Show-quality MG Metro for sale

Few cars have been treated (or subjected) 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, immortalized by Alan Partridge (they’ve rebadged it you fool) signified the model’s descent from genuine supermini contender to venerable figure of fun. Suffice it to say, 18 years at the small car coalface had done it no favors by the time it was nicknamed a Rover 100.

Nevertheless, as is often the way with practical, cheap-to-buy cars (precisely the sort that the industry currently struggles to offer) the Metro sells comparatively well, especially to begin with. That the Mini outlived it by three years says a lot 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 (and actually fast) 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. Even the restomod version currently working its way through MST’s development process is expected to cost £300,000.

At the other end of the scale you get the MG Metro. This was the original attempt to go all jazz hands with the standard Austin and would eventually spawn the (sort of) mighty Turbo derivative, which could develop 93hp in its heady pursuit of rivals like the similarly titled Renault 5. But there was also a non -Turbo version, which featured the same four-cylinder A-Series engine as the Mini Cooper – ie the 1275cc motor that was coaxed to output 72hp via a modified cylinder head and lustier carburettor.

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 rarely-seen 34-year-old Metro in very fetching MG livery. Plus, 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 (especially with I’m-not-driving-a-Mini-Metro, I’m-not-driving-a-Mini-Metro still ringing in your ears) 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 (for a classic car show) with no problems at all. Anyone with working knowledge of the Metro from back in the day will know that this is a good sign.