Show us your Maestro/Montego...

[matthewsemple]

Great

Fantastic - a black MG1600 with left hand drive - must be almost unique. You alo have a Montego estate? or is that owned by the previous owner of the MG1600?

Do you use the MG1600?

[threelitre]

Re: Great

Originally posted by matthewsemple
Fantastic - a black MG1600 with left hand drive - must be almost unique. You alo have a Montego estate? or is that owned by the previous owner of the MG1600?

Do you use the MG1600?

Not yet... I still have not found the time to get the engine running. The owner before has fitted a s/h engine and put the distributor shaft wrong... So I'll try to get the engine running (the car has done 190,000kms by now, and seemingly quite troublefree) and when it does, I'll check if the body is really worth saving. It has rust, but it does not seem structural.
Oh: and all options: black, sliding roof, e-windows, tinted windows. All instruments work and I have a spare flow-meter to fit, since it was removed after failure. The car came with 2 sets of wheels, a set of rust-free (white) doors and a few more spares and has bumpers without cracks! Sadly the headlining started sagging one week after I got it :-(

The Montego is my parents car. It's official name is not Montego, but Rover GTD (Montego Countryman TD for you in the UK).

Regards,

Alexander

[Guest]

And here's my Maesty

[matthewsemple]

Rover 2.0GTD

Originally posted by threelitre
Not yet...

Oh, and all options

The Montego is my parents car. It's official name is not Montego, but Rover GTD (Montego Countryman TD for you in the UK).

Regards, Alexander

Great you are lucky to have an MG1600 with all the options. Mine only had metallic paint and the owner had put in one of those tilting glass sunroofs rather than having the factory fitted one. I have since fitted red rear seatbelts and the Stereo Cassette deck that was optional (unfortunately it doesn't work properly but I am working on it!)

The aim is to get as many "factory fitted" options to my car as possible whilst keeping it original. The advantage of not having the factory fitted sunroof is that the headlining is vinyl and much more hard wearing and they never sag!

Late Montegos all lost the Montego name on the continent. Alot were sold in France as Rover 2.0TD with Rover badges on the bonnet wheels and steering wheel. In fact the wheel trims and steering wheels come from teh Rover 200/400

Good luck getting the MG1600 up and running - it is well worth it as they are fantastic cars to drive!

[threelitre]

Re: Rover 2.0GTD

Originally posted by matthewsemple
I have since fitted red rear seatbelts and the Stereo Cassette deck that was optional.

Late Montegos all lost the Montego name on the continent. Alot were sold in France as Rover 2.0TD with Rover badges on the bonnet wheels and steering wheel. In fact the wheel trims and steering wheels come from teh Rover 200/400

Hi!

The rear belts have been std. on German cars. But not the radio - and that is missing. Anyhow I will put a more modern one in. And I know about the vinyl headlinings :-)

To the Monty: The only difference to UK Montegos are the badges and minor trim differeces. After 1992, when they all were called Rover (GTi and GTD available) they all had the trim from the UK countryman (including wood), many options as std (elec windows, most of them rear seat, self levelling, power steering, alloys on GTi). The wheeltrims used are the same as on the UK Montego TD. You may well fit Rover items, but they did not have them from the factory. On the bonnet there is a little Rover badge, the rear says Rover GTD/GTi. The steering wheel is the same as the UK Monty's had (with leather rim), just using a different centre cap. I used the wheels and trims for some time on my Maestro and reused a steering wheel from one of them, although I changed the boss cap to the Austin one.

Regards,
Alexander

[matthewsemple]

Montego

I have seen a couple of French "Rover GTDs" with the wheel trims from Rover 200/400. Perhaps the dealers put these on.

[matthewsemple]

Steering wheel

You are right about the steering wheel though - a normal Montego one with a different centre inset with tiny Rover badge. Quite tasteful and I think they should have done that on UK cars. It is like the 1990 Rover 100 as teh Rover Metro was never sold in France - we waited until 1995 for taht car to be badged Rover 100.

