2.5 litre V6 engine. 175 bhp, 177 ft lb, 0-60 7.3s, 139 mph, MPG: Urban 20.0; Extra Urban 41.1; Combined 29.7. CO2 227 gm/km. This engine is actually more economical and cleaner than the 2.0 litre straight four, as well as being more powerful of course.
One year on: Unfortunately our illustrious chancellor in the 2008 budget has seen fit to raise the car tax from £210 to £415 in the interests of ecology. The annoying thing is that I could have a Bentley, Ferrari, Aston, or even a Hummer and only pay £25 more! And what price the resale value now, let alone the insurance valuation?

The 04/05 face-lift version has the more purposeful front styling.

'Shark-gills' reminiscent of the SV, and 17 inch alloys with 205/45 R17 tyres, but oh so easy to kerb. One year on: I suddenly noticed the right front tyre looked a bit flat, and found it well down at about 15psi! After that I kept an eye on it and found it was losing a few psi per week. Took the wheel off and rolled it down the drive looking very closely for a nail or anything but found nothing, and at that rate of loss dunking it in a bath of water wasn't going to be easy to find it either. Then at the MOT the tester noted 'nail in right front tyre' so I though he must have good eyesight. Took the wheel off again, and immediately noticed a huge silver screw in the middle of the tread sticking out like a, well, huge silver screw in the middle of the tread! Pulled it out and it was only in 1/2" but had obviously been there some time. Dribbled some water into the hole and waited ... and waited ... and eventually after several minutes a tiny bubble of air popped out, and continued to do so once every several minutes. So that is leaking, the question is whether it is the only leak and somehow I missed that screw when I looked last time, or whether it is another more recent leak and the original remains, I don't know. Had it repaired (£17) and whilst the tyre was off the repairer showed me the pain bubbling up on the inner rim which he had to scrape off and repaint to get a good seal. He said MG Rover wheels are the worst for corrosion as they only paid for a minimal coat of paint. He said his scraping and repainting would give a good seal for a very long time now, but when left they eventually start leaking, so that could have been my original non-screw leak. Time will tell.

Improved styling of the dash on the face-lift model, which was the only thing I actively disliked on the original model, it being virtually unchanged from the 'Honda' Rover 45 style.
One year on: However I don't like the pull-pull dip-switch arrangement, when you want to flash the headlights unless you are very careful you also change the beam, so you have to flash them again to switch the beam back again. Why they fiddle with these things I just do not know, what could be simpler than the MGB arrangement? Still, it doesn't have the same arrangement for the indicators, thank goodness, I've driven a BMW with those and they are awful.

One year on: One drawback I soon found is with the horn buttons. These are small, so a finger or thumb has to be precisely placed to operate it, and on the wheel but nearer the rim than the centre, and also quite low down. Holding the wheel in the correct '10 to 2' position one's fingers and thumbs are several inches away from the buttons, and as the buttons move position as the wheel is turned one has to look to see where they are before you can sound the horn! Hardly ideal in an emergency when you need an 'audible warning of approach', not much better as a 'rebuke'.

One year on: I was quite excited to get climate control, but it has been a pain. Not only does the system seem to take a long time to warm up - longer than either of the Bs - but once it does so it pumps out masses of hot air until the cabin sensor wakes up to turn it back down again, so you have to turn the heat down manually or you boil. And once it thinks the temperature is right, it switches the air from the footwell vents and screen to just the face-level vents, so your feet get cold. So you manually select footwell, which makes things better for a bit, but then they get cold again so you turn the heat back up again, then the upper part of the cabin gets very warm but your feet are still cold! In spring and autumn it can get very stuffy, I'm finding it difficult to get the face-level vents adjusted to get some air without a draught, and when the blower cuts in with the vents only partly open it is very noisy. When you do get it right, next time you use the car everything is set wrong and you get cold air blown onto your feet when you start off, so you have to switch everything back to auto again. I don't know about automatic - there are 11 buttons to fiddle with and four vents. I'd rather have the sunroof and conventional heater with just two rotary controls and one switch like in the V8. The chiller in summer is nice, but when the weather changes between hot and cool I have to keep opening and closing the face-level vents as they are too draughty when fully open in cool weather but don't cool the car properly unless fully open in hot weather. Eventually the trick seems to be to open the vents fully (which makes them quieter) but angle the outer ones to the windows and the centre ones to the roof so you aren't sitting in a blast. That may also control the temperature better, but the weather is warmer at the moment needing a bit of chilling from time to time and fully automatic with the vents adjusted as described seems to be OK. I'll wait to see what happens in the autumn when we start needing a bit of heat again.

