1991 Rover - Austin Metro GTa 8v 1.4 petrol from UK and Ireland

Summary:

A powerful little beast!

Faults:

Gearbox - leaked oil, trying to fix now!

Tyres - very expensive, odd size.

General Comments:

The Metro GTa is an incredibly quick car that enables you to nip in and around larger lumps of metal!

Quite easy to modify apart from alloys as it has an odd stud pattern.

With the power of a 1400 and a very light weight car, it's hard not to fly off into the distance!

Very hard car to insure as a 17 year old driver - £1800!

Would you buy another car from this manufacturer? Yes

Review Date: 5th January, 2001

14th Oct 2001, 16:48

Update:

Gearbox had to be replaced (not cheap)!

Clutch was replaced at the same time.

Ignition Module failed (casing it to cut out at about 90+ mph) cost only £40 to fix!

Gear - linkage died day before I sold the car! Only cost £45 to fix luckily!

Sold car for £1000 fully loaded with mods + stereo to ex - girlfriend and it's still going strong with 91,000 miles.

7th Nov 2006, 14:54

My poor first car was crashed recently by my ex!! It was going at the time with nearly 150,000 miles on the clock. Poor thing!

1991 Rover - Austin Metro GTa 1.4 8v petrol from UK and Ireland

Summary:

A stylish, nippy, and cheap small car. Better than you might think

Faults:

Nothing.

Changed the cam belt at 85,000 to be careful.

General Comments:

Brilliant.

Faster than you might think, 100% reliable.

Cheap to buy, reasonable insurance, economical if driven carefully.

The car looks good, as standard it comes with a rear spoiler and wider wheels than the standard model. The wide wheels give great grip, especially round roundabouts.

The only problem is the close ratio gearbox, which makes it faster, but means the engine revs quite highly on the motorway, and can appear buzzy.

Would you buy another car from this manufacturer? Yes

Review Date: 20th November, 2000

26th Jan 2001, 10:24

I have to agree with you that the Metro GTa 8v is very nippy indeed, but can be very noisy. This problem has been made worse by my choice of a Janspeed performance backbox, which means that any speed over 60mph sounds like a jumbo taking off.

I've had usual problems with worn out pads & exhausts, but the only major problem has been welding to the front floor pan and jacking points which was very expensive.

All round though a very nippy, good looking & reliable car. I love my Metro!!!

27th Jan 2001, 19:34

Have to agree too that the Metro GTa is a great car, but definitely go for the 16v as even though it's SPi, stick new plugs, filter and remove the cat, and stick on a back box (BB2 is too loud as well!!) and it shifts much better than the GTi, better fuel consumption as well.

13th Aug 2001, 08:49

Yeh, the 16V GTa is better. Mines faster than the GTi now after plugs, filter, cat removal and BB2 addition. Way too loud though, but better fuel consumption from all that.

Only downside is the suspension and lack of adjustment.

Worth every penny I paid for it!

29th Jul 2002, 09:03

The GTA is a very nice machine I owned one a while back, but let it go in favour of a GTI, this was the best thing i'd done in year's I carried out similar mod's to my GTI as i'd done on the GTA, And the results were much better, the GTA is good, but it's GTI stable mate is by far the better machine.

7th Sep 2002, 02:41

I just picked up a '91 GTA with a clutch that had been seriously abused. it is totally immaculate with not a spot of rust or mark on the paintwork. the previous owner was emigrating so he let it go for £1oo. wow what a machine it goes great. although the clutch has seen better days the car is rapid. its the most fun you can have on 4 wheels.

Now to modify it.I'm finding it hard to find parts and when I do the prices are through the roof, so if anyone can help it would be much appreciated.