Real Road Test: A beige Maestro City! Blanking plugs ahoy 

The camera operator brings it to the next level, well done.

I purchased one of these for 180 quid exactly the same colour expected it to last 3 weeks. It passed its test and went all over the country for 3 years without any issues.

Imagine going to your local car dealership and telling them "I'd like to buy a brand new, bottom of the range car, in beige please".

As a lighting cameraman of some 30 years, I’d like to highlight Miss Hubnut’s absolute fab job on the camerawork! Lovely framing and keeping kit shadows out to a great degree! Lovin’ your work! 🙌🏼

My parents used to have a red Maestro, many a happy time sat in the back on day trips to Hunstanton and Skegness.

🤭 “Didn’t mention the ****** diesel”, and standing by a church too ! Lookout for thunderbolts from Rudolf himself ⚡️😂

Love that A-Series sound. Hoping it won't be too long until my 1988 Maestro City X returns to the road for the first time in 13 years.

Ah this is Hubnut in a glorious nutshell. A road test of a beige, base model Maestro. This is why I keep coming back. Great work Ian. 👍🏼

my mate back in the day got one of these from a BMW dealer as a curtsy car .he liked it more then his M3 which by the way was NEVER out of the shop

I agree with you completely on the small rear windows and side windows in modern cars. I actually find modern cars much more difficult to park because you cant see where the wheels are in relationship to the kerb and, the blind- spots!!!

I must say this car looks better than all modern cars produced lately...

My Mum & Dad had a 1986 (C202KOF) Maestro City X. I remember borrowing it once I was unable to select any gears. My Dad thought I'd managed to strip the gear box. All it was is there was a small plate that connected the far end of the gear knob to the back of the gear box had popped off. My Dad clipped it back on and it was all sorted. My Brother crashed in to a Siera estate a couple of years later. The Siera was written of. The maestro just needed a new bonnet and front panel. Back on the road for years more enjoyment.

Having Miss Hubnut operate the camera really took this video to another level. Camerawork and overall great presentation aside, the Maestro is also a beauty. I've always liked the styling of Maestros and Montegos and I'd definitely consider buying one if any at all were available in Finland.

Loved my Maestro . Reliable and underrated in every way .

I think the Maestro is a seriously underrated car. I drove an MG Maestro quite often back in the day, it went like shit off a stick, and my sister had a car with the VW 3+E box which was bloody brilliant - economical, spacious, quiet and reliable.

Hubnut reviewing a Maestro is like a log fire and slippers...perfect

Right, loved this video. And not just because of the beige deliciousness of the maestro. With Miss Hubnut behind the camera filming, i think this channel just went up a level. Ive loved hubnut for 3 years now,. I think Ian is fantastic, but with Miss Hubnut filming and Ian talking to the camera, rather than Ian filming himself, and flipping the camera around to show us around the car, i think this video is one of the best. I feel more engaged by Ian, like hes talking directly to me. The exterior shots are much better, for example who an average sized man sat in the rear of the maestro with all that extra space.. Since Miss H was filming Ian, and the car in the same shot, it gave me a better idea of dimensions. I could rabbit on for hours, but to sum up, well done both. Much more of the same please :)

I consider the Maestro to be a superb piece of late 20th century British industrial design. The very early models painted in light metallic colours particularly please me.

Back in the 80's I was an advanced police driver in the East End of London. We were lucky enough to be issued with an MG Maestro 2.0L which, when well driven of course, could chase down a Golf GTI from standstill within a mile (The Highway E1). Much better in the inner city than the SD1, small and nimble.

At first I thought this was going to be a video from the Australian adventure Blue skys,Jebus sandals,no socks. It's freezing up here,snow flurries,normal springtime. Hubnut is hardier than we first thought.

As you accelerated up the hill after that "tricky junction" I was transported back to the early 80s! Such a familiar sound from a whole range of cars that friends and family owned in the period. Bliss!

Always worth watching to the very end 🤣🤣

I notice your British car videos always do really well for views. Proves there's still love for them out there.

A car that makes me think, why? Only one thing missing on this video, socks with the sandals Mr Hubnut when dealing with a Maestro!

Such Beige goodness

Everything about that is absolutely fabulous. Beige, frumpy looks, A-series... wow. I love how the A-series always springs to life instantly on startup and of course it’s characterful sound. Made my day watching this Ian!

My brother-in-law had the top of the range talking dashboard one, my god it was a disaster when it inevitably went wrong and wouldn’t shut up 😂.

First 8mins of pure anorakism.fabulous

Hubnut goes from chips dipped in gravy (😱) to a car dipped in gravy coloured paint. Great review as always. Ian's commentary one of the best on RU-vid. Having a camera person really adds to the video. Well done Miss Hubnut😀

A friend of mine, well into his his cars, and especially ARG ones, owned an MG Maestro turbo. It wasn't fast enough for him, so he tuned it to 250bhp. Very rarely have I ever been scared in a car, but he managed it. The Bulgarian re-imports built at Parkway Service Station in Ledbury were re-imported by Paul Stoddart who owned the Minardi F1 team.

