Did the Maestro & Montego Seal Austin Rover's fate?
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- Опубликовано: 26 июл 2019
- The Maestro was the car that killed Austin Rover. Poised on a knife-edge in the early 80’s between survival and disaster, this car, and its booted Montego sister, caused its death. Not right away - plenty of Government subsidies and deals with Honda and BMW gave the company another 20 years, but this was the critical moment when it all went wrong. When the company lost its ability to chart its own destiny. So why were these cars such poor-sellers, and why did a company that made the critically successful Metro, get it all wrong with its follow-up?
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Errata: Roy Axe came from Chrysler, not Ford.
in belgium they made a intro in a dutch speaking movie ruclips.net/video/8NSeDodI-mI/видео.html on about the 40 min mark they used the car to escape and talk about how good this car is
if you want i translate
45 min the police says a new good car :)
Not to be confused with Roy Haynes.Who went from Ford (Cortina mk2). To BMC(Marina & Clubman)
@@howellstevens9622 😃 I just learned that, because I'm researching the Cortina. How could someone make something so nice as the Cortina mk2, and so boring as the Marina?
A friend of mine had an early MG Maestro, and recounted to me an accident he had in it where he wrote it off. He was driving down a fairly narrow road, at pace, when a deer jumped out in front of him. He swerved and missed the deer, but went up a bank and rolled the car. He said that there was this awful clattering noise as the car turned over and all the contents of the car were being thrown around. He said that it all went quiet as he came to a stop, and as he was catching his breath, the silence was broken by Mrs Davros of the Dashboard harking out "Oil Pressure Low - Oil Pressure Low"
Mrs Davros)))
😁 my wife used to tell her where to go when she said 'warning please fasten your seatbelt'
Great to know Miss Stravos
Was that friend Chris Goffey from Old Top Gear? 😀
A friend of mine gave me a lift years ago in a maestro as he was looking for a rescue dog for a pet. On the way back he drove through flooding, only pull up at the lights in the high street. A passer by knocked on the car window and said, there water pouring out of the car. I replied, I know I am sitting in it!
Considering that they were “Poor Sellers” the Maestro and Montego were practically everywhere in the late 80 s and early 90’s when I was a teenager, they might have been poor sellers as brand new cars but there seemed to be an abundance of them selling on the 2nd hand market.
They had a following in the fleet market due to huge discounting. By the end, they Maestro was only available in low-spec specials so it didn't impact the Rover 200.
@@robinlawson7624 Sales out side the UK were abysmal. Just could not sell enough.
I still run a 1989 Maestro van with the 1.3 petrol engine. Although it's 30 years old now it is still going strong. And I can fix it myself as there are no computers! Just basic engineering that keeps going on and on. Collectors item now - who would have thought it !!
81 rabbit pickup still going strong here.
Great gearbox indeed.
I feel for you….Thoughts and Prayers. 🙏🏽
I see a yellow Maestro van regularly, at least you can repair them yourself.
@@richardburns5925 All well and good many older car's 15 years plus are failing the MOT because the emissions are to high to pass the strict test
I learnt driving in a Maestro, was my dad's second car at that time. The car wasn't great looking but good to drive.
When I was 8 years old, I wanted my Dad to buy an Austin Maestro because of the digital dashboard which looked like it was off Knight Rider!
Very robotic voice!
Melesmeles Faber hello
Yes anything digital especially if you had an electronics hobby!
We have a Montego since 1988. It was my father's car for 10 year, another 10 years in my hands, and now, it seats in a quiet garage and it sees the sun, at sundays. Wonderful car.
‘Wonderful’? 😆
wonderful like to us zastava 750fičo, and renault 4 katrca in Slovenia
@@kraljmatjaz7668 , everyone has an opinion. I have an opinion and a Austin Montego 31 years old in my garage. Wonderful car!
Is it in mint condition? Do remember them good cars
@@rajrenuka4897 , yes it is.
I had one of the very last Maestros- they loaded it with extras that are standard today. Electric windows - variable wiper speeds - electric sunroof. I really liked it.
Did any of those features work?
They worked twice: first and last at the same time.
One good thing about the Maestro was, in the 1990s when I was young and mostly broke, you could pick up second-hand examples previously owned by old folk that had about 20,000 miles on the clock and a full service history for really low prices. Nobody by then really wanted them. With a young family in tow, they served us pretty well, even if they weren't exactly state of the art.
Yup. Even in the 00's the Maestro & Montego were a cheap entry point for the student driver... I still regret not doing enough to get my licence then, when overall costs were lower & the "theory" test far less complicated 😅
I learnt to drive and passed my test in a Maestro. My life over the next twenty years followed a similar path to Austin Rover's... .
😂😂
I learnt in a maestro too
You're a ghost then!
Thanks for a bit of humour to brighten the day......
I too passed my driving test in a Maestro 1.3. No power steering but it was way nicer to drive than the 'Chrysler Alpine' that I had started to learn in. I proceeded to drive it up and down the UK. About the only time It broke down on me was in Manchester one evening - the clutch release was by a pushrod ran through that VW gearbox main shaft... had drilled itsself through the clutch in the centre of the flywheel so there was no way I could release the clutch OR fix it by the roadside...so I drove it home to Newcastle by pulling away on the starter, carefully! matching throttle whilst swapping cogs and stopping by switching the engine off.
I had exactly that 1.3L Montego in beige in your opening shot as a company car in 1984. For sure, the engine had its work cut out pulling such a big car but the car was really good. I have a picture of us cutting through deep snow that winter and with FWD it did a sterling job. Interior and boot space were massive.
I had a 89 1.6 Montego. It was the most reliable car I have ever owned did over 120,000 miles in it and never spent a penny on it for repairs. It looked good and drove great.
The estate version Montego with a diesel engine went on to be very well loved and held its price high on the used market for a long time.