Rather heavy rear treatment, this was the only thing I was doubtful about on the face-lift model, but I got used to it very quickly. The boot lid has a small lip spoiler, just visible in this picture, in preference to the much larger standard and outrageous optional 'bed tray' versions on the original model. The problem with this bootlid is that you can't see it from the drivers seat, even in the rear view mirror, so have to guess how long the car is, I may invest in an audible reversing aid, possibly just a fresnel lens to stick in the rear window. The PO has also fitted a 'dustbin' rear silencer and tail pipe which is a bit too 'blue neon washer jet' for my taste (in the flesh it is more 'in yer face' than it appears in this picture), but the original came with the car so I shall retro-fit it and maybe be able to sell the other one (I tried removing it but I need more room under the car to swing my breaker bar to undo the bolts so I've left it for the time being).

Despite my age I really did have to suppress a big grin when taking it out for the first time. Ironically it was to pick up a re-spoked chrome wire wheel for the roadster. A bit annoyed to get there (60 mile round trip) as agreed with the repairer to find no sign of him, despite hanging around for half-an-hour. Ordinarily a trip in an MG is a worthy event it its own right, and all it means is that I'll have to go again. But I was really annoyed to pick a massive 'star' chip right in the middle of the screen while on the motorway (from a car alongside, there was no one in front of me), although hopefully it can be invisibly repaired by one of the specialists (I didn't bother, and now it has gone milky as well, so may need the whole screen replacing before the MOT). PS it didn't, whilst the damage is probably just over the maximum size allowed of 10mm in Zone A in front of the driver, this is well outside that zone and the maximum size allowed is 40mm.

The new horns are slightly bigger than the original, so I did a test fit to make sure there was enough room and there is enough clearance. I wondered if I was going to find the unused wiring tail on the drivers side, but no, they deleted that as well. No matter, the horns I had bought had standard spade connectors of course whereas the original(s) have special connectors for two very fine pins on the horns, so I made up a tail to go across the car from one to the other. The existing bracket was angled affair with a locating peg to ensure the horn was mounted at a given orientation, but the mounting 'bracket' (just a strip of metal with two holes) for fitting to an MGB was just the right size to put a bend at the end and mount the extra horn in the same orientation. Fortunately they hadn't deleted the mounting hole, which is used to mount something else as well, so came complete with bolt. Broke the habit of a lifetime and cut the original connector off for the existing horn, as I couldn't see how I was going to connect the new horns to it otherwise, those Scotchlock connectors being a bit iffy anyway, especially exposed to all the elements, and doubly so given the very small gauge of the horn wires. I soldered bullet connectors to the wires and assembled them with Vaseline, to aid assembly as well as give some protection against moisture.

Tested the horns before refitting the bumper and they have much more presence! By the way, test the horns before you start, you wouldn't want to go to all that effort and find that one didn't work! Loosely attached the bumper with just its top fixings, refitted the fog-light and temperature sensor connectors and tested the fog lights, then refitted the bumper. Final test of the horns and lights, and all done. I did wonder if the missing clips would result in any squeaks or rattles, but in fact one rattle which appeared to be coming from the front right corner seems to have vanished, in two drives of just a few miles anyway.

