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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 25 ส.ค. 2024
- Quentin Wilson gives a review of the first generation Austin Metro (1980 to 1990 models), pointing out it's short comings, such as the rust issues and the somewhat unreliable Hydragas suspension and the A-Series engine. As a result, these cars are now as rare as hen's teeth.
This video is the property of the BBC .
"but are they any good for demanding motoring?"
"Not really"
LMFAO, brilliant
I keep coming back just for that part 😂
Or in other words can these be driven and driven and driven without any maintenance or any kind of mechanical sympathy, the answer to that is “Not really” as no car will go on forever without something going wrong.
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.
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.
It was…
it really really was, I worked for Chrysler in the 50s to 90s. They had me do an inspection on the European division in 75. They got some of their parts from BL… it’s just incredible hot often these parts didn’t work out of the box. My recommendation was to ditch BL, but chrysler sold their euro division not long after. I wonder what happened to that shift shaft bearing agreement with BL (then Austin rover). Oh well, probably won’t ever know.
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.
That's because long after humanity has been wiped out and a whole new sentient race has evolved in our place, they'll discover the existence of humanity when a volcano erupts and a full intact and functional 405 falls out.
@@CptCaptainClockwork That may be the case!
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.
Lol 😂
Had to sell mine because of the same reason stolen twice in 6 months
so bad the thieves gave it back....... :->
Romeo's Dog that’s like the shoplifters taking something back
Mine kept getting broken into. In the end I just left it empty and unlocked everywhere.
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 ...
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.
Count Quentula at his most brutal! Wonderful stuff!
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.
@@Aaron-tf3iv F**937X. 👍
@@Aaron-tf3iv Ah, right. 🙂
With build quality like this is easy to see why the British auto industry went to the dogs
Most of the fords on the road at the same time were made in the U.K.
@@nudgenudgewinkwink3212 Yes but Ford wasnt Stuck in the 60s like Leyland. The Suspension or other things from Leyland were even made in the 50s while Ford, Nissan or Honda were looking in to the Future.
@@fartgarfunkel2433 That was the problem with all those manufacturers like Leyland etc, they never invested and never kept updating their products like today's car industry.
my 1979 Passat got less corrosion in 1990...!
The Nova he mentioned was the world’s worst car at the time
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
Daniel Hamby I was putting in modern times too, just amazing how cars have improved. I used to push my finger underneath my 1984 Austin Metro and it would break into rust particles.
I think the majority of B reg cars are 1984, this was filmed in ‘91 so it’s like a 2011 car (in 2018), still shocking! My mum has an MG Metro (also a B Reg) it rusted like buggery, engine was weak and caused no end of strife. Fucking horrid little thing, I’m just glad we never crashed in it or I’d be dead at anything over 20mph!
@@iainmclaughlan1557 But really there was a lot of cars without similar problems in 80's.
Our family had 1987 Fiesta in 2008 and it had much less rust than any of those Metros in 1991
@@jhutt8002 it was depressing because I love the look of the Austin Metro, still my favourite car. If it was reasonably reliable I would still have it now.
I don't know if it's unheard of... I've seen a few Yaris, Ibiza's and even VW UP!'s with quite bad rust on them. In some ways, I actually think VAG might be one of the worst offenders for modern day rust. My father just got rid of his 2013 Passat with 70k miles as the front wings were starting to corroded at the arches.
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.
Are you sure the brakes didn't just fail?
Sounds like an Alan Bennett play.
Sounds like an average marriage to me.
Say hi to your Mum for me... 😬
That's why I never got married!
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.
Ahh the good old "Rustin Metro"
I bet you could put that thing on the surface of the moon and it still would oxidize.
Good one. !
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 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!)
Lynn I'm not driving a mini metro!
Rick D B you’ll have to sack a few people then.
@@valicourti'm keeping Jill though!
As long as you can get a big dinner plate in the boot…
Alan Parsons. Legend
You know the breakfast buffet? Eat as much as you want but from an eight inch plate? TWELVE inches! Keep it in my room!