They went pretty well too, but they were really noisy with their Perkins mechanical direct injection engines! (I worked on some for the MoD).
@@Assimilator1 The 2.L turbo diesels were a blast!
I had one, got 60mpg and went pretty well. But it was POS!
@@ruuman I have a theory that because they were cheap they did not got looked after well and descended into a pos.. I say this because in some export markets where the same vehicle is expensive and considered to be good quality.. they were looked after and lasted much much longer
I seem to remember them doing over 70mpg
The Maestro and montego ( especially the estate version ) were regularly in the top 10 sellers right throughout the 80's. They were as good as the competition and better than some.
In the UK, but 'not found' in every single other EU country.
^ And?, the UK has always had a trade deficit with the EEC/EU.
Tis one reason why german car companies were lobbying for the UK to be given a good deal re' trade, as they couldn't afford to lose the UK as a market.
Ok Ok I have a confession to make. Please don't tell anyone because I might have to be on an offenders register where I have to sign in every week . OK , here goes............ I liked my Diesel Maestro!! . There , I have said it . Please don't hate me for it. I did not CHOOSE to like the Maestro . It just happened and I could not stop it. My Maestro never did less than 50 MPG and going up the Rualt hill on the A55 ( a good test of any vehicle ), I could do 90 MPH to the top . I thought it was a superb car and enjoyed every minute of it. Please forgive me and have sympathy.
My friends and family thought I was mad when I traded in my BMW 320i for a new 1986 Maestro 1.6L. There was method behind my madness though as the BMW attracted too much attention, getting broken into 3 times over 2 years and getting me my only speeding ticket.
The Maestro in contrast was never broken into and I never got a speeding ticket despite driving at the same speeds as the BMW. It was also more spacious, comfortable and cheaper to run than the BMW. Apart from the water pump failing after just 6 months (replaced under warranty), the Maestro just needed regular servicing and never gave me any problems. I sold it after 3 years as I was unexpectedly given the chance to buy a Toyota MR2 at a great price but otherwise I would have kept it for a few more years.
When living and working in the UK I had a mix of French and British vehicles & bought a Montego estate as I had 2 large GSD' dogs. I journeyed approx 3000 km a week and had no special problems with the Montego.
I drove a Maestro. I don't recall it as being particularly bad but the doors were quite tinny. They weren't bad cars in reality it's just the money wasn't there to make them better.
Wow, never knew how unsuccessful these were. Saw plenty of them around when I was a kid but always preferred the look of the Montego as the Maestro looked like the rear was cut off. Great story as always.
I remember watching Keeping Up Appearances. Elizabeth who was Hyacinth's neighbour had a car like that.
I remember seeing a lot of the Montego vans as British Telecom vehicles. They were definitely in their abundance although you would never know!
My father had a Maestro 1.3 company car in the mid 80s & I had a Montego 1.6LX estate company car in the early 90s. I remember my father remarking on the good ride quality of the Maestro & my memory of the Montego was that it was a wholly unremarkable car with a fair amount of standard kit for the time (central locking, electric front windows, electric sunroof).
The Maestro and Montego Turbos were very potent cars. Unfortunately they seeemed very short lived. Very interesting to hear about how the cars lived on in other parts of the world. The same happened to the Morris Oxford... it was produced in India, even in this century.
Loved my 1993 Maestro Turbodiesel in British Racing Green. Very reliable, fast, roomy, you could drive it easily on farm tracks and 60+ mpg. One of the best cars I have owned.
I had a Maestro as a company car many years ago, the basic, metal bumpers, 1.3 A series engine, 145x13 tyres. It was absolutely brilliant. It towed my not so small caravan right round England, Wales , Scotland and all over the continent. With its very short overhang behind the back wheels it was a perfect tow car. It never let me down and also carried an awful lot of alarm spares, roof rack and ladders whilst at work.
I’m weird, as even when I was a teenager, I actually found the Maestro a rather attractive and elegant car. The simplistic lines, crisp front end treatment and large glasshouse worked well in my mind. It certainly looked great in its 2 litre MG form.
Agreed. I hated the looks of the Montego, but the Maestro I found quite attractive.
My dad used to be a mechanic, and he had both cars at various points, and he too hated the looks of the Montego but preferred the Maestro (although he wasn't massively sold on the car itsself).
Over the years, I've grown a real appreciation of the Maestro, and love seeing them at car shows.
@@AmaanStorm my dad had both too. One Maestro and two Montegos.
I had 3 Maestros. They weren't anywhere near as bad as people made out.
While in the UK we each had MG Maestros and really liked them. Then a relative in the trade found a ex_demo MG Montego Turbo for me. As a pilot friend said. "It's the nearest thing to a tethered aircraft!" With its great handling and super performance, it was years ahead of its time
@Jake Haynes I had a MkIII Escort Ghia and an MG Maestro EFI afterwards. The Escort had a hard ride, apart from that it was fine, the Maestro was far better. Astonishingly quick and had a comfortable ride as well.
@RichJW You're a troll, fol de rol.
My dad would always put his head out of the window, scanning for the front of traffic queues on the way to the coast and say, 'Yep, it's a Maestro.' Those were the days. Thanks for another great video.
I remember they had a reputation in the late eighties for being driven by old gits. My brother in law had one and it was a bit of a joke amongst us all.
@@Useaname The usual drivel being spouted by the "know-alls" though because the Maestros were driven by diferent kinds of people because they had different engine sizes and also the fast versions such as the MG and Turbo that were far superior to the XR3 and RS Turbo etc of the time.
@@Useaname I daily drive a Maestro diesel, Im 40ish years old and i drive as slow as possible but only when i have an Audi/BMW/Mercedes or VW behind me, It winds them up everytime :)
@@KATHYMEADful I actually agree with you. I find drivers of German cars very self entitled and aggressive. I had an Audi 100 in the nineties when Audis were still seen as the German car to own without looking like a pratt. Now I wouldn't drive one if you bought it for me.
