... 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 ... Read review
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A review by GraWar on Austin Maestro 2.0 April 16th, 2001
Author's Car rating:
Safety
Satisfactory
Spaciousness
Good
Road Handling
Good
Looks
Good
Features
Good
Advantages:
cheap to buy, excellent British engines, good fuel economy
Disadvantages:
rust
Recommend to potential buyers:
yes
Full car review
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 were prone to the British Leyland effect - i.e. questionable build quality and reliability, but I feel the Maestro's bad reputation was largely uncalled for.
As I said earlier Maestro's make excellent first cars and family runarounds, so heres a few tips on what to look for if your after a Maestro and a few tips on the Maestro range.
For starters the engine - The Maestro in it's Austin-Rover guise came with a choice of a 1.3 or 1.6 engine. These are both incredibly reliable engines whichever you pick. The 1.6 is the same as was used in the Montego (examples of which are often seen having done 100,000+ miles as ex-company cars and still running strong), and the 1.3 is the excellently reliable and simple to work on Austin A Series engine, as used in the Metro.
You will also see MG Maestro's about which are similar looking to the 1.3/1.6 Austin-Rover models, but they have alloys, MG grilles, some more luxiourious features and a 2 Litre engine in the EFi. There are also some MG Maestro turbos around which look excellent and are incredibly quick with 2 litre turbo engines in.
You can't really go wrong with Maestro engines, they are the best of British design, the only thing really to watch out for is the slightly dodgy automatic choke, which is prone to failure, but manual choke conversions are available cheap and the conversion is an easy job to do.
The bodywork has to undergo serious examination because of the rust problems. Main Maestro rust hot spots include the rear wheelarches (this is the main place), along with underneath the grille at the front, and the sills and pillars are often susceptible to rust. Be careful to check these places very carefully because although it can be successfully treated, there are some cases where it has gone too far and cannot be put right. When purchasing a Maestro you should also check thoroughly the central locking (if that model has it), which can sometimes be prone to failure and also the boot catch can occasionally play up.
Interior wise again the Maestro holds up pretty well. They are very spacious cars internally and if reasonably well looked after, the seat and interior trim lasts forever. The main problem internally with the Maestro is the headlining which in some cases can be prone to sagging, this can be a difficult job to put right but it is possible.
These are the main spots to look out for with a Maestro. I have only highlighted the main spots to look out for, in no way am I slating this car at all. If you just check the main problem spots, you can pick up a car that will last you a long long time and give you excellent, reliable, and economical service for many years to come. The good thing is about the Maestro's bad reputation is that second hand models are dirt cheap and hence should be on a list of potential cars of any first time buyer or economical minded person.
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 ... ...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 diesel at a lethargic 16 seconds. Not a car for avid drag racers. The maestro is a relatively fuel efficient car achieving 39 miles to the gallon, although the diesel models achieve only between 51.4 and 55.6 miles to the gallon. BUYING SECOND HAND There are certain faults which are common in old maestros ...
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Advantages: easy to work on, good fuel economy, spacious, nice engines, MG versions quick Disadvantages: stigma attached to them, rust
...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 on as a very bad joke. Anyway the Maestro was introduced in 1983 and was well accepted amongst the press. It was a very innovative car of ... ...litre Maestro's used the excellent Austin A series engine. These engines go on forever and have a proven track record for many years. They A series engines are also very easy to work on and faults can be put right relatively easily. This isn't forgetting the excellent 2.0 injection MG Maestros that were made based on Austins O Series engine (the one used in the Montego) and never to forget the 505 ever made MG Maestro Turbos which look excellent ...
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Advantages: Very reliable Disadvantages: Noisy and dated
I have looked up the site and found that many people have already writen a lot about this car, but felt that as I have owned my 1.3L version for over 10 years, I had to get in my "halfpennies" worth.
It is one of the most reliable cars I have ever owned. It has passed the MOT practically every year without fail and has now clocked up just over 60K miles.
The only regret was buying the 1.3 version. It really struggles when overtaking and you have ... ...journeys were not very pleasant, although that 5th gear did help a little providing you were already travelling at a reasonable speed.
The engine is based on the very tough "A" series used in Morris Minors etc and is very easy to service. The only problem I had was it went through distributor caps at a very alarming rate; misfires after about 2or 3k miles were common place only to find that the cap had failed again. Spraying it with ignition seeler ...
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15.12.2002
80's no 1 hit Car review ofAustin Maestro 2.0by
wilsam00
Advantages: where shall i start??? Disadvantages: none
Well now compared to new models of Rover this car looks terrible, cheap and weak is most peoples opinion of this car but if you have owned and driven as many miles as i have you will know the car under the skin
a year ago my b regd Maestro vanden plas 1.6 sadly failed its M.O.T on a major engine part (BIGENDS) so the car is know stored in my garage which has been un touched the rumour of these cars does not fit in with my Maestro as it has not had ... ...car has covered only 92,555 miles which is below average for its age and engine size!
The car has been brilliantly behaved till January last year as it has been in the family all its years the car has had the genral things bust up eg radiator, starter motor it has been serviced evely 8,000 miles at our local Rover dealer which was Parkside till around 6-7 years back!
It is cheap to run it had an average of 35-40 mpg combined which is good from ...
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14.07.2001
1.3L Car review ofAustin Maestro 2.0by
milesofborg
Advantages: Superb reliability, good fuel consumption, cheap to run, cheap parts Disadvantages: Image, brake pad wear
The old Maestro has taken quite a panning over the years. Based predominantly on the Metro, but slightly larger, it is generally regarded as drab, ordinary & boring...however, I have owned Maestros for the past 3 years & must confess to being very pleasantly surprised.
For starters, both Maestros I have owned have been exceptionally reliable. My first car was an E reg, which I planned to own as a stop-gap till I found a 'proper' car, but I ended ... ...my current F reg model because it was too good a bargain to pass up on!! In those 3 years, the only real problem has been heavy brake pad wear, other than that, mechanically both cars have run trouble free.
The other pleasant surprises were the handling of the cars, which was reliably firm; the comfort of the seats, which I find unusual in small cars, being quite tall; & the fuel consumption, which returns very reasonable figures for cars of that ...
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Production Year: 1989 - Drama - Director: Simon Callow - Classification: 15 years and over - Starring: Vanessa Redgrave, Keith Carradine, Austin Pendleton, Rod Steiger
