1983 Austin Maestro 1.3L Goes for a Drive 

i'm from germany, and i'm one of verry few germans who actualy drove a maestro... and i'm one of even much fewer germans who did their driving-school and driving test on one (in light blue with exactly the same very blue interiour! ) ... that was because the owner of my driving school had also a austin-rover dealership... thanks a lot for the video... brought back memorys... the first cars you drive are always something special... and when i tell people in germany today in what car i did my driving-school, nobody has the faintest idea what car i talk about ....

i drive for lothian buses in Edinburgh (single deckers) and a few months ago as i stopped at the lights a blue Maestro was 2 lanes across from me.. G reg plate 2.0 EFI, gave him a hoot and he waved..it was in decent condition, a few battle scars lol..thanks for the vid..

Had 2 MG Metros, an MG Maestro and an MG Montego Turbo, they actually weren't half bad ! In fact the Metros were great fun, like driving karts, and the Montego for its time was pretty fast !

In my opinion, the early Maestro is a superb piece of industrial design, and looks especially good when painted a light metallic colour.

I owned an MG Maestro 1600, complete with its talking dashboard back in the early 90s. Ironically the only problem I had with the car was with gearbox, which was a VW supplied item as you said in the video.

Great review of an excellent example. Thank you. That wonderful A series engine once again.

My father worked for the firm that made the robotic paint machinery for these cars. I remember being taken around the Cowley factory before the launch of the Meastro, watching them go along the production line & getting a sneak preview of this new supossed wonder car .. exciting stuff for a school boy.

and Maestro platform still lives on as an Audi clone in China (Yema F16)

I drove the Austin Maestro as a company car for a few years in the 80s, and from what I remember it was a rather nice car to drive. I fitted a black steering wheel cover, which made it a lot easier to grip at lower speeds, and more comfortable and warmer on the hands. The Maestro was to be short lived in the company fleet though, as after a few years they switched back to Vauxhall Motors. A very useful spare wheel as well, which was standard back then. I think I'm right in saying that you can see the bonnet cover from the drivers seat, which in modern cars these days you usually don't. Very useful for judging distances ahead of you. A nice trip down memory lane, and glad I got the chance to drive one, thanks a million for the memories!

This car is 40 years old but when new it drove nice just what peoples needed to get to work or take on holidays and cheap and good value for money

Did someone leave their baby in the back of that car when new and forgot about him?

My uncle had a brand new early model Vanden Plas, back when I was young, and for the early to mid 80s, I was amazed by the dashboard with digital display, and voice synthesizer, warning you of low fuel, seatbelts off etc. It was a futuristic car for its day, and at a time when my father was driving a mk4 Cortina, the Maestro was leaps and bounds ahead in terms of technology. The lower models were not as good though, and the Vanden Plas was the model to have if you wanted to impress the neighbours. I also remember these cars being very popular with the Police, as local panda cars. If you remember Juliet Bravo, Inspector Kate Longton was seen to arrive at Hartley Police station in a Y reg Maestro!

I drove a 1.6 Maestro Advantage one time. Nice metallic green with mock alloys. I thought it was a nice drive. Good chassis set up.

Memories of travelling to France on holiday in the boot as a 5 year old in 1983. We had the first one in town, cashmere gold paint with BROWN interior. 1.6l "R series" (modified E series as the S series wasn't ready). Always leaked oil but nice car. Replaced in '87 with a 213s which felt so classy.

You may well enthuse about something you view as a quaint classic, my HLS (A194 BRB), which hopefully for mankind has been scrapped was 2 years of sheer misery from the day I got it new in 1993 to the day I gave it back. Leaking windscreen, carpets that had been cut too small, creaking dashboard, trim falling off etc etc. The only positive thing I can say about it is that despite me deliberately running it on low oil and red-lining it from Nottingham to Sheffield every day the worst I could do to it was blow a valve.

Dearie me. I had an A reg 1.6 HLS as my second car...and it was dreadful. The heater didn't work properly, the front passenger side window kept coming off its runner and the clutch went within a month of me getting it.