@The Gastric Enema
Another top bit of quality BS jackanory.
Out of the 3 Maestros I had I don't recall ever breaking down. I did rescue my mate's breadvan Polo in one of them though.
The MG Montego Turbo was a blast to drive, and reliable too!
Hi I’m so fascinated by the history of BL how it went from being a number 1 car company to bankruptcy. I’d love to see you do a video on its history and collapse . Keep up the good work , great content 👍🏻
Thanks. I think if you watch all my Austin / Rover videos together you'll get the whole picture!
Some of the best work on the demise of BL is on the website:
www.aronline.co.uk/
You should especially read the essays "British Leyland, the grand illusion", the first of which is at:
www.aronline.co.uk/history/british-leyland-grand-illusion-part-one-export-die/
@Big Car
I'm also totally intrigued by the seemingly demise of a once
profitable group of English car makers. What happened over the years to all these independent cars companies to make them die?
The workers never got on with management so quality issues, strikes and other things meant sales were non existant
@Olibob
Well I kind of knew that but I'm sure the workers knew that the failure of these companies would mean the loss of their jobs eventually, even with a union. It's hard to believe that nobody tried to resolve these differences in a meaningful way.
The Montego 2 litre diesel estate was a truly impressive car.
Agreed. Especially the estate. The Perkins engine was so economical and reliable.
My wife and I had 4 turbo diesel Montego estates and did 600k miles in them between us. they were fantastic. Went all over Europe in mine. Never managed less than 50mpg.
@@richardparkersmith4810 Most of them were killed for their engines, a good few of which ended up in Series III landrovers where they were a very good replacement for the 2.25 lump
@@charade993 and noisy as a jack hammer when cold starting.....I helped in that engines development.....had a problem with running on engine oil when cornering very hard on left handers, motorway off slips etc, been there
@@richardrichard5409 what did you help with?
My nanny had a light metallic blue Maestro which she then gave to my mum - many fond memories of being driven to school in it. I had no idea it was a bad car at the time but I do remember the fan belt squeaking as we went around bends.
My first company car was a 1.8 Montego. I got done for speeding in it on the A9, downhill towards Inverness. I was quite proud of the achievement.
Just saw the word maestro and it made it me smile. My 1st car was a diamond white, turbo diesel maestro and I couldn't ask for a more reliable, solid car. Properly built and shows the true mechanics of a vehicle. Worked on many with my dad when I was younger. I'd love to own another.
Fun and informative! I love learning about these British cars that we never got here in the States. Some were neat, some were junk, but they all have a story to tell.
I'm from Germany and I never heard of them 😅
@@sebastianriemer1777 Um... because you're on the other side of the channel! Yeah, that works...
@@catjudo1 as far as I know they where not sold in Germany at all. I remember that one of my soldiers in the 2000s had a Vauxhall and no one knew anything about the brand.
@@sebastianriemer1777 I think it's cool that in Germany and other places in Europe it was possible to buy a new Vauxhaul and just bring it in and register it. Here in America, we can't import a foreign car until it is 25 years old. I think it might have something to do with emissions, but I'm not really sure why. In 1999, cars from '74 had become legal to import, so I thought it was a good idea to import a '74 Ford (Australia) Ford Falcon coupe. Even though I do a lot of my own work, that beast nearly made me homeless. Fun to drive around while it lasted, as it was powerful and the right hand drive messed with people. Next time though, I'll bankrupt myself with something domestic.
@@catjudo1 that's the schengen treaty for you. 🤷🏻♂️
I think the problem with import/export of cars from the US are the Tarifes and regulations. Emission testing is completely different as are the car lights regulations.
And American cars are not really an economic option for Europeans.
I pay 5 dollar per gallon and I drive a diesel. Benzin would be about 6-7 dollar for the gallon.
2021 - I just purchased a well preserved Varna assembled LHD Maestro. Will keep it as a retro-souvenir of the turbulent 90'es!
I had a '97 800 2 litre. It's performance stats were very similar to my old 4.2 XJ6. I remember driving through the night from Victoria Embankment up to Thurso, a thunderstorm and torrential rain as I tore up the M6 through Birmingham. I have seen much criticism of them but, as a long distance cruiser, it was magnificent.
Drove an old 2.0 litre turbo Montego estate in the early 2000s and it was an excellent drive, powerful fuel efficient engine and comfy seats. Best thing was, it was better off road than my boss's Jeep Cherokee which would get stuck in the mud on our farm! Would have kept running it but it rusted away, of course....
In the 80s they looked modern, i was there, an they still do look quite modern today!
Certainly, the Ford Escort looks much more outdated to me.
But everyone knew they were crap back then. I was there too
To me they always looked dated. They should have been launched 3 years earlier.
I'm sorry if I sound rude, but I never get it when people say that cars from literally 40 or so years ago look modern, not even 2000s cars look modern and yet there are people saying that a MG Metro looks modern!!!
No, it doesn't.
It was butt ugly then, and it's butt ugly now.
Thaaks for a really good video.
In 1990 I wanted to go on holiday with my family to France. My Ford Escort van wasn't suitable and hiring a car was too expensive with limited choice. so i decided to buy a quasi second-hand car (an unsold car given to an employee to run up some miles prior to selling as 2nd hand).
I found an MG 2.0i. Whilst natually averse to any BL product after having owned a series 3 LW Landrover whose chassis fell apart, I decided that I could take the risk for 3 weeks so long as the loss was no more than the cost of hiring. I went ahead. It was a very enjoyable car to drive and did just what I wanted.
However, in the 3 weeks that I was away, the UK's very own Government driven financial crisis took place resulting in the complete halt in sales of houses, new cars and therefore 2nd hand cars. I was left with this Maestro. I ended up running it till it finally died.
