I am seriously contemplating buying this car:
tinyurl.com/876kf73
My daily commute will possibly be reduced by around 75% soon so I reckon that this old girl would cope fine as my daily driver.
Now, I know that there are many who bemoan Austin Rover (especially Maestros in baby-poo beige!) but what do you think? Should I go for it? I'm very tempted, especially as insurance for it is only £158 for a year's fully comp.
Cheers,
Rob.
PS - Dieselboy, I already know your feelings on the matter! ;-)
Last edited by: Badwolf on Wed 29 Feb 12 at 20:52
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A mk2 Escort would be better
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Are you working for Diamond? :-)
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Yes you are bonkers, stark staring mad.
It is one of the early ones, the multipiece dash rattles and squeeks like a million hamsters on a million treadmills. Mine was the single most unreliable heap of sh I ever had the misfourtune to own, let me down on a regular basis.
You need to seek therapy and big time.
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I agree with the Z-man on this Rob, for a regular run however short, you need a car that'll regularly start. Good luck playing with the automatic choke and damp dizzy cap at 6am!
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Wasn't a bad car in its day - remarkable interior space by today's standards. My dad had two between 1985 and about 1999 and was generally pleased with them, although he tended to take an anti-style stance on cars. I think both shed their gearbox linkages at various times, leaving him to get home in one gear or not at all.
That one looks as if it's never been anywhere, which may or may not be a good thing. How much are you considering paying for it?
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I know it's tenuous but it just made me think of this...
www.youtube.com/watch?v=XszJ7fFFHr0
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>> Wasn't a bad car in its day - remarkable interior space by today's standards.
It was a very well designed car. It handled well*, it rode well, it was roomy, comfortable.
It also had a shocking crappy electro mechanical carb thing, and was built of rubbish materials by a barrel load of monkeys.
* while the shock absorbers had oil in them. The first one went at 1000 miles, and was a regular little visiting gremlin.
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If the choke control unit is readily available on eBay why hasn't the seller done it ?
I was waiting for Humph's comedy post about a Renault Espace. A Y reg would help pass the late winter evenings.
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...
Last edited by: gmac on Wed 29 Feb 12 at 21:16
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>>Am I bonkers? - gmac
>>
Yes.
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If you found a mint Land Crab or even early Princess with the faithful B series lump, then i'd have no worries about using it a daily driver, any A or B series engined car.
Keep a hammer screwdriver few spanners and pliers in the boot and you'll be able to fix any breakdown in 5 minutes flat.
These and the Montego's were always a pita with their stepper motors i stripped and bodged dozens of Montego's which seemed to find their way to me, and thats when new, goodness knows what the years will have done.
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It's odd how faults differ from place to place.
I always found the stepper mtors were OK, and I've never replaced one. We replaced lots of the small vacuum valves (by the main dashpot), and quite a number of ambient air temperature sensors (behind a headlamp).
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''and I've never replaced one''.
I didn't replace any either that i can recall, usually found stripping and cleaning and reassembling the things would sort them out, always seemed to work anyway, i hated the things with a passion, apart from niggling things like that i quite liked the Montego, especially the Diesel estate.
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>> If you found a mint Land Crab or even early Princess with the faithful B
>> series lump,
>>
If anyone comes across an 1800 that's not riddled with terminal rot, check the boot. Lord Lucan may be hiding in it.
I found the "O" series engined Princesses to be rather better. The facelift redevelopment did 'em the world of good and the SOHC "O" series engine was as bulletproof as the "B" series ever was[1]. If only they'd gone the extra mile and fitted an end-on 5-speed 'box.....
[1] With the notable exception of that utterly daft thermostat housing arrangement.
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I thought the 'B' series suited it much better in the examples I had (1.8 & 1.7).
After I smashed my first t-stat housing on an 'O' series trying to change the t-stat, I learnt to remove the cap and give it a twist every few weeks.
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>> >>Am I bonkers? - gmac
>> >>
>>
>> Yes.
