Austin Metro Review (Top Gear 1991) 

"but are they any good for demanding motoring?" "Not really" LMFAO, brilliant

kept me employed, welding, welding, welding, gearbox mainshaft bearing, welding, welding, ignition module, welding, back swinging arm bearings, welding, welding, pump up suspension. at least they had the sense to put plastic pipes on the hydroelastics allegros used to corrode through and drop on thier arse! more welding, gearchange seal, welding, clutch slave cylinder, welding and finally welding.

Rust was #1 problem with cars back then. I think Audi and Peugeot were some of the first manufacturers to use galvanized sheet metal in their cars, and it made all the difference! I just sold my '94 Peugeot 405, and it still didn't had almost any rusting issues, after 25 years.

Crankshaft failure at 30,000 miles?! Bloody nora. Out of everything on any car I've had, that's the one part I never even -thought- would be a failure risk, and I've had some that lived beyond 130k. The production and quality control out of the BL shops really must have been absolutely shocking.

With build quality like this is easy to see why the British auto industry went to the dogs

My aunt had an MG Metro turbo years ago that was always getting nicked.The second time it was stolen the thieves must have thought it to be so bad that a couple of days later they dumped it back outside her house.

There is an old Yugo joke : How other car companies test how good car selas ? -They put a cat inside , and if cat is dead by the morning sealing is good . But how they test if Yugo seals good ? -They put a cat inside and if cat did not run away by the morning it seals good . They might used elephant for this car ...

My father had one of these. By that time, my mother had utterly emasculated him. His joyless grey face as he climbed into it every day is a childhood memory. And then one day he came home and instead of stopping on the drive in front of the garage as he usually did, he folded that Metro in half on the garage wall. He just didn't stop. Whatever it was inside him that made him bend that car like a wet napkin was still alive. My mother hadn't killed it completely. She spend the next 15 years finishing the job. Poor bastard ended up with a baby blue Maestro as a replacement.

That red MG Metro is in shocking condition for its age. That’s like having a 2012 supermini with rotten front wings and sills, unheard of

Ahh the good old "Rustin Metro"

Count Quentula at his most brutal! Wonderful stuff!

I bet you could put that thing on the surface of the moon and it still would oxidize.

Well, my mum used to hold one of these... and with "hold" I mean that she treated it like a baby. She grew so fond of this car, that when its time came (after roughly 18 years of service with some mechanical problem once every 2 years, eventually, even in the engine itself) she CRIED over it. I had to push this cabinet almost every morning to make it to school. When she tried to get spare parts to repair it, we went to the wrecking yard and they had like 2 cars who could be used. The parts were outrageously high in cost, too. I still remember when, on the motordrive, my cousin drove this up to 140 km/h (which was the best you could get from a 1.0 Austin Metro) things were all trembling, and you could literally feel the weight shifting around like you were on a boat. She eventually gave up on this thing and bought an Opel Corsa... I can't deny the MG Metro 64 looks like a funny car to drive into, though.

I bought an MG Metro for £50 about 8 years ago (try getting one for that now!). Actually looked quite smart in Black with red graphics/seatbelts/carpets etc. Bearing in mind this car had sat on someone's drive for aorund a year untouched, it fired up easily and just needed a suspension unit changed (cost me £15 from an Austin Rover breaker) to get through an MOT. Had it for ages, never let me down and great fun to drive.

For those who say modern car don't rust obviously hasn't owned a Mazda. My 2010 mazda 5 is rusty to buggery underneath as it has no underseal.

I had a Metro Turbo, was a very nice car, never had a problem with it, rust or otherwise

I remember back in 89/90 my Dad went to a car auction to get a Metro as a second car. That's what he said he wanted to get, a small car and he was a BL/Rover fan - our car at the time was a W reg Maxi! What he came back with was a C reg 1.3 Vauxhall Astra. The Astra was great (I learned to drive in it) and I bet it outlived any of the Metros he saw that day (1999 when it died!)

The tin can is a death trap. My brother bought one for £100 before he got a license and we ragged it while fixing the horrible rusted front wings and quarter panels lol. We got it mot'd and my mum drove us about in it because she didn't have a car at the time but I'm so glad shes a good driver because they fold up like a cheap suit.

My mum had two of these. A 1985, C reg in what could only be described as dirty water blue, and a white M reg one. Of all the cars she had, these were the only two they never broke down. And they didn’t rust either.

I had a 1984 mg metro. It leaked oil all the time smoked on over run the electrics just stopped working like the indicators. It rattled. It was dreadful

Unbelievable how the British motor trade ended up. We used to be one of the largest car manufacturing nation in the world who supplied good quality high-end cars globally. It all slowly went down hill after WW2 and as a result, in the 1980s, Germany was producing the Golf, France gave us the 205 and we answered with the Metro! Everything about the car was wrong. No wonder the last British people’s car manufacturer Rover went under at the turn of the century!..