Love the Hub Nut sticker at the rear quarter light, Ian Seabrook will be pleased. The 1.6 ohc engine was the better bet for a Maestro, the car's interior is in great condition. I've gone even further back than the 80s for my classic car, a 1968 F Reg Morris Minor Traveller, which has an 1098 A series engine.

My mate's dad had the 1.6 HLS back in 1984. Metallic red with a very beigy / brown interior. Lots of creaks etc. And the cigarette lighter position WAS standard fit in that rather odd location.

We had a brand new Maesteo and upon collection at the showroom i checked the car over. I lifted the hatchback to check the spare tyre and the boot was full of water! After 3 gearboxes and noumerous trips back to the dealers for different problems in a year we kept that car for nearly a decade only getting rid of it when it was written off with a rear end shunt..... happy times. 😊

Released in the 80s. Designed in the 70s. With technology from the 60s. As for the turbo model. Don't think I ever saw one without a knackered turbo.

Great, video, it would get a like just for the count von count reference alone ;-)

Had an MG Maestro Turbo back in the early nineties. Went like a bat out of hell. Everything else was bang average though.

Unfortunately those early dashes used to squeak incessantly, i owned an early 1600 HLS and worked for a BL dealer at the time, that is the correct position for the cigar lighter, I always felt that they forgot to include it and then just put it in the nearest convenient place when they remembered it. Those early cars had a terrible gearchange we could never figure out why it was so good in the Golf and so bad in the Maestro. All these problems were resolved when the face lift cars were introduced with their one piece dash and much improved interior and the new range if engines and the 2.0 EFI models. It has to be said that the later cars were as good as anything else at the time.

I had two maestros first one was an upmaket vanden plas and a 2.0 MG both very different but brilliant cars

Great video, wasn't sure what to expect from a channel called 'Furious Driving'. Half expected to see the car doing burnouts. What a relief.

Dad had one and yes it did 97.. later had an mg with the talking computer. The 2.0 turbo was rapid

Me encanta lo bien cuidado que tienes este Austin Maestro, lo tienes impecable se nota que has ubicado bien de este coche, es todo un clásico de los 80, mi padre tuvo un Montego, que salió después que el Maestro, ademas lo conduces muy bien amigo,sigue conservando así este gran coche clásico, porque ademas de tener una estética muy bonita, es un gran coche británico de los 80, que vale la pena conservar.

Wow, ive never seen such an early maestro. Also never seen a pale blue interior like that. Such a cool car

Had a workmate who bought a 4 door City X. When he went to pick it up it had rear seat belts fitted that he hadn't specified and the dealer asked him for - I think - £75 to cover the cost. He said no he hadn't specified them so he wasn't paying so they made a buyer picking up his new car wait until they removed the rear seat belts fitted in error - with such customer service how could they fail..................................???

I`m sure i saw Ian going in the opposite direction doing his video. Oh look. There`s a silver Maestro. How nice. Maybe that can be my next review. We shall see.

Good cars. I had three Austin Maxi 1750's for about 15 years. I loved them and appreciated their features and roominess. And reliability that I found in them even when they were quite old and had already been well used when I acquired each of them. I sold my last one after I inherited my fathers 1961 Humber Hawk Series II that is a project car at the moment. I regretted selling the Maxi afterwards but I got a fair amount for it and covered the cost of a new tailored carpet set for the Hawk

Shout out for the sesame street reference."9 air vents hah hah hah" lol..love it ,great video.

Once again thank you very much for your great video on the little Micra last week. I put a deposit on it today, and I should be taking delivery early next week, which I am over the moon about. Stewart at Sussex Classics has been incredibly helpful, and I can't wait to put this little car into service...

I had two maestro's A 1985 Vanden Plas 1,6 auto And a MG 2.0 L 1990 They had their issues but I took them both to 130,000 miles plus. Rust in the bottom of the front doors and rear wheel arches were a problem. I used a lot of body filler and paint

The more powerful Maestros had a quality the competition lacked. They were properly scary. I nearly shat myself every time I was a passenger in my mate's 2.0 MG. He just laughed.