>>
Could have a point ON.
Watching the football I noticed a banner going around the pitch "The FA Tesco Skills..." I read it as a piece of political satire given the news today about "Work scheme benefits threat axed". It only appeared briefly.
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>> >> >>Am I bonkers? - gmac
>> >> >>
>> >>
>> >> Yes.
>> >>
>> Could have a point ON.
>>
It takes one to know one.:-)
I once owned an Allegro that colour, it was only a couple of years old and a POS.
EDIT:- Mine was the dark diarrhoea colour.
Last edited by: Old Navy on Wed 29 Feb 12 at 21:44
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That car has a 3+E gearbox. Pretty well a five speed box in terms of ratios, but no fourth gear... (In other words, a four speed box with a stupidly high fourth gear and a yawning chasm changing down to third).
If the Vauxhall implementation of this is anything to go by, you'll hate it. My brother had a hire Vauxhall with this sort of gearbox years ago and was very rude about the it.
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Its a heap of crap Badwolf - it would destroy you. It's in Beige as well. Steer clear.
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Better to buy a bargepole Badwolf. A long one. However, if you're determined to buy a really bad taste car, I think we know someone in Northants who might give you some handy hints...
:-)
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Mentioned this before I had use of a brand new E reg one - complete with a dried out turd in the wheel well.....smart.
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- complete
>> with a dried out turd in the wheel well.....smart.
>>
If it was beige, that could've been the touch-up paint.
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It was solid white, and in general quite a nice solid motor, it had the later dash, handled really well.
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>> It was solid white,
Car or turd?
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I would buy a Perodua Pileofpoo over a Maestro any day.
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A 1986 MG Maestro (1598cc) finished 8th in the 2012 London to Cape Town rally. Quote of the competition:- ‘I got a new Jeep with a big V8 and put on Baja desert racing suspension and drove it half way round the world down the full length of Africa …I’ve just been well and truly beaten by two birds in an old Maestro’ – Marc Buchanan, Jeep Wrangler.
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Like most Austin Rover products, the Maestro became a decent car later on in life after the first few years worth of unpaid development staff (or punters) had suffered a catalogue of issues. You would be crazy to consider an early one. They were crap and faulty when they rolled off the line.
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Any more comments, chaps? I'm still not quite clear on your viewpoints...? ;-)
Don't think I'll be buying it after your much appreciated input.
Cheers all,
Rob.
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Absolutely certifiable, even if you get the thing to start every day it will handle like nothing on earth.
We had Maestros on fleet back in the day, the only vehicle that I can think of that was worse was the HA Vivas, now they were a complete waste of metal and engineering, they should just have taken the steel, crushed it and melted it down, would have saved us all that suffering.
One of the guys' party tricks with the Maestro was to take them out on a damp Autumn morning and see what revs they could get up to in each gear while changing up the box before they would pull away, I believe the record stood at 3500ish rpm in third before the powers that be decided that the company image was suffering by the daily demonstrations........ In theory all that engine weight over the driving wheels should give good traction, yeah, right........
As for handling in snow or ice, ha ha ha ha ha!!!!!!
Last edited by: Cockle on Thu 1 Mar 12 at 01:25
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No idea why but always had a soft spot for BL products. However the pre 85 facelift Meastros were awful. I remember my grandads old Y Reg 1.3 HLS, he said it was the worst car he had ever owned. He only had it for three weeks as my uncle made him a G reg 2.0 Montego by using the good bits of his old 1.6 Montego.
I remember the Meastro, it was a real screamer and the dash shook itself to bits. I also used to go in a G reg 1.3 and the owner of that loved it, and as a passenger the car felt very different. Much more solid and probably a bit of a bargain at that time. It is probably a better car than the 1990 Escort.
If you really want a naff car though, I saw an old L reg Marina the only day, some how Top Gear have missed it sadly, if I can spot it again I will chuck a note on the windscreen saying I have found a buyer which may offer £25 for the car if you wish :).