Lynn I'm not driving a mini metro!

NO WONDER the British car biz went in the shitter

That "MiniMetro" badge caused us grief getting insurance once. The guy on the phone said there was "no such car as a mini metro. It's either a mini, or a metro". I wouldn't say the ride was entirely without thrills. We acquired a strange noise on the way home one day. It turned out that it was only really the brake disk holding the front wheel on (the hub nut had come loose). And the distributor had a nasty habit of becoming unstuck and spinning out of position, so you stalled with a great big bang. The car eventually rusted in half.

How would the mini have more chance at starting than a metro? The mini and the metro had the same running gear.

my mum had a 1983 A reg moritz model which never ever failed to start. my w reg fiesta ghia needed plugs, points, rotor arm, dis cap and condenser every 6 months as the bloody damp got into it all the time !

Lol the old Metro was already seriously dated in 1991 ^^ Still love the looks

40mpg from the Metro!? Very impressive considering 30 years later I get that from a 1400 petrol Corsa.

My mum had one of these in the late 90s. It was stolen out of a Safeway car park and found barely hours later abandoned nearby. They didn't even nick the stereo. So awful even smackheads won't take it!

I'm amazed that people bought Metros with their own money when they could have had a K10 Micra or VW polo, many of which are still on the roads today.

my first car was an x Reg metro. it was great. you could put a quids worth of fuel in and go out for the day lol. when your 18 that's all ya needed back then

I bet that national at 4:00 is still around and still smoking as good as ever

I did my lessons and passed my test in '87/'88 in a Vanden Plas Metro and the day I passed my test vowed that I would never drive another, they were a horrific car. The learner car was brand new so that says it all, shit when new and only got worse from there on in.

In 1986 I drove a Metro 1.0L all the way through Germany - Switzerland and Italy to the South of France (and back). I think this qualifies as one of the last great motoring adventures. My girlfriend left me soon afterwards. Such is life.

Quentin really does detest the Metro and later Rover 100. He never holds back in showing his disdain!

If Long John Silver were walking around the factory with his parrot on his shoulder it would be screeching "Pieces of shit, Pieces of shit"

All the Metros featured in this video have been scrapped

The 40hp low compression was meant as a city runabout, running on 1 star petrol (the cheapest sort). For retired going to supermarket and garden centers, who were probably too scared to go on the motorway.

“All the performance and agility of the Albert Memorial” 🤣👍🏻

I hired a Metro to go camping in Cornwall years ago with two mates. The choke had to be left out for miles before you could push it in or the engine would stall. The exhaust also fell off. What a shite car. It was cheap to hire but the company I used obviously wasnt the best. Not exactly Hertz or Enterprise standards.

All filmed in Selly Oak Birmingham. The shots on grass are on Gibbins Rd park and the car park shots are the old Sainsbury’s on Battery retail park (since demolished).

My parents bought a Primrose yellow metro, brand new in 1982. TBF it never let them down mechanically, but rust became an issue later in life. Reg was: PFR 876X

I had no rust issues with my 1982 Metro City. No reliability issues, either. No issues at all, in fact. I used to drive it flat out everywhere, too. It was just as good as my 1985 Mini City. Which was very good. It was great, right up until the day that I crashed it.

Metros sucked. My Mum's 1988 Micra ( whilst still a rust-bucket) was reliability personified. She now drives a beautiful 1995 model. Yet again; fantastic reliability.

I owned two, a 2-door 80’s model that cost £100 and was driven into the ground followed by a 4-door 90’s model that cost £500 and was driven into the ground. Both clocked up thousands of miles and I tinkered with the engines on weekends. My sister owned a Kensington in kingfisher blue.

Whats bizarre is that British car makers have not improved since this time. Look at Jaguar Land-rover. They have terrible reliability.

Ive had quite a few cars over the years including some posh German ones. Yes Metros had bits that fell apart but they were easy to repair and the most fun cars I've driven. The exhaust fell off but a mate tied it on with string (sounded like a harley!), knocked the bumper off, held that on with a mates shoelaces! Used to get 5 people in it and it handled really well.

The Montego was even worse. In fact after a terrible experience with one in the nineties. I never went near another Austin Rover car again and couldn't afford the far better Rover 200 and 400.

My brother in law bought a brand new metro something in the 80's something. It literally disintegrated within four years.