Thanks for the great review. I had a 1.6 Maestro in the late 90s and it was a competent car once I'd sorted a problem with the front suspension (can't remember the details now). They had a strange arangement with the clutch IIRC where the drive was taken from the flywheel instead of the driven plate. It seemed to work alright though. The 1.6 engine was the later OHC motor and it performed quite well. A good all round car and made in Britain by a British company, sadly now history.

I wish they'd remake cars now at the very basic levels like this again! I need to get from a to b, a radio and air con is all I require!

I had a 1987 1300cc Ereg paid £75 for it many years ago done a bit of wielding on the seals got a year's mot on it use it went to Cornwall in it done over a 1000 miles in a week it was a great car roomie comfortable never broke down the only thing that let it down was the rust

I got given one of these, an auto, many many moons ago for free to repair. It was covered in dirt. When I was in work my wife washed it with a sponge and etched deep swirls all over the car 🤣

My 80's US Horizon had much less clangy doors than that. Furious always sounds like the video is being played at 1.5 speed.

Interesting, I didn't realise the 1.3L had the 3 + E gearbox, I thought that was reserved for the HLE. I guess the HLE had an even taller 4th gear.

Awesome video,this Maestro is a clean car,the A series engine is low maintenance as they are all electronic now.they did some nice ones in the range of the cars.

My parents had an MG 1600 in silver (ERW 333Y), red seat belts, digital dashboard and a voice synthesiser. It was traded in for a Vauxhall Carlton 2.2i CD (D638 FEX) that I preferred over the MG.

I owned one. Smashing car, comfortable and very economic. Room for a passenger under the bonnet.

The side mirrors are we're also used on the mk 1 rover 200 series

Still has the 'wheel at each corner' and very strong looking sills 'look' kicked off by the 1100,in spite of the clean sheet design.

In 1996, i bought a B reg MG Maestro 2.0 EFI. It was the fastest car i've ever owned. I clocked 137mph (very naughty) on the M40 just outside Oxford. Almost twice the legal limit. Apparently the turbo version was the most stolen car in Britain at the time, because of it's understated looks and insane speed - the ultimate getaway car. Later i bought an immaculate red A reg 1300 base model. Still a good car, but zero exitement : (

My bright red maestro van was amazing. Would buy one today. What a workhorse.

had a red one back in the 80's it was very reliable apart from driving through a puddle and breaking down the ht leads got wet and it conked out

The MG and Vanden Plas were top of the range and later there was a Countryman estate .

We used to have an Austin Maestro van. Heater didn't work... that was a tough winter.

Had a 1984 1.6 HLS bought it in 1988 ratten beige i had three years of bliss no rattles no troubles just care free motoring, can anyone tell me what hls stood for.

I wonder if the The 1.3 A series engine block in Maestro's were completely different to the 1.3 A Series engine block in Metro's/Mini's as it was used the traditional gearbox in sump. I do know that Maestro's had electronically controlled carbs though. My mum passed her test in a Maestro 2.0D. Sounded like a tank.

wish I could get a perfect example of one of these, I had a red 1.6 auto, it was ace Lighter is standard, I know cos I accidentally held it down carrying a box and melted my dash... Just look at that headroom lol huge windows too, so bright inside

My brother had one as his first mobility vehicle, very roomy with excellent all round vision, bad points, vague gearbox and it was already starting to rust before the end of his three year lease. A very good car let down by shoddy build quality

Great video. Just subscribed. Have you watched Grange Hill? If so would you say Mr Bronson’s car was an Austin Maestro?

I thought I recognised some of those roads & then you mentioned the fact that you were driving on Kent roads lol. I live in Chatham BTW. My father had a 'B' reg one from new as a company car; I do remember him remarking on the supple suspension, otherwise he had no complaints.

Even though it's so small by my American standards the interior looks so open and free.

Dumpy? Looks clean and sharp to me - many ways better now than at the time. Especially with that large clean glass house. Had a couple of MG EFIs on lease - via the company I worked for - and it was a very decent machine. Agricultural in places - but immense room and comfort despite fairly modest width/length.

