Real Road Test: Austin Montego Mayfair 2.0 EFi
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- Опубликовано: 15 окт 2024
- Yes, I get a chance to drive an Austin Montego - a posh one! Though not the poshest. That would be the Vanden Plas, which I always pronounce with the S, due to the Flemish origins of the name. What an exciting man I am!
Also includes a spot of bus off-roading, as the mighty Leyland Olympian triple-axle double decker gets a bit stuck.
A quick shout out is needed for www.aronline.co.uk which contains all the information about the Montego/Maestro that you're ever likely to need.
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Yes, I did manage to entirely forget that some Montegos came with the 1.3-litre A-Series engine. I have owned something similar. ruclips.net/video/OVZAF6fkSVE/видео.html
I owned a 1.3L Montego (D reg) even at six years old the headlining was sagging down!
I was going to mention the 1.3 😂
I had an '85 1.6 Montego. When I spoke to other owners some say they never had a problem. All I can say is it drove well when it was running. I quite like the styling. But it had shocking electrical problems. It was the most contrary car car I've ever owned. It purposely chose to break down and not start at the busiest intersections traffic lights and roundabouts. Oh the fun I had with people actually pressing their horns as I was trying to push this pretty heavy hulk off the road. With less than gentleman responses from me. I ended up selling it for 150 quid to an old guy who had always owned Austins who said he would sort it out. Something my local mechanic could never solve.
The 1.3 engine was truly dire and couldn't overtake a pushbike without a long run up.
The Austin Montego Vanden Plas was classy.
I worked in an Austin Rover dealers when the Montego came out it was sort of hidden in the upstairs showroom pre launch unlocked with the keys in the ignition.
A customer spotted it wondering around looking at the used cars we kept on the top floor, he switched the ignition on prob to see the dash lit up.
He then started it up not realising it was in gear it fired up and lunged forward straight through the showroom window landing nose first on the car park 25ft below. Fortunately nobody was walking underneath it, and the guy who started it wasn't sitting in the car.
It became the Austin...Fly-tego 😂
Reminds me of the old Volvo ad.
Did he have to buy car
We had 2 mg montego
D reg
Then we got f reg
I enjoyed the cars
The opening titles of ‘The Professionals’
Did he try to do his take on the volvo advert from 1980s when came out building
The MG Montego Turbo was genuinely quick... I remember in the early '90s, my "enthusiastic driver" uncle was towing a boat in his at an indicated 120 MPH with me shitting myself in the passenger seat...
Ha ha
They have become so rare to an extreme degree. Even the disappearance of Cavaliers and Sierras from the roads doesn't come close to that of the Montego and Maestro and (pre-Rover) Metro.
I had a 2.0 GSI estate of 1990 vintage. A bloody fantastic car as I recall. Very rapid and loads of room too. I remember one family holiday, 5 passengers plus myself, (it was an 8 seater with fold down seat fitted in the load area) plus luggage on the factory fitted roof rack. Birmingham to Conwy, North Wales, didn't miss a beat. In fact in the 5 years that I owned it, it never let me down. Great car.and great memories, thanks Ian.
The Montego is the one model I have had the most of in my driving lifetime - the 1.6L in Targa Red over Gunmetal Grey was my first 'new' car (it was about 18 months old) and was quite the upgrade from a 1.1 Deluxe 2-Door Allegro! Always loved the 2.0 Turbo, the torque steer was fun :-) My last Montego was a Turbo converted to run the Rover 16v Injected (T16i) engine and about 260bhp in a car weighing 1080kg was very rapid indeed! Moved on to the Rover 214SLi, then Rover 820 Vitesse Fastback, before moving to Australia. After a brief stint with Aussie Commodores, I ended up back with British and now have two Land Rover Discovery 2's - one for me, one for the wife :-)
Did you not find the Rover 214sli and absolute DOG of a car ? Every Rover 214 should have been supplied with ear defenders as standard kit. I have never known a noisier car in my 39 yrs driving !!
Sorry to hear that!
@@W42PZ There's only one Disco 2 now - sold the Td5 (wifes) and she got a new MG ZS as it is a little easier to drive and more creature comforts and tech :-) I still have my Disco 2 - a V8 Auto. Thirsty, but love it and never let me down. 384000kms so far.
That was my Montego a few years ago! I'm glad it's still alive and well... Another car I should have kept.
In daily use at the moment though I'm planning to take it off the road for the winter and attend to some of it's minor issues.
Not that I regret who I sold it to! I can see it's having a great life and is loved! But I loved that car....
You made that up for attention..youve never seen a Montego
@Carl Rain Lol!!!😂
My Uncle had a dark metallic green Montego estate, which he called Monteverdi :)
My dad had the red maestro 2.0 EFI and put me on insurance at 20 I’m now 48 and classic car collector and I’d have one again in a heartbeat if I could find one. It was a flying machine loved the thing! And the styling was very cool 80’s hot hatch underrated in my opinion.