Here are my observations that illustrate points from the video:
Good points (are there were a few)
- very high torque engine that made for lazy driving when required (note that this was not the turbo version);
- good acceleration
- a wheel at each corner that made it exceptionally good as a towing vehicle when combined with the high torque engine. It was used for hauling a horse box all over Europe;
- very good handling;
- comfortable seats;
- good view for our son from the back seats due to low sill height;
- plenty of luggage space which when full did not seriously affect the handling due to the wheels at the corners.
But now the poor & bad points
- welded seams between the A, B & C pillars to the roof and chassis; the metal of the pillars obviously not having been properly prepared before welding resulting in rust appearing within the guarantee period. Irony being that 1st "owner" was the Lonbridge paintshop superintendent !!;
- fraudulent guarantee exposed when taking the car back to the dealer when rust 1st appeared and being told that the guarantee did not cover manufacturing defects. If rust appeared in the doors, this would be fixed. I replied that I could drive the car quite safely without the doors but could not if the A, B or C pillar welds failed !!
- the engine and gearbox departments obviosly didn't talk to each other as the gear ratios were completely inappropriate. On the flat the car could quite easily be started in 2nd, then 3rd then 5th. 4th was redundant but at the same time the engine ran out of revs in 5th. This resulted in higher noise levels and fuel consumption such that on replacing the front tyres I put 60% in place of the 55% to give me 6% drop in revs. This was without loss of handling until I replaced the rear tyres after 105000 miles, the car would then roll a little more.
- the cooling fan was placed in front of the radiator but in normal use never ran due to the engine being naturally over cooled. As there was no real access and no run-up on engine start, the fan finally seized. This only became evident one sunny sunday morning on the Périferique in Paris when the water boiled up and there was no escape. This damaged the head that ultimately resulted in the engine being written off even after having had the head skimmed.
- no protection bar in front of the low sump. This resulted in a cracked sump (fairly easily repaired) but also a broken top engine mount/stabilizer that was not detected by the garage. Many months later engine started flopping about whilst driving after final bracket failure!
- poor headlights.
The end came when, having bought a brand new engine, both engine management computers failed.
They should have marketed this car to the caravanning community and other trailer pulling people. so much better than a Vovlo 245 after, that is, sorting out the gear ratios.
Wow! What a story... My grandfather had five Maestros in a row in the 1980s and 1990s, and I remember them ever so well. My favourites were the Vanden Plas and Mayfair models. To say that the Maestro and Montego had an ignominious end is putting it far too mildly!
The Montego was a pretty nice looking car back in the 80's. They were everywhere when I was young. My uncle had the mystro 1.3 he had it for years , he said it was reliable. His brother had the 2.0 Montego estate , he said it was fast. He had it for a few years until it was stolen and writing off.
I never did like the Maestro, but did buy a Montego 1.3L back in the early 90's, it was actually a good reliable car.
But as ever, it suffered from BL's famous poor quality, the rear wheel arches rusted badly, the headliner sagged & the heater matrix started leaking coolant over the carpet!
I then traded it for a Toyota Corolla, and have stuck with Japanese cars ever since.
But Toyotas were also rustbuckets at that time!
I worked on the maestro vans at Cowley ; spot welding the floors ,wow memorable times
Good old Cowley, the smell of the paint everywhere, storing the Maestros in wet fields. WW2 camouflage still on the roof; of the factory and endless jams at the roundabout. and Michael Edwards talking shit in that south African accent.
As a BT engineer in 1985, I was issued with a new one (B 754 BCX, sad I know, I can remember a reg plate!) and I liked it. Bigger that an Escort van and quite reasonable performance, the only issue I had was a very squeaky suspension (the van, not me!). I took it to the MT workshop to report this and our illustrious, highly-trained mechanic's solution? A suggestion to
*TURN THE RADIO UP!*
@ZappoTan The production workers rarely worked weekends, and when they did, it was so popular that there would be a rota to make sure that everyone got a share.
Saturday was time and a half and Sunday was double. If there was a strike and they clocked off they never got paid at all.
I visited Cowley Works a couple of years ago Ian. Making Binis. Official Factory conducted tour. I was impressed by the vast number of workers there bashing away loudly making panels etc. so ear plugs were issued. Most of those workers were bright yellow and at least twenty foot high when fully extended. Guess where all those hundreds of big yellow workers were made. Some former workers there affectionately referred to it now as Stalag Cowley. Never understood why. A real eye opener that visit and no FAKE NEWS content.
I remember going to see a friend and when I left got into my maestro and drove off. I turned the radio on and realised the tape playing was not my music - it was someone else's car who hard parked next to mine - the key not only opened the door but started the car! I parked up again and got in my car and drove off!
I had a mate did that with a Marina.
Not unusual with cars of that time. Car thieves could open most doors with a coat hook or screwdriver in the lock. On Holiday in Cornwall with my Company Car Cortina, in a Car Park there someone with another Ford had locked his Keys in the boot. Pleaded with me to try my Keys in his car. No way surely. Guess what. It opened the doors and boot no problem! He knew. I didn't. Sometime later with another company Ford, I travelled for my work and visiting a client, I picked up his Ford keys by mistake. Looked just like mine fob and all. I thought they were a bit stiff in the locks but they opened the door and started the engine. When I arrived at my next stop, got a phone message. I had picked up his keys ... mine were still in my coat pocket.
Lol I have done exactly the same thing in my old escort.
My mum had a 2.0ltr Turbo Montego Estate from 1994 till 2002 and she still says its the best car she'd ever had.
Sorry to hear that! 😬
@@W42PZ Why are you sorry? I grew up with that car, it was a great car, My mum wasnt rich, she was really poor. That car afforded us caravaning holidays because it had a tow bar so to tow a caravan and these types of holidays in the UK are much cheaper. And its actually these types of holidays that I remember as the best types of holidays with the family. Dont need to be rich to be happy. My mum was that poor that when I was 4/5/6 and 7yrs old, we'd caravan holiday in the next town over!!!..... less than 5 miles away!!
