MINI METRO FOR SALE PATCH
MINI METRO FOR SALE PLUS

The panel is a bolt-on part which makes it easier to effect a patch repair, which is good news considering new OE panels are unavailable. The result was a cracking car, although poor NCAP crash test results hastened its demise in 1997.īacked by not insignificant national pride, the Metro was in fact Britain’s best-selling car in 19 and although it was outlived by the Mini, it did survive for a respectable 17 years.Īs with so many cars of this era, your biggest issue with any Metro is likely to be rust and it was once a common sight to see them with a neat line of rot running down the side of the wing behind the headlight. The basic structure of the Metro even survived the dramatic facelift into the Rover Metro which at last produced the car it could always have been by combining the K-Series motor with the front-rear interconnection of the Hydragas system which its inventor Alex Moulton had always intended.

MINI METRO FOR SALE PLUS

A facelift in 1984 brought in a revised interior with more modern dashboard, chunky seats and updated front end style, plus a wider track and a five-door model. The range was subsequently revised many times but the underlying recipe was much the same. That miniMetro tag was dropped in 1981 when the car was renamed simply Metro and the following year the Metro was responsible for the rebirth of the MG name, with the MG Metro and MG Metro Turbo models. There was also an automatic version using the same sophisticated four-speed AP gearbox as the Mini. The project was too far gone to start again but drastic engineering and styling work was the result and brought victory from the jaws of defeat in less than three years.Īs launched in October 1980, the Metro was offered in 9cc versions, with trim levels ranging from the plain 1.0 to the HLE range-topper. It was during a management ride-and-drive session in 1978 that Michael Edwardes and his team tried what was to become the Metro and came away somewhat underwhelmed at the new car’s refinement or lack thereof. The Metro was so nearly yet another near miss, though. It also had the advantage of being familiar to mechanics the world over. In reality, the A-Series (in revamped A-Plus form for the Metro) had plenty of life left in it – as was later to be proved by those ’90s Minis – and was easily the equal of something like the breathless 895cc Polo. In fact this was the era when BL chairman Michael Edwardes was walking a knife-edge between keeping the firm going on government hand-outs or turning out the lights.

The use of the A-Series motor was of course down to cost: BL was in a bit of a state at the time the Metro was developed and had tried several times already to build a successor to the Mini. It’s easy to deride the Metro for its carry-over Mini mechanical bits but in truth the Fiesta in 1980 – the benchmark for small cars – was relying on the old pushrod Kent engine which was decades old. As you’ll see, the rest of isn’t quite so easy.Ī British car to beat the world, said the press adverts for the Metro – or Austin miniMetro as it was first known – and indeed in some areas the car was ahead of the competition. Its origins in the Mini have been both its salvation and its downfall as a classic – back in the day, an MoT-failed Metro was usually descended on within minutes by Mini owners and stripped of its running gear, but today it does at least mean that the legions of Mini parts suppliers can cater for the A-Series powertrain. Once a regular in the best seller charts, the Metro is one of those everyday cars which has suddenly dropped off the radar and even the extensively redesigned Rover Metro is now a rare sight in everyday use.Īll of which means that the humble Metro has now regained a great deal of appeal if not as a better-driving alternative to the Mini but for its curiosity value alone. But ask yourself this: if you fancy a Mini for its giant-killing performance and handling but you just can’t live with its many compromises, then what about a car which offers all the fun of the Issigonis original but with a better driving position, much more interior space, a practical hatchback boot, a more comfortable ride… and a far cheaper entry price? That, in a nutshell is the Metro which – although Mini fans will hate me for saying it – took all the good bits of the original Mini and made them better. Here’s what you need to know before buying one.ĭestined to be outlived by the very car it was intended to replace, the Metro was once something of a laughing stock, especially among the diehard Mini fans. Often called the thinking man’s Mini, the MG Metro is a fast appreciating and endangered national treasure.

Mini metro for sale