Dude, me too my Dad had one at about the same time I was driving it when I was 18! It was fast, awesome little car!
This reminds me of my mums old MG Montego she used to own. She stupidly sold it to buy a 1.0 litre Fiesta which, in her words, was like driving a dodgem car!
Still, the Montego was the best car she’s ever owned and I have fond memories of being driven to nursery in it.
At a car show the first car i walked up to was a 1985 Montego 2.0 Vanden Plas. Had a few rusty spots but it was all original and very well looked after. Many of them have gone due to cabbies,joyriders and rust but its nice to see the surviving ones about. I used to see loads of them in the 90's and remember the sound of the throaty tailpipes very well and the very loud diesel ones.
Funnily enough my dad had a montego 2.0 slxi as a company car and it got joyridden at least twice
Perkins engines are notoriously noisy. Have always been.
I remember seeing a Montego once where the owner had turned the 'M' upside down and removed the 'e', so it said 'Won't go' - seemed appropriate!
I've fixed the "chrome" trim now!
That's doubled its value!
HubNut that's very unkind 😉
Don't suppose this car was driving along nitshill road in Glasgow a couple of weeks ago ?
Stands a fair chance.
Quite likely, yeah. I'm around the south side a lot.
Oh the memories! I remember we used to have one of those for a company pool car where i worked. I seem to recall that every time you dared to go above the legal limit on the motorway it would blow the engine dipstick out and cover the engine and exhaust with oil. (I think it must have had a hard life at our branch of the company :-) . And that now 3 decades have passed since those fun times i think it is safe for me to admit that the accident with the wall outside our building maybe was not so much of an accident, more like a deliberate act on our part to force the company to get something better! I think we got a Vauxhall Cavalier after that.
Edit: Forgot to mention our Montego was the stylish estate version, with those really stylish roof bars! ;-D
My late Father was a Big Austin Fan, owning an: allegro, maestro & a montego respectively, was a 2.0EFI Mayfair saloon in white. If I remember rightly? had dark grey colouring around wheel arches, lower section of bumpers , & a red strip around bumpers, running along centre of doors. I must say the colour suited, inevitably though it suffered from a bout of rust in latter years, which stood more pronounced being that colour. The only big expense he had on it was for a new gearbox, which was bit of a bug bare!
A fine car given AR’s funding. My dads friend had a Turbo in white. Was a facelift and had red seatbelts and TURBO lettering on the front bonnet. Probably the most 80’s car I’ve ever seen. You were brave trying that sunroof!
My grandad had a 1.6 montego in beige when they first came out. I loved the switch to move the radio from front to rear speakers. He had an allegro befor that a 1500 super in white
Thanks for another good ride. We never got the Montego or Maestro in the US, and I'm only familiar with them through my collection of MG histories. By the way, the factory did build an MGB with the O series, hoping for brighter things to come, but alas, no.
As a fan of The Jam, hearing his say “all mod cons” made me smile.
Agree, the estate looked really good, as if it had been designed as an estate from the outset. BL et al seemed to do that well, the T 2.5 PI is another good example. I had a test drive in a Montego MG Turbo, boy was it quick for the time, so quick I got clocked doing 118 mph (and that was after I'd spotted the traffic jag and taken my foot off) within 2 miles of the dealership and got one of the only two speeding tickets of my driving career so far. Sadly when I went back to the dealership and admitted my exuberance, the girlfriend of the day put her foot down on that purchase as the salesman sniggered in the background even though he lost a sale. Come to think of it he probably went on to recount my misfortune as part of his sales pitch. I did wonder if the traffic chaps were petrol heads and thought "have you seen how quick those MG Turbo's are? Aye, they've got a demo in "×÷=__€" garage, let's park up here and see what transpires".
I had the maestro with the perkins prima none turbo diesel . Everyone said they were slow and underpowered yet mine could do 90 mph up the rualt hill on the A55 in north Wales. Anyone who knows the rualt hill will tell you its an absolute bastard and a good test of any engine.
Engines now appearing in narrow boats near you.
I know the Rualt hill on the A55 in north Wales, My 1984 B reg Maestro 1.6 automatic used to really struggle on that hill (the engine would just lose power and bog right down to 3,000 rpm with my foot almost to the floor !) I was forever kicking it down beck and fourth from 3rd to second whilst being tailgated by the traffic behind me lol - Then I just left the gear selector lever in 2 the next time I drove up Rualt hill and it went up that hill much better ! and a good 4,000 rpm ! - I also thought about holding it in 1 (1st gear) but due to the very low gear ratio I didn't think that was a good idea ! as the engine would just over rev ! and something would break !!
