I owned a 1992 plus 4 4 seater for 15 years and did about 85k miles in it. I sold it to my brother in law who has just sold it on after owning it for 10 years. It was one of the last of the M16 fitted cars. The comment on final drive ratio was common in the press at the time but I found no issue with gearbox ratios. As with most modern engines it was necessary to use the top end of the rev range if you wanted it to perform but there was enough torque at the bottom end for more relaxed but still lively motoring. If you calculate the effective ratios on the current plus 4 they are not very different to that one and everyone seems happy with the current one.
It did tend to pink in hot weather which was fixed by using higher octane fuel not a problem in the UK as it wasn't that hot that often.