Never been in a Marina in my life, but my dad used to have to hire the 1.8 for work purposes, all he says about it they were far worse than the Morris Minor he had at the time, and it is the worst car he has ever driven, worse even than the Ladas.
I do see the appeal of this Meastro though, it is a piece of history and it looks very genuine and original if I had £100k to spend on cars and a big space to put them in, I would snap this up. However I would never drive it, it would be simply a museum piece.
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I would argue the later 2.0 EFI MG version was a far nicer handling car than a contemporary XR3i or Astra GTE. They were actually really rather good to drive.
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That was the conclusion of most road tests - fast and furious with horrendous torque steer, but a better handler. The engineering on the Maestro was potentially sound, the execution with knackered old engine designs is another story !
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>> Don't think I'll be buying it after your much appreciated input.
Even FoR wouldn't buy that Maestro Badwolf.
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The Maestro Badwolf - sounds like a special !!
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>> The Maestro Badwolf - sounds like a special !!
That would have been the twin turbo version :)
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I'd just like to disassociate myself from the scorn.
I drove a 1.6 Maestro for a while. Got for next to nothing and ran it 'til the wheels fell off. Nothing wrong with 'em bar a tendancy to tinworm and incredibly spacious inside.
The "A" series engine is not only bulletproof, but shellproof and perfectly capable of surviving nuclear warfare to boot. Service components come free with cornflakes. Maybe a bit asthmatic in the Maestro, although the MG Metro I had as a kid went like greased weasel wotsit so it won't be terribly underpowered. Fine for a sole commute, but five and luggage would be slow.
"S" series 1.6s are fine as are the "O" engined cars.
"R" series.......the less said the better here, but if you listen closely you'll hear 'em barking......
Watch for rot around the rear suspension mounts. That's what kills 'em.
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Am filled with nostalgia. My father had a 1.4 Montego in that colour, from new.
Always started. Apart from once. I wrote it off on black ice shortly after passing my test when it was 6/7 years old. Sad.
The alternator belt squeaked like crazy on cold/wet mornings and the garage couldn't solve it...
He says "has no rust and never will rust". I can see rust on a rear arch, and I guarantee it will rust...
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My Grandfather also had a Montego that colour, albeit a 2.0HL Estate. He had it from new in 1986 (I think - D401LJO) until he died in 2000. It definitely wasn't rust free though by the end - I think the last 10 years of it's life were a losing battle against rust ;-)
Mind you, the car before that (and which overlapped for a good few years) was the Maestro's predecessor, a good old Maxi - russet brown, X reg. Now that was dire to drive - I remember borrowing it the summer I passed my test :-O
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>> "S" series 1.6s are fine
Complete rubbish. It had a shocking electronically controlled SU carb thing that was a complete dogs dinner. Refused to start when hot and refused to start when cold. It was a shocking cludge. Horrifically unreliable.
At 60k miles and two years old it clocked up a service bill of 800 quid.
POS
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Wonder if this was like the Ford VV carb in that some were a living nightmare, and others were totally fault free, with very few in between.
I knew a few people with 1.6 Montegos back in the day, and none of them had problems. One of the Montegos was well over 100,000 miles when sold.
The biggest issue was rot. Lots and lots of rot. All had visible scabs on the arches and door bottoms at 3 yrs old.
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My experience of a Maestro was largely positive, i bought a 2 year old 1.3 with the 5 speed cog box in 1988 (it had the later Montego dash) and kept it for 3 years & 60,000 miles. It was very roomy, comfortable, had brilliant all round vision and an excellent heating/ventilation system. The ancient A series engine started 1st turn of the key whether it was hot or cold or soaking wet, it pulled like a train going up through the gears and cruised happily at 80mph whilst always returning mid 40's MPG however you drove it. Sure it had a few minor problems during the time I had it, but they were easy & inexpensive to rectify. Yes it had a few scabs on the body when i got rid of it, but compared to my 03 plate company Mondeo which had little left of the door bottoms or the Focus which had rusty wheel arches when they went back at 3 years old I don't think that it was unaceptable.