I quite regularly travel up the rhuallt hill. I have a 97 Peugeot 306 1.9 dturbo that I have owned for the past 18 years. Its covered 220,000 miles now, without word of a lie it can be be doing 100 up there still accelerating. The car has never failed to impress me.
I owned a 1990 G plate Montego 1.6 estate for about 2 years between 1995 and 1997. I commuted daily and drove from Worcestershire to Somerset every weekend loaded up with 2 adults, 2 toddlers and all of the associated paraphernalia. It was comfortable, spacious and generally (believe it or not) reliable. A very underrated car. My brother owned an MG 2.0 Turbo at one stage - it went like a rocket, but the torque steer was something else :)
I had an MG Maestro EFI and the gearbox was brilliant, very positive. It went very well and I miss it.
I remember when I was a kid, Mum had one.
The 16, and the 16L had different engines!
The base model had the earlier engine, and a 4 speed box, while the L model had the later ohc, and a 5 speed box from a vw golf.
The indicator stalks had fibre-optic lighting.
The montego was the first car to win a design council award....
In 1996 I had a fancy modern Citroen ZX Volcane and for £800 I bought an E-reg 1.6 Montego for my then girlfriend. Within a week she had the ZX and I ran around in the Montego for the next two years. Manual windows, sloppy manual steering and a sunroof winder that broke off in a massive rainstorm! But it was a reliable, comfortable old barge and I loved it. And it smelled kind of minty, like the mini I had when I was a teenager.
Brilliant. I had a g reg Montego was 1.6 was a good car what I recall, this channel is getting better, much better than watching normal tv. Straight on to mustie1 after this see how he s getting on with the beaver,👍
Good call. I'm due a Mustie catch-up myself.
HubNut mustie1 is great to watch. He is as mad as you but seems to have been doing repairs that would stump most of us. Not to mention he can welder like an expert... he seems to be making a few quid on the vw's.
We had one of these as a pool car at one of my previous jobs. I liked it, it went well and was comfy, if a little on the nose-heavy side. If I recall correctly, the wipers did not park in intermittent mode until turned off.
I had a 1.6 Montego, quite a comfortable car to drive and not too underpowered. I worked in South West London at the time, so used to come home to South Wales every two weeks and it cruised happily at 70 mph on the M4. One problem it had was a leaky sunroof, which was cured by spraying the seal with Back to Black. Next car I had was a 2.0 Nissan Bluebird saloon, which had similar economy to the Montego. Clever, those Japanese.
I had a D reg Mayfair in the 90s. nice car, but it absolutely ate the front wheel bearings. went through 3 sets in a year!
I had a 1987 green estate Mayfair with the 2.0 and Honda gear box. Very comfortable and maxed out st 120mph. Heater matrix, wheel bearings, drive shafts, front dampers all went over the 5 years. A very underated car.
Ah the heater matrix issue. Actually caused by the engine having too high a bypass waterflow. This caused heat transfer fin plates, in the matrix, to vibrate at high frequency and chew through the tube walls. The matrix was ok on all other engines, so the service and production fix was a stickle brick in the pipe to the core. This happened after powertrain refused to add a separate bypass. Shot themselves in the foot because the high flow caused metal loss problems in the cylinder head (I always blamed the water way design). I always had a love/hate relationship with the Montego because a week after starting as Principal Enginer (heater development) the heater controls were declared non-compliant with the intrusion rules, three months before production started! The first of quite a few get it sorted fast jobs!
My first ever driving experience was in a Montego so I've always had a soft spot for them. It was my dad's B plate MG back in around 89 on his empty factory car park. I was 8 years old and it sparked a life long passion for cars.
The car by that point was 5 years old, the bottom of the drivers door was rotten as a pear the boot lid was rotten from the water logged foam/rubber boot spoiler and around that time he had to replace the big end bearings - which in hindsight is surprising because I've owned a bunch of T-series NA and turbo engined cars which have racked up some milliage without any bottom end issues, and as far as I know the O and T series used the same bottom end.
Anyway, the prematurely rotten MG Montego was stolen in 1990, got chased for many many miles up the M1 and eventually stopped in Sheffield without damage. When my Dad recovered it back to Stoke I think he realised how much he loved the car, so treated it to new front doors, a new boot lid and a full respray (6 year old car 😅).
Two weeks later it was stolen again, but this time was the death of the Monty. Another police chase, on and off road left every panel battered and it was a write off. R.I.P B191 PVT.
Edit: I've just done a reg check on that plate, which is definitely 10000% correct, but it comes up as a Red Ford. Whaaaa? It was a Moonraker Blue Monty.
