Shed shopping is easy when you don’t have to put your moolah where your mouth is, but in a break from normal practice we’ve decided to make things interesting. Rather than show what we think you should buy, we’ve bought a shed, and are going to try and do the thing that car nuts fear most. Turn a profit.
A whipround at PH Towers wasn’t enough to stretch to the regular grand, so instead, we went shopping with £500. After a clutch of knackered old nails, we hit upon left-field entry. Sitting just a mile from Shed’s home was an MG Maestro. These are not cars that conjure many fond memories. It wasn’t necessarily that the range was bad, more that they weren’t great either. With two exceptions. The handful of factory MG turbos were great but rare, pricey and fragile. Criminally forgotten on the other hand is its bargain basement brother.
The MG Maestro 2.0 EFi was a great car, saddled with an image problem. The original 1.6 MG was a pig, so back at the drawing board, Austin’s best boffins had a rummage through the parts bin and found the old O-Series engine from the Sherpa van, a gearbox from their new friends at Honda and crucially, a new fangled electronic fuel injection system. Thrown together, the result was a shockingly well sorted car.
While 115bhp and 8.6 0-60s are shopping trolley figures today, that made the MG a proper alternative to the period’s GTis and XR3is in every way but one. Despite the improvements, the MG octagon wasn’t where it was at in the mid-eighties and it didn’t sell as it needed to.
Today, Maestros are gone and broadly forgotten. Those that do exist tend to be diesels used by jobbing handymen and a handful of cherished turbo models. A turbo ‘stros is undoubtedly a giggle, but they don’t turn up in the sub-£500 end of the market with tax, test and in running condition,
Shed won the auction for our 1986 2ltr with 86k on the clock for the sum of £310. It has 7 months MOT and three months tax and it’s been pressed into regular service since. Plan is to straighten a few scabby corners, fix the leak above the driver’s head (screen is the suspect) and see if she can be punted on for more than has been paid for her in the first place, probably at a classic car event.
There’s no service history to speak of but branded filters, a straight body, clean interior and matching Uniroyals all round suggest that someone has loved this old lady recently. She’ll clean up ok, and if Shed plays its cards right, we might too. More on this beauty in the next week or two. If anyone fancies buying it, drop us a line!
This auction is for an early example of an MG Maestro 2-litre injection.
The car is extremely reliable and starts first time, every time with just the key. Bought as a second car for travelling to work in London but now have no further use for it.
Relatively economical if driven sensibly.
Fast if driven spiritedly.
The wheels have been upgraded to the factory MG Montego 6J alloys and are fitted with Unroyal Rallye Rain Tyres in 195/50 R15, all four with a good amount of tread on them.
4 x new Pioneer speakers less than 2 months ago.
Goodmans CD/Radio installed.
Uses only a small amount of oil and water.
Usual Maestro rust on rear arches and door bottom, but not too bad. However, the car is NOT a rust-bucket.
As an early example, no PAS or sunroof.
Slight water leak above drivers seat, believed to be from screen seal. Lick of mastic should fix this.
No rear seat belts, believed not to be an MOT requirement for car of this age.
 Isn't..... |
 it........ |
 lovely? |
|
![](data:image/svg+xml,%3Csvg xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2000/svg" viewBox="0 0 4 3"%3E%3C/svg%3E)
![](data:image/svg+xml,%3Csvg xmlns="https://www.w3.org/2000/svg" viewBox="0 0 1 1"%3E%3C/svg%3E)