Maestro/Montego
The Metro started BL on its road to recovery, but if it was going to be a long term thing, then it needed to be followed up by equally popular mid-sized counterparts. However, the Maestro and Montego failed to capitalise on the lead pulled out by the impressive new supermini.
The cars : Maestro/Montego development story
The Metro started BL on its road to recovery, but if it was going to be a long term thing, then it needed to be followed up by equally popular mid-sized counterparts. However, the Maestro and Montego failed to capitalise on the lead pulled out by the impressive new supermini. Back from the brink? IN [...]
August 7, 2011
· 
Keith Adams · 
37 Comments
Sipani Automobiles : Indian Rover Montego
A couple of years after production had ceased in the UK, the Montego was re-introduced in the Indian subcontinent in order to compete in the executive car market. WHEN BMW bought the Rover Group in 1994, it has been said many times that Bernd Pischetsrieder was surprised to find the antiquated Montego and its hatchback [...]
August 6, 2011
· Keith Adams · No Comments
Coleman Milne Warwick and Hebden
A Montego… and then some! The Montego-based Warwick limousine and matching Hebden hearse were introduced to serve the lower end of the carriage-trade market where its sub-£20,000 purchase price would appeal. It occupied a slot in the market previously served by the Princess-based Kirklees. The Warwick was also likely to have been popular with cost-conscious [...]
August 6, 2011
· Keith Adams · No Comments
Maestro economy run
One of those interesting publicity stunts was staged in order to highlight the Maestro’s potential for fuel economy… THE photograph was taken as she flagged off the two teams of Oxbridge students at the start of the Austin Maestro Economy Run challenge, (presumably alongside the Thames) in London. This publicity stunt to promote the high [...]
August 6, 2011
· Keith Adams · No Comments
Maestro reminiscences : Richard Bremner
Richard Bremner penned this piece, which originally appeared on the 4Car website in March 2003. Richard is well-known for being a highly-respected motoring scribe, but in his formative years, he worked in the employ of Austin-Rover. His love/hate relationship with the company’s products stayed with him long after he left… Maestro – My part in [...]
August 6, 2011
· Keith Adams · 7 Comments
Maestro reminiscences : Ian Elliott
Ian Elliott joined the company as an Austin student engineering apprentice and remained there until 1991. Ian was commissioned to write this piece for programme for the MG Saloon Day, and it amusingly reveals that there was much about the Maestro’s launch that did not go to plan… A difficult, if miraculous birth AS an [...]
August 6, 2011
· Keith Adams · No Comments
Maestro reminiscences : John Dalton
John Dalton penned the following for the programme for the MG Saloon Day in July 2003, an event that celebrated the 20th anniversary of the MG Maestro. John worked for ‘the company’ for more than twenty years, and his favourite motor remains the MG Maestro EFi, which he campaigned successfully in International Rallies. More recently [...]
August 6, 2011
· Keith Adams · No Comments
Our cars : MG Maestro Turbo factory prototypes
Here’s a precious one – produced at the Proto-Build Shop at Canley in 1987, our MG Maestro Turbo is a one of a kind… Does that mean we’ve got trouble in store, or will our hand build AR pocket rocket be a lesson in hot hatch nirvana? Big boy’s toy IT came like a bolt [...]
August 6, 2011
· Keith Adams · One Comment
Concepts and prototypes : Meet the LC family
Sometime in 1979, the Austin-Morris product planners would have met with BL’s upper management to explain the LM10 strategy. This model set perfectly demonstrates how the Montego saloon and estate were developed from the Maestro, and more intriguingly, how an upper middle market hatchback was also planned. The modular model is comprised of a centre [...]
August 6, 2011
· Keith Adams · 7 Comments
Concepts and prototypes : LM10 and LM11 facelifts
You’ve seen the photoshops and the styling proposals, but here for the first time are the images that all Maestro and Montego fans have been waiting for. Thanks to Roy Axe, we get our first glimpse of the improved versions of the two cars that failed to sell in the numbers anticipated by their management. [...]