“Enough waffle” - man, that was impressive! A superhuman effort of reciting enormous detail on a car that most markets gave a pass without a moment’s hesitation.

Ian, I simply love the way you put these unassuming cars into historical perspective thereby making them the very special cars they were never meant to be. Just brilliant!

Invited to the launch (after my Dad bought an 81 Ital) and sat in a VDP with the talking computer, oh happy happy days. My favourite episode so far and that is a huge testament to you Ian.

Brilliant video Ian lovely old car better than modern and reliable not needing a full diagnosis when it goes wrong

Had an F reg 1.3L Maestro, that had the 4 speed gearbox as well.. Also had an A reg mg 1600 too, both great cars. Great to see a Maestro again, thanks for the video Ian. 👍🙂

You brought up a good point that it is a fine line between what people need in a car and what a designer thinks you should have. That is a wonderful, practical car that could have been tricked out to appeal to different buyers if the manufacturer had the cash. The base is there and it could have been a very popular car. Nice job and the scalloped sides are a nice touch l think.

I had a 1986 1.3L with a earlier MG interior, I also fitted a Montego radiator I just needed to alter the pipes because it was a bit wider but the fittings top and bottom were the same, it was all I could find in the scrapyard. Worked brilliantly. :)

The first time I ever think I've given a thumbs up before even watching the video. The words 'Beige' and 'Maestro' is all that was needed. 👍😍

I had one of these as my first car when I was 17 back in 1994. It was a pale blue 1984 B reg Austin Maestro Vanden Plas with the newer 1.6 S series 8 valve single over head camshaft engine and it had a VW 3 speed automatic gearbox that used to whistle in 1st gear whenever I used to take off fast from a standing start. It had blue velour seats/blue dash trim and that quirky older style (and much nicer in my opinion) 3 piece dashboard with that space age green digital dashboard display and that famous talking trip computer (in some woman's voice !) fitted below the green digital clock on the left (that also served to display mpg/fuel consumption and other cool stuff). I loved the walnut wood trim on the doors and the front electric windows it had not to mention the steel sunroof that always leaked whenever I visited the car wash lol RIP - B597UBV was a great car and I was so sad to learn recently that it had been scrapped/written off at the end of 1996 just over 1 year when I said my goodbyes to it ! (very emotional !) and traded it in for a black 1998 F reg BMW E34 535I auto :( If space wasn't an issue, I would gladly buy another Maestro VDP 1.6 automatic with the older digital dash in a heartbeat (if I could ever find one for sale !), as sadly there are not many of these great cars left now due to the rust problems most of the suffered from :( My S series engine in the Maestro used to always make some sort of toffee/caramel (yellow sludge) in the black plastic oil filler pipe whenever I pulled the oil filler cap off to top up the oil ! Happy memories of a great unique comfortable car that I'll never forget ! :)

Im 29 and I love this car. Beige is a winner! As a kid in 2000's id see maestro's/escorts/orions and all sorts of 80's cars being kept pristine by older gentlemen in estate driveways. i love the designs of this era. friendly and utilitarian with a dash of tacky-luxury.

My grandad used to have a pale blue A reg Maestro, complete with blue interior. I remember going in it as a kid. Great video!

Sandals Ian very optimistic, it's flipping snowing here 🥶 ..... I think you are spot on about the Maestro my mum had one and absolutely loved it , but it may of been the only thing that talked to her at the time 😉👍

my dad had the 2.0 perkins non turbo maestro, we towed a massive caravan with it all over the UK. I loved that car so much.

I had an '87 500 City van, roomy, drove and handled well, and that little A+ motor was really good, and worked very hard for me! I liked the Maestro van because it was that little bit bigger than the Escort Mk3 and 4 that we had at work. I paid £1000 for it, and two years later sold it for......£1000.

A HubNut video looking very professionally made! That cameraperson made this video very smooth! Love it!!

If only it had a Montego front end and dashboard from launch, I remember that Horrid talking dashboard that Renault got right but Austin failed with. Years ago I saw a lovely maestro van with a Montego front end and updated 2 litre engine. Now I’m in my 40’s I appreciate them more than I did as a kid / teenager in fairness they were no worse than many cars still produced in the 80’s that should have died 20 years ago.

I remember being given a maestro as a courtesy car many years ago and thinking oh no, but to my surprise it was very enjoyable. Also it was some kind of special eco version with a gauge that you'd keep in the green.

Great camera work by Miss Hubnut. Excellent framing and rock steady camera position.