Lol the old Metro was already seriously dated in 1991 ^^
Still love the looks
I had a Metro Turbo, was a very nice car, never had a problem with it, rust or otherwise
Kaluthrica
Did you only own it for a day?
Same here never had any problems with my one was sound like
Were you living in a vaccum environement ?
I had parts of a Metro turbo (unfortunately not the turbo!) in my Mini, that was alright.
So you just kept in a sealed garage and never drove it
NO WONDER the British car biz went in the shitter
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!..
To be fair Rover made some good cars in the 90s apart from the 100, like the 200/400 and the later 75.
We sacrificed the auto industry so that we could beat the nazi's, We then had to pay america back for thier part (if germany had beat us they'd have owned europe, then asia, then the world, effectively we paid america to save the world).
@@tomstech4390 save the world 🤣 you're having a laugh surely
@Wallace Carney 200/400 were better than Escort and the 75 was a decent luxury car
Obviously nothing to do with the bloody awful trade unionists at Longbridge and the equally pathetic management who effectively worked themselves into the role queues.
I bet that national at 4:00 is still around and still smoking as good as ever
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.
40mpg from the Metro!? Very impressive considering 30 years later I get that from a 1400 petrol Corsa.
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
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.
The 6R4 is a legend.
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.
Girlfriends come & go, but a Metro is for life....
@@_Ben4810 Well it lasted 6 mo this so job done.
the 1980-1990 Austin Metro was assembled in
Longbridge, Birmingham, England
Pre-89 won't run on unleaded, what a joke!! Australia switched to unleaded in 86 and we are a bunch of convicts!!
“All the performance and agility of the Albert Memorial” 🤣👍🏻
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 !
Wings were about £12.00 each back then.£200 QUID?? Where ? at the Main Dealer ? for Rolls Royce ??
Wings were £12 quid each & Flash them with a couple of RATTLE CANS & Job done.
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.
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
+Robbie Crosbie Bit like the older corsas are now fuelwise :)
Mine was an x reg too - it would go a long way if you could hold a steady 55.
ewaf88 they were really good basic cars. OK. I wouldn't have one today because of the volume of traffic on the roads now but back then just getting from a to b was great in a metro
They found the 1% that was rusty, they were good value budget cars
Mark Evans I can tell you unequivocally that 99% of Metros were rust buckets. My mum had an ‘84 MG Metro, it rusted to death, my aunt had an ‘83, it also rusted itself out of an MOT. Great concept, poorly executed!
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.
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.
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 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 .
Learnt to drive in a Metro and loved every minute of it !
I remember these well in the 80’s as a young lad, they were everywhere, as there were mk1 and 2 Fiestas, and if my memory serves me well enough they were rust buckets yes, but unreliable, I think no worse than a Ford or a Vauxhall or Citroen of the same era.
This is just a lot of Exaggeration and the media slating British produced cars.
My brother in law bought a brand new metro something in the 80's something. It literally disintegrated within four years.
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.
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.
And to think that these parcels of shite were supposed to replace the Mini
Ironically the original Mini outlived its successor by 3 years
The Metro was basically a Mini that could be built by robots. Mechanically they are very similar.
Quenton Wilson is a ringer for Richard E Grant in Withnail and I 😂
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.
How would the mini have more chance at starting than a metro? The mini and the metro had the same running gear.
Metro had a bigger battery without cables running the length of the car.
They missed a great publicity opportunity when they refused to supply these for the James Bond movie of the day.
My 1st car was a Metro and it was great, Didn't have a problem with it.
Two new wings,front valance and a good paint job for around 200 quid....
Those were the days.
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
He says that the Fiesta and the Nova were better but as Clarkson put it, it's like comparing TB to Typhoid.
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 ?
I had a Y Reg Metro City which did rust in the wings but was not too expensive to get fixed. I drove it often on the motorway and it was fine and relaxing to drive as my first car.
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.
