•Lovely 75 Connoisseur with huge history file

•Timing belts done in 2019 at 65,000 miles by Rover specialist

•2.5 KV6 Quad Cam auto

•Genuine sub-70k mileage

It's somewhat ironic that the best car ever produced by Rover was also its final ground-up design. 

That car was the 75 and it was designed to replace both the 600 and the 800. It was also the first Rover to be designed, developed and built under BMW and was created with a much greater budget than the brand's previous models thanks to an injection of cash from the German firm.

It was beautifully made, brilliantly styled and terrific to drive, without a doubt the company's finest achievement in modern times. 

The car was introduced at the 1998 British Motor Show at the NEC in Birmingham and the car was a real gem, powered by a choice of 2.0-litre or 2.5-litre Rover KV6 engines, a 1.8 litre K-Series four-cylinder or a BMW-derived diesel. All were terrific to drive, though it was the flagship 2.5 V6 in tandem with an automatic gearbox that was the true star of the range. 

For a while, the 75 did the job it needed to and contributed handsomely to Rover’s depleted coffers. But it wasn't enough. In 2000, BMW broke up the Rover Group, selling Land Rover to Ford, retaining Mini and the Cowley factory for itself and selling Rover Cars to the newly formed Phoenix Consortium.

The 75 was built at Cowley, so production was interrupted while manufacturing was moved up to Birmingham. You could spot a Cowley built car by its black sills as opposed to the body-coloured ones on Longbridge-made cars. 

This one is a hybrid. Registered in late 2001 but with black sills, it was built right at the changeover point, but wasn’t registered until December 2001. It’s a 2.5 V6 Connoisseur – almost top spec – and has the desirable five-speed automatic transmission.

BU51 ZRN was first registered on December 17, 2001, with the first owner recorded as MG Rover Group Company Vehicle Operations in Birmingham. 

In August 2002, the car was sold by SMC Rover in Slough to an owner who went on to keep it until 2018, keeping it diligently maintained and very clean. He eventually traded it in at a garage in East Sussex, from where a Rover enthusiast acquired it in 2019. Sadly, shortly after buying the car he became terminally ill and only got to enjoy the 75 for a few months.

It was acquired by the vendor – a member of the previous keeper’s Rover club - in early 2020, ostensibly to help his widow out at the time. The car was to be sold in the spring of 2020 as the owner never had the storage for it, but that never happened due to lockdown. Instead, it has remained part of the vendor’s extensive modern classic car collection, having been used lightly to keep everything ticking over. 

It will be supplied with a new MOT, valid until December 2022.

The reams of paperwork supplied with the 75 tell a story of their own. This is a car that has always been maintained to the highest level, with annual services despite covering a low mileage and bills and paperwork backing up 20 years of careful maintenance. 

It even comes with an original print out of the for sale advert at SMC Rover in 2002, when it had covered 12,000 miles, and a receipt for £15,995 – the price paid by the car’s long-term owner from SMC’s used forecourt. 

Also included among the stacks of bills are the original handbook and service book, sales brochure and price list, all kept inside a ‘Test Drive Reports’ folder from the dealership. It’s a comprehensive record of the car’s past.

Atlantic Blue is arguably the best colour for the early 75s and it really suits the car, with a greenish metallic flake against the standard deep blue. It looks amazing in sunlight. 

It’s all in good condition overall for a car that hasn’t been restored or repainted – but for that very reason, it’s also not perfect. It has a few small marks all round, there’s evidence of a previous repair to one of the rear jacking points (not visible from above) and there are some scuffs to the nearside front bumper, which have been painted over. There’s also a small scrape on the lower part of the nearside sill and the boot cannot be opened with the key, though both the remote button and interior release work as they ought to. 

This is a pre-Project Drive 75 (the Rover decontenting programme that removed a lot of the nice bits), so it has features such as the boot mounted Viking badge, side ‘lozenge’ badges, d-pillar logos and chrome trim finishers.

With sumptuous cream leather, proper wood and delicate ivory dials, the 75 is a lovely car that is beautifully detailed. 

It’s also extremely comfortable, with luxurious heated leather and electrically adjustable seats. It a truly relaxing cabin in which to spend time. 

There are a couple of areas ripe for improvement – the headlining has dropped (a common 75 fault) and needs regluing, and there’s a piece of trim on the nearside A-pillar that also needs refitting, while the rear courtesy lamp is loose. 

On the plus side, the leather and carpets are almost perfect and the steering wheel is spotless – very rare for a 75, where the pale-coloured wheels are prone to excessive wear. It also has a lot of desirable pre-Project Drive parts. Embossed Rover logos on the head rests, velour rather than vinyl sun visors, genuine wood veneers, rear air con ducts and metal door handle surrounds, which don’t leap off the door like the later plastic ones were prone to. 

It also has cream genuine MG Rover over mats and a full-sized spare wheel, both of which were dealer accessories. 

Rover’s quad cam KV6 is a gloriously smooth engine and a strong performer – with 177bhp on tap and a smooth, effortless automatic transmission.

This one is in fine fettle. It fires up on the first twist of the key and runs extremely sweetly. The vendor has just treated it to an oil and coolant service as it had been parked up for several weeks, so all of the fluids are fresh and not due for replacement until next December, or within 10,000 miles.

The timing belts were replaced in 2019 by the dealership that the previous owner bought the car from – Cruze Motor Co in Southampton – and the car has covered less than 5,000 miles since then. 

The vendor has been using the car for the past few weeks for work in order to ensure everything is in good order and he reports that the transmission, brakes, steering and suspension all give no cause for concern.

Rover 75s are rapidly shooting up in popularity, as the last car from a brand that is lamented by many, and as a genuinely good modern classic that’s both great to drive and beautifully appointed. 

This is a really smart and unspoilt example that’s entirely complete and in great mechanical order, with smart bodywork and all of the desirable pre-Project Drive parts that mark it out as one of the more collectable 75 variants. 

There aren’t many available like it, so it’s sure to be a big hit with Rover 75 aficionados.