ByFew cars have been treated to as many headline changes in their lifespan as the Metro. Of course, it began life as an Austin - famously conceived to replace the original Mini in British Leyland’s portfolio - before MG and then Rover were charged with selling it. The latter transition, immortalised by Alan Partridge signified the model’s descent from genuine supermini contender to venerable figure of fun.
Nevertheless, as is often the way with practical, cheap-to-buy cars the Metro sold comparatively well, especially to begin with. That the Mini outlived it by three years says much about what being genuinely good and innovative and fun does for a car, but between Austin and MG and Rover the Metro found over two million customers. Which is a fairly substantial number even allowing for its prolonged lifespan.
Certainly it was popular enough to spawn several go-faster derivatives. The most famous was obviously the Clubman version of the verifiably bonkers Metro 6R4 that Williams had developed for Group B rallying. Naturally, the 250hp homologated car had little to do with the road-going model and was sold in very limited numbers for £44,000 - an astronomical figure for its time, but a speck compared to what they fetch now.
We’re fairly confident that it produced a 0-60mph time of 10.9 seconds, which we’re fairly confident isn’t going to seem savagely fast today. But as the vendor of this fully restored example suggests, it’ll keep up with modern traffic okay and attract all the ‘waves and beeps from motorists and pedestrians’ you’d expect from seldom-seen 34-year-old Metro in very fetching MG livery. Additionally, on a ’90 plate, it must’ve been one of the last ones built before Rover took over the reins.
Perhaps asking £9,995 for it is leaning a little hard on the British public’s affection but then again the hatchback bookmarks the start of so many car histories that it isn’t hard to imagine someone getting all giddy about the prospect of finding one in ‘better than new condition’. We’re not told what the current mileage is, although we do know the car covered the distance between Great Harwood and the NEC with no problems at all.
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