Andy J's MG Maestro
What?!!Some might think this is a bit sad, I know, but I've seen a few other web-pages about owners' beloved Maestros, and they all brought a smile to my face. Sites such as :
 Taken Feb 2000 - doesn't look TOO bad does it?!
Disclaimer...I know this page may only appeal to a small handful of people (if that) in the whole world. I wrote it for them. Anyone smugly reading this who is considering taking the mick can **** off. Got that?!I like reading about amateur writers' experiences with things I can identify with, I can't be the only one, surely?
I see. When did this begin?It was back in March 1994. The 1600 Escort was beyond hope, and a car worthy of taking away for a zoom around England and Scotland was needed. The other half's dad had a white MG Maestro 2.0 Efi and let me try it. Wow! More fun than the Escort... and more of an improvement over that than the Escort was from the old Fiesta. There was this vision of racing green loveliness sitting on a garage forecourt with £4250 stuck on the windscreen (it actually had just been traded in by one of my uncles - I wish I'd known!). It had to be done. It was. I fitted speakers, radiocassette, EQ, power amp (and by golly it sounded good at the time - the tape deck had DNR for no noise between tracks) and away we went. In July we took it over on the ferry, and clocked up 4000 miles in 3 weeks, getting as far north as... John O'Groats. Even more north as it happens, there's a headland to the west somewhere. Very bleak and desolate. At 8 that evening we were still racing down narrow lanes in the middle of no-where trying to find civilisation, food, and a place to stay! We finally got to Lairg for a kip. I don't think I'll ever bother going higher than Loch Ness on the map again...
You lucky people!Here in(on) Jersey we are rather limited to 40mph max, and increasingly 30mph. It seems whenever I go for a spin there's yet another 30mph zone. Do the public ever have a say in the matter?!! Democracy at work. Even worse, we've now got Green Lanes with, wait for it... 15mph limits. For walkers, cyclists and horses etc. All very well but do we HAVE to trundle along at snail-pace even AT NIGHT? Not many people around enjoying the greenery then... the law is SUCH an ass.In practice most drivers get up to 45-50 without much of a problem, and around 40 in the 30 zones. So the one thing the 30 limit was good for was making sure no-one broke the 40 limit... if you see what I mean! So it's great to get away to the mainland and hit the motorways *sigh* P.S. Jersey registration plates range from J 0 (!) to J 99999 - and recently some funds were raised by auctioning off some of the new range JSY 1 to JSY 999 to people with nothing better to spend their dosh on.
A Maestro?!!Yes, I do get the mickey taken. It's a slightly updated Allegro, ha ha. If only the MG models had been the ONLY Maestros ever made. They'd be a real cult classic by now! I can't find any enthusiasm at all for the run-of-the-mill pig-ugly basic Maestros... those wheels! The grill! The lack of spoilers! Ugh!But the MG Maestro is soOOooOOoo different. It's a work of art ;-)
Vroom!Whenever I'm stuck in traffic behind a road-snail, doing 25-30 (crawl speed) at around 2000rpm in 3rd, I know that 50mph (perfectly pleasant speed) is but 3 seconds away should a clear road suddenly become available (not in Jersey of course). Having reached whatever limit applies, I can look back in the mirror and see that I've more often than not left the gimp-in-the-golf behind standing, especially if I wait a few moments to confuse them! When they finally settle into my slipstream (probably too close - what's the point... they can't get anywhere before I do) I know they had to speed like buggery to catch me up!
Good Value then?Well.. 5 and a half years from a spend of 4250 ain't bad. Around the 700 per year mark in terms of depreciation. Those suckers who buy new lose far more than that. I'll never spend more than about 5000 on a car, it's just not worth it. That's the luxury/pointless/posing end of the market, in my book. Parking in a multi-storey every day invites so much door-ding and vandalism that a really special car would just be a liabilty. And I'm not the sort of person who thinks they deserve such a thing, or need to present a "successful" image to the world - fools. They're quite welcome to absorb the initial loss of value, and I'll pick it up a few years down the road. Obviously the best value for money is an old heap in the region of under a thousand quid, that runs happily for a year or two and then still fetches a ton or two. But you've got to draw the line somewhere haven't you?! In fact, if you factor in the price of insurance, maintenance, parking and fuel - you'd be shocked to know the true costs per mile - or per hour of use. Spending a bit more to make you feel good could just about be worth it I suppose.