I bummed my first girl friend on the back seat...Arr what sweet sticky memory's in a great British classic
My wife bought a new city model in 1987 absolutely brilliant car no problems at all don't believe all you hear ,had fiestas before not a patch on metro.
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.
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.
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.
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
Michael Langley my Austin Metro started very well in all conditions.
I don't get it - this is Top Gear right? Then why didn't he race it against a snowboarder or something like that?
Zoroaster1996 old Top Gear.
Top Gear used to be a genuine consumer type show
All the Metros featured in this video have been scrapped
A few years ago I saw a red 1982 MG Metro turbo and it was mint. It obviously had been well looked after by an enthusiast.
I used a van version for a while - it was appalling and had the turning circle of an oil tanker.
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.
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.....
@ 2:36 'Advanced CORRUPTION'???
you tell them i saw 2 at a show last year in top notch best place to buy a metro is from the elderly they will be looked after very well
I must admit, the British have a good sense of humour. Sadly, designing and building cars is not one of their strong points.
well, it would be true if it wasn't due to the global carmakers who have manufacturing plants in Britain (see Ford, Honda, Nissan, Toyota...), any of which have shown that they actually know how to build cars, since their quality standards are clearly higher than those of any ex-British Leyland brand
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
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!
I remember they still had a 4-speed transmission when every other make had 5 speeds.
In fact, in my country, Spain 🇪🇸, there was an advert of the MK1 Opel Corsa (Vauxhall Nova in Britain 🇬🇧) in its Swing version, whose slogan can be translated as: "Opel Corsa Swing, the car where youth runs around its veins", and it actually had 5 speeds, thanks to which it could get up to 50 mpg at a steady 90 km/h (56 mph) which is a pretty good mileage for that time, isn't it?
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,
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..
Japanese as in Toyota, honda, mazda and subaru
Nissan, Mitsubishi, Suzuki and isuzu are Japanese but they make unreliable junk cars
What about Daihatsu?
RMGDEV daihatsu is owned buy Toyota therefore I consider it a Toyota product
Joskj j Nissan used to make great cars
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.
Actually, come to think of it, I only had my (well) used 1984 Metro for about a year before I got rid of it and inherited my dad's 1987 Montego, which was like a bloody rocket ship. 1.8 litres drinking full-blooded 4-star red-pump jungle juice. I thought I could break the sound barrier in that thing. But never tried, of course ;)
Getting rare now and prices are going up.
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.
FROM A Position of Knowledge & Experience,
I would Grade them in this order.
1) WV Polo, Hard to find & Expensive. Mk1 & Mk2 Breadvan.
2) Fiesta Mk1. 1.1 & 1.3 Fantastic cars. The Best. Mk2 horrible cars.
3) Metro's were ACE in the day !! Everyone wanted one & they sold Faster than you could buy them, Cheap Simple Basic Mechanicals & Cheap Parts.
One advert in the local paper would sell 3 or 4 Metro's that week. £500 to £2,000 .
Or Clear all 1.0 to 1.3 stock of any car.
3 metro's & 4 Fiestas & 2 Polo's Gone !! ON ONE SMALL CLASSIFIED ADVERT in a local Paper.
4) Peugeot 205's Sold Fast as the above.
The 205 & Fiesta Mk 1, Drove the Best of all. in the £500 - £2000 Cheap banger Market.
A Pug 205 1.4 was awesome as was the Fiesta 1.3 GL & Ghia & 'S' .
Even the Fiesta 1100 was a very pleasing car to drive.
Metro's were Totally sound little cheap cars for anyone in that price bracket / Market.
TV Motoring Journalists are Total Plonkers, Thinking Everything & Everyone is a Petrolhead wanting EXCESSIVE SPEED & RAZOR SHARP Handling As Per a Sports car at 3 or 4 Times the Price.
WHY did anyone Pay them & Why Watch their Bullshit & LIES back in the day.
A Porsche Turbo Buyer was not Looking at buying A Metro !!!
& same Opposite.
Metro buyers did not want Computers & Electronics & Race Car Characteristics.
