1990 Rover - Austin Metro GTi 16V from UK and Ireland - Comments

Fan switch.

Radius arms.

Tyres wear quickly due to radius arms.

Everytime you phone for parts people think it's an Austin, you've got to tell them it's a 91 just so we get the right shape, at least.

Seems that little red badge adds extra cost onto any normal Metro parts i.e. allegedly radius arms, how thick do garages/parts companies think we are.

Goes like a bomb, unfortunately bought with wrong tyres - too high, too thin, dangerous, fuel tank too small, get around 250 miles, feels like your're never away from the petrol station.

Engine bay looks packed, nice flat cover

16v badge, if you've been used to bigger

cars you'll think everyone is tailgating

you.

Nice little package 110mph, 9/10 sec 0-60, 45mph well, Watford-Edinburgh £29 quid, work it out.

Nice and underrated, cute as a button especially next to a base model.

Tell

Good little engines but expensive if they go wrong - 60mpg out of a Gti is not uncommon. I find it needs to be revved hard to get anywhere and has no torque whatsoever.

Radius arm in my one is bent so handling suffers.

Suspension is a bad design, cannot get mine to handle on bumpy roads, plus my left side leaks and needs "pumped up".

Awesome brakes though for a 90 model (non-vented).

Obviously you don't know that the austin and the rover metros are the same shell apart from the odd part like front bonnet and rear drivers side arch... I rebuilt my '91 GTi using Austin repair panels and Austin doors they are all the same...don't take offence I just thought I'd point it out... by the way if you contact a rover dealer for parts they are most likely to ask for a chassis number... tell them not to be stupid that as long as it is SPI or MPI the engine and bodywork is the same, just the injection is different.

Something is up with your GTi mate if it only does 110mph. I'm a member of the Performance Metro Club and a GTi is capable of an indicated 125-130mph without much problem. If you have the SPi (90bhp) or the MPi (103bhp) these speeds are easy to achieve. A well set up 1.1 can top 110 indicated speed.

If your speedo is indicating 130mph in a Metro GTi you have got a seriously optimistic speedo!!