Ex-MOD Montego Saloons

[Ed]

I have an opportunity to buy an ex-MOD Montego Turbo Diesel Saloon on an L plate. Does anybody know the history surrounding these cars and if a low mileage one is a good buy? The one in question is low mileage with no MOT. Cheers.

[E_T_V]

Well check for the usual monty rot. If it is cheap enough then go for it as it'll run and run and run till the bodywork falls off!

[Andy]

doest a forum user on here own one

[TheBaldMonk]

I think mine is an ex MOD car.

It's a 1994 L reg 2.0 DLX. It's flat dark blue in colour. It has two lamps in the back that are on swan necks which I haven't seen in other Montego's.
The V5 is strange in that it was first registered in 1998 and declared manufacted in 1994.

It has rust like any other montego, the arches seem fine and most of the rust seems to be on the doors. The car has done 134,000 ish miles and starts and runs fine first time. The Glowplugs want changing but as the nut on one has been rounded they arn't going anywhere.

It has also been a taxi before me to as it has the license plate holes in front/back bumper. It had some extra cable thing rolled up under the dash and an extra cable on the battery.

So far touch would it has not yet let me down. It passed it's MOT first time after replacing the indicator stalk and the front passenger side indicator due to a cracked lens.

The car cost me £230 so I think it was money well spent. :laugh:

[Austin-Rover]

You didnt happen to drive through Bury going towards Prestwich/Whitefield yesterday afternoon, about 3:30 did you, i was behind a similar sounding car in the queue of traffic and thought it looks suspiciously like an ex-MoD car...

:)

[Ed]

I'm hoping to pick mine up over the weekend. It is also very dark blue. I won it on Ebay for £33!!! Its had a bump on the back so needs a bootlid and bumper but for that money and the 95K miles engine, its got to be worth repairing.

[TheBaldMonk]

Nope not me, I was at work till 18:00, we very rarely go that way even though we live very close.

And £33 BARGAIN, thats got to be the best buy I've heard of all year!!!!

Still got my eyes open for either a Monty/Maestro for my wife, but it took me ages to pick this one up.

£33 I'd have ten :)

[Ed]

I'm so excited about this one, even more than any of my MGs :laugh: I think its because alot of people will look twice at an L registered Monty saloon.

My only issue at the moment is working out how I'm going to pick her up. :confused:

[TheBaldMonk]

Where abouts is it? I only ask as I have been looking for a while and don't remember seeing that one.

[Ed]

Its in Boston, Lincs. Was only a 5 day auction and didn't have any pics. I e-mailed the guy who told me it was an ex-MOD and he has had it for 5 years and always looked after it, hence its 95K mileage. Its alos had a new clutch, new cambelt and four new tyres. I have all the parts to repair the car so i feel this could well be the bargain of the century. :laugh:

[MARKHEDGES04]

Sounds like a real bargain.I have a L reg in brg,believed to be ex-mod.There is a pic of it on the forum (in general montego).I got mine from e-bay.Have tried to find its history but can only get as far as the last 2 owners.Cant locate any of the mod history.Have found it to run very well,and starts first time,even after 2 weeks of sitting.And fuel economy second to none.

[E_T_V]

For a fee (£5) and a good reason the DVLA will send you all the previous owners names and addresses of the vehicle. We just have for our police car to prove it belonged to the Lancashire force.

[TheBaldMonk]

For a fee (£5) and a good reason the DVLA will send you all the previous owners names and addresses of the vehicle.

Unfortunately the DVLA records dont cover the time previous to the first owner after the MOD. There just appears to be a blank spot for a couple of years where it was registered but nobody owned it.

All of this depends of course on how the DVLA perform the search. MOD vehicles dont use standard plates.

[e692wtt]

Peter Simpson, editor of Car Mechanics mag, owned several ex-MOD Montegos, see editions from around 1996/7 for details.

Essentially, the MOD run their own Registration Number scheme, as you say, and on purchasing an ex-MOD car as it is released from service, you are given a couple of MOD forms to allow you to register it with DVLA. But the car needs an MoT first, so you get to drive without number plates, insured on the VIN plate chassis number. You later get a V5 that states 'declared first manufactured 1989' (for example) but a later registration date. It's these 'missing years' that I guess is the problem?

