New to the Maestro

[Hobson]

What do you think about this?

1989 E-reg MG Maestro 2.0 efi goes into an auction with a reserve of £400. Couple of problems, like spilt exhaust, torn headlining, cracked front bumper, and slightly rusty rear arches.

Owner is confident of a sale, after all, its the rare Atlantic blue colour, and is almost original. The 82K genuine.

No sale. not even the slightest bit of interest in the 'bloody Maestro'.

I walk along, offer him £100 and its mine.

Not bad for a 17 year old's first car, eh? :)

[SimonR]

Congratulations! Sounds like you got a bargain - the best thing is that the 300 quid you saved would prolly solve all the problems as well.

Good luck with the insurance ;) - take a look at some previous posts on the old forum as there's a lot of info about getting good insurance deals.

[Maria]

Welcome aboard, Hobson. Knew we'd get you eventually ;)

[tony]

have u had a price for the insurance yet ?

[Austin-Rover]

Good luck looking for insurance! I have had quotes from £900 to £2500 just for a 1.3. Make sure you do lots of shopping around.

:)

[H48HPE]

my insurance is £1050 on my 1.3 lx. im 20 an ive got 1 years no claims discount the cover is tpf&t

its the second best quote but the one for £950 i got wouldnt let me drive other cars third party only

insurance is a joke, Ive now handed over £2200 pounds 4 insurance an all ive got to show for it is 2 pieces of paper!

andy

[Austin-Rover]

The stupid thing is, that its so much easier to drive with no insurance and just pay the £500 fine when you get caught. Not that i would ever suggest anyone should do this, but its the people that do drive with no insuarnce and the car full of idiots tearing around in their Nova that pushes the insurance up for young drivers.

:banghead:

[Jonathan]

Welcome Hobson.

Yes all these police documentaries recently certainly do give the rather scary impression that there are a *lot* of drivers (and cars for that matter) on the roads that simply shouldn't be there.

I'm just about to renew the TPF&T insurance on my 2.0 EFi and it'll cost me £865 now I've earned my first year's NCB, and what a reduction too - I paid in the region of £1700 when I originally took out the policy this time last year! An interesting comparison to Andy's quote for a 1.3LX.

I use Quoteline Direct but if you give them a try make sure you go through their buttons on this site. It means that if you decide to take out a policy of them they'll reward the Maestro & Montego Owners Club quite generously :)

[tony]

i have yet to price insurance ,mg 2l efi can we as a club not do somthing with insurance,some kind of club insurance?

[Beaker]

£1050 for insurance. We got ours for £450 TPF&T with no no-claims bonuses for our 1.3 Clubman. Me and my partner are both insured, I was 22 at the time and dan 24, so both still classed as young drivers.

The best method for car insurance is to ring round and get lots of quotes.

The quote of £450 was quoted on the internet by the AA. I was quite shocked, I have always thought of the AA as being expensive.

Lindsey

[Beaker]

Forgot to say the policy, also allows me to drive someone else car with their permission

Lindz

[e692wtt]

You did well getting this car with an open mind. Re getting Insurance, as Richard Gelder says, it *will* be cheaper not insuring the car then paying the fines (what are the chances of getting caught? pretty small) but if it all goes belly-up and you end up mowing down a queue of people standing at a bus stop, you will be bankrupt for the rest of your life!

As stated in previous replies, shop around. Try 20, 30 or even 50 Insurance Companies. I struck gold with MoreThan after getting a 'flyer' on my wageslip, but they won't insure people under 20 (my eldest stepson is 18 and learning to drive). I saved 40% with a £150 excess on a 1988 Montego 1.6L fully comp aged 32 (me, not the car, quote of £290 as opposed to £500+ for every other quote). My postcode is a major problem, increasing my premiums when I moved out from my mum's (same town) by 40%, and a further 30% increase is mine for the asking if I should move 1/2 a mile down the road to a Manchester postcode. Ouch! Includes 'any other car' cover though, which isn't often available for drivers under 25 but is extremely useful should one be 'temporarily immobile'...

Well done on getting your car though!

The other other Rich.

[Dave]

Ive said it before... and im definately going to say it again:

Do you Institute of Advanced Motorists Test - or the R.O.S.P.E.R advanced test, and the saving you get on your policy out-weighs the cost of the course, by a LONG way! (I.A.M is FREE training!) And, of course, other than saving money - you may well save you life with some great driving skills. I promise you dont know how much you dont know you dont know!!

