"The 75 is wilfully and deliberately old-fashioned. If the new Ford Focus is a Canon Ixus, then the 75 is a 1950s radiogram... In Germany, France and Italy this car will sell well because the styling conjures up a tourist board vision of Britain," Jeremy Clarkson, The Sunday Times

"Although the 75 is well-designed, looks good, is surprisingly well built and has spot-on brakes, it can hardly be described as sporty. It doesn't involve the driver as much as it should," Mike Rutherford, News of the World

"The new 75 is an attractive and well-balanced car, which should go some way to convincing BMW that the company has a future worth investing in. The first Rover 75 was launched in 1948 and was a success in export markets, Rover will be hoping its £700m investment in the new 75 will repeat the story," Andrew English, The Daily Telegraph

Story date: Wednesday 03 February

Converted for the new archive on 30 June 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.