Nice and reliable ?????? Where were you when these things were all over the place ? My mum had a new one and spent more time on ramps than anything else in history - absolute full on British built dog Turd ! Whilst my mums maestro broke every month my dads Japanese built car (accord) never not once so much as missed a beat - and there lies the reason BL no longer exist and thank god they don’t . Amazingly she then bought a MG maestro 2.0 efi looked quite cool but had the same issue , terrible build quality . Nice vid though , brings back good memories , mostly me in back of maestro reading a book waiting for my dads accord to tow us home (again ) 😂

I think this car was at the Bromley pageant? I remember by being impressed by its condition, its in great nick. Also I remember the Henly Ewell number plate, as I grew up not that far away from there.

This would've looked neat and modern in the early to mid eighties!

Wow, that interior. I want it. Why aren't coloured interiors more common, outside of fashion victim-o-biles like the Fiat 500? If I'd known that was a thing back when I had a car with a similarly modular and easily removed and modded dashboard, they'd have been outside getting blasted with Plastikote before the day was done. That bit about the Golf gearbox, I wondered what was striking me as familiar about the quick shot of the stick. Push left, _push down on the top of the stick,_ then continue left and forwards to get reverse. A method peculiar to the old watercooled dubs. They used the same boxes across a lot of their models, so it's one I became intimately familiar with. It was indeed quite a smooth little number (one of the few where I've never hit any kind of synchro or selector fault, for starters, even when the input bearings were starting to die from sustained high-revs abuse), but I wonder if BL's typical lack of quality control (e.g. totally forgetting to install the backrest adjuster knobs on the seats...) magnified its little foibles... e.g. the humongous horizontal gap between each column of the H, so that 1st-2nd was more or less down the centreline, but reverse was a bit of a reach, and the top two gears were nearly touching your leg (something that didn't get any better with the addition of a 5th speed - that position required a bit of acrobatics to push home with your foot still on the clutch). Or the way that the alignment of the entire linkage could be sabotaged by insufficient tightening of the single 8mm bolt (secured by neither nut, washer, split pin nor safety wire) holding the two halves of the system. Or the wide variety of mutually not-quite-compatible mounts and halfshaft connections for the different gearbox, engine and bodywork combinations which a careless worker could probably still have forced to temporarily work together with a bit of brute force and ignorance... (All of which I came across at one time or another, some through the DIY installation of what was by any other name a 4+E ... in place of a straight "4", rather than a 3+E, though that itself would have been an interesting swap, seeing as 4th and 5th in the new one didn't seem to make any difference to top speed, just acceleration and hill climbing. Keeping the regular lower gears but lengthening fourth to halfway between normal and fifth, and making third just a touch longer - essentially, about where it would have been in a straight 3-speed - could have been a decent compromise for a low powered runabout, and avoided the stick position weirdness. It's also essentially what you get in the first four gears of a modern economy-focussed petrol car, with a "double E" fifth...)

Hey I've got an idea, instead of describing the speedo at lengths why not show?

Not a bad car but it was already too late for Leyland by then, their woeful 70s cars led an entire generation to believe British cars were for old fogies and anoraks, and the only 'cool' cars were European.

How do you submit a car for you to review?

The lower level cars were appalling. I was kind of stupid bank loan for a 5 year old Lancia Delta LX which took me 3 jobs to keep on the road, Burton's jeans and no designer clothes. No money for weed or cigarettes. At the pub half the time of my friends. My boss at the time had a maestro 1.6d. I think it was a couple of years old. Bloody aweful car. MG or V(i)P maybe a different proposition. Jonathan Griffiths mum had an Allegro VP 1500 with leather and walnut rear drop down tables. At 16 drove his tractor to school. Man, back in the days.

mate is the ventilation as good a the early Cortina MK1 MK2? where you Always get COLD air from the face vents when you are demisting the windscreen with hot air? or u get a blast of hot air in the face like all cars now days? cause i like thei looks very much n am thinking to buy one if i can thanks

That's a real time warp example. I've seen cars less than 10% of this 36 year old cars age look more worn out. A little know fact about this car was that the official ece fuel economy tests of the 1.3 was actually better than the 1.3 metro and 1.3 mini! 42.8 mpg city and 60.1mpg at 56mph.

Lovely jubbly, don't forget some had metal painted bumpers, and not painted PPL.

I think someone in my family had a range topping one with front electric windows.

