RE: Shed Of The Week: Rover Metro

[Countersteer]

My initial instinct was to kill it with fire but after Shed's well-thought out retort to my rash decisionmaking, I have now decided; kill it with fire!

It's a Metro - 17yrs of hardship and mishaps can't be wrong....

[GranCab]

Shed needs to delve deeper for next week e.g.

http://www.classiccarsforsale.co.uk/car-advert/bmw...

http://www.classiccarsforsale.co.uk/car-advert/mer...

http://www.classiccarsforsale.co.uk/car-advert/mg/...

http://www.classiccarsforsale.co.uk/car-advert/vol...

http://www.classiccarsforsale.co.uk/car-advert/mg/...

http://www.classiccarsforsale.co.uk/car-advert/vol...

http://www.classiccarsforsale.co.uk/car-advert/rov...

Edited by GranCab on Friday 24th October 15:38

[M0BZY]

I presume that if a MG Ta or a Singer Le Mans were suggested as SOTW then all the fragile souls would point out how unsafe they were and they could never own one in case they broke a finger nail.
Most of the vitriol re BL Austin and Morris is misinformed as usual,but then that's nothing new is it?

[leedsutd1]

my girlfriend got a black MG metro new in 1988 "E" reg was terrible, it would not idle on its own when cold ,was on a manual choke, it needed the air suspension pumped up every few months ,the only good thing was the interior ,had nice seats

[J4CKO]

yonex said:

Glowing over a Metro still, well, well. I'll forgive them in the early cars The original 1300 MG was a fun little thing, but when it spawned the frumpy later cars it lost the spirit IMO. We are talking 1990 with this tepid little rot box with a wheezy A Series!! You could have also had...



or



or



Being there at the time these threads make me smile. We all knew the Metro was crap

See your point, all preferable to a Metro, but weren't those cars slightly more expensive options than the Metro that were introduced a while after ?

Those were the sporty editions, I had a 205 1.1 for a bit and the Metro, I thought drove better than that, despite the sweet handling image, cooking 205's went much cop. We had a Nova 1.2 after a Metro MG and we all preferred the Metro to drive but it had to go as the front valance was rapidly disappearing.

I do have a thing about the 205 XS though.

[Europa1]

NGK210 said:

Gandahar said:

I screwed my wife to be in a red Metro in the middle of Watford NCP carpark one night...

Gracious, the seems a tad ruthless. Or did you mean to write:

"I screwed my wife-to-be in a red Metro..."??

NGK 210, you have made my afternoon! Although my colleagues now think I am a mentalist who cackles at his desk for no apparent reason...

[J4CKO]

Europa1 said:

NGK210 said:

Gandahar said:

I screwed my wife to be in a red Metro in the middle of Watford NCP carpark one night...

Gracious, the seems a tad ruthless. Or did you mean to write:

"I screwed my wife-to-be in a red Metro..."??

NGK 210, you have made my afternoon! Although my colleagues now think I am a mentalist who cackles at his desk for no apparent reason...

Are we reading this as he had to have sex with a woman, that he subsequently married, as a kind of barter to be allowed a go in her metro ?

Does that mean he is Metrosexual ?

[Blackpuddin]

GranCab said:

Shed needs to delve deeper for next week e.g.

http://www.classiccarsforsale.co.uk/car-advert/bmw...

http://www.classiccarsforsale.co.uk/car-advert/mer...

http://www.classiccarsforsale.co.uk/car-advert/mg/...

http://www.classiccarsforsale.co.uk/car-advert/vol...

http://www.classiccarsforsale.co.uk/car-advert/mg/...

http://www.classiccarsforsale.co.uk/car-advert/vol...

http://www.classiccarsforsale.co.uk/car-advert/rov...

Edited by GranCab on Friday 24th October 15:38

I thought you said earlier that you knew what Shed was about? Only, it has to be in PH Classifieds you see.

[PistonBroker]

I didn't have my first shag in one of these, but I remember a girl I desperately wanted to shag at school got one of the previous model at 17. White with the grey leather as well.

I remember when a mate and I were buying and selling for a bit of pocket money we took one of these in as p/x against a Nova saloon. It was actually quite go-kart like and not the worst fun. We sold it for £90 to a former local professional footballer turned car dealer. We couldn't understand why he wanted it but then I didn't really know about money laundering back then. I've decided since that it was probably quite a good example!

[anonymous-user]

J4CKO said:

I do have a thing about the 205 XS though.

That's because they are brilliant.

Perky twin carb with fantastic handling and a properly affordable alternative to the GTI that I couldn't afford to insure or buy at the time. I think the 5 door was badged the GT.

I'd have another. I gave my one to an ex-girlfriend as her old Mini was a deathtrap.

[gdaybruce]

I find the strength of the negative reaction to this poor innocent Rover quite surprising! As others have said, you must look at it in the context of what else was available in the class at the time. The Rover was a genuinely small car which offered a remarkable amount of interior space and in that respect it was true to Issigonis' principles. Plus, it was properly lively in 1.4 guise (105bhp, not 76) and the K series was ground breaking: light, smooth and revvy. I've never understood why an engine that was so praised in Caterhams was condemned in Rover/MGs!

