Maestro / Montego Spotting

[turbo_stu]

MG EFI I spotted last year, since gone and believed scrapped

I tried to buy that a few times, even agreed a price with the bloke but when i went round to finalise the deal he'd changed his mind. That was before the concrete went down, which by the way is whats splashed up the side of the car!!

[Guest]

Hi spotted a mint maestro club man turbo diesel in night fire red l reg, it was parked in an engineering companies yard in Milton high street. Anyones from here?

[maestro dave]

On friday at 11.20 on a return trip in my truck from Kings Lynn on the A17 coming towards me from Sutton Bridge a L regd red maestro mayfair looked very tidy , anyone here ?

[Oli]

Sure it was a Mayfair? The latest examples were on F registrations.

[MartynD]

Green Park Sainsburys, Bath 12/1/2013. From Oxfordshire. Nice.

[maestro dave]

Sure it was a Mayfair? The latest examples were on F registrations.

Looked to have mayfair wheel trims and mayfair decals at the rear quarter panals.

[Guest]

Morrisons, Spalding a few days ago. Looked tidy!

[Jeff Turbo]

Morrisons, Spalding a few days ago. Looked tidy!

Nice, theres a few Montegos and Maestros round that way Greg. Like the early Astra, bit rare that

[H48HPE]

really like the Astra is it yours??

[Captain Slow]

Yup, that's Greg's current daily. Looking forward to seeing it in the metal!

[H48HPE]

those ones with the saloon boot were rare to see when they were common sight on the roads, I don't know why you would have chosen one new over a hatchback...? maybe someone knows the answer?!

i really like vauxhalls of that age

[Guest]

Saloon cars were always viewed as more upmarket than hatchbacks, for some peculiar reason, by your average punter. I suspect this was the case with the Astra. Pointless, really, but then so was putting a 'Maestro' badge on the grille instead of the Austin chevrons.

[Captain Slow]

...you mean you didn't know that young people don't want to drive Austins?

That was the logic...

[matthewsemple]

Saloon cars offer more passenger comfort because they tend to be quieter than hatchbacks or estates and you don't get cold if you are sat in the back when someone opens the boot. Citroen tried to address this with the XM by fitting an extra screen in between the hatch and the rear seats.

Some people also prefer the traditional shape of saloons but this Astra doesn't offer this because it looks exactly like a hatchback! Perhaps it was designed to appeal to Allegro owners? Or maybe it was a continental thing (for Opels) where people prefer saloons but without having to make a different bodyshell.

[Guest]

Cheers guys. I knew it was rare when I bought it, but I've actually never seen another in the same spec. They did a booted 2 door as well, which looks even more strange.

I haven't compared it with a hatchback yet, but the boot really is huge and it seems to be bigger inside than my Maestro. Certainly get fewer complaints from people riding in the back (possibly because they're not getting dripped on from a knackered sunroof!)

A bit of digging showed that mine was made in West Germany rather than Ellesmere Port, which might be why it's survived. The build quality from the Opel factory was rumoured to be much better.