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Thirty-four years ago, Patrick Bradley’s Austin Montego HL was as familiar a sight as people fleeing from Sigue Sigue Sputnik on Top of The Pops. He came this now rare car ‘last year as my dad had Maestros and Montego when I was a kid. I wanted to get one to remind me of my childhood. These cars were everywhere when I was growing up in the 90s – now there is hardly any left sadly.’

The splendidly green Bradley Montego is powered by the ‘1.6 “S” series engine’. The mid-range HL was for the sales executive who ‘likes to drive in comfort;’ and therefore merited a radio-cassette player, bronze-tinted glass, a ‘programmed wash-wipe system’, a 60/40 split rear seat and velour-upholstered seats. It was a very agreeable package and one that would surely have tempted many GL-level Sierra and Cavalier owners to their nearest Austin-Rover dealership.

And that was the raison d’etre of the Montego. Many Britons were aware of “Project LM11” long before its formal debut in early 1984; Car magazine ran a major preview of BL’s plans in late 1981. The Montego was to be more than a three-box variant of the Austin Maestro (although BL initially considered that option) but their entry into the medium-sized company car market. To that end Leyland commissioned a major dealer training film.

It is a quite brilliant picture, highlighting Robert Lindsay’s penchant for eyeball rolling, several very familiar character actors and some very 1980s suits. The script also highlights the concerns of BL’s sales team that neither the Morris Ital nor the Austin Ambassador appealed in the “business class”. Both cars had their merits, but the former appeared dated even when it debuted in 1980 while the latter remains a much-misunderstood car. As further break with the past, the debut of the Montego also marked the demise of the Morris badge on a car.

The date for the LM11’s launch had to be scheduled for spring 1984 for as Keith Adams observes in https://www.aronline.co.uk/:

 by this time the Morris Ital was hopelessly out of date and the Austin Ambassador was selling in less than large numbers, and to delay the Montego any further would have been catastrophic for the company.

One major challenge for the new model was appealing to the fleet market dominated by Ford and Vauxhall as thousands of jobs in the automotive industry were depended on its success. Harold Musgrave, the Chairman and Chief Executive of the Austin-Rover division, stated in 1984:

For the past three years, I have had to sit and take it while our competitors took the cream. Yet all that time I knew we had a real winner in LM11. Metro saved our bacon, Maestro pointed the way ahead, but Montego will unlock the door not only to bigger sales at home but also help us to build networks in overseas market.

And the motoring press were favourable to the Montego. On the 19^th May 1984 Autocar thought of the 1.6L ‘In the car’s crispness and driveability, our car was streets ahead’. They were also impressed by the ‘smooth revving way in which the new 1,598cc S-series unit delivered its power’ and the ‘slick and precise’ VW-sourced five-speed transmission. As for those sample cases, the 18.4 cu ft boot was ‘bigger than most of its opposition’.

Better still was Motor’s evaluation of the 1.6L opposite the Ford Sierra 1.6 L “E-Max”, the Vauxhall Cavalier 1.6L and the Toyota Carina II 1.6GL Liftback.:

Anyone tempted to dismiss it as a Maestro with a boot should take a closer look; it’s better than that and by a significant margin. The secret of the Montego’s appeal is not that it dramatically outshines its rivals in any particular department but it is equally accomplished or superior in all departments. Here is a car which has no basic flaws. It’s the most complete package and, at a shade over £6,000, the best value.

Such praise must have reassured Austin-Rover dealers across the UK, especially after almost a decade of snide “British Leyland jokes” in the media. From a distance of 36 years, it is hard to describe the sheer interest provoked by the sight of any new Montegos. They looked completely different from the very familiar Marina/Ital profile, the MG and the Vanden Plas initially featured a talking dashboard – and, above all, they appeared up to the minute.

Yet, for all the Montego’s virtues, it never quite managed to achieve the success that many regarded as its due. As Patrick notes, the Montego is ‘a good size family saloon car with plenty of room inside and nice to drive as well’. This is precisely what fleet and private buyers demanded in the 1980s, but sales were never up to early hopes – Keith Adams notes that by the end of 1984 ‘the Montego had only sold 34,700 cars since its launch’. Perhaps BL’s image deterred too many prospective buyers from a very viable motorcar and the final example, a Clubman Diesel, left Cowley ten years later. Today the LM11 has a loyal following, and Patrick finds that reactions to his HL range from ‘Wow haven’t seen one for years!’ to ‘I used to have one of them’.

With Thanks To – Patrick Bradley

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We have links with some of the top classic car clubs around the country and some of our policies even offer discounts of up to 25% for club members.

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