I thought Montego's Were never badged as Rovers?

[Guest]

Until i saw this round the corner from my ex's, its an L reg Tourer, not bad condition but not great either she also filled up where i work the other day too.

[Guest]

My 1994 Montego DLX Estate is badged as a Rover, as is my mates M plate clubman deisel, and his previous H plate 1.6 LX.

Mal.

[monty_estates]

I think late ones had a Rover bonnet badge, but my 1989 1.6L has a 'Montego' bonnet bagde, not sure about my 1993 one.
They never had a rear mounted Rover badge.

In Europe it was sold as a Rover 2.0 GTD in the final years.

[G51 NAV]

Any Rover badges will almost certainly have been added by the dealer. After dropping the Austin and then the MG marques, the Maestro and Montego continued to be marketted unbranded in the UK, even though the Metro was officially 'Roverised' in 1990. Of course the V5 will often show the manufacturer as Rover, just as many V5s belonging to Austin Allegros and MGBs showed the manufacturer as "British Leyland" or "BMC": it was the name of the company which made the car.

After about 1990 Rover seemed almost ashamed of the Maestro and Montego: the cars had very little in the way of publicity and advertisements and even sat shoved at the back of the brochures with the new R8 derivatives displayed proudly in the front pages. Graham Day once said "Young people do not want to drive an Austin", but Rover made it very plain that they didn't want them officially branded as Rovers either.

[Austin-Rover]

From that picture above, I can say with a fair bit of certainty that I have not seen that style of Rover badge fitted to any other cars. Therefore it is likely to be aftermarket, or a sticker of some sort. Same with the side tape treatment, I doubt that is an official sticker! It is not unusual for car dealerships to 'invent' their own models and stick on badges and stickers to make existing models unique to their outlet. A Rover dealership in the Manchester area had done this recently with new Rover 25's it was selling.

Montegos sold in the UK were made by Rover, but never badged as Rover. On the continent, Montegos came with Rover Viking longship badges on the steering wheel and on the bonnet. (In the same style as the 'Montego' badge fitted in the shape of the Rover badge) I have a Rover steering wheel centre and also the Rover badge profiled to fit the Montego bonnet. (I actually found the Rover badge stuck to a UK Montego, and it looked like it had been there since new. Maybe evidence of dealers somehow obtaining cars with parts attached for non-UK markets?)

Anyway...getting back on track. True Rover Montegos, as well as having the Viking longship badges on the front and steering wheel, also featured a raised letter Rover badge on the boot lid, in the style of Rover 200's (Amongst others) See the picture below.

The car you saw Patrick is likely to have badges/stickers fitted by the owner or a car dealer. I have seen Maestros driving round with Rover 200 badges glued to them and huge SD1 badges non too subtly stuck to the bonnet. They look awful! :laugh:

[Guest]

^ Great thanks for the info, the badge did look like a sticker, but quite proffessional, probably added by the dealer?

the car also has a Montego boot badge stuck on the bonnet next the the Montego viking longship lookalike!