2003 MG TF reviews

MG TF 135 2003

Yes I’m a bloke and yes, I bought this car for me, although my wife did choose this over the ZS+ I was also considering at the time. Sure you have the odd wingnut sneering with their hair dresser ’gags’ and badge snobs poking fun at it being a tarted up rover but this car is for the owner, and no one else. Well that’s the way it is for me anyhow. Leaving the image aside for a while.. I bought mine in 2008 with 35k on the clock, in great nick and with matching hardtop which I felt was a must, even just for the fact it looks way better with it on. The hardtop also cuts out road noise, means you’ve a heated rear glass window (although later soft tops come with glass) and makes it more useable during the winter cold. There are a few niggly things that I think most TF’s suffer from. The leakage from the seal around the mirror areas, after a good rainfall I find small puddles and some water down over speaker grills. This is just what happens with this car and to be honest it doesn’t bother me, wipe it up and get driving. Setting 1 on the heater doesn’t work so starts at 2 and has to be on all the time esp in winter or misting is serious! Some parts do feel flimsy but after 2 years of ownership I haven’t encountered anything I couldn’t fix myself, that’s with me being a diy disaster. The positives far outweigh the negatives and that’s why I put up with minor ills and still own it. Fewer on road compared to Mx5s and MR2s etc, and I’ve never seen another anything like mine on the road, I believe it to be the only one of it’s kind in the country especially as I’ve added the 80th anniversary interior with the trophy rims. The looks are what sold this to me. Sure every other car dealer will say about the reliability of the obvious and predicable Mazda but it’s ugly as sin. Again you’ll have the ’but the head gaskets go’ naysayers, but if you respect and look after your cars then I find that problems and high repairs are reduced. If you drive it like a maniac, more than likely you’ll face high bills as with any motor. It’s how this car makes you feel, sure it’s not a flying machine in modern hot hatch terms but with being so low to the deck and with the car so small it makes up for it and roundabouts become straight roads and drives become adventures. It used to be that we would take the car and go somewhere to do something, not the journey is the something, just driving with the wind in your hair (especially at night) makes the concerns go away.