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Interesting stats:
howmanyleft.co.uk/combined/maestro
Last edited by: rtj70 on Thu 1 Mar 12 at 15:07
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Odd, mine was fine.
As I recall the carb was a pretty much "bog" HIF unit with an electric stepper motor operating the choke / fast idle. Yes, the stepper motor unit did start playing silly B's causing exactly the symptoms you describe and yes, I did replace it which cured the problem.
Took all of fifteen minutes to swap and cost peanuts as I recall.
First rule of BMC / BL vehicles. When something goes wrong, look for the Lucas component in that system....
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Brother ran a Maestro for a while and had no problems.
The one in the link should do what Badwolf wants.
He's not going to get a lot for £800-odd, whatever make he chooses.
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The HLE was a disaster ! it had a 3+1 gear box. 4th gear was so high you could never drive in it ! unless going down hill on a motorway !
Full of rattles and door locks and window mechanism falling apart, fuel & temp gauges rising up and down like a lift in the BT tower & a choke that just doesn't work !
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>>
>> He's not going to get a lot for £800-odd, whatever make he chooses.
>>
Tidy looking 1999 Vectra 1.8 CD for 550 quid ish here:-
tinyurl.com/7f6qpwj
Will look and feel like a Phaeton compared with an eighties Maestro. :-)
That's not my real postcode in case anyone wants to stalk me.
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The Maestro couldn't have been that bad back in its day - it sounds like loads of you bought or ran one for a while?!
We all laugh at the Metro now too, but back in the early 80s it really wasn't that bad a car IMHO... Who needed ABS, airbags, fuel injection, etc back then?!
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The designs were generally very good - the build was often unutterably gash.
Compare a 1969 5-speed, 5-door Austin Maxi with contemporary efforts from other makers and (IMO) it was years ahead of its time.
Unfortunately many were made from cheese, by spiteful protectionist slackers.
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Saw an Montego estate, some sort of tradesman's car - obviously still giving sterling serivce - must be at least 20 years plus
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>>We all laugh at the Metro now too, but back in the early 80s it really wasn't that bad a car<<
Nick me ole son it was awful believe me, I used to tune and drive enough of em, OK as a runabout for granny.
(as long as she was in the AA, hey)
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As if the above wasn't enough, the seller's a bit light on feedback to be buying a car from.
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it wont start when you want it to and it needs choke to start from cold and worse is its showing rust so will be dead in a yr or two ant most
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I had a modified Montego Turbo. To drive it was fantastic, I never tired of the punch in the back when the large Garrett T3 turbo spooled up, seriously impressive up long inclines, strong O series engine, lovely spacious cabin typical of BL products.
I just wish it had used more reliable components. The Lucas electrics were carp. I went through three ignition modules while I owned the car, and the electric window control unit failed too. The SU carburettor set up was workmanlike but crude - you had to make sure it was filled with oil.
Bit like an early Alfa. Exciting to drive but you wondered what the next crisis would be.
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>> I had a modified Montego Turbo. To drive it was fantastic, I never tired of
>> the punch in the back when the large Garrett T3 turbo spooled up,
Alas, like the workers that built it, it always arrived for its shift late and caused turmoil when it did.
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>> I had a modified Montego Turbo. To drive it was fantastic, I never tired of
>> the punch in the back when the large Garrett T3 turbo spooled up, seriously impressive
>> up long inclines, strong O series engine, lovely spacious cabin typical of BL products.
>>
A friend of mine had an early one (C plate) which had a few quids worth of Motobuild tweaks under the bonnet. Pushing about 200 bhp when it was finished, yet outwardly completely standard.
Still one of the fastest things I've ever driven. And one of the most furious. It was all over the road, and struggled for grip, but once you got the power down, there really wasn't much else catching you. Very, very reliable as well*, which considering it was driven by a total headcase, was quite a testament.
