RE: Shed of the Week: Rover Metro

[J4CKO]

Stepdavi said:

look at this beast, 50 shades of brown!
https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Austin-Metro-L-39000-mi...

A five door as well, reminds me that a mate of ours had one back in about 1991, it got nicked, like every other Ford, Vauxhall or AR product, it was then used for joyriding and the thieves left a not saying "Your car is st at rallying", amazing that they thought to leave a note and that the owner would be interested beyond wanting to kill them.

Metros were really easy to steal, my aunties MG model got nicked and was found burnt out near the outskirts of Wythenshawe.

I had a Montego "GTI" and that had an attempted theft, made a right mess of the door lock, steering column etc but the simple cut out switch my dad fitted thwarted the attempt, I used to work at this Bedroom company in Stockport and used to have to shout out of the window at scrotes casing the cars, the early nineties were horrific for car theft, who would have thought the AR tat was so desirable.

[edwestby1275]

Barchettaman said:

'Timewarp Deathtrap of the Week'.

No redeeming features.

Name a car designed in the late 70s that isn't.....

So many hypocrites.....

[edwestby1275]

Mine's pretty good fun and gets loads of attention

[AJB]

Twig62 said:

The early Rover Metros fitted with the K Series engine had a carburettor. This changed around 1992 when catalytic converters became law so SPI or MPI became necessary.

At least some of the carb ones had an SU in the middle of the air filter, but with the lid of the air filter hiding the carb entirely, so it wasn’t at all obvious that there was a carb with a dashpot needing to be topped up...

[HoHoHo]

I lost half a finger in a 1989 GTa Metro engine.

Entirely my fault but that transverse engine certainly knew how to bite back

Great little car at the time albeit built like a piece of st!

[CDP]

Stepdavi said:

look at this beast, 50 shades of brown!
https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Austin-Metro-L-39000-mi...

I recently saw an Audi A5 in a very similar set of colours.

In fact there are a lot of brown cars these days which will be considered granny’s knickers awful in 10-15 years time when the fashion changes again.

Best stick to resale silver/grey...

[2xChevrons]

edwestby1275 said:

Barchettaman said:

'Timewarp Deathtrap of the Week'.

No redeeming features.

Name a car designed in the late 70s that isn't.....

So many hypocrites.....

It's amazing how the Metro's poor (by the standards of the mid-90s) crash results have completely defined it, and then travelled back in time to also be the only thing a lot of people seem to know about the original LC8 models. I had a 5-door 'brandless' 1.3L and the number of members of the general public who commented on it along the lines of "don't see many of these about anymore...complete deathtrap/better not crash it, mate!" was ridiculous. It's one of the those 'pub-bore' facts, like how I get a steady stream of people eager to ask me "did you know the 2CV was designed to carry eggs across a field?" or "did you know these early Minis had leaky floors?" Both those are far more likely to kill me in a crash but you wouldn't have thought so.

Post almost any other car as a SOTW - be it a Renault 4, a BMW E30, a Jaguar XJ S3, an MX-5, a VW Golf, a Saxo, a Nissan Sunny or a SportsKa - and you never hear a peep about crash safety, even though all those cars are 'deathtraps' by modern standards and some are no better, or even worse, than a Rover Metro. If I was to put a picture of my 2CV, my MG Midget, my Mini, my Series Land Rovers, my Alfasud or anything like that on here I wouldn't get told how dangerous they are in a crash, even though they are all significantly more lethal than an R6 Metro (even if we're still dealing in narrow shades of non-safety here).

It's not like anyone buying this Metro is doing so purely as a functional exercise because they want a supermini. They'd have to be an enthusiast or at least interested in its Metro-ness (there's no other reason to buy one!) so the crash-safety (or lack thereof) is completely immaterial. Just as it is for buying any classic car. They're making a decision to buy a 20+ year old car and one of the outcomes of that is that it will not be anything like as safe as a modern one. So the steady stream of "deathtrap" comments directed at the poor Metro are very strange.

[Mr2Mike]

J4CKO said:

Metros were really easy to steal, my aunties MG model got nicked and was found burnt out near the outskirts of Wythenshawe.

Again, so were the majority of cars from the era, once you'd broken the steering lock and hot wired it you were good to go.

[M4cruiser]

2xChevrons said:

Post almost any other car as a SOTW - be it a Renault 4, a BMW E30, a Jaguar XJ S3, an MX-5, a VW Golf, a Saxo, a Nissan Sunny or a SportsKa - and you never hear a peep about crash safety, even though all those cars are 'deathtraps' by modern standards and some are no better, or even worse, than a Rover Metro. If I was to put a picture of my 2CV, my MG Midget, my Mini, my Series Land Rovers, my Alfasud or anything like that on here I wouldn't get told how dangerous they are in a crash, even though they are all significantly more lethal than an R6 Metro (even if we're still dealing in narrow shades of non-safety here).

I think part of it is that this ad in sotw is a 1994 car, but the safety level (i.e. the body structure) is 1980.
Similar principles apply to the cars you list. We all know the 2CV was designed well before crash-testing was even thought about.

[CDP]

M4cruiser said:

2xChevrons said:

Post almost any other car as a SOTW - be it a Renault 4, a BMW E30, a Jaguar XJ S3, an MX-5, a VW Golf, a Saxo, a Nissan Sunny or a SportsKa - and you never hear a peep about crash safety, even though all those cars are 'deathtraps' by modern standards and some are no better, or even worse, than a Rover Metro. If I was to put a picture of my 2CV, my MG Midget, my Mini, my Series Land Rovers, my Alfasud or anything like that on here I wouldn't get told how dangerous they are in a crash, even though they are all significantly more lethal than an R6 Metro (even if we're still dealing in narrow shades of non-safety here).