August 6, 2011
· Keith Adams · 24 Comments
Concepts and prototypes : AR7 Maestro facelift
The industry norm for the mid-1980s was for a car design to last about three-to-four years before it received its first facelift. In the case of the Maestro, the first facelift was planned for even before the original hit the streets. With thanks to Stephen Harper we now know just how radically they were thinking [...]
August 6, 2011
· Keith Adams · 11 Comments
Concepts and prototypes : LM11 saloon and LM11E estate
Part of a three-pronged attack on the medium car sector, the LM11 was to be BL’s new mid-sized saloon, based heavily on the upcomng LM10 (nee LC10). LM11 was originally planned to sit closer to the LM10, performing a similar role to the hatchback that the VW Jetta does to the Golf, or the Orion [...]
August 6, 2011
· Keith Adams · No Comments
Concepts and prototypes : Maestro cabriolet
Stephen Harper was responsible for this fascinating Maestro convertible sketch – here’s its story… Maestro cabriolet Looking back now, the Maestro seems like an unusual donor car for a chop-top, but this was more than a flight-of-fancy – there was a serious purpose behind its creation. During the early 1980s, there had been design upheaval [...]
August 6, 2011
· Keith Adams · 2 Comments
Concepts and prototypes : Maestro development
LC10 was a conventional family hatchback in every sense of the word, and followed industry standard thinking in terms of mechanical layout. However, because of internal politics, lack of resources and the fact that the Metro had to come first, the Maestro seven years to get into production. LC10 in development
August 6, 2011
· Keith Adams · 2 Comments
Concepts and prototypes : Longbridge LC10 proposals
LC10 was a conventional family hatchback in every sense of the word, and followed industry standard thinking in terms of mechanical layout. However, because of internal politics, lack of resources and the fact that the Metro had to come first, the Maestro seven years to get into production. Longbridge proposal
August 6, 2011
· Keith Adams · One Comment
Concepts and prototypes : three-door Maestros
LC10 was a conventional family hatchback in every sense of the word, and followed industry standard thinking in terms of mechanical layout. However, because of internal politics, lack of resources and the fact that the Metro had to come first, the Maestro seven years to get into production. Three-door LC10 Body in white Stephen Harper [...]
August 6, 2011
· Keith Adams · 8 Comments
Concepts and prototypes : LC10 Car magazine scoop
LC10 was a conventional family hatchback in every sense of the word, and followed industry standard thinking in terms of mechanical layout. However, because of internal politics, lack of resources and the fact that the Metro had to come first, the Maestro seven years to get into production. CAR magazine’s scoop photos
August 6, 2011
· Keith Adams · One Comment
Concepts and prototypes : early LC10
LC10 was a conventional family hatchback in every sense of the word, and followed industry standard thinking in terms of mechanical layout. However, because of internal politics, lack of resources and the fact that the Metro had to come first, the Maestro seven years to get into production. LC10 prototype THIS hand-built prototype was an [...]
August 6, 2011
· Keith Adams · 2 Comments
Around the world : Bulgaria
NOT much has been written about the operation to build Maestros in Bulgaria, but at long last we’re able to put the record straight…. Thanks to an ex-Rover Group executive, we have been able to piece together the story of the Roadacar assembly operation in Bulgaria and conclude why it failed in the way it [...]
August 6, 2011
· Keith Adams · 4 Comments
Gallery : MG Montego
“Cowley’s Cortina” also received the MG treatment in an attempt to give the upmarket versions a little bit more cachet than perhaps the Austin could manage. When the Montego was launched in July 1984, the MG version was seen by the company as a viable rival to such cars as the BMW 3-Series and Audi [...]
July 31, 2011
· Keith Adams · 3 Comments
Gallery : MG Maestro
It has been said that the MG Maestro was never planned for during the LM10 development programme – certainly, early prototypes were badged as Austin Maestro EXPs. The MG badged versions came along as a result of the success of the MG Metro and as a result of this hasty development, the first MG Maestro [...]
July 31, 2011
· Keith Adams · One Comment
