-litre standard engine is clearly not enough for some buyers, the next step up, a 2.0-litre V6, produces 228g of CO2/km - enough for a punitive 27 per cent tax rating.

The result is this 1.8T edition. As with rivals including the VW Passat and Audi A4, a 1.8-litre turbo engine provides a perfect gap-bridger in the range. With a 9.1-second 0-60mph time, it's actually half a second quicker than the V6, yet it will manage to go five miles more on each gallon with an average of 35mpg. Crucially, the CO2 rating is far lower too, at just 193g/km, cutting the tax liability back to an altogether more competitive 20 per cent. There aren't too many sacrifices, either. Although this is a turbocharged edition of an engine that has traditionally done service in the MGTF as well as trackday specials such as Caterham's Sev-en and the Lotus Elise, it manages to match the character of the more luxurious 75 remarkably well. With 148bhp and 215Nm of torque at its disposal, the 1.8T blends brisk acceleration with the cruising economy of a turbo. Accelerate hard and the engine pulls smoothly and effortlessly, while leaving the cabin suitably quiet.

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There's little in the way of turbo lag either, with none of the 'kick-in-the-back' you get with more performance-oriented turbo cars. But despite this, we couldn't help feeling the engine still feels a little rough around the edges, particularly when you back off the throttle, or are driving at low speed and on partial throttle openings. Per-haps Rover has been forced to rush the car through development, or may-be this long-serving engine was never designed to accept a turbo?

To be fair, though, the problems are largely smoothed out once up to motorway cruising speeds, with effortless overtaking power provided by the turbo's boost. However, there's no doubt that the torquey V6 seems better suited to such a grand car, and the BMW-engined 2.0-litre CDT turbodiesel offers greater fuel economy, even cheaper tax ratings and comparable in-gear performance.

And what about the price? This could prove to be the 1.8T 75's real Achilles heel. An entry-level 1.8T Tourer costs £19,260, while the top-spec Connoisseur SE is a hefty £22,120 - over £100 more than the 2.0-litre V6 version! In comparison, the well respected Passat 1.8T Sport Estate costs between £17,065 and £19,195, while the prestige of Audi's A4 Avant Sport can be had for only a little more - £21,890.

Yet for patriots and Rover fans, the 75 Tourer still has a lot of appeal. The K-Series engine alone is a legend in its own right, and the appearance of an efficient and lag-free turbo will only serve to strengthen its status. How-ever, we can't help but feel that the engine deserved a higher-profile en-trance. Perhaps rumours of a tur-bocharged version of the MGTF and Lotus's bare-bones Elise will help to create a much bigger stir.