I think those vents in the rear doors are extractor vents for the through flow ventilation system.

For some reason i love this little car.

Nothing wrong with the Maestro it had great handling. Even with the A series, I find it had a bit more poke than some modern offerings.

I bought a maestro new in !985. It was the worst car I ever had. I kept it 3 months and then got rid of it. It had serious engine oil leaks, water poured into the cab and the rattles were awful

How good was the corrosion protection?

Ένα πολύ ωραίο αυτοκίνητο, έπρεπε όμως να προσεχθεί στην ποιότητα. Τα πλαστικά και δείχνουν και είναι φτηνιάρικα! Απουσιάζει η φινέτσα και το βρετανικό γούστο των Austin και Morris! Οι επιλογές αυτές αδίκησαν το πολύ αυτοκίνητο. Επίσης η μη χρήση του κλασικού σήματος του Austin με το κριάρι "κρύωσε" ακόμα περισσότερο τους υποψήφιους αγοραστές. Γενικά οι κατασκευαστές συμβιβάστηκαν στο να παράξουν ένα μέτριο όχημα σαν αυτό να προερχόταν από την Μαλαισία ή την Κορέα...

I always thought these were good looking cars. Much nicer than the Fords of the time. The MG Maestro was a serious hot hatch.

Oh god, soon as you noted the bendy key ... I could feel it. That weird slightly squashy not-quite-foam rubber stuff. It was everywhere in the 80s and hardly ever makes an appearance now. Popular in car keys for some odd reason. And in the front headrests of my mum's Panda (as well as probably a lot of other parts) ... and the Maestro one from the look of it. Also whatever happened to those plain but hardwearing and easy to clean hessian-like car seats? You only ever get velour or leather these days. And something I'd almost forgotten ... ashtrays. Just, ashtrays, everywhere. My Polo had two in the back, one each side, in the bodywork padding ... _even though it was a 3-door and didn't even have _*_opening windows_*_ in the back_ ... jeez. I don't think I ever came up with a decent alternative use for those or the one in the front. ...and one horrible job that has thankfully gone the way of the dodo - having to gather them up and clean them, when working as bar staff. Never mind the air no longer being thick with smoke, that's the one thing that I truly appreciated about the indoor (and, then, all public area) smoking ban.

Had a Maestro.. loved it.

I get the impression that BL was like the neglected child of English industry. They could produce great stuff like the Rover SD1 but was unappreciated and neglected by Eton educated English elite. Interesting film to watch.

No seat belts in the rear I see. I thought there would have been by 1982.

I LOVE The Count from Sesame Street too!

i had the allegro and really wanted the maestro

My father had a 1985 1.3 one as a company car after a succession of Escorts, the last one being a 1980 Mk.3 1.3. I thought it was a retrograde step going to an A-class after a Ford CVH

Could have been BL's saviour, but yet again appalling build quality and reliability. I know, I had one, and so did my next door neighbour; they both suffered from almost identical faults ranging from water on the floor when it rained, to constantly breaking door handles, to fuel computer and instrumentation failure. What a wasted opportunity, since the basic design was really good.

Leyland should build just Right-Hand-Drive vehicles. If the Euros don't like them.... Stiff!

Never liked these cars bt jeesus this things clean 😎 good video as always

the a series will long outlive the modern counterparts

like James May would say, ''this car is refreshing"

The dash is from the rover sd1

Great video and very cool car!

The talking dashboard was very much a no-no.

I had one of these owned it seven and a half years toured all around Cornwall in it actually a very good family car no reliability issues

Maybe if you can still find it somewhere you can make a video on a hyundai pony

There was nothing inherently wrong with the Maestro - personally I like them, but the market place had moved on since the LC10 was originally designed (before the Metro), and maybe AR was being a bit cocky after the success of the Metro and thought that a 1977 design would cut it in 1982

Impressive condition for an old BL car. That blue interior bleurgh

Good video, enjoyed watching something a bit different and it was interesting. 👍

I had the same 1.3l and i can safely say it was ... The Worst Car i Ever Owned ...and ive had some crap motors , i would make a list of its shortcomings but have become depressed and lost the will to go any .....

It sure is a bloody good looking thing though it should be lower.