1988 Austin Maestro 1.3. It was originally silver and it was painted to red. After that it was left abandoned in shed for years. About 10 years ago it was towed outside.
An Austin Maestro! Unfairly maligned due to being a BL car, fairly maligned for rusting to death. They were really good cars. Great ride quality for their size, mechanically tough, the sportier models were fun to drive but dear god the rust! I'm glad this one's been saved, they're getting so rare now.
My great grandad had one and I also had one but I had the mg turbo version car flew I remember as kids when the family car broke down we would take my great grandads one was great never broke down
A-Series engine never let's you down! They always start right up , even after 21 years of sitting :) Funny how in the Maestro they mounted it backwards, now all the easy to access parts are behind, like oil filter and alternator and spark plugs and dipstick, are all behind the engine now, when normally in minis they are facing you right there
I was really surprised how solid it looked when you showed the undercarriage, even spending only 10 years in the field it's held up very well. I'd say even with as rough as the interior is, this would be a candidate to restore or at least make a daily driver. There must have been 50 or 100 of these with tidy trim and rotten body for every one with solid metal!
Very Impressive stuff, Nice to see it living again, would be worth restoring as it looks pretty solid. i love old british leyland stuff ive got a couple of rovers myself :)
Maestro/Montego were dreadful rustbuckets even back in the day. Note the plant growing through the floor at the start. Respect for the effort to get it running again.
Not really any worse than Ford's or Japanese cars the same age. We had an Escort and a Fiesta and they both started rusting before my friends Maestro did. Maestro felt a nicer car in some ways too as much as I loved the Ford's.
I'm impressed as they were hard enough to start after being left for a week. The body seems to have held up well as these were real rust buckets, my parents had one back in the early 90's and that was starting to rot badly.
It may not have been the best looking car on the road back in 80s , but it was far from being the worst car ,two friends had them and a friend also had the Maestro style yellow van ,that once BT used ,its actually great to see a piece of British to look back on , thats ours! , rather than no achievement in any manufacturing ,we need industry back , bring back these jobs ,Do it better
How the hell, is a car you could watch dissolving in the rain still be around at that age. These cars were made of really poor metal and had serious bubble rust and required wielding in as little as 6 years. Thanks for sharing.
Well done there fella, be nice to restore that, not too sure where you stand for spares though, There are not many on the roads in the uk, and the last time i saw one in the scrap yard was back in 2008, and that was in worse condition than this one. looking at some bits and pieces you can see the rover metro.
My dad had a maestro in the 90s and when he had to leave for army training he got some guy to take care of it. When he got back he found out that the guy managed to roll it in a parking lot. Still haven’t found out how.
Had a 89/90 1.3 L Clubman with low mileage, was so slow and the sunroof leaked... Sold it and got a Rover 216 GTI twin cam (rover engine), now that was a nice car
I have a 2ltr Maestro Clubman Diesel on my driveway in British Racing Green. I bought it to have it totally renovated but Ill health has put a stop to that and I am now going to have to sell it, I’m gutted because it’s got a cracking engine in it,I had a new one of these in 1994 and I regret the day I parted with it,those turbo diesels were great and brilliant on fuel.
@@rosiehawtrey The best Diesel engine to go into your Landcrab is the old BMC 1800 Sherpa engine,it’ll drop straight in without too much of a problem because they used the same engine block as the Petrol engine,I did give some thought to putting the Maestro engine into a late registered Princess or Ambassador for the same reason,the engine blocks are identical so everything fits as far as I’m aware,I had many Landcrabs over the years and always wanted the Wolseley 18/ 85 but couldn’t afford one and now I can I can’t find a good one.
The MG maestros, montegos, metros had a distinctive smell inside ...was only a young boy but I remember it ...strange how you remember the most unnecessary things 👍🏽
I used to have the mg maestro vanden plas with the digital dash, it was so rotten that the rear where the boot lid joins rotted off and the rear of the car flew up in the air! Eventually crashed It into a tree n that was the end of it! Was highly entertaining at the time!