I found some FM transmitters, including by chance one at Halfords (Sendai) which is very simple just having a socket for the player to plug into, two buttons to change the transmit frequency, and a display to show the frequency. Plugs straight into the cigar lighter socket (OK, 'auxiliary power supply socket'), and much cheaper than any of the others. I wondered how much range/signal strength it would have, internal radio aerials are notoriously poor as compared to external. Plugged it in, started the player playing, selected a frequency, and set the radio seeking for it. It found it OK, but there is quite a bit of interference with the player down by the cubby under ashtray and the wire coiled up, which is the most logical place to keep it. Then I found that if I moved the player further away from the transmitter i.e. straightened the wire out it was much better. So far so good. But it was all downhill after that as it started cutting out after a few minutes. Back to Halfords who suggested cleaning the power socket, which did seem to improve things - once - but then started playing up again. After a lot of faffing about where sometimes it would work OK for a while and sometimes not, in both the ZS and Vee, it was back to Halfords again but they didn't have any more in stock, and I thought it was worth trying another one so I hung on.

August 2008: After more bouts of it running OK for some time then cutting out again after a few minutes I went back to Halfords again, this time they did have another one on the shelf, and exchanged it without question. First drive of nearly half an hour and no cutting out but it is early days yet. However it also has much better signal quality and that is with the player and cable coiled up in the cubby, so I'm cautiously optimistic that the first one was faulty and this one will be OK. After a longer test next day and still fine I thought we were there. But the next day it kept cutting out after just a few seconds, so back to Halfords yet again, a refund, and good riddance. Next option was to get an MP3 radio, the cheapest of which I could find locally from the usual suspects was £60. I'd fitted one for my pal with the 'barn find' 78 GT which he sourced very cheaply so asked him where he got it. The good news was that it was under £40, the bad news was it was from Aldi who tend to get these bargains periodically but when they are gone that's it. However he said they had got them in again, so it was down to Aldi. Yes they had, in silver which probably matches the ZS fascia better than the black, but the only take cash or debit cards and I only had my credit card with me! So back home for the right card, back to Aldi for the radio, and back home again. Checked the connections at the back and it was a standard plug with the connections the same as the old radio, but the plug on the end of the aerial cable was the ISO very low profile right-angle, whereas the radio needed a long straight standard plug. So back to Halfords yet again to get an adapter. After that it was a matter of swapping the cages over (the new one not sliding in as far as the old but far enough) then removing a couple of the switches close by so I could hold the big in-line multi-way connector up into a recess above the radio with a screwdriver (the main slot isn't deep enough to accommodate the radio plus this large connector behind it) and push home. Everything works OK, and I'm sure it sounds better than the old one (Kenwood) which took a lot of fiddling with equaliser and bass, treble and middle controls to get sounding anything like decent. MP3 player plugs into the aux socket on the front, but you have to use the MP3 player controls. There are also sockets for SD card (1GB max, I need over 2GB) and USB flash drive (no limit given), the implication being that you can use the CD controls on MP3 files on a flash drive, so that is the next thing to investigate.

September 2008: And a 4GB proves just the ticket. It can plug directly into the front, and one that swivelled through 90 degrees would reduce the chance of it getting knocked and causing damage, but mine doesn't swivel. No matter, there was a USB extension cable with the radio, which doesn't stick out much, and allows the flash drive to be tucked into the cubby under the ashtray. Not only can you navigate both folders and files, but it displays the names while it is playing.

I made a template out of card drawing down the lower edge of the arch and across underneath, then back to encompass all three screws. Cut that out, then put a blob of paint on the head of each screw, carefully lined up the template with the arch, then pressed the template onto the head of each screw, which left a perfect imprint of where to make the holes. Then I could position the template over each arch (turning the template one way for one arch and over for the other) to get the amount of overlap I wanted, and scribed round the template for what needed to be cut off. The material is quite rigid plastic rather than rubber, and so was easy to cut with a jig-saw.

Removed each road wheel in turn, the three screws with washers, then fitted the flaps. Being thin there is still plenty of thread left to hold them and secure the body-kit and arch liners. Replacing the road-wheel I put a little copper-grease round the centre hole, as this is a snug fit to a boss on the hub, and you can get corrosion here which makes the wheel difficult to remove.

It will be due for a cambelt change next year and out of interest I asked the filter supplier how much - £700 ouch! But a neighbour knows people at Gaydon who worked on these engines and has offered to help, so I think I'll be taking him up on that.