Just finished watching another Montego video, and in the comment section some guy recalled how he saw a head on collision between a Montego and a Mk.1 Mondeo. The old guy on the Mondeo had a broken rib, and there were 4 young lads in the Montego which had pulled out to overtake, and to quote "what I saw in that car will stay with me forever". Chilling.
Just came back to watch my first ever HubNut video again. Can’t decide if 5 years is longer ago than than I thought or it seems like I’ve been watching forever and it’s not long enough…. It’s been a fun journey of many rides! 👍🏻
I always liked the Montego and maestro. Back in the 80's/ early 90's we had the montego turbo diesel as courtesy/staff cars at the garage I worked in. They were fun to drive. On one of our regular road test routes in Cambridge, there was a humpback bridge, where I managed to achieve some air lol.. well that's how it felt when I went over at speed😊😊
I remember my Dad making some air on a humpback bridge in a Morris Ital! I think it got bent a bit. We had some snotty kid bragging about his Dad's Porsche 924 my Dad said when we landed "bet it doesn't do that!" My Dad was a Dude!
My dad fancied one of these when they were announced. So we rocked up to the local BL dealer. and test drove one of the MG versions. At two miles into the drive it threw the fan belt and over-heated. Needless to say my dad didn't buy one, and it ended his BL loyalty which he'd had since his Wolsey Hornet. He bought a BMW 318, which outlasted him..
I had an MG Montego for 5 years and it never put a foot wrong in all that time so no complaints from me, i found it comfortable and fairly quick off the mark and i enjoyed driving it.
The Austin and MG Maestro and Montego should have been imported to the U.S.. What gets me is I have always wanted a MG Montego but could not get into the state due to legal reasons, but now due to the 25 year rule I could now bring any of the 3 MGs built in the 80s, but due to the way I was born the state of Massachusetts took my license a way and now it would be useless to import any of my childhood dream cars because I don't drive any more. Now I got the problem fixed but I have to do the test over again. But I do love this video because the Montego is one of my dream cars and I think the design is much better then others
This reminds me of my weekly commute between East London and Llanelli driving no less than the mentioned Sierra, Cavalier and Montego. I really liked the drive of the 2 litre Montego and those - to die for light up stalks, to actually see what those stalks could do, wow, such vision. Now you can non illuminated cruise control switches in the steering wheel, speed control roulette!
I had the 1.6 MG Maestro- twin webers. Great little car, trick to getting the carbs balanced was to balance one set of twin choke webers, loctite the air bleed screws, balance the other pair, loctite and then balance between the pairs. Otherwise they drift out of 'tune' very quickly. My neighbour had the MG Maestro 2L EFI , used to swear that it was quicker of the lights than the Golf GTI at the time. Really regret getting rid of at the time but I needed a bigger car with 2 toddlers and one on the way.
the MG Maestros were actually not an altogether bad car to drive.
I had a MG Maestro EFI too - loved that car
I used to get a F reg 1,6 in silver grey bottom half and red bumper strip went ok as a taxi it got me too school for around a year in 1991. Went well for a 1.6 as good as a cavallier overall
We had a couple of new Montegos (with air conditioning) as company cars in Ghana, West Africa, in the early 90's. They were great and had so many people come up and ask about them.
I had the Montego estate, 7 seats, completely rotted to bits, but a great ride and started every time
Had two of these one was a 2l Hls and the other was a 2l gti loved them both
Like many on here, I have several Monty & Maestro memories. I remember my brother having a new J plate Meastro diesel, with the poverty spec matt black metal bumpers, as a company car. It was noisy and totally unrefined and felt like it was 10+ years old, even with just 200 miles on the clock. My uncle had a 2 litre Monty estate. Huge boot and 7 seats. They had Volvo 240's before and loved the Montego.
I had one of the last Montegos, an ex Royal Navy staff car as a taxi with the 2.0 Perkins diesel, an excellent engine and a good car, i'd happily have another one if it came my way.
In my first job I had to accompany someone to a meeting. He drove a MG 2.0 Turbo Maestro. He had taken a wrong turn and had to put his foot down to get there on time. That car really shifted. He was doing 120 mph on the motorway. At the time that was the fastest I'd even been. The car seemed very quiet and smooth. I remember asking him if the speedo was correct. He grinned and said don't tell anyone. Always had respect for the MG versions after that.
