When I worked for MG Rover I spent 2 months in India at the Tata factory working on a much improved version.... unfortunately it never made it here

I had one while I rebuilt my engine. It was a great little car drove well nippy. 6 month 10k never had a problem.

Love how they tacked that passenger airbag on the shelf and not behind the expanse of plastic above the glove box.

You forgot to mention this: "It was the first passenger car from Tata Motors and it is also considered to have been India's first indigenously developed passenger car." Not bad for a truck manufacturer.

I really like your videos. You’re honest about the good and the bad but never insulting. The driving media could learn a lot from you

In my opinion especially by 2003 standards this looks like a fine car especially for the price point, you can’t bash a car for not the having interior quality of a Mercedes Benz E class when it doesn’t even cost a quarter of what the E class does. The interior reminds me of a Focus from the same era.

It is ironic that Tata owns the Rover brand following its acquisition of Jaguar Land Rover from Ford in 2008. Excellent review.

Why do top gear sabotage all our small car manufacturers? Started years ago when Quentin Wilson ruined the Austin name.

Another great video again Ed! It's such a shame that the CityRover never worked out, Rover's final push out of dispare

I did find the options list hilarious with a leather seat option at more than 10% the cost of the base model. 🤣 I worked as a ships agent at Portbury and remember seeing these new being driven off the ships. They sat in the storage depot for ages and ages. In fact I left the company I was working for and they were still there.

By anonymous on 16 Feb '11 I am currently learning to drive and i wanted some extra practice outside of my driving lessons in a relatives car. My nan offered to help me out by letting me use her car to practice in, but she has a CityRover, which has had extremely bad reviews because its basically a Rover badged Tata Indica! Firstly i would like to say that considering she has owned the car for a year, not much has actually gone wrong so far (lets hope it stays that way!) When you first get into a CityRover, you notice the sheer amount of head and legroom for such a small car. Its tardis-like So, after reading the reviews of what its like to drive i was fully expecting it to be a complete dog for a learner to use. I was surprised. It is actually really easy to drive maybe even more so at first than my driving instructors fiesta which has overly light accelerator and clutch pedals. After we got out on the open road i opened it up a bit and although the engine is noisy beyond 3500 rpm, it pulls much better than the 1.25 fiesta even though it only has 9 more bhp. Once i got used to driving it i started treating it more aggressively and i must say it stood up well. It seems like it has a high up driving position, but around the corners, there is little body roll and its actually quite a performer. I was impressed. But its around town that it really impressed me. The gear box is close ratio, so its nippy and nimble and you can drive it with verve around tight bends which makes it quite a fun car to do small trips in. It lives up to its CityRover name very well. The only faults are that the pedals are awkwardly high up so after a while your feet begin to ache, and also the heater takes ages to heat up in the winter so short trips are quite cold at first. Its not the most economical car either with the 1.4 engine using more petrol than other city cars however they lack the same performance. Its really not a bad car at all like the top gear review made it out to be. Infact i think its a good car because it is, just, a simple car. I would never have even considered one of these cars before but after driving it and seeing how it performs on a day to day basis, i would gladly consider one and for this reason i'm glad i got the chance to drive it. Show less Practicality5 Reliability4 Running Costs3 How it drives4 Thank you for your feedback. Your vote will be processed within 24 hours. Written by somebody who actually used one for a while.

Thanks for this one.. Its well up to your usual very watchable standard, but with even more tongue in cheek, quirky humour and bags of well-researched information. I loved it - keep them coming.

You could drive around Britain all day and not see a CityRover. You're probably more likely to see an older Metro/R100 than a CityRover.

As usual, an entertaining and informative video from Twin-Cam. Just the thing for a lazy Sunday morning. I like the look of the pedal car parked on the garage roof. What about doing a spoof appraisal on something like that for an April fool joke?

Who remembers when James May secretly filmed a road test on the CityRover during a test drive at a Rover dealer on Top Gear in 2004?

This guy kept it more real than furious driving!

Good idea but it didn’t quite work when it was released. The mentality of it all would have worked ten years before it came out and it could have saved Rover. Good idea, but was too late.

I know this car very well as I'm currently rebuilding her (YES this very car in this video!) for charity. I'll be posting some videos up on my channel very soon!

There is a very good reason that it’s much nicer in the back than in the front. This is an Indian car that was designed for the Indian market, in much of Asia the members of the family that make financial decisions sit in the back of the car. This is the reason why BMW make a long wheelbase version of the 3 series for the Asia market that is never seen in Europe. Nice review, I was going a bit dizzy in the first half with the same scenes repeating again and again with different voiceover and it would have been good to see the engine.