They were underrated them cars.
Quite sad innit
The Montego turbo. Loved them. Still want one now. Also the Maestro 2.0 EFI.
And you have to love those alloy wheel designs of those models, just brilliant IMHO
My parents had a 1983 MG Maestro, and looked clean and quite snazzy with its red seatbelts, but it was woefully unreliable and had the glitches with the onboard computer. Thank you for great informative video. Cars have progressed a lot since!
Luckily enough Morris marinas all came with a complimentary bus timetable,
We have short memories, it's not that long ago that most of us drove around in stuff like this and never even gave it a second thought. The majority of our youthfull keyboard warriors have only propaganda from the likes of mr Clarkson and have never actually seen any of these in the flesh let alone drive one. I worked on these regularly along with sierras and cavaliers and corolas and bluebirds. They were OK, not spectacular, not groundbreaking just OK like most other stuff of the time. I had an early 2.0 MG maestro and it was as good any of it's piers. my dad had a diesel one and it was great, the engine was agricultural to say the least but did the job. Today we have been brainwashed, the whole car culture needs re booting. I sometimes get in a car and havn't a clue how to start the f'ing thing. I MOT'd one this week and all the time it just beep beeped to tell me the handbrake was off which I knew and didn't need telling. It will come back to bite us in the arse eventually.
I'm one of those "kids" who also has a fondness for Mr Clarkson. My grandad drove a Montego, my dad had 2 Marinas and an Ital. Were they awful? Yeah. Kind of. Was British Leyland/Austin Rover a disaster? Yes. I can acknowledge how terrible they were yet still appreciate that they were able to get people around from A to B.
Cars are way to full of tech bloat these days. Even base model hatchbacks are going for £15,000 these days.
Honestly i think cars peaked during the mid 90's-mid 00's.
These UK built cars were no worse than their foreign counterparts. We were told not to buy them.
Hear hear.
Maybe if labour and the unions wernt on stike all the time thing's could have been different
@@dainsmart6237 Derek Robinson played his key part as an industrial saboteur. The Guardian Newspaper lamented his passing. He was useful to someone but not to the UK economy
I had a couple of basic Maestro's in my time and i could never fault them. A lovely drive with bags of room but the door handles had a knack of breaking off but then the local scrap yard solved that problem for replacements.
We had 4 Maestros, a 1.3L , 2 x MG 2.0 efi's, an MG Maestro Turbo and a Montego Estate 1.6, out of quite a few years ownership all that went wrong was 1 crankshaft sensor and 1 wheelbearing in 10 years, but then the rust set in .....loved all of them, especially the MG Turbo
@ p sup, which is why ofcourse you watching a vid about the Montego/ Maestro LOL
Ahhh! The Montego estate. I trained as a motor mechanic in 1986 and part of my job was to clean cars on the forecourt of the small independent garage I was at. We had a Montego estate come along in classic brown and I remember that after washing the car, it was impossible to chamois the roof dry without it caving in under the pressure of me wiping it. The lightest touch would cause it to bowl in. It always popped back into shape but it was just a sign of ultra thin steel being used. I think that alone put me off British car ownership. However, even as a seventeen year old, I could tell that British cars just weren't cool and when two of my mates got MK1 Golf GTis, it was obvious how s**t our cars had become in comparison.
as i right this, there are only seventeen Austin products for sale on AutoTrader. Two Metros and zero Montego.
I don’t think these cars killed BL alone. Poor management, unions and workers who couldn’t care less about the products they were building. It had been going on for decades - ever since the BMC merger. The company never capitalised on the synergy effects of the merger(s). Instead they kept developing a range of engines and models which used very few common parts.
Because, as the ones who used to work at BL put it, the different marques and the different departments were working in isolation one from each other. The results were that BL had models competing with each other, design board office out of touch with shop floors and service dept and workshops. Perfect recipe for disaster. Deaf and blind people working together! Great!
The complete opposite strategy of VAG.
This is indeed a most entertaining, engaging and fulsome presentation. However, also very painful. The remark that the company should have a much better job with the resources they had - it’s so true (I’ve got a bit of a soft-spot for the earlier era of in-line A & B series and then transverse BL cars, driving, servicing and repairing!)
More relevant, I was promised a new 2.0 Sierra GL in my new job, only to inherit a 3 y/o 2.0 Montego! Before getting myself fired, I grew a begrudging respect for ‘Monty’ through my daily thrash from Royston to Brimsdown up & down the old A10 every day. Most disconcerting was the feeling of the steering being disconnected through any S-bend and the emergency fuel cut-off valve randomly activating - once most embarrassingly at the head of a railway crossing queue in rush-hour. I obviously still bear the scars over 30 years on...
Had a montego brand new with the Perkins deisel engine owned for six years and 60000 miles trouble free, never even had a bulb fail !!
I've allways liked and have owned montego and maestros
ugliest car in the world
Your videos are awesome! They have great structure & storytelling, reveal often hidden or forgotten info, compare cars and recall so much from past times. Plus, nicely told! And, by the way, I am also improving my English thanks to this :-)
I had a Maestro 1.3 Clubman a 1990 model. I had it for 8 years and it was 100% reliable. The only issue was the rusty sills. I do not think they were as bad as you make them out to be. I had a Montego as a company car for 2 years. Again 100% reliable. They sold 605,000 of them. I wonder how many people who are jumping on your bandwagon have actually owned one of these cars. The major problem with them was rust. They were not well rust proofed. Other than that they were good cars. While I never drove one a colleague had an MG Montego Turbo and he loved it.
