Austin/MG Maestro

I have to say that I am going to go against the standard Maestro opinion on this. You ask many people what they think of the Austin Maestro, and they'll say how awful the car is, many of them without ever going anywhere near them. Myself I think the look of the Maestro is incredibly old fashioned, but if you scratch beneath the surface and know what to look out for you can pick up a bargain Maestro that will serve as an excellent first car or family runaround. Everyone associated the Maestro with rust, however I feel that this was always harsh because very few cars of the Maestro's age avoid rust patches. Admittedly a lot of the earlier Maestro's ...  Read the complete review

Whenever people talk about the Austin-Rover Maestro, people seem to just write it off as a complete and useless failure, I have to stick up for it though and say it was actually a hell of a lot better than everyone seems to think. There was always going to be a certain publicity problem amongst the British press and British people because the Maestro was the car that replaced the Austin Allegro, and the Allegro was famed for wheels flying off whilst driving and windscreens popping out whilst the car was jacked up. Also the fact that Austin (as with the rest of the British motor industry), was owned by British Leyland, and anything associated with BL was looked ...  Read the complete review

Clapped out runabout or economical town car? Both! I am not going to pretend a car of this generation does not have its problems but it also has its good points. THE CAR The maestro was first produced in 1983 and 596,000 cars were made. The model is available in 1.3, 1.6 litre petrol engine or 2.0 litre diesel or diesel turbo. The maestro has a four cylinder engine and reaches a maximum of between 93 and 101 mph depending on the model (but take it from me with a tail wind and a steep slope you can try for more!). The 0-60 statistics don’t quite rank with a Porsche and range from the 1.6 model at 10.5 seconds to the 2.0 litre ...  Read the complete review

We bought a second-hand E-reg (1988)Maestro about 4 years ago, for the vast sum of £1200. It has served us so well I just had to tell you about it! For reliability it just can't be beaten. We bought it on about 86,000 miles, and it is now around the 110,000 and still going strong. Okay, so the mileometer broke when it got to 100,000, but that was soon sorted . . . ! Since we had it it has had a new battery, alternater, exhaust and rear wheel bearings - all except the exhaust we replaced ourselves. It has never failed us on a long journey - in fact on one hot Summer's day returning from Cornwall and stuck in traffic and with everyone else ...  Read the complete review

The Rover Maestro. Well hmmm! Why do people always regard the Rover Maestro as one of the worst ever cars designed by Austin Rover. Sure, it has its problems but there is a better side to this car that no-one expected. No-one knows that it is actually the base for the Land Rover Freelander which is selling as the best off-roader at the moment in Europe and the USA. We have had three Maestros and, yes, they have not been sparklingly brilliant but they provide the goods any day. As a cheap runaround, they are great as they regularly do 40-45 mpg and saves a few pounds at the petrol station. Also, the LX and Vanden Plas models from 1985 - 1993 were also gifted with electric ...  Read the complete review