Liam4R4SPARES
Enthusiast
- Messages
- 208
Too true.I thought i would get slammed by my comments but its nice to hear someone who has the same views as myself. The Maxi was a fair/good old lumbering workhorse for its day.
- Thread starter RichardIRL
- Start date
La Poste
Enthusiast
- Messages
- 100
The Maxi was a reasonable car for its day (nicer than a Hillman Hunter for example!) and quite well packaged, but looked like a depressed slug. The R16 was a thousand times better just because of its mad styling - I could forgive the Maxi a lot if it just looked a bit less ugly (or, perversely, if it was a lot more ugly), although I'm not sure how you could make it less ugly. It would take more than a 1300GT-style makeover to make me want one, although I might be tempted by a nice kitsch Maxi V8 in bright orange with a vinyl roof, rostyle wheels, etc. if BL had had the foresight to produce such a machine! Or maybe not. I would rather have a Maxi than an MG Metro, a Triumph Acclaim, or a Montego though. They were too nasty for words!
I would much rather have a Maxi than a...... (gulp).......Allegro!!!!!!!! Mechanically Maxis were reasonbly on the ball apart from being made like all BL cars of crappy low-spec "high tensile" steels where it counted. The styling was pretty much par for the course for UK cars back then. I think the vast majority of the buying public had no problem with it. But they were living off the body of original work done on the mini/1100 etc 10 years previously and that couldn't go on forever. They started off with a platform that was ahead of its time in 1960 and just stuck more and more belated and hopeless styling on top until it became an embarrassment. Having said that most 1980's japanese cars owe a huge debt to BL for basically their entire legacy. Note I have completed this post without a single mention of the Austin Tasman and Leyland P76. A major acheivment!
La Poste
Enthusiast
- Messages
- 100
I'd rather have an Allegro than a Maxi because (perversely) the Allegro was the worst car ever made (by BL or anyone else), and will thus remain a cultural icon for the rest of history! :lol: Early Allegros also had the ultimate conversation piece - the legendary Quartic (square) steering wheel. The Maxi never was never blessed with such a hopelessly pointless / innovative feature, and so will always be an also-ran in the history of dreadful car design.
malcolm
& Clementine the Cat
- Messages
- 4,519
- Location
- Bedford UK
I think the early Maestros had a voice. Later they decided that was too irritating and got rid of it (current manufacturers have a whole new chance to discover this).
The voice was that of the lovely actress (now voice over star) Nicolette McKenzie. Apparently the technology made it into the press after Thatcher drove it: "the car that told Mrs Thatcher to belt up".
The voice was that of the lovely actress (now voice over star) Nicolette McKenzie. Apparently the technology made it into the press after Thatcher drove it: "the car that told Mrs Thatcher to belt up".
La Poste
Enthusiast
- Messages
- 100
I have a friend who would probably want to buy that beautifully restored Maestro van if he saw it. No, seriously! He has a real fetish for the type of vehicles most people would generally describe as being crap, having owned such beauties as an Austin Ambassador and Bedford Bambi camper van, which was without doubt the most evil thing I've ever driven. Forget the way an R4 leans (safely) on bends - this 10ft tall, 6in wide disaster threatened to topple over at parking speed, assuming you could actually squeeze yourself into the world's most cramped and uncomfortable driver's seat in the first place. And you looked a complete tit driving it.
I wonder if any warped Maestro owner has ever been tempted to replace his non-functioning voice synthesizer (I can't imagine such high-tech early-eighties Lucas electronics would still be working after twenty years) with an MP3 player? Just imagine how unsuspecting passengers would react if every few miles a brummy accent (ideally the bloke who played Barry in Auf Wiedersehen Pet) piped up with quotes such as 'I think I might break down on the next busy roundabout' or 'if we don't stop for a tea break at the next services I'll have to speak to the union'... :lol:
I wonder if any warped Maestro owner has ever been tempted to replace his non-functioning voice synthesizer (I can't imagine such high-tech early-eighties Lucas electronics would still be working after twenty years) with an MP3 player? Just imagine how unsuspecting passengers would react if every few miles a brummy accent (ideally the bloke who played Barry in Auf Wiedersehen Pet) piped up with quotes such as 'I think I might break down on the next busy roundabout' or 'if we don't stop for a tea break at the next services I'll have to speak to the union'... :lol:
That's a wonderful idea. I like that idea, its got legs. Why not add a G switch you could put somewhere in the front end so that every time you went over a pothole he could say "Friggin' 'eck!" etc etc. You could package it up, get it made in China and sell millions of them at Halfords and cheesy gift shops.
