There were 234,688 Maestros in the UK in 1994. Today, there are only 113 left, or 0.03 percent.

Even more shocking, of the 234,688 Montegos registered in 1994 only 20 remain roadworthy, making it rarer than a Bugatti.

by Germanjdm

20 comments

  1. Thank god, they were crap. They evolved into a pile of rust…

  3. They weren’t as bad as everyone made them out to be, mostly by people who never drove one, they were just a bit average in every way imaginable. They were designed to appeal to accountants buying fleet cars, the biggest market of the day in the UK by far, but mostly bought by people who didn’t care about cars at all.

    I always thought the Montego had great proportions too, it was a decent looking car, the Maestro was ugly.

  5. I like classic cars but I’m not surprised. In fact I expect many sedans and hatchbacks from the 80s have been completely forgotten about outside of a very small handful of aging enthusiasts and maybe a few little old ladies who use them for three trips a year in summer.

  6. The top of the range Maestro with the talking dashboard – no, really – was popularly known as the Austin-tatious. My dad got a metallic mint green one as a courtesy car from a garage which was servicing his car 10-15 years ago. It was hilariously awful.

    Apparently the garage offered a choice of courtesy cars, including some dull newish cars and that, and the Maestro was by far the most popular pick! Or at least that’s what my dad claimed the mechanic told him…

  7. We had a gold montego with diarrhoea coloured interior, a long time ago – it wasn’t crap it was just meh. Although it was a rust bucket.

    It’s was like the motoring equivalent of rice cakes – you can’t get worked up one way or another.

  8. i learnt to drive in a 1.6 maestro that same colour but on j reg with black metal bumpers and manual everything not even power steering, it was hanging in rust and bashed to hell at 6 years old and was scrapped at 7 but that wee a series engine never once failed

  9. My Grandad had one when I was a kid. I have some very fond memories of trips to the seaside in that car.

  10. The old man took me and a mate bowling in Swansea for my birthday and when we emerged from the bowliplex into the car park afterwards someone had stolen the Montego. Twin Town vibes.

  12. This isn’t shocking at all. This was the dullest of dull cars and when they started to get too expensive to repair, nobody was thinking of keeping a rusting old pile of junk on their drive for 30 years, they just took it to the scrap yard.

  13. The mg maestro turbo was a fucking animal of a car. Still is if you can find one.

  14. [Tales of Modern Motoring on being given a Maestro as a company car](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CQsMFQZa8os&t=2058s)

    The rest is well worth a watch too.

    If you like stuff like Maestros and Montegos I can recommend an event called Festival of the Unexceptional which celebrates the cars that are all but gone from our roads.

  15. I had a 2 litre montego, it was fast as fuck and fun in the wet but it literally rusted to bits while I watched it lol

  16. A white 1.6l Maestro was my first car. Toured all over the UK in it in my band. Blew the head gasket and got a new engine put in. That then blew a head gasket eventually. The reason? Radiator fan was unreliable and it overheated. Also had a problem with the steering wheel pin, where you had to turn the wheel a few inches before it did anything. Loved it though!

  17. Absolutely terrible cars.

    I had a Maestro, I’ve had some pretty bad cars over the years but it was the worst.

    Didn’t help that it spontaneously caught fire one day I was driving down a dual carriageway, first indication something was wrong was paint on the bonnet starting to blister shortly followed by flames shooting up the windscreen.

    Luckily was near a slip road and so I managed to pull over, get out and then all I could do was watch it burn.

  19. My Grandpa had a Montego in that colour. Loved that car, used to drive it into the garage sitting on his lap. It’s a sad day.

  20. My uncle had one and somehow someone managed to nick the entire engine while he was at a concert.

Leave a Reply