I think part of it is that this ad in sotw is a 1994 car, but the safety level (i.e. the body structure) is 1980.
Similar principles apply to the cars you list. We all know the 2CV was designed well before crash-testing was even thought about.

The MK2 Polo, Nova and AX had only just been replaced that year; in 1993 the Metro would have had company on death row. The Renault 4 had only recently finished in France and was still in production in Slovenia .

In reality, like the Marina its crime was living too long. If they'd been replaced after 5 or potentially 10 years (for the Metro) nobody would be complaining, not much anyway.

[oilit]

sutts said:

I don’t. A girl I shared a house with in my last year at university (96/97) had the identical car to this. She was a fitness instructor and generally wore very little around the house, and what she did wear was made of Lycra. You could crack walnuts between her cheeks, which were basically on show most of the time.

This shed has reminded me of these happy times, and for that reason I like it.

....and you married her but the metro has faired better than the wife?

[djdest]

Just saw this posted on Facebook

Metro Turbo convertible
Strange looking side windows

https://ebay.to/2KnVsQw

[Benjamonk]

Just no.

They were dreadful when they were new and I doubt time has done nothing to improve them.

No amount of nostalgic looking back could justify selecting this as SOTW.

A crap car is a crap car. End of.

[rallycross]

djdest said:

Just saw this posted on Facebook

Metro Turbo convertible
Strange looking side windows

https://ebay.to/2KnVsQw

That needs a roof cut off a donor car and rewelded back onto this poor thing what were they thinking with that dreadful chop top?

[s m]

rallycross said:

djdest said:

Just saw this posted on Facebook

Metro Turbo convertible
Strange looking side windows

https://ebay.to/2KnVsQw

That needs a roof cut off a donor car and rewelded back onto this poor thing what were they thinking with that dreadful chop top?

I think I'd rather have the hardtop one for double the cash - a mate had a B reg one ( amongst many lesser models ) and the little bar chart boost gauge was a wondrous thing when you were accustomed to n/a cars. Could have done with another 20bhp though

[alfie2244]

Well I just checked and my old 93 Metro is still going strong........now has 100k on the clock... MOT'd until March19 passing with just a couple of advisories

[djdest]

s m said:

I think I'd rather have the hardtop one for double the cash - a mate had a B reg one ( amongst many lesser models ) and the little bar chart boost gauge was a wondrous thing when you were accustomed to n/a cars. Could have done with another 20bhp though

I agree, it was a shame it couldn’t compete with the likes of the 5 GT Turbo and Uno Turbo etc.

My mates bother had a Metro Turbo for a few days, it was nicked and never seen again

[Jimmy Recard]

PaulGL790 said:

Interesting shed this week especially nice to see a good example of a fast disappearing everyday car.
Considering the amount sold they have shockingly vanished quick.

The Roverised Metro seemed to up the quality a lot from the Austin versions , not quite the go kart feel of the original Mini but pretty good fun to drive too. Ironically What Cars 1991 car of the year .

I rather like the GTI versions sadly very scarce now .

I’m not sure they’ve disappeared that quickly. How many 1980-1997 Fiestas do you see now? I bet I don’t see one a month. Or Sierras or almost any other everyday car from that era?

[Mr2Mike]

s m said:

I think I'd rather have the hardtop one for double the cash - a mate had a B reg one ( amongst many lesser models ) and the little bar chart boost gauge was a wondrous thing when you were accustomed to n/a cars. Could have done with another 20bhp though

Wasn't difficult to get another 20bhp (or more), but the resulting torque increase required almost monthly gearbox rebuilds as my uncle discovered.

[anonymous-user]

2xChevrons said:

edwestby1275 said:

Barchettaman said:

'Timewarp Deathtrap of the Week'.

No redeeming features.

Name a car designed in the late 70s that isn't.....

So many hypocrites.....

It's amazing how the Metro's poor (by the standards of the mid-90s) crash results have completely defined it, and then travelled back in time to also be the only thing a lot of people seem to know about the original LC8 models. I had a 5-door 'brandless' 1.3L and the number of members of the general public who commented on it along the lines of "don't see many of these about anymore...complete deathtrap/better not crash it, mate!" was ridiculous. It's one of the those 'pub-bore' facts, like how I get a steady stream of people eager to ask me "did you know the 2CV was designed to carry eggs across a field?" or "did you know these early Minis had leaky floors?" Both those are far more likely to kill me in a crash but you wouldn't have thought so.

Post almost any other car as a SOTW - be it a Renault 4, a BMW E30, a Jaguar XJ S3, an MX-5, a VW Golf, a Saxo, a Nissan Sunny or a SportsKa - and you never hear a peep about crash safety, even though all those cars are 'deathtraps' by modern standards and some are no better, or even worse, than a Rover Metro. If I was to put a picture of my 2CV, my MG Midget, my Mini, my Series Land Rovers, my Alfasud or anything like that on here I wouldn't get told how dangerous they are in a crash, even though they are all significantly more lethal than an R6 Metro (even if we're still dealing in narrow shades of non-safety here).

It's not like anyone buying this Metro is doing so purely as a functional exercise because they want a supermini. They'd have to be an enthusiast or at least interested in its Metro-ness (there's no other reason to buy one!) so the crash-safety (or lack thereof) is completely immaterial. Just as it is for buying any classic car. They're making a decision to buy a 20+ year old car and one of the outcomes of that is that it will not be anything like as safe as a modern one. So the steady stream of "deathtrap" comments directed at the poor Metro are very strange.

Totally agree.
What do people who know feck all about something relay what they heard down the pub? Are we suddenly meant to think they're very knowledgeable? It would carry a bit more credence if they actually owned one and the problem they spout about actually happened to them.