Billed as “The British Car to Beat the World”, the Austin Metro breathed new life into British Leyland’s ailing fortunes.
A perennial best-seller, the little hatchback was once a common sight on every street corner, but today it’s a lesser-spotted rarity – like most small cars, the vast majority were simply run into the ground as old bangers.
But there are some smart survivors, and this is one of them. Owned by an elderly lady in North Wales for most of its life, the Metro is a facelift five-door Mayfair, which was the second-from-top trim level behind the Vanden Plas. It has covered just over 25,000 miles from new and is in charming, original condition.
Being a Mayfair, this is the plushest version of the Metro other than the ludicrously well-equipped Vanden Plas and comes with smart blue-grey velour trim and matching door cards. The cabin is in excellent order, as befits its minuscule mileage, and is equipped with its original push-button radio-cassette player. It also has central locking, but the windows are still of the keep-fit variety.
The seats, carpets, headlining and luggage area are all in exceptional condition and are very well-presented.
Finished in the rather exotically named Moonraker Blue, the Metro is a very well-presented and smart-looking car with no obvious defects or damage. The original Mayfair decals are present and in good order, as is the chrome strip across the bonnet that marked it out as a posh model. The vendor had recently had both headlamp units replaced with good second-hand items as the originals had deteriorated.
He also changed the wheels and tyres, with new ‘Microlite’ 13-inch alloy wheels to replace the original metric items, for which original-specification tyres are now extremely hard-to-find.
The bodywork is largely excellent, though there has been a small welded repair to the offside rear sill below the blue paint, which is barely noticeable.
The Metro came with Leyland’s much-improved A+ version of the A-Series engine, which has a higher compression ratio than the older unit. It’s quite a lively performer and gives the Metro a surprisingly vibrant turn of pace, while the transmission is a four-speed gearbox-in-sump arrangement that is renowned for its longevity.
It was most recently serviced last year and performs as it should, with no apparent problems. The vendor has also just had the “Hydragas” suspension spheres refilled.
This is a cracking little Metro in terrific order overall, and has a superb interior and incredibly low mileage. It’s a great collector’s car and a charming snapshot of 1980s suburban Britain.
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NO RESERVE - 1986 Austin Metro Mayfair
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