NutsPlumsDates
Enthusiast
- Messages
- 20
The Montego/Maestro 2 liter series was the most underrated Rover product. Probably, because models with alternative 1.6 and 1.2 liter powerplants were notorious for their unreliability.
This series was developed in cooperation with Honda and the later versions ended up being equipped with robust Honda gearboxes, after Volkswagen supplied Rover with shoddy ones.
I had a 1986 model which I bought from the garage where I was employed, in Germany. The car was damaged in a frontal collision and I ended up repairing it myself. The car drove and handled at least as well as the German competition, in that size/price class. The low-end torque enabled the vehicle to tackle mountain roads, without any need of a turbocharger.
As Germans often say, "The British start off with a good idea. But, never finish what they started". As far as this vehicle is concerned, I can vouch for that. The car was brilliant, except that the engineers didn't bother to incline the engine for lower hood clearance and to avoid damage to the oilpan which was frequent on the MG, due to the lowered suspension. 2nd miserable fault: The electronic fuel injection/ignition was made up of a grabbag of products. The Injectors were from Bosch, the airflow measuring device (I forget what it's called) was produced by Hitachi and a vacuum valve was produced by General Motors. The board computer was called British Leyland. But, who knows what was in there.
I once had the idea of washing the drivetrain with pressurized water. This is possible with carboureted engines with conventional ignition. However, doing this with an injected Maestro can be very expensive. After having done so, the automobile never ran right again. Even after having it repaired in Saarbrücken, Germany by a dealer who had a low parts inventory and was lacking special tools. The dealer wasn't therefore capable of diagnosing the problem and ended up sending the vehicle to the local Bosch franchised repair facility. They ended up replacing the airflow sensor and the board computer. The latter was replaced with that of a Jaguar. Then former was brand new and the latter was used. This costed over 3,000 Deutsche Marks (approx. 1,000 Quid) and the vehicle never accelerated to it's former potential.
Had Rover at least have built these vehicles with a Bosch-type test socket, the repair would have been much less costly and time consuming.
Otherwise, there was little to complain about this vehicle
This series was developed in cooperation with Honda and the later versions ended up being equipped with robust Honda gearboxes, after Volkswagen supplied Rover with shoddy ones.
I had a 1986 model which I bought from the garage where I was employed, in Germany. The car was damaged in a frontal collision and I ended up repairing it myself. The car drove and handled at least as well as the German competition, in that size/price class. The low-end torque enabled the vehicle to tackle mountain roads, without any need of a turbocharger.
As Germans often say, "The British start off with a good idea. But, never finish what they started". As far as this vehicle is concerned, I can vouch for that. The car was brilliant, except that the engineers didn't bother to incline the engine for lower hood clearance and to avoid damage to the oilpan which was frequent on the MG, due to the lowered suspension. 2nd miserable fault: The electronic fuel injection/ignition was made up of a grabbag of products. The Injectors were from Bosch, the airflow measuring device (I forget what it's called) was produced by Hitachi and a vacuum valve was produced by General Motors. The board computer was called British Leyland. But, who knows what was in there.
I once had the idea of washing the drivetrain with pressurized water. This is possible with carboureted engines with conventional ignition. However, doing this with an injected Maestro can be very expensive. After having done so, the automobile never ran right again. Even after having it repaired in Saarbrücken, Germany by a dealer who had a low parts inventory and was lacking special tools. The dealer wasn't therefore capable of diagnosing the problem and ended up sending the vehicle to the local Bosch franchised repair facility. They ended up replacing the airflow sensor and the board computer. The latter was replaced with that of a Jaguar. Then former was brand new and the latter was used. This costed over 3,000 Deutsche Marks (approx. 1,000 Quid) and the vehicle never accelerated to it's former potential.
Had Rover at least have built these vehicles with a Bosch-type test socket, the repair would have been much less costly and time consuming.
Otherwise, there was little to complain about this vehicle