Metro Love
Richard Usher, Founder of Great British Car Journeys’ response to Keith Adams’ review: Metro City (1990) on AROnline.
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My Dad had loved his 1965 Mini Cooper S and kept it for nearly a decade before buying an MGB Roadster.
It’s difficult to describe the sense of expectation and excitement that gripped Birmingham where we lived, in anticipation of the Metro’s launch. The Birmingham Evening Mail produced a huge supplement on the car which was universally seen as the replacement for the Mini which had been in production for more than 20 years.
All the British Leyland garages in Birmingham (and there were lots of them) threw special launch events to woo back the customers who had defected to Ford, Vauxhall or even one of those Japanese brands. The TV advert was on all the time and my Dad bruised by a flirtation with an ever-rusting Lancia Beta, ordered a Metro 1.3 from Cutlers of Streetly.
SHA 191W arrived in March 1981 and became his commuting car. He was very pleased with it, indeed delighted. It didn’t go like a Cooper S but it was spacious, comfy and reliable. Inevitably, when the 72 bhp MG Metro was launched in 1982, he ordered one from Cutlers and I briefly inherited the first car.
Having sold my first car: a Mini Clubman Estate and bought a desperately rotten and worn-out Healey Sprite, I was very pleased to be in something new, modern and better than my old Mini to drive. In the end, I also inherited the MG, which was great fun, as my Father went on to buy an MG Montego!
I now own five Metros – proving that the little car has secured a lasting place in my heart. These include, the very last MG to roll off the production line and a very early 1981 car with less than 10,000 miles on the clock. The later K series cars are quicker and have a 5-speed box which is very welcome and I really like my cabriolet version!
In 1983 130,000 Metros found a home in the UK and total production was over 2 million.
The Metro deserves to be remembered as the car that put British Leyland back in the game and with prices still reasonable, a good one makes a great starter Classic.
Keith Adams also has a soft spot right in his gooey centre for an Austin Metro. Read his review when he took the mint Austin Metro City available on the Drive Dad’s Car fleet for a spin around the block on AROnline here.