I had an MG maestro and Loved the way it looked

I had a brown B reg 1.3L. l loved that car. Had all sorts of fun in it. The gearbox worked fine until the linkage started coming off occasionally. Me and a mate once drove up to Scotland from the West Midlands, and we were pretty deaf due to the lack of a fifth gear. The lower models had little wheel trims that just covered the middle bit of the wheel. I replaced it with a G reg Montego 1.6SL which was much more smooth and quiet at motorway speeds.

My girlfriend back in 1994 had a Maestro in Opaline green. We didn’t stay together but I have very happy memories of both of them! 🤪🥰

My Friends Dad used to have a Vanden Plas Maestro, had a magnificent talking synthesis in it Trip Distance sounded like 'Twit Distance' hours of fun

I quite like the styling on these

Had a red 1600, pass on designation, in the mid 1990's. One of the best cars ever. It hauled two adults and twin toddles the length of the Country one Christmas and the back with all the gear in the new year WITH A SHOT WATER PUMP! It never missed a beat. Brilliant in the snow as it weighed almost nothing. My Beloved Boss Lady still has the spare key and still grumps about getting rid of it some 25+ years later! The fact that we traded it in for a Nissan Almera, a car she bent my ear to get for some time, still don't stop her moaning.... Great scenery Ian, camera operative is getting better, another good video, thanks mate.

We had a City from around 92 to 98, it was a brilliant basic family car that was cheap to run and cheap to maintain, it was never meant to compete with sportier models, it was just a good functional family car and was perfect for our needs, its one of those cars that seemed to become part of our family. Ours was much loved and never once let us down!!

My mum had a Mini City back in the 80's 😊

Had one just like this as a teenager, same model, colour and trim but on a ‘B’ plate I think. Love the detail you go in to, I always learn so much, some of it I should’ve known. Can’t believe I’d never noticed that the Maestro cars and vans had different headlights. I replaced my Maestro for an ‘X’ plate Volvo 343. Even as a teen in the 1990s I had Hubnut tendencies 😉

I had a white MG Maestro 2.0i years ago , thought it was an underrated car at the time , I preferred it over the golf and Xr3 and I drove them all , would love to drive one now bet it is still fun .

Both my dad and grandad owned maestros when I was a kid. My dad had a city, I think and my grandad had a Mayfair. I found them decent cars, I’d love an mg turbo

My late dad had x2 Maestros before he got a M reg Rover R8 , the first maestro (1984) rusted quite quickly the later 90 on a G he had lasted better, I remember them being quite spacious cars.

Whenever I see a Maestro, I can't help thinking to myself, how close it looks to the MK3 Astra.

Ohhhhh Beige Maestro City spec. Very HubNut. Reminds me of first car a 1ltr Beige Austin Metro City X. Yes not Any old City it was a CITY X with brown PVC seats. £250 off a student, massive rust whole in the wing & the speedo never worked but got me to work and back everyday for two years and not one blip of trouble🙂👍

I had an MG Maestro for about 3 years and a 100,000 miles, it was a brilliant car, and such fun to wind up XR3, GTi and SRi owners in, it was surprisingly quick and mine was very reliable.

Beige is the base color of HubNut !

Oh Ian this take me back! My dad had a Montego which was a terrible car and in our household was refered to as MontyWontGo!

I had three Maestros in my early driving days, 1.6Y, 1.6C, and finally G reg 2.0 EFI MG. All worked fine reliable and good visibility,

Thoroughly enjoyed this tour. A "you name it it doesn't have it" car. That expression was first heard when I saw a blog on an early Hyundai Excel (Accent) in Australia. This car happened to remind me of an early Excel in the back. I was impressed with the low loading lip and find the front quite handsome and the car overall inoffensive and contemporary in it's time. Thanks for covering an underrated model like this.

A beige Maestro and sandals, oh what a combination!

Is it because I'm partially colour-challenged, or what ??!! I love beige. Why all this beige-hate ? Heck - it's not white. Or worse ... black !!! Buggers to keep clean ! Those scalloped sides were one of the things that I really liked about Maestro/Montego. Though, by that time, BL had lost such a lot of ground in Ireland, and the cars came tainted by Allegro/Marina pub-talk stories. Really liked that review.

One of my mates had a MG Turbo rarity in the early 90-Very quick and underrated.End credits music -Brill.

My dad had two Maestros and liked them both, as did I. Always good to drive, although the headlining collapsed.

That beige interior kinda reminds me of early Lada Samara (84 to 88).

A beige Maestro...if only you'd had socks on with those sandals too...👍

Dosent get any better Ian, well done!

Beautiful wheel trims! Reminds me of my 1990 Citroën XM.

A rear wiper for 95 pounds seems like a good investment I reckon.

Beige BL barges - this is what we want! ! 😊👍

The Perkins diesel was a thing of engineering beauty, with its gorgeous array of copper piping!

