Dilemma: Metro Turbo

[Sh'Eds]

Hmm, this thread has got me thinking about an MG Metro that appeared to live around the corner from me. Haven't seen it in a while, I suspect this is why:

Hope they managed to salvage the awesome plate that was on it C65 EAT but probably not.

 

I particularly like the "front chassis legs no longer attached to front cross member" section.

[AnthonyG]

To be fair, it does look a lot better than I expected in the photos, but they don’t show the underside. 

It can’t hurt to go and have a look at it, then at least you can check if it still has a floor pan.  Is it lacking some Hydragas at the back or is that just a quirk of the photo?  - looks a bit low to me. 

Beautiful shade of blue though - was that Moonraker Blue? 

[grogee]

33 minutes ago, AnthonyG said:

To be fair, it does look a lot better than I expected in the photos, but they don’t show the underside. 

It can’t hurt to go and have a look at it, then at least you can check if it still has a floor pan.  Is it lacking some Hydragas at the back or is that just a quirk of the photo?  - looks a bit low to me. 

Beautiful shade of blue though - was that Moonraker Blue? 

An added dimension to the dilemma is that it's not running right, and I'm thinking of going there (1 hr drive) to change the fuel pump. Not that straightforward as I'll have to bring all my own tools. 

But that is a golden opportunity to have a look at the undergarments and see how brown they are. 

Dunno about the colour. 'Longbridge Tears' maybe?

[FakeConcern]

My N/A MG Metro was the same colour.

I liked it to start with, but after a while would have prefered red or black or white or anything really.

I think it was Doom Blue...

[Split_Pin]

It does look nice in that colour.

But SEVEN BAGS.

As usual there's the plethora of posters spending someone else's money.

I do envy you for having that amount of money to take such a risk with. All mine is put away for our next home in a few years time.

A regular model in really good condition would probably be just as much fun, buy hey, enjoy yourself anyway 😄

[sierraman]

It’s all relative I suppose, if you’ve got all your ducks in a line, so your house sorted and your pension maxed out and you’ve got extra money to blow on a car then seven grand isn’t a massive amount but then again it’s a massive amount to spend on something that doesn’t run and by the time you’ve dropped X amount on to get it working is unlikely to be a profit on the outlay. But then that’s old cars I guess...

 I’d imagine once the interest rates start getting a gripper on people these crazy prices on what in the day were not very desirable cars will fall off a cliff. 

[grogee]

1 hour ago, Split_Pin said:

It does look nice in that colour.

But SEVEN BAGS.

As usual there's the plethora of posters spending someone else's money.

I do envy you for having that amount of money to take such a risk with. All mine is put away for our next home in a few years time.

A regular model in really good condition would probably be just as much fun, buy hey, enjoy yourself anyway 😄

To be clear - I don't have the money. It would have to come from selling my Puma plus some borrowing. But yes I do like a risk/gamble, although this (if it happens) would at least be a calculated risk based on condition of the structural bits. 

Anyway I'm now thinking I'd rather a MG Maestro for sentimental reasons: my late Dad had one. There are practical reasons for preferring a Maestro not least the additional space and less whacky suspension. 

The basket case/bran find one on eBay tat thread made me wonder: if you buy a rusty MG Maestro and a less rusty Ledbury Maestro, can you easily* transplant?

[Bren]

11 minutes ago, grogee said:

To be clear - I don't have the money. It would have to come from selling my Puma plus some borrowing. But yes I do like a risk/gamble, although this (if it happens) would at least be a calculated risk based on condition of the structural bits. 

Anyway I'm now thinking I'd rather a MG Maestro for sentimental reasons: my late Dad had one. There are practical reasons for preferring a Maestro not least the additional space and less whacky suspension. 

The basket case/bran find one on eBay tat thread made me wonder: if you buy a rusty MG Maestro and a less rusty Ledbury Maestro, can you easily* transplant?

You can. But it won't be easy. And the end result will be a heinz 57.

I also like the MG Maestro.

If I could have any MG it would be s montego turbo - red, C/D reg. Would go nice with  an SD1 Vitesse.

[Split_Pin]

18 minutes ago, grogee said:

To be clear - I don't have the money. It would have to come from selling my Puma plus some borrowing. But yes I do like a risk/gamble, although this (if it happens) would at least be a calculated risk based on condition of the structural bits. 

In that case and with the greatest of respect, you are absolutely off your head.

[face]

As odd as it sounds, if I came into a lot of money, a series one Metro Turbo is the first car I would buy.

[sierraman]

15 minutes ago, Split_Pin said:

In that case and with the greatest of respect, you are absolutely off your head.

Nail. Head.

Have a think, is borrowing money in this climate on something like this at all wise? It’s thought processes like this that keep Insolvency Practictioners in business.

[Dobloseven]

They say you regret the things you didn't do, rather than those you did. I'd say have a look.The Metro is delightfully eighties and the Turbo is the holy grail. Grogee isn't mad or stupid, he knows what he's doing and has a grim determination to get things done,see Powershift gearbox etc. Sounds a bit on the high side price wise, but a polite sensible offer might do well. Regarding the borrowing aspect, even the whole 7k wouldn't be a huge monthly payment, and if the price could be brought down a bit, and the money from the sale of another car thrown in, then a whole lot less. To me though, a MG Metro needs to be red or white or just possibly black, but that's just a personal opinion. 

[Matty]

If you spend too much time worrying about what other people think you'd never do anything.

[Sh'Eds]

Just spotted this at Heart of England show.

Thought it was the one you were looking at but it isn't. Same colour though. I like.

 

[HMC]

Lots of opinions. Lots of rational explanations.

