British Leyland Jonathan | 02 Feb 2006
Where did they all go?
According to an old saying: “There are three kinds of lies: lies, damned lies, and statistics”. Generally speaking any mention of statistics immediately sends my brain into shutdown; numbers go right over my head. That was until last week when some interesting figures surfaced on an internet forum giving us our first good impression of how many of our favourite cars still populate Britain’s roads and driveways.
The figures quoted suggest an encouraging 24,413 Maestros and 19,819 Montegos still exist on DVLA’s records. Once these are put into the context of the total numbers built by Rover (ne. Austin Rover) we’re left with a survival rate of around four per cent. With cars still disappearing at an alarming rate I’m left wondering what the story will be another ten years down the line. Perhaps the Maxi, of which approximately 3000 “survive”, can be used as an early indicator. Fascinating stuff indeed.
And there’s more! Did you know that your Gran’s Maestro 1.3LE is one of only 56 on record making it the rarest variant of the Maestro? The rarest of them all though is a Montego 1.3 Estate of which only one exists – one more than most of us were expecting and one mystery we’d be keen to solve. Almost predictably the Maestro 1.3L and Montego 1.6L as the biggest sellers are still the most common variants. The main surprise for me is that 300 odd MG Maestro 1600s are still on record (only 95 ‘S’ Series) – where are they all hiding?
Sceptical as I am of figures these ones speak for themselves. Let’s continue working to preserve and enjoy a good cross-section of the cars that remain.