tdk
Part of things
Posts: 958
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I thought I'd share my little love in with you;
Yes, they rusted. No, they weren’t built by laser-guided Japanese robots. What cars of the early 80’s were? Let’s judge the Montego against it’s contemporaries, shall we? Back then the Montego’s scalloped panels and gentle three box saloon shape was more elegant than BMW’s aged E21, Audi were still oddball Volkswagens and the hatchbacked Passat was durable but deadly dull. Japanese cars were still a bit exotic for many jingoistic British buyers back then too. Sierras were ugly with rough engines and Cavaliers were ugly with understeer. People bought Montegos with their own money, fleet buyers liked the diesels and the seven seat countryman estate was a practical solution for those with overactive loins, bored of waiting for MPVs to be invented. It has since become fashionable to bash BL’s work, as buyers eventually went Japanese for reliability and German for the, well, I don’t know what, British Leyland was doomed.
Everyone has an anecdote about a Montego exploding and maiming their Granny, but in the early 80’s that’s how all cars were, not just British Leyland. Today, of course, Longbridge’s monkeys are long since unemployed and the few Montegos that survived have had their assembly cock-ups corrected and, suddenly, the Montego looks rather lovely as a left-field modern classic. Don’t share the love of the Montego? Watch this classic advert featuring Russ Swift showing off in a company car park in a humble Montego 1.6l. Don’t fight your feelings...
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Last Edit: Mar 3, 2014 9:59:52 GMT by tdk
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Garry
East Midlands
Posts: 1,722
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I love them. My Step-Granddad had a D-reg MG Montego, 2.0 efi, that lovely pale metallic green (it went well with Grandma's Austion Maestro 1.6 HLE in ruby metallic red), AND it had the talking dash. Pressing all the buttons at once suggested it was having an apocalyptic catastrophic failiure of low fuel, low oil pressure etc. It went to the scrapyard in the sky when the rear rubber spoiler on the bootlid started absorbing water, and essentially rotted the rear end of the car, bootlid, side quarter panels etc. It was around 4-5 years old at the time. It must have been a very rare colour, I can't find a single photo of one in that shade on a Montego on Google, even then theres only a couple of Maestros in that green!
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I had one - an early 1.3. Ran it from 6 months old to just under 250,000 miles and did all the maintenance. It turned out to be a demo vehicle for Oliver Rix that was written off (rolled over) and poorly repaired. Vinyl roof hid damage ! This was pre HPI / VIC check and Police took it away twice to check safe for return to the road. Trading Standards tried to take action against the seller for misrepresenting but no joy so it was simply run into the ground - but failed to die ! Diff damaged in original accident - which we found out very promptly after purchase. I fitted a 1500 MKI Golf gearbox as cheaper than the identical Mondeo item ! Then it was simply maintenance until stolen and recovered with engine valves burnt out. I removed the head and recut the seats to take new valves (still got the set of A Series cutters) quite cheaply to avoid insurance claim. It then ran to over 200,000 miles until oil consumption / smoke got too bad so a decent 1300 Maestro lump fitted instead. Even then despite bad history only rust was in rear wheel arches. So on reflection not a bad car and good "workhorse".
Paul h
BTW water pump leaked at one time so no antifreeze. Heater matrix froze and split filling car with boiling water when engine got hot enough to defrost pipes. Manual said whole dash has to come out but I managed to change matrix through the glove box aperture after drilling out rivets.
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The Montego (and Maestro of course) were good cars although they should have been launched earlier... I believe they were actually ready to go in about 1978?!
I have no direct anecdotes but my old man worked on this advert when the Maestro was launched...
These are rare cars now and should be preserved...!!!
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***GARAGE CURRENTLY EMPTY***
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Way back in the day one of my chefs had an mg montego in metallic blue I used to covert that car, was absolutely mint (he was a bit anal about his cars), I was driving a mk1 golf gti/ mg metro as my alternate dailys at the time and my boss (a lady petrolhead, who I loved to bits) was running an mg metro turbo with upgrades that went like a scalded cat! ...and boy she knew how to drive it! .....rambling I know but thanks for reigniting happy times/memories
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tdk
Part of things
Posts: 958
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The Montego (and Maestro of course) were good cars although they should have been launched earlier... I believe they were actually ready to go in about 1978?! I have no direct anecdotes but my old man worked on this advert when the Maestro was launched... These are rare cars now and should be preserved...!!! I love that vid!
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My dad had a Maestro, bought at 4 years old having just had sills and wheelarches welded for MoT. And I once saw someone slam the tailgate on a Montego estate which caused the lower half to disintegrate. They were both fundamentally sound designs but mismanagement and lack of money meant they were never fully developed which caused most of the problems. The facelift Montego improved matters vastly, but the damage had been done. They really should have been killed off around 91/92, but Vickers kept them on as an unnecessary budget end to the Rover range. Though I do still occasionally find myself searching eBay for them.
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My dad had a Maestro, bought at 4 years old having just had sills and wheelarches welded for MoT. And I once saw someone slam the tailgate on a Montego estate which caused the lower half to disintegrate. They were both fundamentally sound designs but mismanagement and lack of money meant they were never fully developed which caused most of the problems. The facelift Montego improved matters vastly, but the damage had been done. They really should have been killed off around 91/92, but Vickers kept them on as an unnecessary budget end to the Rover range. Though I do still occasionally find myself searching eBay for them.