Great video. We had an Austin Maestro 1.3L in Azure Blue from new in 1987 until its demise in 2001. It was originally my dad’s car and became my first car when I learnt to drive. It was a very economical car and had good performance but suffered badly from rust. A blown cylinder head gasket eventually saw it off. I replaced it with a 2001 VW Golf MkIV 1.6S in Desert Beige which was a superb car.
When I was young, my father bought a nearly-new Montego, and it was one of the best cars he ever owned. He still says that to this day. Smart, comfortable and with a huge boot, it was really practical. I remember getting a lift in a 2.0D Maestro once and the engine in that sounded like a tractor!
Most diesels sounded like tractors in those days. The earlier diesel used in the Montys was the same Perkins diesel used in the Leyland Sherpa and a lot of Massey Ferguson tractors. I know of quite a few Massey Ferguson tractors from that era which are still going strong.
In my opinion, the styling was actually pretty good for its era. Look at Japanese styling of the mid 80's for reference.
@@socialmeaslesinpartnership1252
You do talk a load of old crap.
@@socialmeaslesinpartnership1252
Where is what?
@@socialmeaslesinpartnership1252
The eventual lineage is still going as per MG Cars. You're welcome.
@@socialmeaslesinpartnership1252
No need to thank me. Point is fella the legacy of the company is still around and is even at the forefront of electric vehicles and that's no bad thing considering where we're headed (I don't like electric cars but that's where we are headed).
Plenty of car companies have fallen by the way side and are a footnote in history. Rootes Group. They produced some excellent cars but are still defunct so I don't particularly understand the point you're trying to make. Where's the source for your information regarding the faux hospitality consumption? Interesting.
@@socialmeaslesinpartnership1252 That's right, they sold MG for only 5p instead of £1. Well, they bought it for £1, so it wasn't a massive accounting loss ...
Great vlog as always! I can not imagine how horrible it must have been to see your own auto industry just be gone in such a short time. Just because the others do it better than you do. I was in Brighton in the summer of 1986, and I saw a lot of these cars, and also one with only three wheels. Keep up the good work!
Owned a b reg.montego 1.6l back in 1991, fantastic car and absolute luxury compared to the mk5 Cortina I had before it
I had a Montego Mayfair for nine years. It was an excellent car, I loved it.
Will Sterben when I first moved to the UK, I owned a few different cars, from Ford, to Vauxhall, to Rover.
In 1991, I bought a Montego Mayfair in light blue, with black rubberised spoiler and alloys. I thought it was a very pretty car actually, with metallic paint, velour trim and a quick 2-litre injection engine. The fuel economy was average, but it's ride was actually very good, and it was an all day cruiser on the motorways with a tall 5th gear, meaning that it could cruise at 85mph quietly and when you needed to give it some punch, you could go down into 4th, and floor it up to 95mph effortlessly.
Plenty of leg room in the back for the kids, and my wife loved the clutch and gearbox. It had a roomy boot, and sunroof and electric windows all round.
I owned it for about 4 years, and hardly had anything go wrong with it at all.
I still miss it, even now.
Did you have a similar experience with your Mayfair?
Worked for Austin in longbridge the management was the issue .owned a mg Montego excellent car never let me down
You didn't use it then it never left the garage;-)
Yes great car 121.000 no issues
Really interesting stuff and just confirms my oft-voiced opinion that effective management is/was not one of UK Ltd's strong points.
We never seem to learn.
Thanks again for the enlightening potted histories.
Too true. People like Edwards were never fit to run companies. None of those idiots had any training in man management, and most acted like little Hitlers. I once ran a small department in a factory and I soon figured out how to do it. You just treat the guys decently and they will do anything for you. Before me they had a guy who bossed them around and in the end no one wanted to work under him. The top management had the sense to fire him, and gave me the job temporarily, but it soon became permanent when our production went though the roof, beating all similar departments within the company group.
I used to have a G reg Montego 1.6L estate in Henley Blue.
The best looking estate British Leyland/Rover ever made, with a great Honda gearbox
A great presentation with lots of information.Thank you.
There’s a real charm to your videos that make them really enjoyable, keep up the good work!!
The last part of your video is hilarious! Well done as always, and a joy to listen to from across the pond
Worked on them back in the day..All the cars 🚗 you mentioned had rust Metro, Range Rover And golfs..But rear Windows fell out of the Montego..But the Turbos went well..In a straight line...🚗🇬🇧😎..Great days..
I remember when I was Growing up in the 80's/90's I remember My Dad having owned 2 Austin Maestro's. The first one He owned was a Burgundy Colour and only had 4 Gears (Manuel) and the Second one was Blue with 5 Gears. In fact that Blue Maestro was the first Car My Dad owned that had 5 Gears (Manuel). Both Cars though had Steel Bumpers. I've Never Liked the Maestro but I've always wanted to have a go at Driving one just to experience one as I've only ever Drove Modern Cars. Big Fan of BIG CAR Channel. Much Love from Birmingham UK.
Got up early on a nice sunday.
Big Car has a new video!
I knew you were getting up early :-)
Well said mate.
Phist
I had a 1992 maestro td,I loved it,reliable,roomy,comfy,excellent all round vision,easy to maintain,funny that............
i had a white 94 td, it was a flier towed well, and fully loaded gave 60mpg, the only reason i gave it up was it leaked rain water into car which even today is a big no no in my opinion......ford focus 2013 yet another bathtub i got rid of
Honda engine probably?
alphatrion100 no maestro diesel were all Perkins direct injection marine , bit noisy but super economical
@@eggy1962
Ok.
I understand you completely btw.
My dad had an alegro.
It wasnt AS bad as people say at all. Sure it wasnt a Toyota that last 20 years and 300000 kilometers but back then it was just a normal car.
BL: Poor management + militant workforce = total shambles...
The products didn't stand a chance due to the constant bickering going on between govt/management and the workforce. The tragedy here is that in its final years MG/Rover produced some of its best cars, however it was too little, too late...