Dave

[H48HPE]

i think my insurance is bad because of where i live (near doncaster) there seems to be lots of car crime here, my cars door was ruined by a screw driver only a couple of months ago. luckily the thieving b******s pressed the horn by accident, woke all the dogs on the street up and ended up doing a runner (thank god).

even though my insurance is so expensive id never consider not paying it, imagine if a close friend or relative was killed by an unisured driver, ask yourself how you would feel. id be furious to say the least. or if your maestro was damaged and you couldnt clame? what would you feel like then?

for what its worth in my eyes uninsured drivers are scum.

ill get of my high horse now!

andy

[Hobson]

Originally posted by Maria
Welcome aboard, Hobson. Knew we'd get you eventually ;)
:D Totally right!

Thanks for the welcome everyone. :)

I haven't taken my test yet, as I'm still learning to drive. Theres no way that I'll ever drive without insurance. Ever.

So far, best quote I have had is for £1500, TPFT, with an excess of £600. :rolleyes: I think that was from Lloyds TSB (My dad is going to sort it for me...), but I'll certainly try to get cheaper.

Just a couple of quick questions, my drivers door lock is kind of rusty, and the barrel slightly turns when you put the key in. How much would getting both the front doors de-locked cost? Whats involved in the job etc?

Also, did ARG have an immobliser as an orginal option? Lloyds TSB give a discount for one, but I don't know what make the one I have is.
You disarm it by using a little missile shaped plastic thing, pressed into a red LED just above the igintion. Then you put the ignition key in and start it up. It arms itself when you remove the ignition key. Anyone heard of anything remotely similar?

Thanks BTW! :cool:

[e692wtt]

It's R.O.S.P.A. (more correctly RoSPA) Royal Society for the Prevention of Accidents, not R.O.S.P.E.R. Sorry, very sad, I know...

The problem with extra driving qualifications like this is 'diploma fever', ie someone thinks "I'm an IAM driver, I passed their test, I'm a good driver" to the exclusion of actually driving how they were shown to drive the IAM way.
These people are dangerous and I've had runnings in with a few of them, many years ago (eg moped driver driving up the road, but forgotten to cancel their left indicator [they don't self-cancel, which is no excuse, but...] so IAM driver pulls out in front of the moped causing an accident. This happened to me. Driver's reply? "you were indicating left!". Advanced driving tells us that it's the front wheel(s) of a vehicle that turn it, not a flashing orange light... but she's an IAM driver so it's not her fault etc... it was adjudged to be her fault in Court).

THAT's the problem.

Go to your local bookshop and ask them to order a book called "Very Advanced Driving" by A. Tom Topper. It's not an IAM or RoSPA book, but it has a lot of good info, even the basics like 'planning ahead' which isn't really taught in driving lessons. It's a couple of quid, published by "Right Way Books", and the same chap also wrote a book about "Learning To Drive" which is also worth a look.

If you are taking tests to reduce your insurance costs, ask if you are doing the tests for the right reason...

The other other Rich.

[Dave]

Hmm... i can honestly say i dont suffer from diploma fever - i feel my driving has improved greatly due to IAM, still room for improvement but nobodies perfect. They can teach you to anticipate and read the road like you are psychic - something you cant learn from a book.

And anyway - not many insurance brokers offer a discount for reading books. ;)
Dave

[Liam]

Sorry, just to clarify, did you mean I.A.M training is FREE? So you get FREE training AND reduced insurance premiums? Sounds too good to be true. Who actually funds the I.A.M course? Being a student I have no money but the sound of a free course sounds interesting or am I miss understanding?

Cheers,

Liam.

[Dave]

£45 for the test, £15/year to be a member of your local IAM Branch (inc monthly mag and card etc). Free training. I saved nearlt £400 on first premium.

Dave

[Jonathan]

Try their website for more information including details of your nearest local group http://www.iam.org.uk

It's something I've often considered having a go at purely out of curiousity, but never really get the time. Even though there's nothing to lose except £45 the thought of another driving test is offputting too (I had a bad experience the first time around, and the second, and the third/fourth!!)

[matthewsemple]

Originally posted by Hobson
:D Just a couple of quick questions, my drivers door lock is kind of rusty, and the barrel slightly turns when you put the key in. How much would getting both the front doors de-locked cost? Whats involved in the job etc?

Also, did ARG have an immobliser as an orginal option?


Hello,

I have had all three MG Maestros (1600, 2.0i and Turbo) and I can confirm that none were fitted with an immoboliser at the factory. My 1990 Turbo has a dealer fit immobiliser which is very primitive and nothing like the one you describe.