[threelitre]

Re: Steering wheel

Originally posted by matthewsemple
You are right about the steering wheel though - a normal Montego one with a different centre inset with tiny Rover badge. Quite tasteful and I think they should have done that on UK cars. It is like the 1990 Rover 100 as teh Rover Metro was never sold in France - we waited until 1995 for taht car to be badged Rover 100.

Yepp, my mother has a 1990 Rover 114 GT... The ones that where called Rover 100 in the UK never reached Germany though...

Regards,
Alexander

[D87SMW]

The Metro was branded Rover 100, and the Montego was inspiration for the Rover 400, so why didn't they use the Maestro as inspiration for the Rover 200? Instead, both 200 and 400 series looked the same!

[Austin-Rover]

I always saw the Rover 400 as a development of the Mk 2 Rover 200 as it is the same car, but with a boot. In turn the Mk 2 replaced the Mk 1 which was sold at the same time as the Maestro & Montego so i cant really see how they inspired anything. In a way they (The Maestro & Montego) died and were never truly replaced.

Just my thoughts....

[D87SMW]

Metro -> 100
Maestro -> 200
Montego -> 400

My idea of the Rover range update.

[Jonathan]

Far easier and more cost effective to base both the 200 and 400 on the Honda Concerto than designing two separate cars from scratch if that's what you mean. I'd always seen the 600 series as being the closest replacement to the Montego.

Rovers in the 90s never did seem to be quite sure what maket they were aiming at and it's caused plenty of confusion. They all fell in between classes of cars offered by the other popular manufacturers. The Concerto-based 200 was near enough Maestro size and virtually competing with it for a number of years, then the Mk3 came along suddenly a much smaller car after the departure of the Metro/100. And the closest equivalent to the Maestro today is probably the 45.

[tony]

hows the car running d428cho got the problems with it sorted?

[D87SMW]

Could also be the 25, but on saying that, it has decreased in size somewhat, making it between the Metro and Maestro. So, yes, I would say the 45 was the closest match now.

[Guest]

The Rover 25 is, I thought, identical to the 200 which preceded it in every way except the headlight shape. It is almost exactly the same external dimensions as the Maestro, yet is considerably smaller inside (I can't fit in the driver's seat, I can't fit behind the driver's seat, and I don't have enough headroom in the back anyway. On top of all this, the Rover 25 is classed by many (including Parkers guide? I can't remember) as a supermini. The Metro (or 100) was the supermini until it was discontinued, so why have the criteria for a supermini changed so dramatically?
The original Rover 200 (which i can never distinguish from a Rover 400 of the same era without looking on the back) was, to my mind, a much more sensible shape. Unfortunately, it only lasted a few years before the newer one came in, which they presumably decided was more attractive.
The Rover 45 is also basically the same as the last Rover 400s. The 75 is the only totally new car, hence the new number (there was no 700... was there?). I think the 75 is a really nice car, at least looks-wise (not that I make a habit of judging cars by their looks). Apart from the shape of the headlights, it looks every bit as good as the Jaguar S-Type.
As has been said, the 45 is the modern equivalent to the Maestro, but only in terms of internal space.
I'd have said the 75 was a bit higher up than the Montego. The 75 is an executive car (although not as much as the 800, somehow), such as the Granada/Scorpio from Ford and the Senator/Omega from Vauxhall, whilst the Montego, I have always thought, is equivalent to the Sierra/Mondeo and the Cavalier/Vectra. The Maestro is then equivalent to the Escort/Focus (although the Focus is noticeably bigger outside) and the Astra. The Metro is then equivalent to the Fiesta (until it became the same size as the Maestro, of course) and the Nova/Corsa. The Mini, of course, will never have any equivalent from any other manufacturer.
Basically, Metro, Fiesta & Nova/Corsa are what I would term superminis (if we have to use such a term), Maestro, Escort/Focus & Astra are small family cars, Montego, Sierra/Mondeo & Cavalier/Vectra are large family cars and, as I've already said, the executive cars are the Granada/Scorpio & Senator/Omega with no obvious Austin-Rover equivalent until the 800 came in.
Does any of that make sense?!