My main memories of the Metro: awful engine noise that made long journeys painful, rubbish interiors and rampant rust, nearly as bad as a seventies Fiat. My local councillor had a five year old Metro and the wings were rotten, it felt like it was ready to fall apart and the engine was very noisy. OTOH someone I knew on the dole with not much money managed to get 13 years out of his Metro before the rust killed it.

i remember my dad had one of these it had a hole in the floor which as a child i thought was amazing, and it always broke down all the time. Then he got another one which looked mint but kept breaking down and then the engine blew. After that it was replaced by a diesel 205 which went on for 10 years without any trouble except getting drop links and new brake disks.

Brother in law bought these - rust and unreliability came as standard. I had a few Uno's - much much better

Can anyone tell me why the build quality was so bad? Just the difficulty of keeping the business going? Or greed from the owners?

My first car was aRover Metro reg K915 BDC. It was red 3 door Quest Edition and I never had any bother with the engine. It started first time EVERY TIME and was totally reliable. BUT the body work, oh dear, try as I did to stop the rust it just kept on coming. Shame because it was a wonderful car to drive. If they’d have been built better then they would’ve been perfect.

Quenton Wilson is a ringer for Richard E Grant in Withnail and I 😂

I used to have one but it rusted away. Great to drive though - got my down to the South of France and was a hoot to drive through the Alps

The MG version was fun, I recall hoonin round corners with the front wheels at a ludicrous negative camber angle due to the severely corroded front inner wings.

On the +ve side, my mate had a MG turbo version that went like a nutter when it worked. Which wasn't often. But that turbo was mind blowing in 1986. In fact it was turbo-blowing.....

the 1980-1990 Austin Metro was assembled in Longbridge, Birmingham, England

My 1st car was a Metro and it was great, Didn't have a problem with it.

Imagine accepting a 3 year old car witlh holes rusted through the doors...

I used to own an E reg metro 1.3 and it was a wonderful little motor and i had no problems at all with it , maybe i was just lucky ?

missus had a 88 and 90 one; ironically could fit a full size baritone saxophone instrument in case in boot - can't do that on most modern cars now. we remember having to sit and bounce up and down to make fuel go down the line to start the engine. what fun!!! lmao

They missed a great publicity opportunity when they refused to supply these for the James Bond movie of the day.

I had a D reg automatic. Nothing like as poor as this review says, though I know what he means about a musical gearbox! Transported a full size kitchen cooker 250 miles in mine.

The 6R4 is a legend.

The crankshaft issue is incorrect, they are quite hardy and like all a series engines they are quite reliable

I remember they still had a 4-speed transmission when every other make had 5 speeds.

Two new wings,front valance and a good paint job for around 200 quid.... Those were the days.

Actually the A series engine was fine. Sadly the Metro was outlived by the Mini, the car it was intended to replace. They also suffered severely from rust.

I had a yellow metro, 1st gen. second hand , dealer must have seen me coming, put me of british cars for life.. Japanese is best..

I remember my mum had one of these in the 80s it was so full of rust. There even was a small hole in the floor of the passenger footwell, when she would drive through a puddle you had to remember to put your foot over it to keep the water out. They were pure trash.

It wasn't just British cars that rusted quickly in those days. I owned a 1972, 1300 VW Beetle in 1977, it was rotten to the core and broke down every other month, this was a five year old VW that was supposedly, ''super reliable!'' Go onto ebay now and search classic cars pre 1975. There's lots of British stuff still around, but where are all the French and Italian rot boxs? ,,, incidentally, I love French & Italian rot boxs.

I had two of the old ones. A 1980/1 1.3S, whose sporting pretentions were supported by ... a rev counter, and an '89 1.3L, which had started life as a BSM car. I did get nearly 85,000 miles out of the later car, against less than 50,000 from the first, although the gearbox had to be rebuilt at 22,000 miles.

love that quote at the end about buying a mini it has a sporting chance of starting in the morning how do they? the metro and mini had the same engines. minis dont start well from cold neither than metro's

My mum had a red Austin metro called Morris with blue pain splats my dad put on, you can imagine the feeling I got at home time in primary school!

People seem to have a habit of looking back at these old bangers through rose tinted glasses. In reality age hasn't made them any better. They were junk when new and are even worse now. My Granfather and Uncle had a few new ones in the 1980's due to my Grandafther working at the factory and they were horrible, and nothing but trouble.

I bought a Y reg in '95 for £150 and toured around the UK in it for 4 months. Had to replace the motor because it dumped all of its oil out of the driveshaft seals which was £50 out of an A reg from a wrecker. Had to replace the front hubs because the splines sheared. It was rusty as hell but I loved it.