Add to that a very slick gearbox, sourced from Peugeot, and an absorbent hydragas ride, plus pretty direct and accurate steering and what's not to like? Yes, build quality wasn't great and they would eventually rust but in neither regard were they worse than average for the time. Our daughter ran a 1.1 Rover 100 for some five years, from school to University graduation. It was reliable (1 head gasket in all that time), economical and carried all her stuff 400 miles each way to and from Uni. I made the trip in her Rover myself on a couple of occasions. I've driven better motorway cruisers but it did the job without complaint.

Meanwhile my sister in law ran a 1.4 and every time I travelled in it I was surprised at how lively it was.

So, it might not be fashionable or cool and probably never was but it's a perfectly decent small hatchback with some outstanding features which deserves a better reception! For this condition and mileage I reckon that for a few hundred quid you could have a car that will only appreciate as good examples become unobtainable. And as a postscript, at our campsite for the Le Mans Classic this summer Le Patron held his regular car show for classics ranging from modern Ferraris to a 1920s Bentley and the car that won - by popular vote - was a 1.3 Allegro. It was, as our host said, "our famous British sense of humour" but even so, give it a few more years and this Rover could be just as popular!

[DSLiverpool]

Europa1 said:

NGK210 said:

Gandahar said:

I screwed my wife to be in a red Metro in the middle of Watford NCP carpark one night...

Gracious, the seems a tad ruthless. Or did you mean to write:

"I screwed my wife-to-be in a red Metro..."??

NGK 210, you have made my afternoon! Although my colleagues now think I am a mentalist who cackles at his desk for no apparent reason...

Like that - penny dropped after 90 seconds

[alpha channel]

I actually quite like the Metro, had two ('95 to '99/2000), my first two cars in fact (a dark blue/tan vinyl combo '88 and a baby blue '90). my family had quite a number over the years with one of my most favourite driving memories having been made in my second Metro with a perfect drift (Seb Loeb-like) around a ninety degree corner in the snow one Christmas while going over to my grandparents. This was via the Woodland Road along the back of Hamsterly Forest, a road notorious for eating Post Office vans, used to see at least one every year it snowed nose first in the ditch on the same corner.

I remember tyres being particularly pricey though, as when I got my 205 I can still remember going bloody hell they're cheap (half the price of the pug's) alas rust finally killed them off as, years later my Dad and me stumbled across the baby blue one (E388 ATY) in the local scrappy while looking for parts for one of our cars.

My gran managed to roll her second Metro when one of the suspension parts gave out and it ended up on its roof, walked away a tad shaken but otherwise unhurt, just to add my gran taught me how to drive at the tender young age of fourteen in her, first, light metallic blue Metro, the one I have the most memories of, ah those were the days.

Fond memories of them (had a weak moment a couple of months ago and went looking for them and got a rather nasty shock when I saw the vast majority had an asking price into four figure territory).

Edited by alpha channel on Friday 24th October 16:08

[logomomo]

Learnt to drive in a bright red MG Metro and remember it being a hoot - not sure who'd spend anywhere near a grand on a standard 5 door vanilla one though unless it was for a collection - still an interesting shed and one that's had me reminiscing all day

[SprintSpeciale]

No way I would pay £1k for Shed's offering, but I do think the reaction on here is a bit out of proportion. I had one of these when I was at university. It was a "Limited Edition" (ha ha) Austin Metro 1275 Sport - they built them between Oct and Dec 1987. It was nippy little thing - 72bhp and only 808kg. I once got the clock showing 110 on a downhill stretch of dual carriageway. I wouldn't wanted to have crashed it - but that goes for just about any car I drove around that time.

[jiggawhat2k]

FWDRacer said:

dbdb said:

They're no worse in an accident than any other small car from the early 1980s, and better than some.

Maybe that's the Metro's problem - that it went on too long. They were as old as the hills by this one's time: the Metro is a classic car now really.

I like them. More so the early ones, but even this car with its ever so posh interior can find a place in my affections. I learned to drive in a Metro. My driving instructor had one. It was a lovely car to drive, so much nicer than my mother's Golf, which it bettered on the road in every way other than speed.

A good Shed of the week. I seem to be rather off-message with this, though.

I'm with you brother, Viva la revolution.

Amen.

My friend had one for 3 years (white, 998cc) and it was a brilliant little go-kart deathtrap, we loved it. Cost £300 in 1998 though, so this sounds a bit pricey. He wrote it off after hitting a road name sign at 15 mph...

[IanMorewood]

What the shuddering f*** have you been smoking at pistonhead towers this week?

Awful deathtrap of a car when it was new, the following 20+ years won't have done it any favours.

[DAVYK]

It must be a sign of the times when everyone worries about crashing is the standard of driving so bad or is everyone worried about other people hitting them. Have the same people invested in a full protection kit to protect them from the Ebola virus! Yes the Rover 100 may have had a poor NCAP rating but they were an old design when tested dating back to the original Mini Metro of the 1980's which won crash worthiness awards for the design of its sills when launched. Would the people worrying about the crash rating drive a Caterham or ride a motorcycle. When these cars were new I remember test driving one and it was great fun to drive although we did go out and buy a new Vauxhall Nova 1.3 SR at the time which was a great little car at the time and proved tough when a minibus ran into the side of it.

[pgn340r]

As you can see I don't often post on Pistonheads but my bewilderment that this car has made Shed of the Week has forced me to. As previous posters have said a new low. Morris Marina or Alegro next week?

[Blackpuddin]

Alegro? That sounds like a beer I'd like to drink, for the ladies.