At least Rover didn't have to have a night shift on to fix what the day shift had made - thats what VW had to do with the Mk3.
Why I chose my Rover over a Pug 306 (which was the #1 hatch at the time - 1997) what the interior if I'm honest. The Pug was slightly bigger but the Rover was just so much a nicer place to be - the seats came from the 800, the instruments from the 600 as did most of the switches, the dash was solid and the interior didn't smell really bad like the Pug one did. Even the Focus was poor compared to it, the plastic was hard compared to the Rover's soft touch and it rattled a lot.
I dodged the bullet of the K-series HGF by choosing the Diesel, and as someone else was paying I didn't mind that it was overpriced for what it was - and it was.
Plus it was white - so in the outside lane of any motorway all people saw was a white Rover with its headlights on...
EDIT - If you do go Mk3 - remember that the Mk3 is so strange that the 5 door shell is actually STIFFER than the 3 door one, and is therefore preferred.