I dunno really. As a 17 year-old new driver in 1988, the Metro's sort of utilitarian chic hadn't quite worn off yet and we young club cricketers and rugby players, looking to squeeze four bodies in with all our kit in the capacious boot, and seemingly never having to pay for petrol as we recklessly zoomed around the home counties listening to Guns and Roses on the one, watt-less, squealing in-car speaker, loved the bloody thing. It was a miracle we weren't all fatal accident statistics, mind you. But I suppose the roads weren't as busy back then and we weren't actually going all that fast anyway. It just felt like it because all there was between you and the road was some rusting, spot-welded aluminium and a crappy paint job. Great days.

My Mam had an M reg one. Never broke down ALWAYS started and went all around the country sailed through MOT's... until some country in an Audi failed to give way in 2006 and wrote it off. Everybody was fine (except the div in the Audi who still thought they owned the road who received a damaged ego) but the apparent one off Metro had to be scrapped.

I had a couple of Metro's. Both were reliable enough. Although the suspension issue was there (fortunately i had a breakers nearby that only charged £15 a unit). Actually enjoyed driving my second one, which was an MG variant.

I must admit, the British have a good sense of humour. Sadly, designing and building cars is not one of their strong points.

Pre-89 won't run on unleaded, what a joke!! Australia switched to unleaded in 86 and we are a bunch of convicts!!

i know someone who got a 85 metro car in 1992,7 years old and it lasted only another 6 months, gearbox went, rust failed on a MOT and winter was a nightmare to get it going, terrible little things and the turbo versions were just a joke as a hothatch .

I was just looking at the secondhand prices - my goodness they would be considered expensive today for a small car. Back in the 80's and 90's cars sold in the UK were very overpriced. I wouldn't mind owning a Metro now for a bit of fun - but after all the rain we've been having I might just find a pile of rust waiting for me in the morning.

I had a '86 "E" Fiesta that had to be scrapped in '93 due to rust in the floor and inner wings. I have 2 Metro's, an earlier one and the later "K" series engined one (which is excellent by the way). I had no rust in either.

My Metro was fun to drive - but the engine overheated going up a mountain in Switzerland (as did the brakes on the way down). Rust finally kiiled her starting the the bottom of the Driver's side door. But she did make it to the South of France (and back), Was it a quiet- refined journey? Err no - a 21st century go-cart would probably be more comfortable - but back in 1986 it was one hell of an adventure. I wonder how my modern Golf TDI would fare.....Thanks for fun post,

Don't show this to Twin Cam

I had a three year old one with a hole in the wing, an 86 car in 89. Used to buy and sell cars and whilst they drove better than a Fiesta mark 2, they were basically crap. Rusty wings/sills/valances, shagged gearbox centre main bearing and/or baulk rings, radius arm bushes.......they were just too much trouble so I stopped buying them.

I don't get it - this is Top Gear right? Then why didn't he race it against a snowboarder or something like that?

I had two. Loved them. Did a tad over the speed limit on motorways with ease. Perfect also for the winding lanes of rural Devon where I lived.

The front wings rust badly on older Metros because the lack of plastic wheel arch liners meant that mud and road dirt built up, and caused the wings to rot from the inside out. One of many faults with the original Metro.

I had a 1983 one of these in 1997, what an absolute piece of shit. I like to tell people what I didn't replace on it - the windscreen, and the body shell. Everything else, fell off, rusted to dust or exploded while driving. Totally lethal machine, should never of been allowed on the road. National embarrassment to of made the worst excuse of a car ever made bar none.

From 1971, most American made cars were designed with hardened valve seats. From 1975, all cars sold in the US were supposed to be able to run on unleaded. Leaded fuels were phased out 1987.

MG Metro. Worst car I ever owned. By a long chalk. Heap of junk.

Don't want to offend Metro loyalist but Quentin Wilson is right, The Mk 1Metro was a rust bucket joke. Only the Turbo MG's offered something decent. I used to work for a Austin Rover dealer years ago and we did have a few come in for gearbox problems, No doubt due to using the engine oil for lubrication, And that means lifting the engine right out, Along with hydrogas suspension and other common problems, Better not turn a tight corner at speed or petrol will piss out.

Oh wow how small economy cars improved in the 20 years 1980-2000. I drive a 2001 Toyota Yaris in 2020, and it's it's a very pleasant little thing to drive despite nearing its 20th birthday.

Uncle had a automatic one as thats all be could drive, quite a rare car in automatic. Pretty tinny and the same model was out for years whereas ford, vauxhall et all updated similar sized models

Many may laugh at these. a few mods later and then came the 6R4. I WANT ONE NOW :-)

I used a van version for a while - it was appalling and had the turning circle of an oil tanker.