Don't believe the bad press (Austin/MG Montego)

Member Name: GraWar

Product:	Austin/MG Montego
Date:	12/07/01 (433 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: cheap to buy, good engines

Disadvantages: rust

The Austin-Rover Montego was another of the British cars of the time that seems destined to be wrote into history as a typical British Leyland failure. However if you scratch beneath the surface it really is significantly different this.

As everyone can remember the British motor industry was in ruin in the late 70's and early 80's with the famous British Leyland (BL) 3 day week with strikes, lack of funding and some badly taken decisions by Leyland management. What BL needed to do was to produce some good selling cars and fast as the vultures approached. Luckily enough they came up with three winners in the Metro, Maestro and the Montego. These all sold very well and all of these models were produced for over 10 years.

So in actual fact the Montego was a success in helping maintain the British motor industry and it's the Montego that i'm going to talk about today.

As I said BL needed a range of cars to compete in the market. They had the Metro/MiniMetro developed for the small car market, the Maestro for the small family car and hence needed a car to develop for the executive/family market, and this is where the Montego came in.

The Montego was launched in 1984 with a wide range of options. There were several engine choices to ensure a wide appeal. Firstly at the low end the trusty Austin A+ Series 1.3 engine, in the middle the pretty beefy 1.6 litre R series (this was soon modified and became the S Series) and at the high end the speedy 2 litre O series. Aswell as the standard Austin versions, an MG version was developed. This had a 2 litre EFI (electronic fuel injection) engine which kept it up with the MG sporting badge offering a very nippy 115 bhp. To complete the MG range a Montego Turbo was developed with a whopping 150 bhp and a 0-60 of just 7.2 seconds!

To complete the full line up an estate was developed, and these have become remarkably popular with there spacious boots, 7 seats and good engine
s.

This is why the Montego's were popular. Although early models were plagued by suspect build quality, rust was always a problem and the brand name of Austin-Rover had taken a bashing, here they developed a nice range of cars with some very good engines, excellent practicality particularly with the remarkably spacious 7 seater Montego Estate and all at what were reasonable prices. Also the Montego helped to sustain the MG name throughout the 80's and early 90's, a badge that has such a tradition with British motors.

All in all the Montego was a nice motor and should be looked for even now. They have low second hand sale values which means people can pick up excellent second hand bargains which will give them many years sterling work. There are many Montegos who have done well over 100,000 miles and are still going strong so this shows the quality of the engines powering these motors. Just remember when looking at these second hand motors to check for the most hard thing to remedy, rust. The main black spots are the rear wheel arches, pillars and sills. Although remember a little rust can be remedied and to find a car of these ages with no rust at all is rare.

Summary: