Bob Stephens found G793 RGH (his third Maestro) advertised on the club website in February 2005. At the time the one-owner car had covered a mere 19,000 miles and came complete with a full service history. It had been serviced regularly and despite its fifteen years still ran very sweetly indeed, all of which made the long journey to Croydon to collect the car well worth Bob's while.

"I drove it very carefully home to Devon. The radio did not work and has been replaced with a radio/CD player taken from the diesel Maestro. The first major expenditure was to replace the tyres. I think the originals were still on the car and although they still had plenty of meat on them they were cracked and perished, so were replaced for safety's sake."

Also replaced were the cam and alternator belts, a very sensible precaution with any car where the age of these is not known. Despite its low mileage the Advantage did suffer the usual Maestro "Saggy Rooflining Syndrome" which was cured by a local trimmer who did a very good job.

As Bob's everyday car the Maestro now has a harder life with mileage now up to 27k, and despite everything that has been done so far there is still a list of work to be carried out in the future. The cars bodywork is rust free but with the exception of a small patch at the rear end of the sills behind the rear doors which will be attended to before it spreads. Also waiting for attention are a split in the drivers seat and some distortion over the instrument cowl, the latter looking quite untidy. Any suggestions on how best to correct this would be very welcome.

The photographs were taken on 27th December in two locations on Dartmoor.

February 2006