The Haynes manual shows where the filter, drain plug and gearbox level plugs are but as close-ups so it isn't easy to see where on the car they are. These pictures give a more general view and have the items arrowed. The filter and drain plug (15mm) are on the right-hand side neat the back of the engine, the gearbox level plug on the left-hand side immediately behind the driveshaft. Mine is an R65 gearbox, the plug is slightly closer to the driveshaft on PG1 gearboxes it seems. Haynes says to remove the undershield, but it isn't necessary on my ZS180 at least, either side. The sump drain plug was very tight, I had to use my breaker bar. If you undo the final threads with your hand coming in from the side and above the bolt you can avoid the dreaded 'hot oil up the sleeve' syndrome. But the old oil squirts out quite fiercely in an arc to begin with landing a good 12" or so from a position vertically beneath the drain plug, I also got a small amount dropping vertically as well, so you need a large enough receptacle to collect both. Whilst newspapers will collect drips they won't be good enough to collect even the smaller vertical flow. Bear in mind the sump and filter holds 5.2 litres so make sure your receptacle is big enough. As the level lowers the arc lessens, eventually dropping vertically for the last trickle, so you need to be watching it to keep the receptacle under the flow(s), as well as watch out for any breezes blowing the smaller trickles around (newspaper is fine for catching these). Haynes says to renew the sump plug sealing washer, but they always say that, I never have with previous cars and I've never had a problem, so didn't lay one in. However on all my other cars they have been copper washers, these look like steel with a rubber insert sealing to the threads, so I think it advisable to replace and I will do so in future. The filter came off easily enough with my chain wrench, which only just fitted between the filter and the part of the sump that is adjacent to it. It isn't really feasible to change the filter while the oil is still draining from the sump unlike my MGBs, so you have to wait until it is finished, refit and tighten the sump plug before doing so. A lot more oil comes out of the filter and filter head, so again the receptacle needs to be underneath. Mine was pretty full from the sump, so I emptied that into an old 5L oil can before removing the filter. With the old filter off and it and the oil out of the way get the new filter, lubricate the rubber ring with fresh oil (just use a smear, if you put too much on it might run down the side of the angled filter when fitted making you think the seal is leaking), screw it on to the filter head bearing in mind the ZS180 is at an angle and not vertical i.e. don't cross-thread it. When the rubber seal just touches the filter head use hand pressure to turn another 270 degrees or 3/4 turn. Double-check the sump plug is tight. Refill with 10W/40 ACEA A2 or A3 (ignore the Mobil 1 stickers everywhere). Fill to the Min mark, another litre should bring it up to the Max mark. Start the engine, immediately check underneath for any major leaks, check the oil light goes out (it will take longer than normal this first time) then spend longer underneath making sure there are no drips or leaks. Switch off, and after a few moments recheck the level, you will probably have to add a bit more to take account of what is now sitting in the filter.

With the level plug (17 or 18mm, forgot to note that one) undone use a mirror and torch to check the level. Mine is down a bit, I didn't get any in to begin with, so I shall have to get some then get down and under again to top-up. Use 70W/80 gear oil in the R65 gearbox, should be easy enough to get hold of. The PG1 specifies MTF 94 and gives it a viscosity of 10W/40, which makes it sound like engine oil but I don't think it is so don't use it instead. There is a lot of discussion on various boards (search Google with 'MTF94 oil') and it seems a bit specialist, some people reckon it is vegetable oil and not mineral (which is why you shouldn't use engine oil even of the same viscosity), ATF either isn't up to the job or makes for stiff changes when cold, and so on.

Followed the instructions to the letter cleaning the glass with meths, then wetting it, before attaching the film. This helps it slide into position as well as stick well afterwards. The only tricky bit was cutting out round the mirror, which isn't perfect, but doesn't really notice. The film consists of clear plastic film covered in dots, which start off at the top being more do than space, then the dots get smaller towards the bottom edge, to give a graduated effect. Makes a noticeable difference, but if anything a deeper or double strip probably wouldn't be too much, it still dazzles more than the V8.