Sad end to a once great marque ):

The first Cityrovers were riddled with build quality faults, but by the time they got better, the damage to the Cityrover's reputation had been done which didn't do much for their sales.. Also, Rover did the wrongfootingly bad idea of pricing the car at a premium, over the competition and by giving the car a makeover rounding the light clusters thinking that few would notice, but when other rivals cars were far more reasonably priced and better value, the baseline Cityrover Studio model was very sparsely equipped.

The garage opposite me at work had one in a few years ago. I think it had to be scrapped as the part needed wasn't available anywhere. The rest of the car was fine (as in worked,not as in good).

Call me weird, but I quite like the look of the interior and exterior. The problem comes when you touch or try to use anything - and you realise that it is completely cheap and nasty. And Rover tried to charge a premium price for it! I seem to remember them doing the same with the 600 which was a perfectly competent, but not outstanding car. The philosophy seems to have been "this car is expensive, therefore it is a quality vehicle" rather than "this car is genuinely good quality and therefore it can justify a higher price".

I think you will become very famous, when it comes to review cars. In 5 years time 2025! :) You have really talent, good voice, nice and informative and you go into depth of the cars, keep that up! Good luck from me here in Norway :)

MOT expired August 2018 with a corrosion problem. Poor thing. Thank you Edward for another great video

Took a few of these in px years ago, they were falling to pieces at 3 to 4 years old. Performance probably the only redeeming feature. The 'Shitty Rover' nickname the trade bestowed on it was I'm afraid fully justified.

its Tata's budget car. was a bad move by rover to source partnership from Tata for this car.

Admit it, you didn’t like it. :-). I’m a bit disappointed you didn’t take the opportunity to review that pedal car on the roof. Keep up the good work. Always a pleasure to watch these videos.

I had a 2002 Kia Rio here in the States back in the day, looked very similar in terms of cheapness but it builds a lot of character in the driver lol.

This is a Great video informed commentary not traveling salesman carpark snobbery hype, what Top gear should have been like.

Great informative presentation and i think you are correct about the fact it would have been better as a tata.

It looks like a car from 1995 too. It’s amazing they thought they could sell it in 2003

The steering wheel reminds me of the one on the Plaxton Primo bus

Tata Makes some real Beautiful cars now. Check out the Harrier , HX5 and the Nexon. That too with a 5 star safety rank.

I remember looking at one of those after I sold my rover 100. Even new it screamed cheap and nasty. Bought a rover 200 instead..

My neighbour in india has one of these car tata indica he's a taxi driver. It had 70000km on odo I asked how's a 15 year old taxi car has only 70k on odo. He said it got zero when it reached 10Lakh kilometer. It only got regular service and clutch changed once. You can see see much of these cars in india. In india unreliable cars are never used by taxi's

Here in Madrid ... a new subscriber

I like it. Seems practical, economical. Very interesting history. Never heard of Tata before. Too bad it was assembled so poorly, especially the gear shifting.

Great video. I would really suggest you to look up the present day tata cars, they have improved leaps n bounds. Cheers!

9:04 these remind me of 90s Vauxhall dials, these look.lkke there straight from a calibra lol

I’m Absloutley certain the steering wheels in these were knicked of saab anyway great video great content keep it up

Not a bad car in my opinion, just priced way too high at launch

This car is of 1996 vintage no less! That was the first time Tata teased the looks in India for the first time.. it was called The Tata Mint Project and was suppose to be the ultimate VFM car.. And they launched it in India in '98... So the looks are definitely not bad for a nineties car..

Shocked to find out you can buy the MK2 instrument cluster brand new for 20 quid at Rimmer bros

Great Video and review Ed, In itself and taking the Rover out of it and judging the car on its own merit it’s not a bad car, it’s roomy, practical and does the job it was intended for. I borrowed one for a week in 2007, I found it nippy and good to drive but you are right the interior is below par for a Rover. If Tata had launched the car themselves then yes it may have fared better as you said.

Families did buy it in 1998 but it went on to become a taxi car and even Indians started to see it the same way Americans see the Toyota Prius.

I see an invacar in the background? You are getting more like hubnut 🙂

1:25 In Spain they did, an it worked terribly, mainly because most of the Indicas sold here ended up in the junkyard before 100000km with serious problems after 50000km, also because despite being sold at 6000€ (under 5500 pounds) the car looked really badly built, it consumed a lot of petrol (even the diesels consumed more than most petrol citycars), and confusing pricing policies made the decently equiped versions more expensive than the basic Panda and Matiz (better built) and just a few hundreds of euros shy of the Atos (Amica there in the UK), and many people just spent those 300€ in upgrading to the €8200 reliable boxy korean rather than staying with the €7900 trim of the Indica. A close friend bought a diesel Indica and it was her worst choice in life so far.