Haven't watched a HubNut video for a while but I can see some much slicker filming and editing skills - nice one Ian - really enjoyed that! :-)

Fantastic as always, but as mentioned the recruitment of an Art Director has raised the standard even further. Could be a TV segment!

Gd little cars in their day . The forestry commission had hundreds of vans with the perkins prima 2l diesel . A very noisy but gd engine . The meastro allways put me in mind of a modern maxi . Thers a few still goin around but not many left .

My father had the Montego and the maestro and I drove them both not long after passing my test brings back memories 👍

One of my favorite things about these and metros was the illuminated stalks. All cars should have them !

Beautiful car, beautiful condition. There appeared not to be a spot of rust inside the engine bay. Someone gave the old girl a lot of TLC...

Always liked the look of Maestros and Montegos. Looked those from local car-magazines annual catalogs with cars sold allover the world. Sadly those cars weren't sold in Finland, but there could be some those as grey-imported cars.

My dad had on of these , also in beige. I remember him using a scouring pad to clean the rust sills whenever he washed it.🤣👍

My wife had a D-reg City X when I first met her, which she'd managed to purloin from her ex-husband for tax reasons. I went around scrapyards and fitted it with extra stuff like MG seats, walnut door cappings from a Vanden Plas, even central locking (which required the entire interior to be stripped out to fit the wiring). Eventually, my dad killed it by accidentally putting petrol in his diesel Orion, then thought he'd be helpful by siphoning it out and putting it in the Maestro - but the process brought a load of diesel with it, finishing off the already very tired engine. The valve seats had recessed, the rockers were all worn out and the adjusters were seized solid, so there was hardly any compression and it started backfiring through the carburettor. I'd have replaced the engine if it weren't for the general rustiness around the edges of the bodywork.

The moving camera just isn’t hubnut but matching the sandles and trousers to the car is genius and definitely is. All that was needed to complete the ensemble was a flask of weak lemon drink. 😁

The fan speed control placement sums it up really... Bob: "Where shall we place the fan speed control Bob?" Bob: "Dunno Bob, where'd you think?" Bob: "Under the steering wheel so the driver can't see it Bob?" Bob: "That's a brilliant idea Bob!" Bob: "Thanks Bob" Bob: "Strike Bob?" Bob: "Yes Bob" Bobs: "EVERYBODY OUT!"

We had a 1993 turbo diesel Maestro and loved it! Concave styling and all. Towed our caravan all over France and never missed a beat in seven years. (Apart from a couple of panel bulbs.) Was sorry to see it go when we traded it in for a Rover 400 diesel hatch. Great video! I knew a guy who worked at Perkins, but retired before the 'O' series went into production. He couldn't wait to see an actual engine in our car!

I ordered a new Maestro 1300 with a 5 speed gearbox in 1983 but had to cancel due to unavailability and ended up with a 1600 Cavalier as much as I liked the cavalier I still wish my Maestro had been delivered 👍 thanks good video

I blame the motoring journalists of the time (1980//90's), they HATED BL.Austin Rover, had they just given the cars a fair review I'm sure we would still have a Rover company making new cars here in the UK.

Man finds the extra in the ordinary. 👍

This was fantastic, your obvious enthusiasm mixed with cracking camera work and mixed focus and all that makes this the best review so far! Very nice to watch! My only personal memory of the maestro was that my dad's mum had one, it was an hle I think painted a striking gold, every time we visited my dad had to dutifully jump start it (off his 420gsi, oh yes...later a Carlton cdx, we were posh hah....) replenish the petrol, check the tyre pressures and then squeeze it back in to the 1930s garage! It was quite severely corroded even at a young age and the rot in the boot even ate the original spare tyre. My uncle then bought her one of the very last Citroen AXs ever made, the fuel injection made it easier but it was still a 4 speed so she could handle that, she still travelled the length and breadth visiting everyone, just a bit slower and in 'top'. A carbuncle to look at and yet another 'if only' British car moment...

My first car was a City. C505 EOD, the gearbox wine is the soundtrack to my childhood 👌

Needs some back to black on the front bumper its bugging me lol

Request for Beige Hubnut T-shirts

Excellent, wouldn't mind owning one of these at some stage in the future.

The dashboard and the switchgear reminds me of my old Rover Metro City X which also had 4 gears, no power steering and wind up windows. I had central locking installed. The engine note sounds very similar, the Peco exhaust made it fun through tunnels.

Back in the early 1990s we were a 2 Maestro family. My folks had an early MG 1600 with the R series engine & my sister had a 1987 Mayfair 1.6. The alarm kept draining the battery on the latter. The MG ran OK from memory but suffered other quality related issues. Love the sound of the engine in this City. Brings back memories of Minis (had 2 of my own) and Metros growing up.