They wanted To go to the shops & buy a new one every 3 years. RUST was Never an issue.
Or they were young & wanted to Learn to Drive , = A cheap 1st car etc. for £895 cash NO SILLY FINANCE, Cheap Insurance & Cheap on Parts.
What fool would pay more than £1500 Quid to drive 5 miles to work each day ?
& Visit Mother at the ~Weekend.
Save the money & RENT / HIRE a LUXURY Car for the Family Holiday Fortnight !!
WHY Park £40 Grand in the Drive way 14 hours per day & 8 hours per day in the carpark at work ??? Another Hour in the Supermarket being Bashed with Trolleys & People who Can't drive ??
15 mins to work at 08:00 am at 15 mph & the same at 16:45 pm 5 days a Week ??
150 mph BMW, 5 years old 30,000 miles & Never been over 40 mph EXCEPT Last Summer on the Motorway going on holiday. Touched 65 mph between traffic jams & accidents & Roadworks with a 50 mph avg speed check.
This year they took a Taxi to the Airport to go Abroad.
Hey I'm British I own a 150 mph BMW back home , GETS ME To Work in 15 minutes !!
OK Where do You work ?
End of our street turn left Flat out on the bypass for 800 yds then Brake for the roundabout &
Que for 12 mins Then 3rd exit & Flat out 600 yds down the industrial estate & Handbrake turn it into the works carpark .
& Where does Mother Live ?
OH The Next street but i like to be cool & go the Scenic route , a full Half mile Posing Cruise over every speedhump.
Well that is MR Average !!
A very entertaining comment! 😁
The rust on the red MG Metro at about 2:28 is shockingly bad for a 6 year old car, even by the standards of 80s cars. Together with the mechanical problems, it's no wonder that about 98.5% of them have now been scrapped.
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.
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
THEY USED TO WHINE LIKE A SMALL CHILD
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.
i had a metro..the reason you dont see metro's anymore, is because they have rusted to death..lol..the mg metro was a speed machine,tho :)
This could have been a good car. All it needed was a better interior. And better engines. And better rust proofing. And better build quality. And better design. And better electrics. And.........
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.
I used to own a white MG Metro and everything went wrong with it. It used to jump out of 2nd gear when going round corners, the sunroof didn't work properly, it was riddled with rust, then finally the suspension went.
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.
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.
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.
the 1980-1989 Austin Metro was assembled in
Longbridge, Birmingham, England
Learnt to drive in an austin metro and austin princess. ... memories. ..
My very first car was a 1986 1.0s metro which was a hand me down from my sister. I became an overnight expert in fixing it and god it was a price of junk but I loved it. When it was time for it to go, nobody would buy it so the council came to take it away. When the claw came down to pick it up off the road, the roof came off!!! Rusted straight thru!! Good old BL, they knew how to make some sh!te.....
I drove a number of Rover Metros when they first launched. I though t it was pretty good.
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.
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.
MG Metro. Worst car I ever owned. By a long chalk. Heap of junk.
I had a 1.1L & MG 1300 both leaked, could never find 5th gear, on either , they both screamed at anything over 60 in 4th got so bad I had a new Ford XR2 that was awesome reliable a marked 5th gear and no leaks or rattles
@@devonguy02 Practically impossible to find 5th gear on a 4 speed box I would imagine
@@DavidDavid-kl4ru It was however the maxi, Princess escort all had 5th gears so why did they not do one on the so called world beating super mini ? they did after Honda sorted it for them with the Rover Metro and replaced the aged A series engine from the Morris 1000
@@devonguy02 They didn't develope a 5 speed box for use on the A series engine in the Mini or Metro because it was too expensive. They couldn't outsource a box like they did for the Meastro because of its location underneath the engine since other manufacturers used end on boxes in their front drive layouts as did BL eventually
@@DavidDavid-kl4ru Didn't do it because it didn't need it. You can only use 1 gear at a time & 3 were plenty to get Minis or Metros into a top gear that gave class leading fuel economy.