Nice video Ian 👍🏻. I bought an ex demo 1.6 L back in 1987, really liked that car (E98FCP where are you now?). However within 2 years it rotted through on the leading edge of the rear wheel arch and I PXd it for a new (1989) Sierra 1.6L. Chalk and cheese, the Sierra got much better write ups but I thought it poor in every regard compared to the Montego. Apart from the rust. I do remember the gear change on the Montego being a “rubbery” but it didn’t half seem to shift. Thanks for bringing back happy memories, I’m still working my way through the massive RUclips collection you’ve posted👍🏻
Best mate had one of the last Montego's on a 1995 M plate. It was bought as a stop gap due to his Rover 600SDi eating its own engine; oddly it was a 2 litre DSLX model that had an MG Montego bodykit but seats and trim from a Vanden Plas. Whether it left the factory like this as some weird garbled options list as it was one of the very last ones of all time or whether the previous owner 'upgraded' it himself is unknown. Was quite a nice place to be, to be honest. Done an excellent job as a taxi car.
Ran a 2.0 Countryman Estate for a while. I quite liked it, comfortable, economical (for the size) but trim did tend to come loose. I guess you can't have everything. Kids liked the seats in the boot as well.
Was was given a leggy country man estate as a temp company car in 1997.
It was the 2.0 diesel in metallic green with 7 seats.
It had done 170"000 miles and went like the clappers (usually dispatching a cloud of black smoke )
Only thing was random rust spots and door handles (outside) that broke for fun.
When we chopped it in for a brand new 1998 belonging,the citreon dealer took £100 off the price as long as we DIDNT part chop the montego.
Smoke would be sticking EGR, my Dad had one!
Always puts a smile on my face seeing old cars like this still going. Most have rotted away long ago.
Hi Ian, good video, nice to see a Montego again like you my dad had one it was a red c reg estate with the 7 seats they were good cars in their day, good set of videos.
Great video road test of a much underrated car. From my days of working on the Montego line at Cowley, the wood trim on the door pad is fixed on by bend back metal tabs. The wipers have to be set with the wipers in the lowest position you can get them and NOT on the wiper arm rest posts, and then when the wiper arm nut is fully tightened, position the arm on top of the post - have a look the car and you'll see what I mean.
My 1st car I was allowed to drive after I passed my test was my late aunt's austin maestro 1.6 HLS in Red and it brought all those memory's back about those austins
I have never driven a Montego but have to say that I do like the look of them much better looking than the other front wheel drive Austins.
A beige Montego 1.3 standard has to be the holy grail!
My sister had a Maestro 1.6 Mayfair in the early 1990s in the same colour and sam velour upholstery. It had an aftermarket car alarm that was a bit faulty and kept draining the battery. It had silver wing mirrors.
a friend of my mums traded his brown hillman hunter for a brand new 1.3 montego in hearing aid beige, my word what a bantless automobile that was !
We had a Hillman Hunter 1500 from 1972-1977 in Mood Indigo blue (very rare now).
I always liked the Montego and maestro specially remember the state of the art futuristic digital display , that alone sold the maestro for me lol .
I am still running my 1993 Maestro turbo Diesel. Bought it new, very few problems, blew the head gasket once, otherwise only normal wear and tear. As long as it keeps going I'll keep it. People look at it now when I drift past, some even talk to me about it.
This is the best convoy I've ever seen. It's literally like a kid lining up their series of Matchbox cars and driving them down an imaginary road in their living room. Basically me. But the fully fledged grown-up version.
I've watched this vid before so have no idea why RUclips is telling me I haven't, but I'm glad to be watching it again!
Had a Montego diesel saloon and later a diesel estate - leased actually - and really liked them both. That engine felt strong and gave decent mileage for the day - and they were comfy. The AR/BL Hondas might've had finer detail, but this and even the Maestro (a couple of EFIs! Also leased) were my preference.
Discovered your channel a couple of months ago and have been enjoying the videos since. Funny thing happened this morning driving to work, I was overtaken by this montego complete with hubnut sticker on the tailgate. Was in fantastic condition and brought back so many memories from my childhood growing up in the 80's.
Wow. There's a Montego saloon AND estate with HubNut stickers? This pleases me mightily.
I had a 2L montego back in the day, it was immaculate 1 previous owner, a Rover dealer manager. It had every extra, it was my favourite car ever.
I can remember valeting these back in the 90s,nice car,a very rare car now to see on the roads,the Advantage ones were nice as well in three colours and white very similar BBS alloys.nice review.
Great video and brings back a few memories. We had a Montego 2.0EFI Vandan Plas (yes the posh one!), C reg. Leather seats, really thick floor carpets and an electric sunroof! I seem to remember it being fairly rapid - just under 9 seconds to 60 and good for up to 120mph. From what I understood the later cars had a different ECU and were a little slower. Like you say a very under rated car and no worse than its contemporaries from Ford or Vauxhall.
I've also had several turbo diesel Montegos as company cars in the UK which were amazingly fuel efficient. They would regularly get 55+ mpg on a long fast run.
I owned two of these but never kept either very long. The first one was D reg and it was about 1 year old at the time, I reluctantly took it in part exchange when I sold a BMW 520i, I drove it for a day before selling it (at a loss) and was actually rather impressed.
