1986 Rover - Austin Montego MG review from UK and Ireland

When I first bought the car, after a hundred or so miles, one of the wheel bearings needed replacing. This was not a straight forward process, as the old bearing seemed welded in place. Eventually the garage managed to budge it, but when the job was done, there was still a similar squeaking noise, so the new bearing was again replaced - and the problem was finally solved. Not a good start! I was naturally worried about future reliability!

New computer control unit (this baby caused a lot of problems). The car wouldn't idle properly, and when pulling up to the lights say, the car would almost stall - if I didn't get my foot back on the accelerator in time! My regular mechanic didn't think of checking it, and so replaced the HT leads, rotor cap, plugs etc in an attempt to solve the problem. Needlessly, this was all quite costly. The CCU was eventually discovered to be the cause of all the problems and, heh presto the unnerving idle speed was sorted.

Exhaust; new middle and back box (circa 70,000 miles).

End of clutch cable snapped (circa 75,000 miles) - why do they make the pedal connection end, nylon?

Head gasket showed suspect signs of leaking, I waited for the problem to escalate but it never did, so I never replaced it.

New CV boot gaiters with nearly every M.O.T.

The original wheels are metric, so replacing tyres is a nightmare cost. I was forced to buy a complete set of MG Montego alloy wheels and tyres for a bargain £200 in 95.

Apart from the above relatively minor problems,

nothing else needed replacing in all the time I had the vehicle.

I was initially astounded by the cars performance - 0 to 60 in a neck jerking 7.0 seconds along with 150bhp. My previous car was a Toyota Celica ST and was no slouch. I was like a kid in a toy shop for the first couple of thousand miles. I loved this vehicle (they are massively underrated -

you've got to drive one to know!) definitely a wolf in sheeps clothing. Boy racers and car thieves never did catch on!

A firm and reasonably comfortable car to drive, but not too solid - the doors felt tinny. Tough cornering does let the side down a little.

In the end, the quality of the bodywork was getting hard to maintain, I was very sad to see it go.