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stealthstylz
Club Retro Rides Member
Posts: 14,926
Club RR Member Number: 174
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My dad sold an Alfasud TI when I was born and bought a fairly new Maestro. He stuck it in a field on the way home from the dealership, going around a corner that the Sud would easily do an extra 20mph round, then a week later one of the doors fell off so he took it back, told them how bad it was and took a Mk2 Cav 1600 instead, which lasted years and looked great in a driveway sprayed coat of Coal Board Blue.
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My Mum drove a montego estate back in the late eighties, I was only 4/5 but I remember being very excited at the rear-facing seats in the boot. Many happy memories of picking my nose whilst staring at the drivers of the cars behind us...
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If at first you don't succeed........ ....Don't try skydiving!
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Porsche
West Midlands
Kev from B'ham.
Posts: 4,725
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My dad used to have one...those rear arches rusted badly. On a positve note, the MG Montego Turbo was the fastest production MG in 1985 with a 0-60 time of 7.3 seconds.
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Last Edit: Mar 3, 2014 16:56:56 GMT by Porsche
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Porsche
West Midlands
Kev from B'ham.
Posts: 4,725
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Last Edit: Mar 3, 2014 17:40:14 GMT by Porsche
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I've had a few Montego's; first was a company hire-in 1.6HL which went very well, far better than the Cav Mk3 1.6GL that replaced it (biggest bag of s**** I've ever suffered...). Bought a 1.6L with a worn out gearbox - new gearbox in and it was fine, swapped it for a 2.0DL which went on and on and on until the sunroof gave out and drowned it; SWMBO got irate so I went on to a Rover 620si.. Good cars, loads of room, comfy and pretty reliable if looked after.
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Rover Metro - The TARDIS - brake problems.....Stored Rover 75 - Barge MGZTT Cdti 160+ - Winter Hack and Audi botherer... MGF - The Golden Shot...Stored Project Minion........ Can you see the theme?
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My dad had a new D-reg 1.6L in two tone blue metallic/grey for a company car, which replaced one of the first Sierras. Seem to recall it went pretty well, although the gearchange was a bit baulky (Porsche-designed gearbox, apparently!)
A lad at college was given a brand new black Turbo for his first car, the lucky devil! Back then, my first car was a poxy 1973 Fiat 126, which was a bit of a laughing stock, but better than having to endure the train.
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Del
South East
Posts: 1,448
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My Dad was an AA man, and would refer to the hard shoulder of the M1 as Montego Bay
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Ratchet
Part of things
The user formerly known as Thomas
Posts: 708
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I love them. My Step-Granddad had a D-reg MG Montego, 2.0 efi, that lovely pale metallic green (it went well with Grandma's Austion Maestro 1.6 HLE in ruby metallic red), AND it had the talking dash. Pressing all the buttons at once suggested it was having an apocalyptic catastrophic failiure of low fuel, low oil pressure etc. It went to the scrapyard in the sky when the rear rubber spoiler on the bootlid started absorbing water, and essentially rotted the rear end of the car, bootlid, side quarter panels etc. It was around 4-5 years old at the time. It must have been a very rare colour, I can't find a single photo of one in that shade on a Montego on Google, even then theres only a couple of Maestros in that green! One of my school mates parents had a Montego estate in that shade, was a countryman if i remember correctly, it was either E or D reg if memory serves me correctly, sadly it later got swapped for a white Renault 21 saloon which seemed dull in comparison (yes really xD)
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Competition is the law of the jungle, but cooperation is the law of civilization.
1971 vw beetle 1200 1978 international loadstar 1700 4x4 1987 landrover 110 1994 Yamaha FZR600r 2010 honda CBF100GT
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Not a Montego, but I had this for a while. On a couple off occasions (when all electrics were comunicating properly) it went like a scalded cat, even with 3 passengers the acceleration from 0 suprised all my mates who verbaly ripped it apart (granny mobile etc), probably helped by the custom stainless exhaust and a decent air filter. When it wasnt going well it was a nightmare, it rarley seemed to run right, door handles would snap off on a fortnightly basis, and authough it was properly mint when i bought it, when it did start to rust it went everywhere, all at the same time. It was then that I hapily waved goodbye to it. Ive no doubt these have lots of potential, but id never have another. I rather have another Lada (actualy thats not fair, i just really regret selling my Lada).
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When I was a little kid, my grandfather had a Montego MG turbo. He lived on a remote Scottish island which only has about 10 miles of road in total, most of which is single-track with passing places and quite often a strip of grass down the middle. I doubt that the car got above third gear very often. I learned to drive in it on the beach - initially sitting on his lap steering while he did the pedals and then with the seat cranked right forwards he taught me how to drive solo.
Unsurprisingly it rotted badly and met its maker in the way most cars on the island did back then - pushed off a clifftop into the sea.
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1986 Panda 4x4. 1990 Metro Sport. 1999 Ford Escort estate.
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G81 FWP was the reg of a rover montego turbo i once bought many moons ago with a blown turbo for £550 at the time. Back then there was only a renault 21 turbo that could leave it in the area (cosworth were still mega money at the time so weren't ragged lol) It was the decade of the renault 5 gt turbo and the uno turbo,s to.
Wish i still had that car, It had the full motorbuild body kit to and imo a far nicer looking car than the maestro.
I also had a 1.6 montego as my first car and then a 2.0 GTI montego remember them.
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Last Edit: Mar 3, 2014 19:31:36 GMT by bababoom
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