I remember racing an E30 325i Sport off a roundabout onto the A34 heading out of Oxford. Not only did we wipe the floor with it, but we were four up and he was solo. And he was really, properly trying.
*I'm excluding the odd broken driveshaft from the reliability records, as they were dealing with about a third more grunt than they were really designed for. :-)
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>> Still one of the fastest things I've ever driven. And one of the most furious.
>> It was all over the road, and struggled for grip
Those early ones were prone to huge torque steer, I saw one almost come off the road - quite comical. Mine was a later model (I was told they had lowered the engines to straighten the driveshafts) and got it's power down really well.
>>
>> I remember racing an E30 325i Sport off a roundabout onto the A34 heading out
>> of Oxford. Not only did we wipe the floor with it, but we were four
>> up and he was solo. And he was really, properly trying.
I had tried to stop a BMW 540i from overtaking me down a local road. No chance. By the time I was on boost, the Beemers instantaneous grunt made itself known as it blasted past :)
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I'm with the minority on this one. Badwolf should go and have a look at it and if it appears to have been well looked after and regularly serviced, it might do the job. It's got a year's MOT; it's a locally registered car (JWR) to where it's for sale; and as an increasing rarity it might even appreciate a little in value.
I'd say no more of a gamble than anything else for that price. It may even have been sold by now to a collector!
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The thing is; for the same, or less, money you can get cars 10 years newer, which are likely to be fundamentally more reliable, nicer to drive, and better rustproofed - so I can't see the point in buying this eighties stuff for everyday use, unless you're starting a museum.
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I spoke to Badwolf this evening. There's a 'Am I Bonkers III' coming up.
None of you will believe just how ridiculous the new target of his desires is...
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I'm guessing this automotive turd of epic magnitude with delusional write-up:-
tinyurl.com/maxi-turd
(was having a nosey after mentioning them higher up in the thread)
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>> I'm guessing this automotive turd of epic magnitude ....
Of the many joys visible in those piccies, have you seen the heavy gauge unfused non-standard red wire leading away from the battery positive terminal? Normally, Maxis are no balls of fire, but, this one could be rather different!!
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Whoever made those tyres musta gorn to the same school as me!
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Can only be a Yugo 45 or a Reliant Robin :)
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Hope its a Reliant Kitten, i inherited one of those which i'd maintained from almost new.
Smashing little car IMO, economical and a nice drive with the correct wheels driven.
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If you're referring to the Triumph Acclaim, I bunged that on the end of the Astra thread. I think the mods may have got a bit cross with me if I'd have started yet another thread!
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You could of*
*Just used that word to annoy !
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>> If you're referring to the Triumph Acclaim, I bunged that on the end of the Astra thread. >>
The fact that BL was producing the Acclaim (Honda Ballade) at the time of this Maestro (the Acclaim was just coming to the end of its production life) says it all. There are Acclaims still knocking about whereas the Allegros, Marinas, Maestros, Mondeos etc have virtually all passed away...:-)
Had an Acclaim for 13 years, served three members of the family and was still going strong when it was part-exchanged.
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See a few Acclaims about too, reliable cars but not known for their safety even compared to the other wrecks of the day.
Mondeo I assume you mean Montego :).
I honestly don't know the last time I have seen a Montego on the road :(
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Yes, I did mean Montego...:-))
I can't agree with you on the Acclaim's safety levels - it was a far, far superior product than the Allegros etc of the time and, what's more, didn't rust; had neat, sharp steering and a very sweet 1.3 engine. It was the car that Honda used to "educate" BL how to build cars properly...:-))
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what's more, didn't rust;
>>
Which is more than can be said for the first Rover 213/216's, the chunky one before the wedge shaped 214/216/220.
Never seen A pillar rot like it since 70s Lancias, open the door carefully as its likely to land on your foot, pillar around the door hinges would perforate as you looked at it, rubbish.
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Austin (Rover) Maestro - Am I bonkers? - Dave