Problems?Let's face it, you're going to get the odd hundred-and-up sum removed from the old savings account every once in a while no matter what you drive. The Maestro has been OK in this respect. The 185/55/15 tyres are not always readily available, and they often seem to suffer slow leaks, even from new. The central locking is giving up. I had a clack-clack bearings problem turning corners for a while but that was easily fixed. A new battery of course. I bent a wheel last year hitting a horrendous pot-hole, so I'm running on the spare - an old wheel from the local dump now sits in the boot. (I'll just add a note here to keep the pressure at 32 all around, so I know where to find it. Memory like a sieve and all that). One wiper is too low. The bulb has gone behind the digital clock. The heated rear window packed up. I get a buzzing whine over my audio amplifier now... so I've taken the fuse out leaving lo-fi audio over the standard front speakers - I just can't be arsed any more. The cassette head is stuffed and radio is too tedious to listen to - these days I prefer to listen to what the engine is up to...
Rust?Yes, nothing lasts for long on a breezy island - nice salty air. Seams on the A-posts are not looking as good as they did. The doors are going, the bottom of the passenger door is now in dire need of remedial action - the hole is not attractive. Problems are just surfacing on the sill that side, and rear wheel arch. Also at the rear end of one of the rubber roof strips, those things the monkeys in safari parks enjoy removing.The paintwork on the front of the roof (and to a lesser extent on the bonnet) has an interesting dull, faded effect. Everwhere else could potentially be shiny again, I guess! Other embarrasments include torn fabric above the head / sun visors, the red strip on the drivers seat is hanging off, and the steering wheel is getting to the stage where it's JUST holding together without bits flaking off ( I saw one once that was mouldy and crumbling to bits!). Yes, there's nothing like rampant tin-worm to finally make a car not worth hanging on to. I'm hoping I can get a year or two more of pleasure from the old girl yet.
It looks OK!Ah but, the picture up there was taken in April 1996, that's why. It's a frame grabbed from a camcorder - taken the day I'd cleaned it up to deliver a friend or 3 to one of them's wedding. These days it's a little tattier, although it looks fine when clean and it's been raining!
What would I change?My Maestro has a few too many annoying rattles accompanying me wherever I go. But you get used to that. The pedals seem more slippery than some when my footwear's wet (we get some rain over here believe it or not). I know someone who races Westfields (who has driven far more cars than I have) and he says the cornering's a bit vague. I know what he means, but it's a whole heap more fun than our Fiat Punto! The whole cabin seems to resonate at a certain rev somewhere around 1600 rpm, booming noticeably louder than other parts of the range, which rattles my grey matter and is most annoying. These days I don't notice it so much because I'm trying so hard to keep the revs above 2000...
A recent problem...For some time I had suffered from really bad running under 2000 rpm - it was my very own 2k bug. Trying to get away cleanly from a junction involved a lot of slipping the clutch. Stalling was frequent and quite hair-raising when there was traffic bearing down on you. Erk.Constant speeds were little problem, it's just accelerating that was a pain. It went into chug-splutter mode and didn't clear then until well up the rev-range, or perhaps if I eased off and try again. It was not bad at all when cold, and got really bad the hotter it got. Nobody seemed to know what the heck it was. I wasted a tidy sum on a local garage having a look, and they didn't have a definite answer. "It's probably an ECU thing, could be very expensive" etc. It had always had a hint of roughness around 1400 rpm, but lately had got to be a bad joke. A few months back we treated the old girl to some new oil (and about time too, I won't own up to how long it had been!), leads, plugs and filters and hurrah - problem solved. Only it came back, slowly and gradually. Figure that one out! Better when cold, runs fine at higher revs, acceleration is the problem, and it's not a problem along the lines of something either working or not, but more a gradual worsening.