Ultimately all of that noise means nothing, just like my opinion.

If your like me you only use these sort of threads to validate your own feelings hence if so I think you should and will buy it. 

And why not. We are a long time dead, it’s all a bit of fun in the end.

[Split_Pin]

We are not born for infinity years. And we are dead for the same, granted.

I bought my Cavalier blind from ebay, other than a few pictures which could have been taken 20 years ago, who knows. It was great fun taking a gamble and so far, I've got away with it. The difference is, I could afford to lose all of the money I spent on it, still have plenty savings left over, take it on the chin, shrug and walk away.

This Metro thing is completely different. I appreciate that the OP has his own mind and can decide for himself what the hell he wants to do but encouraging someone to sell a perfectly good car and borrow (have you all not seen the news about soaring interest rates?) more to the tune of potentially several thousand pounds is a very risky thing to endorse.

Best of luck though!

[bangernomics]

Yes. It's an A-series! That's one up from an elastic band and a cotton reel

Get it bought then Vizard.


Could it get any worse?

[Dick Cheeseburger]

19 minutes ago, bangernomics said:

Could it get any worse?

Possibly.

OP - what's wrong with the Puma? Values are only going to go one way and you'll get to keep the rest of your savings in the bank. 

[SiC]

What about retrofitting a 160VVC into a Metro? I believe they're an easy(ish) swap on the later k-series Metro and you'll have even more power than this A-series turbo for much less spend. Or even just a regular 1.6 k-series will be more power than this and a much cheaper+easier engine to buy second hand. 

[Essex V6]

On 6/16/2022 at 7:40 AM, AnthonyG said:

To be fair, it does look a lot better than I expected in the photos, but they don’t show the underside. 

It can’t hurt to go and have a look at it, then at least you can check if it still has a floor pan.  Is it lacking some Hydragas at the back or is that just a quirk of the photo?  - looks a bit low to me. 

Beautiful shade of blue though - was that Moonraker Blue? 

 

[Essex V6]

Yes definitely Moonraker - my parents had a Maestro that colour

[grogee]

8 hours ago, Dick Longbridge said:

Possibly.

OP - what's wrong with the Puma? Values are only going to go one way and you'll get to keep the rest of your savings in the bank. 

Nothing. It's basically 'finished' as in there's not much else I can do to it. 

Itchy feet...

Oh and as for those 'savings' - ha ha ha ha ha ha ha haaaaa!

[Dobloseven]

That does look a lovely slice of the eighties. Which seem to becoming the new seventies. Falklands war, Margaret Thatcher, Princess Diana, Miners strike, when there was still hope BL might come good. In my opinion needs to be kept completely as standard though,to maintain its heritage and of course value. Classic car values don't make any sense though. Six cylinder summed it up when he said the later Rover Metros with K series engines and five speeds were much better cars, but worth much less. 

[djoptix]

On 6/13/2022 at 3:12 PM, grogee said:

But in 2032, will it be £17k?

To be honest, I suspect that in 2032, any good-running-condition well-known car from the 80s will be much, much more than that.

[sierraman]

3 hours ago, Dobloseven said:

That does look a lovely slice of the eighties. Which seem to becoming the new seventies. Falklands war, Margaret Thatcher, Princess Diana, Miners strike, when there was still hope BL might come good. In my opinion needs to be kept completely as standard though,to maintain its heritage and of course value. Classic car values don't make any sense though. Six cylinder summed it up when he said the later Rover Metros with K series engines and five speeds were much better cars, but worth much less. 

By the time they were offering the Rover 100 it was laughably off the pace, apart from the old folks buying one to nip to the garden centre nobody was fooled by this point. Pretty much everyone else’s offering was streets ahead, you had the Corsa, Fiesta Mk4, Saxo, Punto, the list goes on.. Then the NCAP fail came and fortunately it was put to bed permanently. 

[Dobloseven]

30 minutes ago, sierraman said:

By the time they were offering the Rover 100 it was laughably off the pace, apart from the old folks buying one to nip to the garden centre nobody was fooled by this point. Pretty much everyone else’s offering was streets ahead, you had the Corsa, Fiesta Mk4, Saxo, Punto, the list goes on.. Then the NCAP fail came and fortunately it was put to bed permanently. 

But all that was nigh on 30 years ago. We're now in another world of classic cars, where older is better. Nobody's going to buy a Metro today for an involving drive, its NCAP rating, its rust resistance. It's only going to be going to nice places on nice days. Anybody buying  one today for strong money will have other cars at their disposal for the boring stuff. See also Escorts, Sierras, Cavaliers etc. etc....... 

[Datsuncog]

1 hour ago, djoptix said:

To be honest, I suspect that in 2032, any good-running-condition well-known car from the 80s will be much, much more than that.

Definitely. I'd predict that by 2032, a decent Metro Turbo would go for at least £170,000.

Mind you, the way things are heading with inflation, a pint of milk will probably cost £1,400 by that stage.

And £4,500 for a litre of petrol.

So, y'know. Swings/ roundabouts.

[sierraman]

People say ‘if only I’d saved that RS2000’ but factor in storage, Insurance and inevitable restoration and I’d doubt you’d see a profit. 

[High Jetter]

4 hours ago, Datsuncog said:

Definitely. I'd predict that by 2032, a decent Metro Turbo would go for at least £170,000.

Mind you, the way things are heading with inflation, a pint of milk will probably cost £1,400 by that stage.

Fuck me, I hope pensions keep pace!

[sierraman]

43 minutes ago, High Jetter said:

Fuck me, I hope pensions keep pace!

If my pension depended on a Metro Turbo to materialise then I’d be working until it was a thousand.