Hi from another past 2002 owner. 76' vintage as I remember, but it was a round tail light. You tell me...
Any way, if you could drive a 2002, then a series rover shifter should feel like Ferrari precision engineering at your hand. No muddy shifting.
There is a lot more throw in the shifting shaft of a rover but don't forget that these are basically farm tractors with the added plus of jumping on the highway every once in a while. Moving you arm a half foot to get it into the next gear isn't really a problem.
If however you do have worn shifters, then you might find yourself in my situation at some point.
- Point for first gear, and you find the shifter went to some weird place that you are unaware of.
- Try to accelerate and realize you are either in third, reverse, neutral or some combination of them. But stuck good!
- When the horns start, don't freak out. Didn't you hear me? Stop freaking out!!! PUT THAT MIDDLE FINGER DOWN! You are a series driver now and you have more character than that! As they are paying 500+ a month for a car they will never own, you are free to break down right in front of them and ruin their owner experience.
- Now take out your handy flat head screwdriver which you had on-board (yup nautical terms now baby).
- Unscrew the low range lever bracket on the tunnel (yes you are sitting inside the cab) without removing the knob, or anything else of importance.
- Then crawl in on the passenger side (of a left hand drive) and align the shifting levers into neutral with your shiftier in the middle. A flashlight might be needed for this.
- Lastly drive off knowing that you just saved your self a few hundred in towing costs, warranty repairs and leasing for the month.
- Oh yeah, place the screwdriver where you found. Under the last place you will look...
Cheers,
Tim