Mechanically they were actually very durable. The problem was the body the mechancal parts went into. The diesel in particular were notorious for how unbreakable they were.
Yo tengo una duda.... me e paseado por tu canal y e visto que has restaurado MILLONES de autos... y tengo 2 dudas 1- De donde sacas taaantos audios para restaurar? 2- Una ves restaurado los autos que haces con el? Lo vendes lo guardas para colección.... que haces? Si me puedes responder te lo agradecería muchisimo 😊 porque hace tiempo tengo esa 2 preguntas
Sounds just like it did from new! Jesus what the hell were they thinking when the designed these cars, it’s almost like they wanted the British car industry to fail.
I used to own a 1983 Austin maestro was a great car very reliable owned 3 years they where a lot better than they where made out to be so many memories watching this I loved mine
An interesting family car design that was built with space, practicality and economy in mind, and that has actually aged quite well, I think. I hope the car is good enough to allow full renovation. She could make a decent and useful little runabout and would even make something interesting for visitors to see at classic car shows.
Skinner Union forever ... my parents (we are Germans) went to GB for holiday about 30 years ago and they hired a car... it was a Maestro. When my dad tried to start it next morning, it refused to run.... after the battery was nearly giving up after innumerous trials, my dad opened the bonnet and:; Oh my good, it still has a carburettor!!! Then he discovered a knob on the dash.... It still had a choke!!! This is no joke.... LOL It fired first instance then but on the continent at that time no new car had a choke as they all were EFI with catalytic converters... Congratulation for your attention to detail: original Austin Rover wheel covers! British oldschool mechanics at their best... All very straight forward, easy to maintain and runing forever with a minimum of attention. I have a Rover SD1 Vitesse and a BL Princess 2200 HLS. Both cars were abandoned but dry stocked for over 15 years. Mechanicly undestructible and repairs especially on the Princess incredibly easy. Fanstastic access to everything!!!
I've an updated and uprated Wolseley Landcrab and a Triumph Vitesse overdrive convertible. So very simple although the cretins who got hold of the Vitesse need to be hung drawn and quartered for incompetence.
It’s funny how people slag these off yet they were no worse than any other car from that era. Had an MG Turbo version and it was a cracking car. 100% reliable and never had an issue with it at all over the 5-6 years I had it.
Good cars I'm looking around for one as I do still like them! As even running rough they still run a piece of plastic tin can modern trash of todays cars wouldn't even start never mind run+,drive
I had one of these about 25 years ago, owned it for 8 years and covered over 100 thousand miles with no problems, only time it was in the garage was twice for a cambelt change and once for the clutch, probably one of the most reliable cars I owned.
I had a 1989 model, 1.3 litre. probably the best car I've ever had, along with my Avensis. Very easy to work on, spacious and practical. Wish they still made them. The only issue i had was the clutch cable snapping every 18months. In the end i just got a spare one from the scrapyard for £3 and kept it in the boot for a quick change
@@ttbdrummer You should be ashamed of yourself making a statement like this. You have never driven a maestro , kadett , R 14 , VW Golf of that era! Maestro could meet with his competitors , look on how this car handles with the Hydragas suspension , the visibility . It was a modern car . Flexi must learn about the SU carburetor because he forgot to check the needle was stuck or to check the oil in it and that's why it ran too rich .
A B/L Maestro (1,3 HLS I guess)...I can’t even remember the last time I’ve seen one of those, in my country they were not popular cars. As usual you did a great job, thank you so so much for bringing it to life again! And please don’t scrap it: it’s more than rare, it’s a unique car nowadays!
I lived in Italy for 31 years and i May have see only One or two in my whole Life when i was a kid, propably owned by British tourist, here i wonder if they were available to buy at all, super rare car getting used parts for it must be a nightmare!
@@gillespriod5509 they were definitely sold new in Italy but just very unpopular, why would you buy this when you can buy a Fiat Ritmo or VW Golf for the same price?