UPDATE 1999-aug-21 : Another local garage runs it's own MG Maestros. I went along to ask if they'd had a similar problem. No... but after a while of chatting a very reasonable offer was made - "bring it in, and if we can't sort it there'll be no charge". Nice. We'll try a replacement diz.cap/rotor arm strategy next week - as that had been disturbed at that last service. It's due some real oil about now too, and we'll see about the plugs and breathers. If all that fails it looks like I will have to take the garage up on their offer. Does anyone reading this know what's going on? Can you help? Please! You can reach me here. I do REALLY want to keep my baby running for as long as I can, I'd miss the performance. On the other hand, if anyone wants to come over to the island and drive off with a 85000 miles 1989 specimen.. (after having given me a suitable bundle of cash).. I could be tempted! My MG Maestro for sale? Hmmm... possibly... make me an offer...
UPDATE 1999-sep-13 : Just replaced the diz.cap/rotor arm (abolutely knacked) and plugs, along with an oil and filter change. The result... perfection! Hooray... I've got my old car back again :-)
UPDATE 1999-sep-21 : Early days yet, I know, but everything's going well so far!
UPDATE 1999-oct-08 : Still fine... I zero-ed the miles counter the other day as I filled up the tank. When I last filled up again it took 32.3 litres to get back to full, and I'd done 217 miles. Using the 11/50 ratio to convert to gallons, this works out at 30.5 mpg - I'm happy with that!
UPDATE 1999-nov-18 : Still fine... We are now unable to get 4-star leaded petrol.
I wondered if I'd need to faff about with Anti-Wear Additives but it appears that the
stuff they add to make Lead Replacement Petrol is just as good (or bad!).
UPDATE 2000-feb-07 : Still fine... (!) Since using LRP I'm now only getting around 28 and a half miles per gallon. Not too bad I suppose, I was expecting a drop. I'm getting more and more tempted to sell the old girl if I can find something better - just in case something expensive is about to go.
UPDATE 2000-feb-15 : GOODBYE!! It wasn't such a wrench to part with the old dear after all - I'm now driving something more recent, unleaded and faster :-) PLUS I've now got a remote control alarm thingy to play with *chuckle* I gave the Maestro to someone to whom I'd never repaid many, many favours. Ah well, it was fun. He'll probably use it for spares, seeing as he's re-building a red Maestro Turbo, so the old girl will live on via her organ donations! So... not even 90,000 on the clock, although they do say a Jersey mile is twice the wear and tear of a UK mainland mile because of the urban-type driving conditions on a small island, not to mention all that salty air. Six years motoring from £4250 - call it nearer 5000 in today's terms after 6 years of inflation - about £800 per year. What a bargain, hehe. Goodbye then, my green machine, thanks for the happy memories :-)
UPDATE 2004-jan-15 : I can't believe about 2 people a day still read this page.. maybe it's search engines, LOL Anyway, the 2 litre silver coupe that replaced my maestro was fun, but not as fast in some ways. It was a 16v jobbie that was pretty gutless until revved like a nutter, whereupon it really took off. But who wants to scream around above 4000rpm?! Driving more normally it felt disappointing; from 30 to 50 was way slower than the MG. Still made me want to drive too fast though - a problem I solved another 3 years later by buying a small mpv (of sorts). The beauty of wafting along in a quiet underpowered barge is that 30mph no longer seems so terminally dull. I can see over hedges and walls that I couldn't before, and enjoy the view. It's pleasant enough, and I can get the kids in the back easily, or a ton of stuff (bike etc), so I'm happy. Less likely to have a brush with a speed gun, and it does the job. By 'eck, I'm getting old!! Oh, and the maestro? Gave it away to someone in the family. He let it stand for a while until all the fabric was well mouldy! Then he cleaned it up and used it as a loan car at his garage for a few months, before letting an apprentice use it (who absolutely loved it, I'm told). I saw it about a year ago with a slight ding on the wing... and then a few weeks later I heard that it had suffered a somewhat higher impact and was a right-off. Ah well, c'est la vie! Bye, then.
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