The second purchase was from a friend of mine who was a car dealer and he was in severe financial problems, I paid more than it was worth just to help him out, but the car was nice and identical colour and spec to the one in this video. I sold it to another friend (at a loss) who loved it and kept it for years.
One day I borrowed it for a 400 mile journey with an overnight stay in a travelodge, overnight it had frozen and I did not know that there was no antifreeze in there... ended up overheating and blowing a head gasket so I had to get it recovered and a new head gasket etc, but the work was very cheap as these are easy engines to work on.
So Montego's cost me a bit of money, but I always though they were better than their reputation deserved. I secretly admired the diesel estate version.
My parents had a C-reg Austin Montego 2.0HL estate, bought new in 1986. It was red, with a gold "coach line" running down both sides of the car. Tinted windows, Blaupunkt radio/cassette, and the extra row of seats that folded away in the boot. It was a very comfortable car to be driven in. Used to tow a caravan with ease. Unfortunately, after being sold to a "next door neighbour" in 1990 and being replaced by an H-reg Vauxhall Astra hatchback, the Montego was scrapped, according to a recent search on the DVLA website in 2004. 😪. Great video as always 👍
The mighty Montego!!! You’ve got to love it.
Ha... brought back lots of memories, I was an apprentice mechanic back in 1985,worked at Austin Rover and Jaguar main dealers in Bradford. Used to PDI and service these babies,certainly handled well and were a lot quicker than Sierras ... had to check and tighten every nut and bolt underneath ...then take the spare wheel out to remove all the spare nuts,bolts and clips from the wheel well...... happy days
Happy memories of holidaying in 1984 with a hired 1.6 Montego L which had just been released. One annoying feature was the constant tyre squeal but otherwise rather comfy. For some bizzare reason i still remember the reg number A411 AAK no doubt long gone by now.
Just checked on the DVLA website.... Lasted until 1998, so been dead for the past 20 yrs.
The old girl didn't do too bad, thanks for that.
I had a VDP in the same colour as the one in the vid, Auto as well but around town I was lucky to get 20mpg. Full leather , walnut and a lovely machine all in all
I had 2 Montegos. The first was B45 KUT. A 2.0 Vanden Plas and the second was F799 BAW. An MG 2.0EFI. Loved them both.
I had the MG Turbo, only 10 months old when I bought it and saved £5,000 by paying cash plus exchanging my old car. An absolute beast at the time and great fun making fools of lads in XR3s etc.
Possibly a rare thing but I have had 3x new montegos over the years.
All were company cars and were fine in my ownership. First was the 1.6 saloon with the strange stepper motor-adjusted SU carb - seemed quicker than it should for size of engine. Second two were diesel estates - first was delivered in wrong spec so replaced hence 2x. I look back on the diesel as the first of the modern diesels that delivered economy without significant loss of performance. I did >1k miles touring europe at 60 mpg. Only issue was the huge valley in torque output just as you were moving off.
My grandad had a British racing green MG Montego back in the day great car. he loved it,It used purr while you were waiting in the traffic lights it went like stink but the dreaded rust took hold and he got rid of it for a Blue rover 214 gsi top of the range another great car
I don't know much about Austin cars period so ill just be saying that it looks like an honest, clean family car.
Had a Montego diesel 2 lt TD as a taxi. Got booked for traveling at 35 mph in a 30 zone. It was fortunate that I noticed that they had turned the speed camera round as at around 100 yards before I was doing 130. It was early in the morning and I was the only thing on the road. Very comfortable, roomy and fast.
My mates Dad had an F reg Montego. Couldn't tell you which one it was, but it didn't half go fast! Not a bad car in its day. Comfortable and best of all, British!
Another great video! I once owned a Montego Vandenplas EFI between 1991 and 1993. I absolutely loved it and the acceleration was phenomenal. Good on the gas too. It was Champaign gold with brown leather faced seats that were a bit slippery when you drove it like a twit, which unfortunately I did at times much to the dismay of any back seat passengers I had at the time. I absolutely doted on that car but in the end I got rid of it because I liked it so much it became an obsession. Great motor. Another late reply here.
Find myself watching Montego videos this evening. My Dad's best friend bought a bra d new Mayfair estate back in 1988 and I thought it was ace!
One of my cars was an MG Montego. It had a problem from new where it used to occasionally syphon oil direct into the engine. Turned out to be the wrong dipstick was fitted in the factory and the oil was overfilled! The cars behind used to disappear in clouds of smoke - very entertaining.
I was looking for an Escort Turbo when they cost around £5k for a good second hand example, and stumbled upon an immaculate Montego petrol turbo that only cost me £800. Such was the reputation back then of the Montego's. It proved to be a fantastic car, and I miss it to this day.