A self-arming immobiliser with a flashing LED and fob like the one you describe sounds like a more modern one than your 1988 car. In fact it sounds similar to the Toad immobiliser I had fitted to my MG1600 in 2001. You should get your insurance comapny to give you a discount for having this fitted - tell them its a Thatchem Category 2 immobiliser (which it prabably is) and they knock about 5% - 10% off your premium.

Getting your car delocked will involve some work at a bodyshop to fill the holes and repray the area the lock used to occupy. However the most expensive part wll be the fitting of a remote contol alarm system so that you can unlock the car without a key. Unless you know someone who will do this work for you I wold estimate £300 at the very least, probably more.

The fact Lloyds TSB asked you if the car has a factory fitted immobiliser just means than someone in a call centre was reading off a list of questions they ask everyone. In my experience insurance company employees don't know much about cars and their databases are innacurate.

For example I often get asked if my car is a "Turbo EFi" when I get insurance. I patiently explain it is just a Turbo not an EFi and they say "EFi or Turbo EFi" because they have a drop down box with two options and they are not allowed to type in adhoc details. So I usually agree to "Turbo EFi" even though a blind man on a galloping horse could spot the massive SU carburretor under the engine!

And finally, there are insurance companies that specialise in young drivers with fast cars. They will quote absolutely anyone and because they are used to quoting for 17 year-olds with Subura Imprezas who live in Moss Side and have 9 points on their licence, your MG Maestro will appear a safe bet. They won't even consider it to be a Hot Hatch. You'll find these companies in the back of magazines like Fast Car and Revs.

Hope this helps, Matthew.

PS Could you send me a picture of your car to put on my website? matthewsemple@hotmail.com (I have a picture of an F-reg EFI in Atlantic Blue which yours could go next to)

[MaestroMatt]

Everyone is right about insurance - shop around until you can take it no more and you will almost certainly find a reasonable quote - I have found that all quotes are in the same region then suddenly you get a much cheaper one for no good reason! When I had less NCB, Dial Direct were the cheapest by far. Now I have 3yrs NCB, I have got fully comp on my 1.6VP for less than £350 which is well under half the price that insuring my 1.3L for the first time was! If you have only just passed your test then doing Pass Plus will knock a fair bit off your premium if you don't fancy IAM.

[Hobson]

Originally posted by matthewsemple

A self-arming immobiliser with a flashing LED and fob like the one you describe sounds like a more modern one than your 1988 car. In fact it sounds similar to the Toad immobiliser I had fitted to my MG1600 in 2001.


Is there some sort of box of tricks under the bonnet where I can see if I can find a manufacturers logo or similar?

PS Could you send me a picture of your car to put on my website? matthewsemple@hotmail.com (I have a picture of an F-reg EFI in Atlantic Blue which yours could go next to)

Sure, I'll see if I can get some time to go visit my car... :)
(Its stored at a relatives house, about 4 miles away until I pass my test!) Any particluar angles?

[matthewsemple]

Originally posted by tony
i have yet to price insurance ,mg 2l efi can we as a club not do somthing with insurance,some kind of club insurance?

Chris Knott do reduced insurance if you say you are a member of the MGM Group (even if you are not) but Carole Nash is even cheaper and they give reduced premiums for anyone who is a member of any owners' club. They are not even interested in which club!

I paid £360 for Fully Comprehensive for my MG Maestro Turbo (group 16) I am 27 yrs old and I live in Bristol (BS4 postcode). that's for a classic car policy - normal insurnace would cost me £500 -£600

Both Carole Nash and Chris Knott have websites - not sure of the URLs but Google will find them

[matthewsemple]

Originally posted by Hobson
Is there some sort of box of tricks under the bonnet where I can see if I can find a manufacturers logo or similar?

Sure, I'll see if I can get some time to go visit my car... :)
(Its stored at a relatives house, about 4 miles away until I pass my test!) Any particluar angles?

Unfortunately immobilisers are pretty invisible without pulling out the dash. It is alarms that tend to have boxes under the bonnet that house the siren. Does the fob itself not have any logo/brand name on it? Has the previous owner put any stickers in the windows?

Take you pictures from any angle you like - the more interesting th e better!

[Hobson]

The fob is literally in the shape on a missile. No logos anywhere... :(

There are loads on security stickers in the windows (1-2 on EACH!), but none say the brand. I had to take the Wolverhampton Wanderers sticker off first though... I'm a Southampton fan!

I'll see if I can find some time to and see the car, I'm up to my eyeballs with AS revision. Don't be too surprised if it takes months... :rolleyes:

[Dave]

Oh no.... a southampton fan.... i've had trouble with you type before!

;)

[Hobson]

:D