I shed a few tears last week when I read that the last Rover Metro had rolled off of the production line. When it ceased production, it had a change of name to a Rover 100, as well as a few minor body changes from the later Rover Metro, as it came to be known.
When they were launched in the early 1980's, nobody thought that Rover (or Austin Rover as they were known then) could build a small car that could compete with their brand leader, the Mini, which had been selling steadily for decades before. How wrong they were, as the Metro sold by the bucketload, and made Rover pots of money, which they duly squandered on buckets called the Maestro and the Montego.
Part of the appeal to the Metro was the amount that you could cram into the back of them when you folded the seats down. As an ex owner, I can vouch for this - there is loads of room in the back, and I have carried some strange loads in mine, and in fact I sold it to someone I know, and she is still using it to this day, making 500 mile trips in it quite often. My version was the sporty MG Metro, which had the bigger engine, and the nicer interior with bucket seats, and of course, the all important go faster stripes and Alloy Wheels.
Having celebrity owners also did wonders for the little car. Famous drivers included Princess Diana, when she first met Prince Charles. Margaret Thatcher and Tony Blair have also been known to be Metro owners at some time. For Inner London driving they were ideal, being able to nip in and out of traffic with ease. In fact, Rover made a point of advertsing this when they released the new Rover Metro Kensington.
Only in the last few years have they had a corporate shake up, probably due to their buyout from BMW. After this, names were dropped, in favour of numbers, which has been a BMW tradition for years. Out went the Metro, and in came the Rover 100, although still essentially a Metro with a few bells and whistles on it. This was not before took hold of the Metro in 1990, and gave it a thorough shakeup, which meant that they could update the body styling, the interior, and most importantly, the engine and gearbox. This also meant that for the first time, the Metro had a 5 speed gearbox, which was previously not viable, unless you went to a specialist Road & Rally tuning company who specialised in building Race prepared Minis & Metros - Jack Knight was one of the first.
Towards the end of its life, it shared the same stable as the Rover 200 and 400 series, and its bigger sisters, the 600 series. Also in the range is the 800 series, with the top of the range 827 Sterling, which has electric everything, as well as a V6 engine, built by Honda, who up until recently has had a strong link with Rover, although this was almost severed when BMW took over Rover.
Some people will wish the Metro good riddance, but they are fun little cars, which, along with the Mini, had a cult following. I will be probably be among the people who will miss it the most.
Stephen Graham
25 February 1998
stephen_graham@bigfoot.com