My new toy, a 1985 Austin Maestro 1.6 Vanden Plas automatic. Has the bizarre talking digital dash. Car hasn’t been on the road for many years but is in good condition and low mileage.
I love how Austin-Rover fitted plush seating, tons of wooden inlay and a digital dash, but kept the cheapest, nastiest plastic fittings and switchgear they could find.
I agree with you! The seat fabric is fine quality as are the wood veneers, but some of the plastics are awful. Some are so thin you can see light through them 😂 and the whole dash rattles and shakes. I have tried to improve things with foam strips etc....
I think that’s because they used the same parts as the basic models, they weren’t going to manufacture different higher quality parts for the air vents etc.
@@lmlmd2714 Indeed 😂 Back in the day I did the Silverstone Skid-School and when I arrived one glorious misty-morning, the covers were removed revealing a matching pair of white talking Maestro EFI's... I thought the future had arrived!!! 😱🤣😂 I went on to buy a Metro Turbo, which turned out to be more Shyte than Knight Rider! But at least it was British. 🤔🇬🇧
Magical. I don’t think new car releases nowadays come anywhere near the hype and wonder of those days. I remember being amazed that the indicator glass was white but it flashed or a orange - that was sorcery. It was a memorable day when you saw one of these for the first time.
It still amazes me now, even though it was designed over 40 years ago. I think the late 70’s until the early 90’s were the golden days in car technology advances that are still user friendly.
Had the talking dash in an MG1600 Maestro. It used to like scaring me randomly on the motorway while i was in the outside lane... WARNING low engine oil pressure! and other random stuff. Fitted extra gauges in the end to prove it wrong 😂Fun car.
Funny. My dad had a 1600 MG which was great for the couple of years he had it. I was able to get the low oil pressure warning voice when ragging it around corners. I impressed a young lady with the red seat belt, it was like a sash which was most cool at the time.
When I was a kid, my neighbour had one of these and as a seven/eight year old lad, it was the coolest car on earth when it spoke. Thank you for sharing.
My Friends dad had one of these brand spanking new back in the later 80's .. My mate wanted me to see it and on the way to his house it's all he talked about. 'The Talking Maestro'. He actually compared it to KITT from Knight Rider... His dad was already in it with one of their neighbours when we arrived at his house. We got in. His dad played through the buttons. "So what do you think?" I was asked...... Was that it?! I exclaimed. I realised it was best I didn't make any sudden moves from that moment on.
My mum and dad had one, in blue. It was the mind blowing future! OMG, how many times did I press those buttons for "instantaneous fuel consumption" and "average fuel consumption" ....and get told off for pressing them too much!
Knight rider think was 82 ? Please do not confuse this car with knight industries kit 2000 kits a real car this car here is not a talking car 😂😂 (little joke)
Lol. I put this all in my 1.3L. The dash shared the same connections as the base models. The fuel computer wasn’t very accurate but everything else worked. Obviously I had to get the sender unit for the gearbox and the dimmer switch for the dash.
That's one amazing car... God I miss my 1984 B reg pale blue Maestro Vanden Plas 1.6 S series automatic now :-( I used to always love that whistle in first gear when I used to take off very fast from the traffic lights! back in 1993 when this was my first car, and also used to love it when the engine races in second gear all the way to 4,000 revs before it changes up into 3rd at 60 mph - That digital talking dash was way ahead of its time when it first came out in the 1983 Maestro Vanden Plas and MG 1600 Maestro and a true masterpiece. My one was Reg number B597 UBV which I part-exed in 1996 for an F reg BMW 535i - God I miss this amazing car now and wish that I kept it LOL *Please never break it - Look after your Maestro VDP its a really nice car :-)*
I learned to drive in my dads VDP. 30 years ago. Clutch was a nightmare and every time I stalled the thing the lady would announce “warning. low oil pressure”!
R or S series? Can't remember when they switched over. I had an MG1600 'R' , initially, with the associated problems of heat soak (the airbox used to trap ambient heat and on hot days, fuel would vapourise in the chokes upon a hot start.) i fixed a lot of the problems by using slightly smaller chokes to get rid of the lumpiness, and a Pipercross full air filter to prevent heat getting trapped. Much smoother and slightly better power delivery. A Motobuild manifold and downpipes (the OEM is ludicrously restrictive) and wider exhaust (with proper silencers, not Max Power fart cans.) With a good carb tune and balance a healthy 133bhp was seen on the dyno. I really missed that car when it had to be scraped :(
I had one of these VDP spec maestro in the same colour, A900 RSR Sunroof leaked, dashboard rattled & electronic choke was a joke. It rusted badly round the wheel arches like all BL cars of that era. How has this one lasted so well? Garaged and waxed regularly? Would love to drive this one.
I agree with most of those points, except oddly the automatic choke on mine works perfectly but I did replace the crappy thin BL vacuum hoses with thick silicone ones that don’t leak. And mine had been off the road for 15 years before I got it, and before that the first family had garaged it all its life. It has only done 39K..
So was the talking dash for people with vision impairment? You’d be able to see all of the gauges if they’d have fitted it with a square steering wheel.
No, speech synthesis was all the rage at the time. The brand new Co-op superstore where I lived had “talking tills” when it first opened. The till would announce each item as it was scanned. Kids loved them but they were unreliable and completely pointless. Predictably, they didn’t last long.
My parents had a 1983 MG1600 with the same dashboard and voice synthesiser. The warnings given were not always accurate and occasionally the digi dash would go completely blank on hot days!
What's with the crappy speak and spell voice? 🤣🤣🤣 Didn't Renault have a 11 model with digital dash and voice back then as well called the TXE Electronic when it was all the rage...
