Chinese Maestro / Montegos / Itals

[Guest]

Not new news I know - but I had forgot about these

And these

 

Talk about flogging dead horses

[eddyramrod]

Always worth reminding us! I'll have a Montego van please, and an Ital pickup. I love the new model name: Cac! How descriptive is that!

[ChinaTom]

The Ital also came in 4x4 flavour.

[AeroNautiCal]

Just when you thought it couldn't get worse...

[ProgRocker]

The 'CAC' model numbers on the Chinese Itals is rather appropriate. Surely they are are still not being made? With that suspension that dates back to the late 1940s?

 

Montego van looks good though.

[RedSparrow]

I think it was just an Ital body and a chassis from something else. They didn't make them for long!

[morris_ital_lover]

Indeed, it's all tucked away deep in the bowels of AROnline. I seem to remember that it was some botched chassis job with an ital shell and nissan running gear. One of the accounts of how it drove described it as "interesting".

 

Alas they'll all be gone now, IIRC in China you can't have a car over 10 years old.

[MK5 Escort]

I hadn’t forgot about these - marvelous contraptions!

 

Imagine being the owner of a company with an aging fleet of vehicles. You don't really have much money to spend and you're forced to look at the bottom end of the price scale for replacements... "Hey, you’re new car is coming tomorrow!" you say to the reps. They walk outside to find a line of brand new Ital Estates... Same story with the engineers with the vans. "You're new van is outside" you say. Dashing out of the workshop expecting Merc Vito's or something similar, they find a line of brand new Ital vans. The Foremen and those covering bigger mileages would get the posher Maestro/Montego vans, of course...

 

Was it ever explained as to why they grafted the front end of the Montego onto the Maestro instead? Machinery/parts supply, perhaps? I take it they used largely the same interiors as the Maestro/Montego too?

 

With 'copycat' vehicles like this made (or once made, rather) across in the middle east, other than other bits of old British Leyland/Rover/Austin/Morris being churned out long after they've been discontinued here such as the Hindustan Ambassador, is there anything else still knocking around or was knocking around in recent years? I'd love to find some old tooling, set up a factory and relaunch 20/25 year old designs with minor differences.

[morris_ital_lover]

 

I think this is the closesy you'll get these days. There's a strong chance I'm wrong but I think these are based on the old Leyland Titan chassis which is still produced by Ashok Leyland.

 

BMC of Turkey seemed to produce the Sherpa for a long time but that seems to have gone.

[Taff]

montego van? nurse, i feel funny.

 

Do they haqve a UK dealer? though I would quickly get sick of explaining to folks what it was

[Pillock]

Actually it's a Maestro van with Montego front panelwork on, same as the front end on the hatch.

The "Monstro"

[holbeck]

Back in the 90's I was a regular visitor to Gaydon as a suppliers representative. I remember seeing a Montego van running about. Anyone know if that was the engineering simulator for the Chinese?

[Guest]

CAC looks a lot like the Hyundai Pony, a Marina with Mitsubishi guts. SAIC began making the 4G engine about the time this came out.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hyundai_Pony

 

The van looks a bit suss. I suspect its based on some cruddy old pick up, probably a Mitsubishi L200.

[AnthonyG]

Back in the 90's I was a regular visitor to Gaydon as a suppliers representative. I remember seeing a Montego van running about. Anyone know if that was the engineering simulator for the Chinese?

 

There was one at Cowley as well, I think there were two or three.

 

IIRC they were either cobbled together out of spare bits for a laugh and used as factory runarounds OR there was a serious plan for a Montego van at one point and the prototypes were registered and used when plans were abandoned. Fairly sure its nowt to do with the Chinese.

[Morgan84]

There's a Frontera reicarnation they tried to sell here,but didn't pass the crash safety test to allow it to be sold here - its pretty much a typical rehashed plastic paradise !!

[254575]

doesnt somebody on here live/work in China?

[The Reverend Bluejeans]

Back in the 90's I was a regular visitor to Gaydon as a suppliers representative. I remember seeing a Montego van running about. Anyone know if that was the engineering simulator for the Chinese?

 

There was one at Cowley as well, I think there were two or three.

 

IIRC they were either cobbled together out of spare bits for a laugh and used as factory runarounds OR there was a serious plan for a Montego van at one point and the prototypes were registered and used when plans were abandoned. Fairly sure its nowt to do with the Chinese.

 

I worked at Unipart in Cowley in 1994, and there were both a couple of Montego Vans, and a Maestro pick up.

[ashmicro]

The Standard 2000 (Rover SD1)

 

 

 

 

Story Here

 

http://www.standardmotorclub.org.uk/car ... ardsd1.htm

[AnthonyG]

Rimmer Bros bought a couple of warehouses worth of SD1 parts from India, lots of previously unavailable panels. I guess these were pressed in Britain and sent over - I understand the Standard 2000 didn't sell according to the Indian companies ' (optimistic) forecasts.

 

Edit - just read the above link - didn't know the Indian company made their own panels!

[ChinaTom]

doesnt somebody on here live/work in China?

 

I used to live there permanently, but now only go there a few times a year.

[254575]

doesnt somebody on here live/work in China?

 

I used to live there permanently, but now only go there a few times a year.

 

how hard is it to export a car from china to the UK?

[Father Ted]

I was quite surprised how far up in the are the arse end of the Monstro looked on Flop Gear.

[ashmicro]

The Lubao CA6410 was at best "casually" put together. The high ride was to cope with poor roads in China.

[The Reverend Bluejeans]

doesnt somebody on here live/work in China?

 

I used to live there permanently, but now only go there a few times a year.

 

how hard is it to export a Maestro from china to the UK?

 

EFA.