Hey can you do a video about modern day Tata cars like the altroz, nexon and the harrier!?

I just converted the price and it costed more than four times than it did in india

im toying with a new project next year a MG City (CityRover) in drag and was wondering do you know if Mg rover wheels fit the city?

The top of the rear light clusters reminds me of the Nissan Almera Tino

Good review, I'm not a fan of how the rear lights incorporate into the back end. Front looks good. I feel like we watched the same bit of B roll about 20 times for the outside

Just thinking about my Panda, that came out at the same time for a very similar price, and didn't have an ash tray. It did cost me almost twice what Hubnuts City Rover cost him, so maybe its worth it in the 2nd hand market.

If the 1998 car is launched in 2003, there will be similar problems. Tata Indica 1998 to MG CITYROVER2003

Had they priced it at £4995 and called it the metro they could have sold loads or considerably more but as you say it’s not a Rover and it was way too expensive. Rover being no more deeply saddens me, I’ve owned many and still would buy one if I could. If only Honda would have bought them. I imagine jazz badge engineered to be a metro would have sold very well.

I didn't even knew that India's first indigenous car Tata Indica was also launched in Other countries as a Rover

Really informative. Be careful with your editing though, as when you are reusing the same footage again and again, it makes the video difficult to watch because elements you are describing aren’t always onscreen at the time.

Reminds me of a Yugo 45 back in the day,

It's still better looking than old multipla

The next shmee 150 of KZfaq Can you find and do a review of the rover 200 coupe my dad had one of these around 1993. The one with the targa roof his was the one with cream leather and a red pearlescent paint

mate even today that version of the city rover aka tata indica still runs barely rust issues yes it quite nosiey and rufish. but current tata are better than past.

Sometimes you find yourself saying about a car company "what were you thinking?!" I remember this car being launched and saying at the time "Rover, wtf ARE you thinking!?!" Bowing out with dignity surely should have been possible.

Fiat Panda, Daihatsu Charade etc offered modern well finished better specced cars for the same money. Crazy

Yikes. My 2004 Holden Calais feels like a spaceship in comparison. Although, it was only, what, 4-5 times the price when new? Although it’ll have 4-5x the miles this thing has and it’ll still soldier on.

HubNut has one of these (a different generation model I think). I'd say reviewing a car as an old classic is very different from reviewing it back in the day as a new car with it's competition. I think Jeremy Clarkson (remember him?) had a hand in sealing Austin-Rover's fate.

Top gear is one over rated, arrogant 'car content' creators usually destroy cars

When all the bits you have to touch feel so cheap, the whole car suffers. It doesn't matter if it has the best greasy bits underneath, the "user interface" is what you notice First. Certainly built to a price, about £9.99 apparently. Another really good video. Thanks. Have you done a vid on the SD1? The Vitesse would be very interesting .

I never liked the looked of these compared to something like the metro! Either it was my aunt who won one or someone related to her won one in a raffle and she ended up having it anyway. Long story short she hated it and said at the time it burned a lot of petrol for a small car, so she got shot of it and bought a Opel Corsa instead which she still has to this day! (14 years ago) I can't recall remembering seeing many of them on the roads here in Ireland either, just as well!

So to sum it up. The CityRover is sort of like a Rolls Royce: to get the most of it you should be sitting in the back seat ;)

I spy with my little eye, something beginning with Invacar.

I think the main problem was the price MGR were asking for them, if they had asked £4500-5k at the quayside it would have sold better and they would have still made money

Cool that you got hold of one! That has to be Rover's biggest mis-step. They must've known that it would be the nail in the coffin for Rover, but a desperate situation calls for desperate measures. I think it would've gone far better if they badged it as an MG and knocked down the price by £1,000 or £1,500. I feel that the MG badge is closer to (though still quite far from) what you get with this one than Rover is, and had it started at £4,995 I think the buyers would've been slightly happier. The whole story is quite akin to the Aston Martin Cygnet. Both were quite good cars, but way overpriced and obviously a rather lazy rebadge of a lesser car, and both became laughing stocks

It is a good car and very rapid , stop slagging it off .

in past i dont like tata but now tata moter cars are becoming best selling cars.. and now tata harrier is my dream car... i hope tata lounch tata harrier tata nexon tata altroz to other market like UK ,USA

In 1998 this car is first disel hatchback

The biggest problem Rover had with the CityRover was that Ford could sell you a base spec Ka for £4995 that was better specified and better built. Unless you really needed 5 doors, anyone looking for straight forward economy motoring would just buy the little Ford. And ended up with a damn fine car. I'm the biggest Rover fan in the world, but I've never been able to forgive them for the CityRover. Everything about it was just plain wrong.

