RE: Austin Metro Vanden Plas 500: YKYWT
Discussion
My Nan had a gold Metro VP, the updated one from 1986 or so. It had a brown velour interior with plastic mahogany. The best bit was the auto gearbox. Laid out in P, R, N, 1, 2, 3, D instead of the usual way. It would hit 4th by 20mph!
People seem to forget that these were excellent little cars when they were launched. They were advanced and spacious with proven mechanicals. As said elsewhere, a style of small car that did everything it needed to without the modern obsession with pointless gadgets and bulk.
People seem to forget that these were excellent little cars when they were launched. They were advanced and spacious with proven mechanicals. As said elsewhere, a style of small car that did everything it needed to without the modern obsession with pointless gadgets and bulk.
My parents used to have a Metro Moritz special edition. There's was dark red, though you could also have it in silver. It came with his 'n' hers ski coats and a picnic cool box. The car was totally unreliable and didn't last long. Some of my earliest memories are of sitting in the back of it when it was broken down. When my father became ill with Cancer and my mum had to keep driving him to the Christie Hospital, she swapped it for a pre registered Ford Fiesta Popular because the last thing she could cope with was being broken down on the motorway under the circumstances.
31 years later I'm still using the picnic box even though it's older than I am.
31 years later I'm still using the picnic box even though it's older than I am.
Edited by Blakewater on Friday 14th August 23:00
My grandfather had a Metro Vanden Plas quite like this, from new. Black 3 door, but not a 500, with steels, a light blue velour interior (which I remember being quite comfortable as a sprog), same manual box (quite uncommon on the vdp), always really liked it.
I remember a few journeys in it when father had to borrow it to take me to school 100 miles away in Norfolk, when his Range Rover was being worked on. We were late one evening as one of the horses was in foal, and the journey there was spent largely off the clock. Good times!
My uncle inherited the car and lowered it a little, painted the steels matt black, fitted an MG interior, and removed the chrome, I thought it looked great! After he got a new car it was laid up in the estate yard for about 8 years, until I blew the 998 in my mini. Pa said I could have the engine, so went up to the yard with a can of fresh fuel and a new battery, thing fired up straight away! Bombed it around the farm for a few days then took the engine out and fitted it to my car.
To the people saying they would rather have the MG, the VDP came with identical running gear and engine to the MG - big valve head, hotter cam, 3.44 diff as opposed to the 3.1 or ghastly 2.9. Went well, for what it is.
A friend bought a 1275l a while ago, it was so entertaining to drive, after more modern cars. So basic and direct.
I'd be rather happy to add this to my collection, great memories of grandpa's, there really can't be many this good left now.
I remember a few journeys in it when father had to borrow it to take me to school 100 miles away in Norfolk, when his Range Rover was being worked on. We were late one evening as one of the horses was in foal, and the journey there was spent largely off the clock. Good times!
My uncle inherited the car and lowered it a little, painted the steels matt black, fitted an MG interior, and removed the chrome, I thought it looked great! After he got a new car it was laid up in the estate yard for about 8 years, until I blew the 998 in my mini. Pa said I could have the engine, so went up to the yard with a can of fresh fuel and a new battery, thing fired up straight away! Bombed it around the farm for a few days then took the engine out and fitted it to my car.
To the people saying they would rather have the MG, the VDP came with identical running gear and engine to the MG - big valve head, hotter cam, 3.44 diff as opposed to the 3.1 or ghastly 2.9. Went well, for what it is.
A friend bought a 1275l a while ago, it was so entertaining to drive, after more modern cars. So basic and direct.
I'd be rather happy to add this to my collection, great memories of grandpa's, there really can't be many this good left now.
IIRC, at first the Vp Metro was the top of the range model and at least a couple of hundred quid dearer than the MG version. Sometime after it's introduction the price was matched and aligned the same as the MG Metro which was hugely popular and outselling the Vp Metro by a wide margin. Even so the MG Metro still sold many more than the high spec Vp.