For the early 1980s the Maestro was a good looking car for sure - better looking than the competition. It was also roomy compared to its rivals.
I had a Maestro, around 1990, was a 1986 model, apart from a clutch it wasn’t any trouble don’t remember it going rusty, it was as average as the others apart from VW that seemed so much better than anything else. I later had a Rover 216, that was a fabulous car, such good value second hand.
The first series actually got off to quite a good start in Italy, where I was living, but they had some almost comical faults that should have been eliminated in pre-release testing. The bumpers were made of a brittle plastic that would shatter with very light impacts, the plastic hub caps clipped onto the wheel nuts, so if you did a lot of braking coming down a pass, they would melt and fall off, and the electronically controlled carburettor would cut out randomly, often when you were accelerating in traffic. Not funny.
First hand agree on the bumpers - watched a friend of my mum's drive up a small bank and then when she came down again the movement clean ripped off the rear bumper and it fell apart. She was so confused and told us she'd recently traded in an ancient volvo 240 estate (had it over 15 years) which basically was indestructible and this maestro (2yr old 2 lt) was meant to be a new car for them for years to come!
Great video.
I loved my Maestro. It run very well smooth and wasn't slow at all compared to many concurrent family cars.
The rust devil ate it away and it ended up at a scrap jard
I worked at Cowley back in 1986 working on the maestro putting the dashboard in , I wasn’t there very long and got made redundant
I was on the other side of road in the a building:spot welding
My 25 year old turbo diesel maestro doesent burn any oil....... unlike most Volkswagen TDI's I know of. You may think it sits high but it's brilliant in snow and off road
Im with you alistair, My 1993 Maestro diesel runs very well and has done for the 11 years i've owned it, Got to love the 72MPG
That engine was phenomenal I think it was a t series. I used to work in prototype engine build and the diesel was really good.
@@incognito96 'o'series*
In my Boy Racer days, back in the 90s, a tuned Maestro Turbo was a very quick car (even standard they were one of the fastest!) I remember Max Power etc doing performance figures for 2.0 16v Novas, RS Turbos, R5 GT Turbos etc and tuned Maestros were the very fastest accelerating FWD cars ever tested (usually by some margin!) I was never much of a Montego fan, but the Maestro Turbo looked good. I've driven Montegos and Maestros (I had friends that owned both) but I wasnt a fan, I remember the pedals had no weight to them so I really struggled to drive the cars smoothly.
Excellent well researched video. I found it very interesting. Thank you very much.
Thanks for another great video. Really enjoy them! Keep up the great work
Even though these cars really didn't encourage much interest or come on my radar at the time because of (naturally) styling but also reliability; the story behind them and their struggle are very interesting.
Thank you for weaving an intriguing and interesting story.
I was looking forward to this . Marvelous job 👌
Very detailed, clear and concise videos. Thank you. Subscribed : )
I had two 1600 Maestros which never let me down. Travelled regularly M1, M62, M63, M6, . Great people carriers with plenty of space.
I really love your channel. Thank you for all the videos.
The channel where you hit like before even watching the video 👍🏼
YUP!!
My brother had a white MG Montego for a short time as a company car - was great fun and really fast
My sister in law had a Maestro, I found it plush, comfy and trouble free. B.L.s image was such that anything they made was perceived as bad, the opposite applies to makes such as V.W. today.
Odd you say that. Speaking purely personally, I'd say Skoda build quality was slightly ahead of VW's these days....... Rather ironic, but it appears to be the case...
@@Brian-om2hh same production aren't they?
Austin Rover had many issues, one of which was far too many staff, the HR department for example had eight hundred people in it...
I had a conversation with a guy who work on the track for Jag in Birmingham, clocked off one Friday, drove a Triumph Herald to the middle east & clock back on 6 months later. No one asked him where he'd been.
Bit like BT then. I don't know if they still have this policy, but back in the day they wouldn't lay people off, just move them around and create new departments for them.
montego mg turbo one of the fastest family cars ive ever owned
aeroflopper lol you mustn’t have had a lot of fast cars have you?
@@marnuscoreyempanadaslooseb6760 i currently have a 2020 A45S+ what you driving bro,
@@marnuscoreyempanadaslooseb6760 160mph 4 door saloon, not many of them in the late 80's
My cars better than your car grow up
@@aeroflopper how many roads do you get to drive it at 160mph? None
I really enjoy your videos. Thank you so much for sharing this rich history.
Your research is great. Love this channel.
I had an 1100 maestro which was a good little runabout till the door handles all broke off.
Then a 1.6 montego estate that would seat 7. Good basic motoring on a very lean budget, yeah not a great motor but for the money, I don't think it deserves its reputation.
Maestro were never 1100's. Either 1.3, 1.6, 2 litre
I remember when I was younger I really wanted the turbo version. I was always a crazy mixed up kid. Great video keep the wonderful content coming.
I had one. It was always going wrong. The Rover 200 Coupe turbo is much better. I still have one :-)
@@poopleton Had examples of both Maestro and Tomcat turbos back in the day. Have images of them. Both great cars in an ordinary way which quite frankly, most means of getting about are just that... ordinary. But, both were extraordinarily faster than so called superior other ordinary means of getting about. Particularly anything German many Brits put on too high a pedestal especially by Clarkson wannabees. Brainwashing at its finest in the FAKE NEWS environment sadly still on the increase within MSM circles. Not just the MG and Rover Turbo versions, anyone remember the Rover Group advert featuring a humble MG Maestro 2.0i with the punch line. "The GOLF GTi will be along ... in a second. That would no doubt be considered most un-pc today. More's the shame.
@@T16MGJ
Hello John! Long time no see! I was/am SnapdragonGT on MG-Rover and I bought one of your UJ gear linkage upgrades for my 620ti back in the day. Worked beautifully!
Hope you're keeping well!
