1992 Rover - Austin Maestro Clubman D review from UK and Ireland

The bodywork was never perfect, there were lots of Rust spots on the body and most of them looked pretty scrabby. There was Rust hole on left front fender.

Standard Phillips cassette/radio jammed cassettes. So I replaced for a futuristic Sony CD-Player.

The Battery gone flat several times.

Clutch started to slip at 180.000. Clutch replaced twice due the same problem. Second time it happened at 184.000.

Forget the dealers. Specially if own one of these cars. The Rover dealer service is appalling for people that owns Old Rovers.

The same advice, worth if you own a Montego or a Metro.

Bought as a replacement for a 1989 Volkswagen Polo Fox 1.0 Hatchback 3-Door.

This car is just Better than walk or take a Bus, otherwise forget it.

Let's starting to talk about its Achilles Heel:

The bodywork rusted away quickly so it had to go to the scrapyard. The car was white, so you must have an idea how gorgeous it was with the rust spots and holes...

The Maestro had a 2.0 Diesel engine litre engine, so performance was nothing special, but the fuel economy was fine. 43 Mpg around the town and 55 Mpg on the motorway.

The car handled poor. There was huge tendency to understeer and the body rolled too much at the hard corners. The steering wheel was heavy at low speeds. But when in high speeds the Steering became light and there was no feel whatsoever.

The front seats were comfortable, but there was little room in the back. Also the boot was quite small.

I finally got rid of the Maestro in September 2003 for £55. It went to a 17-year-old A-level student. I bought a 95N Vauxhall Corsa LS 1.2 Hatchback 5-Door with 60,000 miles for £900.

The Vauxhall It's still going strong.