Austin Montego
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There is also an American car called the Mercury Montego.
| Austin Montego<tr><td colspan=2>Image:Austinmontego.jpg</tr>
<tr><th>Also called:<td>MG Montego | |
| Manufacturer: | Austin Rover Group<tr><th>Production:<td>1984–1995 (Austin Montego) 1985-1991 (MG Montego)</tr><tr><th>Predecessor:<td>Morris Ital Austin Ambassador MG Magnette (MG model)</tr><tr><th>Successor:<td>Rover 400 MG ZS</tr><tr><th>Class:<td>Mid-size</tr><tr><th>Body style:<td>4-door saloon 4-door estate</tr><tr><th>Platform:<td>FF</tr><tr><th>Engine:<td>1.3 L A-Plus I4 1.6 L S-SeriesI4 2.0 L I4 2.0 L O-Series I4 (MG Montego only)</tr><tr><th>Related:<td>Austin Maestro</tr><tr><th>Similar:<td>Ford Sierra Vauxhall Cavalier</tr><tr><th>Designer:<td>Roy Axe David Bache</tr> |
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The Austin Montego is a British mid-size saloon car that was produced by the Austin Rover subsidiary of British Leyland (BL), and its successors, from 1984 until 1994. The car was the replacement for the much maligned Morris Ital, to give British Leyland a modern competitor for the Ford Sierra and Vauxhall Cavalier.
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[edit] Design and development
The Montego started life as a four-door notchback variant of project LC10, the Austin Maestro emerged as the five-door hatchback variant. When the designs diverged the Montego became project LM11 (the Maestro being LM10), and remained based on a lengthened version of the LC10 floorpan. The Montego received very different front and rear styling following the replacement of designer David Bache with Roy Axe. It also featured body-coloured bumpers (as did the Maestro), and front wipers which hid themselves under the bonnet when parked<ref>Neil Turner. The MG Montego & Maestro.</ref>.
The Montego offered many improvements over the Maestro, many of which were later incorporated into the Maestro, such as a new SOHC engine (the S-Series), and a more robust dashboard. As with the Maestro, there was a high-performance MG version which again used the solid-state instrument cluster, trip computer, and the synthesised voice of Nicolette MacKenzie for the information and warning system. The dashboard fitted to the Montego was superior to that originally designed for the Maestro and featured a rally-style tachometer, a service indicator and a representation of the car showing open doors, lights left on, etc.
An estate variant, with larger luggage capacity that its competitors<ref> (October 1986) "Family Cars: Car Facts table". Which?: 463.</ref> and two additional rear-facing child seats, also styled by Roy Axe, followed shortly and received instant acclaim, winning the company a Design Council award<ref name="mmoc">Story of the Montego. Maestro & Montego Owners Club.</ref>.
[edit] To market
The Montego was launched in April 1984. The estate variant was launched at the 1984 British International Motor Show in October. The 150 bhp MG turbocharged variant took the market by storm in early 1985 as the fastest production MG ever with a 0-60 mph time of 7.3 seconds, and a top speed of 126 mph<ref name="mmoc"/>.
Like its Maestro brother, the Montego suffered from its overly long development phase, which had been ongoing since 1975 amidst the industrial turmoil that had plagued both British Leyland and Austin Rover Group. In many ways, the technology was years ahead of its time, particularly the solid-state instrumentation, however due to reliability issues and the fact the talking dashboard was regarded as something of an embarrassment by BL and the British press, that was discontinued after a short period. It is unknown how many, if any, MG Montego EFi models featuring the LED dashboard remain.
[edit] Later developments
However, despite all this, the Montego matured into a decent car. A minor facelift for 1989 enhanced its appeal, which was buoyed up by both the Perkins-engined diesel version, and the seven-seater version of the "Countryman" estate.
The facelift also saw the phasing out of the Austin name. These late-1980s models had a badge resembling the Rover Viking longship, but it was not identical, nor did the word 'Rover' ever appear on the cars.
By the early 1990s, the car was terminally aged, and production effectively ceased when the replacement car, the Rover 600, was launched in 1993.
Montegos continued to be built in small numbers in CKD form at the Cowley plant until 1994, when production finally ended. The last car was signed by all those that worked on it, and is now on display at the British Heritage Motor Centre in Gaydon, Warwickshire, UK. 546,000 Austin Montegos and 23,000 MG Montegos were produced.
436,000 Montegos were sold in the UK between 1984 and 1995. In August 2006, a survey by Auto Express revealed that the Montego was Britain's eighth most scrapped car - with just 8,988 still in working order.
[edit] Montego abroad
In New Zealand, the Austin Montego was launched in 1984 in manual two-litre wagon (estate car) form only by then importer New Zealand Motor Corporation to supplement the locally-produced Honda Accord hatchback and sedan models.
These early carburettor Montegos developed a reputation for catching fire as a fuel hose would dislodge and spray petrol over the hot exhaust manifold - a trait the Austin shared with some older Ford Cortina models.
Later – from about 1989 – a wider range of both saloons and estates was imported by a new company, Rover New Zealand, as was the MG 2.0 range, and all wore the official MG badge. This was the first MG estate car. The main Auckland dealer developed an air conditioning system as an option for these cars in conjunction with local specialists.
An attempt was made to have the Montego assembled under licence in India, but this was later abandoned.
A version of the Austin Maestro with a Montego front end is built in China under the Etsong Lande nameplate.
[edit] Engines
[edit] References
- Adams, Keith. The Unofficial Austin Rover Web Resource.
[edit] External links
[edit] Notes
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