@@skylined5534 Hi John,
Yes. a very effective upgrade particularly if fitted with my "Quickshift" Modified Gear lever. That reduced the fore-aft travel making the gear change process a positive pleasure.
Yes, great cars the Rover 620ti. My brainwashed neighbour thought my 620ti were so reliable was because of their Honda engines. I still blame the likes of Wilson and Clarkson and the rest of the UK Fake News shower for the fact that I can no longer buy an MG or Rover made in England. I can buy a nice new MG of course... Made in the Peoples Republic of China. Like my immediate next door neighbour has done. It's parked and being charged where previously a Mercedes or Lexus stood. Think about that. That MG should have been made here not in the Orient! The Chinese are not mugs, unlike another self-inflicted Nation. No names, no pack drill.
Even Honest John in the Motoring Section of the Torygraph when asked what is the best Rover 600 to buy, was told the 623 ... with the Honda engine. Not the far better option, the 620ti with the Rover T-Series engine.
A close family friend had the gearbox self destruct on his Focus he'd had from new. Needing transport for his 60-mile to-from daily commute, my wife suggested Ioan him a spare project 620ti I had recently taxed and insured. I agreed provided he insured it and if he broke it, he paid for it for the price I had it for sale. He agreed. Half an hour after he drove away, the phone rang. It was him. My wife called me to the phone. Oh Dear .. I'm thinking. In a nutshell he was so impressed with the car he wanted to buy it and paid my asking price.
After fifteen years, I sold my long time family workhorse Rover 620ti last year. It was taken away on a car transporter and the power train is now in an MG Maestro. Having driven MG Maestros, Montegos and MG ZRs and MG ZSs with that T-Series Transplant, I understand why folks do this engine upgrade. Instant 200 ps.. So, I'm down to my last two 620ti now. I am reducing my car collection steadily as age related health issues now mean I can no longer keep on top of them all and my family's cars. Even so, I still have too many cars. There is no known cure apparently.. Good eh ..
My older son has had one for ages. His daily driver workhorse as he used to travel much for his work. Showing moon mileage last time I took it for the Mot. Been all over Europe in it. Snowboarding in Norway, even done a Lap at the Nurburgring with all his mates whilst on Holiday:. He's also dome a lap of the Ring in his Lotus Elise ... knocked two seconds off his 620ti time. OK I jest rather more than two seconds. Got images of the Elise at the famous Carousel. Here's that 620ti Lap with fully loaded .. bit of a giggle for them all. All this CV-19 confinement means lots of time on You Tube and the Laptop. Hope it ends soon too. Got twenty wheels to be refurbished.. so much to do, so little time.
ruclips.net/video/lEQ07qg7zcs/видео.html&ab_channel=leelee2001uk
My wife and I owned three Montego Estates. A 1.6 & 2.0 petrol and a 2.0 turbo diesel. All did a superb job ferrying the family and dogs around. They were simple enough for me to do the great majority of maintenance including changing the timing belt on the 1.6! Ride and handling were quite acceptable and the cabin space made long journeys comfortable even with a mountain of luggage.
Just to complete the picture our second car at the time was a Meastro! A 1.3 and a 2.0 non turbo diesel. In the smaller Maestro body the non turbo Perkins Prima was a gem. First compression starting every time and sufficient torque that you could get under way and even change into 2nd still at tick over!
If you didn't mind the lack of "street cred" they were seriously capable cars.
I recall taking a test drive in a Montego Estate. The rear-view mirror fell off the windscreen, so ending my test drive and my desire to buy the car.
How did the outside of that car look dated to anyone? Compared to the Golf? The outside looks like a late 80s car, it was released in 1983, I don't see what's dated about it, looks ahead of its time if you ask me. It looks like an Audi 80 from the early 90s post-facelift with those clear turn signals.
i own a 1987 1.6HL Montego its my daily :D i also have a 92 Montego Countryman
Why?
i also own 5 mk2 Golfs and 2 Mk2 polos, so far the austin has been very reliable
@@AFExploration I am pleased for you, but to me, there is more reasons than reliability in the choice of a car
yeah, i know your missus, Subaru Sally who drives a Chevette
my cars date to a time when i would have been 12-16 years old and used to be seen everywhere, what do you own?
Part of me gave up after the end of Mg Rover and LDV.
I come from a time when the metro, maestro and montego were just a choice of company car. We had pool cars of 1.3 Ford escort, 1.3 Peugeot 309 and 1275cc Austin Maestro. The Maestro handled the best, the escort had the nicest engine and was twitchiest and the Peugeot had thick paintwork.
We had the MG1600 with the Webber carburettors and it made a lovely woofle noise under acceleration until the maxi engine became harsher as the revs rose.It was handsome and spacious,although not as versatile as the Maxi.Being unable to gain ground on my brother in his Henley blue 1.1s Metro was a bit sobering though.
Being a passenger in the 2 litre efi Maestro in the Welsh mountains was awe inspiring. And a friend who never got over unlimited speed limits in Germany on fast motorbikes, was strangely solemn about how fast his knackered maestro turbo was.
Unfortunately Rover group had a shocking disregard for paintwork quality control and a disdain for the purchaser. The later montegos and maestros rusted the rear arches and sills a few years from new. Something VW and Peugeot wouldn’t allow.
Honda rescued Rover and together made great cars which surprisingly after being kicked in the nuts time and again, the British public consistently bought.
Again unfortunately British Aerospace sold Rover to BMW instead of Honda. This being amongst the most shameful acts in British history.
I think the way leasing deals work amongst company fleets further contributed and people moved more upmarket in everything they wanted to purchase.
I am somewhat adrift now knowing we haven’t got those great engineers who although slapdash in day to day boring mundanity could pull out acts of genius when push came to shove. Metro 6R4 anybody? Scrap the Austin mini because of emission laws.Nah, I’m just going upto the big shed lad. Make a brew, we’re putting in some overtime.
Oh and Peter Mandelson….