I was getting some parts for my MGB GT at my local main dealership when the MG and Vp Metros first became available about mid 1982. I spoke to the then Sales Manager who told me he had only ordered a dozen MG Metros as after all they were only tarted up Metros... I was to hear that phrase again later. It then transpired that when the transporter arrived loaded with the little MGs, the small team of sales staff almost came to blows trying to put SOLD tickets on all the MGs as they were unloaded. Speaking to one of the staff later, he told me he had lost count of the disappointed folks and lost sales turned away as they had no stock of the "tarted up" Metros which during 1982 and 1983 sold like the proverbial hot cakes. I took delivery of a new one on 1.1.1983. Mind you, it did start to fall apart and need attention .... fifteen years of a hard life later.
A lady friend had a Vp Metro new complete with electric windows and remote hatch electric release. Nice little car ...
I was getting some parts for my MGB GT at my local main dealership when the MG and Vp Metros first became available about mid 1982. I spoke to the then Sales Manager who told me he had only ordered a dozen MG Metros as after all they were only tarted up Metros... I was to hear that phrase again later. It then transpired that when the transporter arrived loaded with the little MGs, the small team of sales staff almost came to blows trying to put SOLD tickets on all the MGs as they were unloaded. Speaking to one of the staff later, he told me he had lost count of the disappointed folks and lost sales turned away as they had no stock of the "tarted up" Metros which during 1982 and 1983 sold like the proverbial hot cakes. I took delivery of a new one on 1.1.1983. Mind you, it did start to fall apart and need attention .... fifteen years of a hard life later.
A lady friend had a Vp Metro new complete with electric windows and remote hatch electric release. Nice little car ...
Fond memories of my friend's MG Metro Turbo make me want this. We did some really daft things in that car and thankfully survived. The Metro didn't. Last seen on fire in a field in France or somewhere according to my pal.
It's just nostalgia and being at that funny age - 45.
Saw one at a show recently and I was all dewey eyed. My wife - 11 years my junior - saw it as a crap old car with in her words 'Stupud red seat belts' yet she got all sentimental when she spotted her first car from teenagehood - a Ford Fiesta ion a G plate parked up outside a supermarket. A crappy old Ford to me.
It's not about how good the car is really, it's about the buttons it pushes in your memory.
My lotto winning garage would be a very odd place. Not full of high value Italian classics but stocked with bits of BL tat, old Range Rovers, Various Discos Volvo 360s ,700s,1990s Rovers, MGs old French cars like Citroen CXs and Talbot Horizons. It would be a s
t pile, but I'd love it.
It's just nostalgia and being at that funny age - 45.
Saw one at a show recently and I was all dewey eyed. My wife - 11 years my junior - saw it as a crap old car with in her words 'Stupud red seat belts' yet she got all sentimental when she spotted her first car from teenagehood - a Ford Fiesta ion a G plate parked up outside a supermarket. A crappy old Ford to me.
It's not about how good the car is really, it's about the buttons it pushes in your memory.
My lotto winning garage would be a very odd place. Not full of high value Italian classics but stocked with bits of BL tat, old Range Rovers, Various Discos Volvo 360s ,700s,1990s Rovers, MGs old French cars like Citroen CXs and Talbot Horizons. It would be a s
t pile, but I'd love it.I had a yellow (brown interior) A-reg 1.0 and a facelift D-reg in beige (brown interior again). I had the D reg for 4 years from 1990 and it was great, albeit I did spend a fair bit of timing rubbing down, filling and painting!
My mother had one of the first G-reg k series 1.1s in 1990 and that engine was a complete revelation to me compared to my A-series powered version.
I have good memories of my Metros! Many many stt1er cars IMHO.
My mother had one of the first G-reg k series 1.1s in 1990 and that engine was a complete revelation to me compared to my A-series powered version.
I have good memories of my Metros! Many many s
tt1er cars IMHO.Gassing Station | General Gassing | Top of Page | What's New | My Stuff