It might be worth trying to get details of your car from the MOD, I am sure they have a 'Transport section'? Details of the numbers of Maestros and Montegos involved are protected by the Official Secrets Act, and I would guess the vehicle's history may be the same - and I would guess the car was just stood around for some time awaiting sale, and nothing more sinister.

The 'rear passenger lamps on swan necks' would indicate, I would say, that it was a Staff Car? And some Montegos were never really used at all (the P-regd ones with minimal mileage, although this is hearsay).

[Ed]

I have to say, it facinates me to think what these cars actually had to do. The reading lamps are very strange indeed. They have UFO written all over them!!! hehe The front passenger seat in mine has one of these lights too. I guess we'll never know exactly what these cars had to do in their all important first years, I just hope it was something top secret and exciting!

[e692wtt]

I know what you mean. A similar conundrum is the 'Apple 2000' cars... everyone seems to know 'a bit' but the full picture is hazy.

I've never heard of the 'ufo' reading lamps though - they looked 'normal' on the ones I've seen (in CM mag). I think these cars were used for driving groups of Officers round the country, or chauffering the Top Brass about. They certainly clocked up the miles though - if memory serves the CM project ex-MoD Montego had 130-odd thousand miles when purchased (1990 G-regd in 1996 = 6 years old = 22,000 miles a year average). What secrets were discussed in that back seat????? Or does that need rephrasing?

We may never know...

[Ed]

I always thought that the reading lamps in the rear would be standard type ones like those fitted to the MG Monty Turbo. I just assumed this. I was surprised to pick up my ex-mod to find that they were infact rather large boxes of light on the end of a flexible stalk. They have interchangable coloured lenses and switches at the top. I played with them for hours, they are like nothing else i have ever seen in a car, they are so Flight of the Navigator! :laugh:

I think I'll just assume mine was involved with Aliens. :laugh:

[Ed]

In case anyone was wondering what these reading lights look like, here you go. Aren't they just the weirdest things!? :laugh:

[awol]

If you think about it, Maestros and Montegos wouldve been the perfect "stealth" cars for the likes of MI5/MI6 to surveil people from in the 80's and 90's - lots of them around, so people wouldn't have paid them any attention at all...

[Austin-Rover]

If you think about it, Maestros and Montegos wouldve been the perfect "stealth" cars for the likes of MI5/MI6 to surveil people from in the 80's and 90's - lots of them around, so people wouldn't have paid them any attention at all...

Pretty much like Sierras and Cavaliers. I think you could quite easily refer to those and Maestros and Montegos as 'street furnature'. So many about they just blend in and are were accepted as the norm. You wouldn't give one a second glance!

Not so these days with fewer and fewer on the roads, and the nice ones you see really do stand out from the crowd. Not to mention the more unusual ones you see, like P Reg Montegos and Ledbury Maestros!

Good point though, for all we know, they were using them!

[MG MAL]

MOD vehicles dont use standard plates.

When I was still in the army I drove several "MOD" or Army run Montego's.

They all had standard UK Plates and registrations.

Only Military vehicles (Green ones etc) have the 2 digit 2 letters 2 digit plates.

I even drove a Montego Staff car In Lisburn(NI) when I was there, and it had standard Irish Plates.

Mal.

[e692wtt]

The ex-MoD Montego TD LX Saloon run by Car Mechanics in the mid 1990s came with documentation that included a 'Forces Registration Number' 55KH15 (I think - it was a '2 number, 2 letter, 2 number' reg no in any case).

It was reregistered, once MoT'd, with a G-registration number as it was first sold in 1990 (I can't remember the reg no but think it was G515 WEW).

I can dig out the relevant issue of CM if anyone wants more details :) .

[awol]

I remember some years ago, the MoD changed it's policy on giving normal road cars MoD plates to using standard plates, as they were being targetted by the IRA.

Going back to maestros, it was common for maestro turbos to get stolen to use for robberies, as they where almost stealth and rather fast. Can't see it happening these days though!

[e692wtt]

Round Bolton, Montego saloons were the car of choice for 'reversing' ram raids when the cars were current. Very effective, apparently...:(

[Fast Guy]

I remember some years ago, the MoD changed it's policy on giving normal road cars MoD plates to using standard plates, as they were being targetted by the IRA.


Correct. It then cost them a fortune because once on civvy plates they had to be taxed.

I was in the RAF and these cars didn't do anything special, they just tended to be the boss's transport (ie taxi).