Steering fails occasionally, made us crash into a shop once!!!!!
Roof collapsed on us while driving.
A few new exhausts.
Fan belt slips a lot.
Fairly unreliable but OK once we've got it going!!!!
How does the clutch slip?
The Maestro does not have a thing called a fan belt simply because the fan is electronic... one of the first of its kind...?
This is the sort of comment that puts British excellence into distress!
May I make one correction to the 1st person who commented on this review, you said the Maestro was one of the first of its kind to have a fan being non-belt driven, the Allegro was the first to do this which also was thermostatically driven, therefore it knows when to cut in - now that is brilliance from BL's best, the Allegro along with other great features such as Hydragas suspension making the Allegro the most comfy car to ride in.
I think you are both mad! I had a Maestro 1983 vintage and from new was nothing short of a disaster area. Lovely to sit in, stationery with the engine off, but once it was going, it was like a nightmare come true. A complete bucket of spanners.
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You're all semi right, but you've missed the point - you're correct in saying the Maestro has a thermostatic electric fan, but the original message was referring to the alternator belt - simply meaning it required adjustment. A slipping belt is not caused by a design fault.
This car and I expect a lot of others were so unreliable because it was simply neglected!
As for the failed steering that sounds like crap - more like failed driver.
I had a 1983 1275 cc Maestro. It had a clear lack of sound insulation, but was a good car, with only minor faults for 90000 km. At the same time, my brother-in-law had a VW Golf and his sons agreed that my Maestro had more interior space and greater loading space access, better suspension, better performance.
While it is interesting reading the above comments, I have owned about three 1.3 maestros of varying vintages and found them to be cheap to run, easy to service and repair, practical, spacious and very reliable - maybe because I kept them well serviced, OK they do rust, but, they were no doubt a vast improvement on the allegro it's predecessor (of which I have owned two).
The maestro at least in 1.3 form, does not deserve the verbal kicking it gets from the press/trade etc. Cheap, cheerful and good fun!
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