A perodua kelisa vs daewoo matiz would be a great comparison. Two economy cars. The kelisa was the cheapest available car in the UK for a while and had great reviews. the daewoo matiz has a cult following around the world even though there pretty bad

While I agree with everything you say and indeed liked your video, it is essentially a badge engineered car. So nowadays can't expect the same quality. I agree Rover made some bad decisions, especially the price, but it was designed and built in India and therefore primative by our standards. Maybe Rover would have made a better hash of it if they were given more freedom by Tata. Unfortunately we will never know. Great video, keep them coming.

I've had the misfortune to have driven a couple of these, they are without doubt terrible and the worst car I've ever driven. And I've driven a Yugo Zastava. A mate of mine worked for a local Rover dealer at the time of the launch. Always remember him telling me he took one customer for a test drive, and they asked to get out!

It is tata indica Most successful tata car in india 🇮🇳 I love this car Company has relaunched this car as tata tiago

the overall design reminds me a bit of Citroen Saxo...

Errr...... nice colour?! As you rightly say, these were completely over shadowed by the Fiat Panda introduced late 2003 (Car of the Year 2004). I have 2 - basic "Active" models and I wouldn't swap for one of these! Great video though, I like your informative, fair and unbiased views. PS - I get you were glad to get back in your Metro after this!

I have been in one its bad but I sort of like it

You’re absolutely right about Rover and BMW asset stripping ( mini and LR) total shame and irony of Tata taking over the company in the end, the worst Rovers in 70/80s compared to most of today’s modern garbage that fails at 20k -30k and people seem to accept it nor question it and the proceed to buy another from the same manufacturer 🧐 The odometer and binnacle in the City Rover remind me of a mk3 cavalier Ones.

Enjoyed your review! I felt that CityRover was the last chance that's ruined by MGR themselves. After reading ARonline's CityRover article, I thought MGR were too defensive to sell it properly - this made better-than-perception-car into national laughingstock. Better localization and more aggressive & accurate marketing could have earned their days I think.

Rover should’ve branded it a Morris or something

This car was a pretty good car for the market it was designed for, India. It was cheap, spacious and had great features for the price, like he said. But UK had a car market far more developed and competitive, plus the overpricing by Rover did not help the matters. Plus this was the first attempt by TATA, previously a truck maker, at making a proper passenger car, which makes this car even better

I used to know a garage owner who brought his wife a City Rover and he thought it was a very good car. He also had a thing for real Minis and had a load of models in his office until some low life stole them, and also had a cracking Mercedes 250SL that was also nicked. He was a nice chap sadly died. Wonder if his wife still owns the City Rover? Interesting video, only one thing is why did keep showing the same bits of the car over and over again, I know it's not your cup of tea, but at least show the engine and the boot and other bits of the car rather than the Sprite badge, Practical Classic sticker and scabby rear wheel.

If Rover had been able to Roverise this rotbox, they might, might have got away with it. As it is, this was the death rattle of a great name.

It feels cheap because it is cheap….as you said at the start, if this had been sold as a Poundland special, then it would be fine, because that’s what it was. A bit like the Suzuki Alto. I don’t mind the external styling and the name btw. The too high driving position did make me think of things like a more modern Honda Fit….sorta trying to be as practical as possible for its size. But rover attempted to say this was on a par with a polo, Fiesta or corsa…….which it clearly wasn’t.

Never knew there was such kind of "reimagined" City Rover design... Still seeing some of the original ones around. Those are robust. Just based on what I've seen about the reimagined one... honestly a disgrace for the Rover name/brand.

IN INDIA CALL his model Tata Indica HATCHBACK SENDAN MODEL CELL IN INDIA INDICA V2 MODEL IN TATA INDIA USED HIS MOSTLY IN CABS IN INDIA

Tata still sell them here in SouthAfrica as the Tata Indica, I had a 2014 model and I agree with you. I told the dealer that Tata put their name to this junk how could they expect me to later upgrade to a LandRover or jaguar After 4 months of ownership the door fell off the problems just piled up under warranty and 9 months later I decided enough and traded it in on another brand of vehicle Cost me a huge loss in bank finance because the trade in was less than I owed bank never again

I will say it now - the main problem was the price. Dacia has already proven that affordable cars sell like hotcakes.

Dark times indeed. You should experience 80s Chrysler & GM interiors for the N American market, it was beyond horrid.

The car looks great to me.

They were scraping the barrel with this one weren't they. If it was £ 3000.00 Uk it would have been a bargain. Nice review though.

The car was crap,but your videos are very good!