The humble Austin Maestro

Kaiser D

Are there any left!?

I haven't seen one in a long, long, long time but I'd really like to see another. I know there was one for sale on Donedeal recently, a 1.6 HLS. But I'd love to know if there are any others. I also remember an original Irish oen on Gumtree in Louth a few years ago.

Capri

After UK production ended they were sold in Bulgaria then some place in the UK bought up the kits and built a few in the UK again. They were also sold in China with a Montego front :rolleyes:

carchaeologist

Blue EZF reg onein bad shape dumped in my local yard.

Red Kev

I'd love it's big brother, the Montego Turbo. Supposed to be seriously fast but with a vicous turbo lag. Maestro MG is supposed to be a good GTi as well.

Kaiser D

carchaeologist wrote: »

Blue EZF reg onein bad shape dumped in my local yard.

Savable?

Do you think you get a photo of it?

Silvera

I know a guy who has an '85-D reg one in his yard..among many other cars. Blue iirc. Doubt if it's for sale tbh...he's a bit of a hoarder.

cregganna

Had a not so humble 1986 MG Maestro 2.0 EFI way back. Black when I had it the uk dvla says it ended its life as pink in 1997. Good fun to drive and very practical.

H.E. Pennypacker

There's one on Gumtree in Louth - 1983, ad says no rust and never welded...

Do they have Hydragas suspension?

carchaeologist

Kaiser D wrote: »

Savable?

Do you think you get a photo of it?

Had one! Can't find it tho, will FB you one if I do.

macplaxton

H.E. Pennypacker wrote: »

Do they have Hydragas suspension?

No Hydrosag.

H.E. Pennypacker

macplaxton wrote: »

No Hydrosag.

Very good - and very descriptive

Used to see the odd Metro jacked up as if on stilts where someone had overpumped when fixing the sag

macplaxton

cregganna wrote: »

Had a not so humble 1986 MG Maestro 2.0 EFI way back.

Sim_MG_2002 by macplaxton, on Flickr

This is a mate of mine taking the pish out of a borrowed MG, which is fair enough, it IS a Maestro (Just like a Rover 100 is a Metro).

In fairness, it did go like stink, much to the annoyance of Ferrari driver on the M6 in the Lake District whose rear view mirror I remained large in for far longer than he expected.

Having driven a 2.0EFi, a 2.0 Clubman Diesel and a 1.3, they are prime Auto-Sh and don't do nothing for me - and I like BL tin.

Capri

And on and on it goes -

In 1994, Rover established Rodacar, a joint venture with a Bulgarian company to produce Maestros at a new factory in Varna, using CKD kits sent from the UK. Production began in July 1995 and 2,200 cars were assembled before the factory closed in April 1996. The venture failed because of competition from other cars and the Bulgarian government's failure to honour agreements to reduce tariffs on imported parts and buy thousands of Maestros for government departments. Around 1,700 of the Rodacar-made Maestros were exported, including 550 to Uruguay, 400 to Argentina and 200 to the Republic of Macedonia.

Two British dealers, Parkway Services in Ledbury and a company called Apple 2000 in Bury St. Edmunds, acquired unsold Maestros from Bulgaria and sold them in the UK, converting most of them to right-hand drive.

http://www.aronline.co.uk/blogs/cars/austin/maestromontego/etsong-lubao-qe6400qe6440/

http://www.carnewschina.com/2011/11/06/yema-f12-to-be-listed-in-china-next-year/

The new Yema F12 wagon will be listed on the China car market in early 2012. The F12 is a luxury version of the existing Yema F99.......The F12/F99 is based on the platform of the Austin Montego/Maestro. MG-Rover sold the platform to Chinese company Etsong in 1998. Etsong produced the Montego until 2000 and then sold the platform to First Auto Works (FAW) which in turn sold it to Sichuan Yema a few years later. In China, no platform needs to die, ever

:eek::eek:

Alfasudcrazy

The Maestro looked fresh and pretty for its day but I always preferred the Montego. I never drove either - my experience of them was as a young Garda - the force had a few of both. They were hated by the Garda drivers and did not stick the 24 hour 7/7 use very long.

Am I correct in saying that the doors on both the Maestro and Montego were exactly the same - but that in the case of the Montego some fairly bulky door card trim was used to blend them in to the Montego interior. As I recall the Montego was launched some time later than the Maestro.

w124man

When I worked at 'The Austin' my job was the Prototype Build Engineer for the LC10 - you guys know it as the Austin Maestro.

corktina

I had one briefly back in the day....new at the time...

macplaxton

corktina wrote: »

I had one briefly back in the day....new at the time...

Did you not meet your sales target for the month?

corktina

macplaxton wrote: »

Did you not meet your sales target for the month?


lol..... No, I crashed my Escort and got loaned the Maestro as punishment.

When I got the Escy back, I forgot to give back the Maestro for about two months, handy runabout for the Missus until the petrol ran low.....It seemed a fine car to me, not as good as the Ford but quite acceptable.

Alfasudcrazy

We had some funny moments with our BL cars - after a stolen car one night when the driver of the Maestro thought he has spotted the stolen car (on country roads) and speeded up to head him off at the next junction - the driver of the Montego saw and thought the same thing - the two garda cars crashed into each other at the junction.