Nice that you bring this cars back into the clear daylight so we can remember this quite anonymous car! I do remember that I liked the Montego estate especially as a model, very very rare to see. I think not a single one left in the Netherlands. Now, there is a risk I'll get addicted to an Austin Montego (do like the sound of the engine and very good response as it seems on steering and toughing the speedpedal). Do have 4 cars already, forbidden myself to buy an additional, but now, I 'll definately start looking around if I stumble across one somewhere on the internet! Enjoyed every second of this video, cheers! (Waiting now on a report on the Triumph Acclaim to be honest) One more thing: as far as the car was typically British, so was the weather this day, haha.
Came across this Hubnut by accident. Glad I did. I always want to reach for a bottle conditioned beer when watching his bohemian ‘tests’. Good stuff....
That wind'y sun roof brings back so many memory's.
We were a two-Montego household back in the early nineties - both were mk 2 1.6Ls, £2k ex-repmobiles. I remember driving one down to Switzerland and back for a summer holiday - not a fast car but an extremely comfortable and practical motorway cruiser and mine was way more reliable than the troublesome (and rusty) Talbot Horizon it replaced. If I could have any of my old cars back it would be my Montego.
Great to see an honest test run in a car that gets a lot of negative comments, remember these in New Zealand the Local agent New Zealand Motor Corporation imported Austin Models in the late 80's and early 90's models were all branded MG. There was a nice Burgundy Red MG model in my home town , think the guy owned it from new was in Amazing condition was still there when I left in 2008 .
Wipers almost parked well on 3.30 haha
I am catching up with all the reviews I must guess haha
Cheers from Belgium!
That DILLIGAF shirt! For anyone that is wondering, it's an acronym that stands for "Do I look like I give a ----". It's also a song written by the very high class Australian comedian, Kevin Bloody Wilson.
About 1990 I was a car salesman & we had an '86 on a C Montego estate in 'delicious' gold. It was either a VP or a Mayfair & it was a 90 day car so we really needed to get rid. A guy pulled up in a Tolbot Solara (the sewing machine) & told me he also had a Metro & could he part ex both? I took him on a test drive to his home address so I could appraise the Metro! Oh how he felt special in that car! I was just pleased to get rid of the Dog.
If you have driven a Sierra or Cavalier the Montego in reality will come as a real surprise, really nice car to drive with a wonderful chassis set up.
I had an MG 2 litre Maestro. Great car , fast and reliable. Great holiday in Germany and every day looked forward to getting on an autobahn.
Wife simultaneously owned a 2 litre Maestro diesel, with a Perkins engine. Excellent engine but she crashed into the back of a brand new Porsche , as it was raining and it didn't have abs breaks.
we had a petrol Montego back in 1990, 50K miles and we went everywhere in that car, very reliable and comfortable, great touring car, we had four of us in it fully loaded up and it went along very well, good MPG, and good MPH, easy to work on, we towed a small caravan one summer and the car went even better towing, nice and solid. two tone paintwork.
Sadly for North America, the last BL sedans not called Jaguar were the 1974 Austin Marina 1.8 and the Sterling 825i.
I would regularly read Autocar in the early eighties, and am actually a fan of the Maestro/Montego styling. To my eyes, they evoke the Mark I Hyundai Excel, and have more character than the Giugiaro design which was hard to distinguish from the front drive Isuzu I-Mark.
wanderinggentile Go on Honest Johns car reviews & type in Austin & Rover prototypes & weep at British-Leylands stupidity & greediness of not wanting to reinvest money, into making those prototypes. Also not forgetting the promo-type Freight-rover van of the late 80s-which was better than anything out of France & Italy at the time. The MG EXE was one car that should have been built too. There was a prototype-Rover in the early 70s which looked like a US muscle-car & the 1986 Rover Convertable-which was similar to the MG EXE-which belonged in Miami Vice. Such a shame, but he-ho we Brits got screwed over by British Aerospace & Thatcher.
I see a lot of 80s Datsun/Nissan in those lines as well.
I was about to ask if it were a badge engineered 430 series Cedric but then read about the electrical issues.
The grass is always greener on the other side I suppose, these were tragic compared to the competition (especially the Japanese).
I preferred the Montego over the Maistro but most of them rusted away before I had the chance to drive one 😕
Now I *did* kill a Maestro. It died in the middle of the Marylebone Road as I went to pull away the gearbox failed with a bang and it just sat there sounding like a washing machine full of spanners. It was a pool car and had the nuts thrashed off of it on a regular basis so I wasn't entirely surprised. Of course being London, I was not surprised how many people pulled up behind a car with its boot open, drivers door open and hazards on and proceeded to honk their horn at it when it didn't pull away from the lights.
lmao !
