Magazine article in current issue of "Classic Motoring"

[Yorks-MGZS180]

There's a 2-page article at the back of the current issue of this magazine about Maestros and Montegos.
Not sure who has written it, and a few negative comments about general reliability, and the MG 1600 Maestros being disappointing, but in the round not too bad

Cheers


Andrew

[thamestyres]

i fail to see where they are not reliable, my car was used daily when I first got it and rarely had any issues, other than of my own creating due to some of the mods that have been done, but the basic car has been more reliable than most of my mates that had cossies and bmw's among others.. and when it was sorted and beating there cars it was still reliable, how many cars can double there performance and still be reliable.. regards ricky

[Doctordiesel77]

I once read a reliability report that had been used by some motoring magazines in the 80's to prove that BL cars were crap... It did show that the BL cars suffered from a greater number of faults than some other brands...there were many cases of loose trim, falling off window winders, leaky windscreens and so on...whereas the more "reliable" brands only suffered from the odd case of complete engine (Ford) or transmission(Vauxhall) failure. This was just one report, but I didn't see any vor faults reported by BL owners, just annoying trim defects, which would be distressing if you'd just bought a new car, but at least you could still drive it to the dealers to get sorted out..... Not sure if I've still got it, but the details certainly stuck in my mind!

[E_T_V]

Don't forget the hot start problems on the MG1600 which were reasonably genuine and tarred them all with the same brush. And then there is the fact that many owners didn't read the manual and so didn't know how to start them properly (some still don't!), as the autochoke is easily confused.

[Doctordiesel77]

When my sister had an MG 1600, we had a 2 litre petrol transit at work, it replaced the York transit (they probably thought the extra fuel would be cheaper than the easy start!) and started well from cold, but when it was hot it was a whole lot worse than the Maestro....they also had a petrol escort van that was a pig to start too, can't remember what size engine it was tho', but they made the 1600 MG look like a well behaved beast...apart from the odd popping off of the gear linkage.....

[Jeff Turbo]

In my years of Montego ownership near all of mine have been reliable. 175,000 in my first turbo with only minor issues, 200,000 miles in an Efi and other than it rusted was a great workhorse

[Montegoman]

Both my EFi Montego Estates were very reliable. The first a GSi, I took to 225K miles without the engine or gearbox being touched. Unfortunately the car rotted away. The second, a late Countryman I did 115K miles without trouble and later regretted selling it. An earlier MG Maestro EFi did 120k but did eat wheel bearings at an alarming rate. The late Countryman was much better for rust than the earlier cars. 15 years and over 400K miles of Maestro/Montego "EFi" ownership. Fab cars. I just wish I could find a nice Countryman 2.0i now!