It is crazy how cars are abandoned like this in Europe (presumably due to inspections?). Cars in the U.S are driven until the rocker panels are completely gone, blown exhaust and a major drivetrain failure. It is very rare to see a car under 200k miles scrapped here unless it was a particularly unreliable model.
That could be down to spare parts too, getting hold of bits in Europe might not be as easy as it is in the uk. But then again i have bought bits for a metro that i couldn't get hold of in the uk, from the netherlands.
weak link was low hanging oil filter - easily snapped off. one came in dealership for running rough and iol leak. conrod poking out of the block and no oil filter on - but still drove to dealership...
@@sthompson1000 still got the scar when the snapon socket shattered [ on the really tight clearance, - so use a 3/8 drive socket]on the head bolts doing a headgasket 33 yrs ago
Another great video but I must say something......Being from the UK, I appreciate most American engines have accelerator pumps, this carb however does not, pumping the throttle is not necessary or useful, plus you MUST add a small amount (two to three drips) of light oil to the dashpot piston under the big black thumbscrew on the top of the SU carb, it makes all the difference. I am surprised there is any metal left in this car, they fell apart in the UK fairly quickly. The A series engines though were always good, gutless but reliable, they ruined these vehicles with the dreaded ''O'' series engine. Thanks again for another great video.
Yes, the O series was a retrograde step as far as refinement, reliability,& power output from the earlier A ,B & even the E series Maxi unit! It seems it was designed more for economy & emmisons reasons. The early MG Maestro with the R series & it twin Weber DCNF's are a rare beast😳
I don't recall anything wrong with the O series. Since my Countryman estate has one with carb and stepper motor, the punch and refinement I get is tops compared to my A series Maestro. They didn't ruined it at all
I know it's an ugly old girl but they are so rare now, even back in the UK where they were made and were once hundreds of thousands of them. Only 127 still exist here. Very rare.
Last time i saw a maestro in person, was at a MG live, and it was an MG version, which are even rarer. it was the only one that turned up for MG live and it was the maestros 30 birthday, MG live though never gave the Maestro a lickings of a dog at all, or even a mention, which was very poor, on MG lives part. The bloke entered it in light your MG, and it won, but that was only due to the fact it was the only maestro there, and they took pity. The owner had put the hazards on and some glow sticks. Still a winner in my eyes still, as it was the only one that turned up. The owner said that he did ask other owners, but there were only a spit full. This was going back in 2013, and facebook was still very young at the time and owners groups were not even thought about back then. One easy car to work on though compared to the modern shite now.
Decent cars! Much better than people made out! Still see the odd one driving around UK. Great video as always 🙂 I know people who would sacrifice there bodyparts to have a maestro with such little rust! what country is this in?
У меня был Austin Montego 1986 года выпуска, куплен был в Эстонии, потом поездил с 1994 года в Санкт-Петербурге до 2001 года и после уже сломался. Хорошая машина создавалась инженерами, а не маркетологами.
Great resurrection. My grandfather had a 1.6 Maestro in the same metallic red in the late 80s. He liked the power and didn't mind the Golf gearbox but complained about the suspension, it lacked the refinement his Princess had provided. Lovely to hear an a series with no exhaust again, I drove Minis from the age of 11 to 17 round the farm at home, neved had an exhaust or brakes for long. Learned things then that have kept me running since. Chapeau!
An Austin Maestro abandoned for 21 years: the engine starts after 2 minutes; An Ford Corcel parked for 1 month: the engine starts after 1 HOUR..... Something is wrong with my Corcel....
I pulled one out of a barn once it was covered in rolled oats ,I washed it took it for an mot and then did over 2k miles around france fantastic car it even got stolen from the scrap yard years later
To me it sounds like its running rough. However, i'm only up to 8:43 in the video, so perhaps it smoothens out from there, or i'm just none the wiser about old diesels.