Hey-Man ! I have been watching loads of your videos this week and liked every single one Including the Morris Marina ! and the NSU Ro 80 (great car those !)
My very first car back in 1994 was a 3 speed automatic 1984 B reg Austin Maestro Vanden Plas with that same 1.6 S-series engine from the Montego you were talking about in this video (I believe It was also used in the original MK 1 Rover 216 too from 1984 - 1990 too),
My Maestro was in a very pale light blue colour and it had that mighty blue-green digital talking dash ! with Nicolette MacKenzie's voice !
I believe That originally came out in March 1983 in the Vanden Plas and MG versions of the Austin Maestro (on a Y plate) and it was light years ahead of its time until about late 1985 when they decided to stop the digital talking dash option (because it annoyed too many people lol) and they started using the same one piece dash board from the Austin Montego to cut production costs !
I loved my Maestro VDP and I wish that I had kept it now ! at the sensible age of 42 ! but in late 1995 (when I was still only 18 years old), I didn't appreciate the great Maestro I had ! and I traded it in for an 1988 F reg BMW E34 535i sport auto which was a nightmare ! in repair bills and it had very bad reliability !! for a straight 6 BMW engine ! - I was 211 brake horse power compared to the weaker 86 brake horse power of the 1.6 Maestro I had before but it cost an arm and a leg to insure, run and maintain ! :-( Whilst the Maestro was cheap to run, insure and it had better reliability ! :-) even though its single 8 valve overhead cam engine used to drink oil !! and it always had brown sludge in its breather pipe (that pipe with the cap on top of it located above the gearbox by the engine dizzy cap and the air filter housing) when checking the oil and water, I always used to pull that black plastic cap off occasionally to check if its getting any worse ! (it was like coolant mixing with oil which explains where the oil was going lol)
Back to the Montego believe that the Mayfair Montego and Maestro did also come with the fake Vanden Plas style wood veneer trim as standard too.
There is also something that you forgot to mention (as I am sure you must know this) about Montegos, In the early 1984 - 1985 ones there was also a 1.3 A+ series in the base model Montego (the same 1275cc A+ series engine as used in the Austin Maestro and fitted to a 4 speed manual gearbox) so in the Montego there was a 1.3 A+ series, a 1.6 S series and a 2.0 O series (The 2.0 O series was available with carb or EFi which was either 115 brake horse power or 130 brake horse power) and there was even a 2.0 turbo charged O series too ! (carb only 165 brake horse power).
Diesel, Back in 1986 Austin Rover developed a 2.0 diesel engine with Perkins (that was derived from the 1994 cc 2.0 O series engine) for use in the Maestro van, It eventually was used in the Montego and Maestro and about 1990 when Rover took over the production of the Maestro and Montego they developed a Turbo diesel for these cars using this same O series derived Perkins diesel engine that also was used in the Layland DAF 200 vans too.
All Maestros and Montegos had Volkswagen gearboxes (Manual and auto) and on the very late Montegos I believe that some of them were fitted with Honda gearboxes (both manual and automatic) as a later improvement to the Montego when Rover took over as I read this somewhere !
There was a very rare limited number of Maestro MG turbos too ! fitted with the same turbo charged O series engine from the Montego and they are now very valuable collectors cars with that crazy body kit they had !!!
Nice cars for the 1980's/early 90's and a big improvement to the Austin Maxi and Marina not to mention the Austin Alegro !!! ha ! ha ! ha !
Great informative videos man ! - Very cool honest test drives ! great stuff ! - Keep on rocking man ! :-)
Drove one for two years fom new as a company car. Thank goodness they changed to Ford. Loved the comfort. Hated the constant breakdowns. It also had te wost cooling in traffic electric fan which gave loads of noise but didn't often cool it down and you could watch the temp guage climbing rapidly ! . I had often to sit in laybys etc to do the job. But you vid did bring back memories !
Dad had a montego estate countryman. Brown exterior, beige interior.
Drove better than my rover 414!
I'd still happily drive one of those now. My pal had a 1.6 and in the day I was quite envious of it because it had 5 gears!
I had a mint green Montego 2.0HL in the early 90s which I loved! :) I used to commute from Manchester to Birmingham and it ate up the M6 miles easily. Unfortunately, a friend drove into the back of it at a junction and it was written off. :( I replaced it with a Rover 820 which had the same 2 litre engine from the Montego! I loved that car as well, despite the gearbox needing to be replaced (125k+ miles) and the annoying habit of the clutch pedal sticking half-way down.
Got talking to an elderly gent in Morrisons car park a few days ago, he was in his 91H Montego saloon which he'd had from new (77,000 miles) looked in superb condition. An under rated car TBH.