1979 Ford Escort

[Fuggletim]

Getting back to the original subject of the 1979 Escort, here is a really good example still on the road the same colour as the one I had except this is a 1980 registered car which must had an upgrade by then as it has check cloth seats while our ones (the company fleet) had PVC seats (maybe that was an option)
https://www.kgfclassiccars.co.uk/vehicles/2363/ (Check the video out)

Talking of company cars,in the early 90's BBC 2 had one of their weird but brilliant documentaries on company cars and the people who drove them and there was this unintentionally hilarious piece where a bloke was telling the "tragic" story of his company car. "I was so excited I was getting a new car,but it ended up absolutely gutting me. It was a BL Maestro.The company must have hated me. I was so disgusted and ashamed I parked it three blocks away and it was a while before I could break the news to the wife. She was so angry,that it was another week before I could bear to tell her it was a Diesel as well." Then he went on moaning about how lorries and "A Skoda Estelle" overtook him on the M1 even though he had his foot on the floor.
It was just hilarious-you really couldn't have scripted anything better. ( it wasn't you was it Richard? If it was-my full sympathy. A BL DIESEL Maestro,a real shocker ! And I drove a few Skoda Estelles in my time-it might have been your Maestro in my rear view mirror!))

Back in the late 1980s we had a fleet of Maestro’s as “Area”s cars to supplement the van fleet we had. They were all a distinctive blue colour, but if given the choice from the motor pool I got a Sherpa van! Often I just had to take what was available!

However, a good friend of mine bought a Maestro Mayfair in 1991. To be honest, it drove well and the interior trim did give it quite a sense of ambience. In a long story, I had to drive from Hampshire to Merseyside overnight and then back to Potters Bar (before collecting it again at Gatwick Airport later that day) and it was a good drive and coped with myself and the 4 x passengers well.

The Maestro, Montego (and indeed much of the 1970/80s BL/Austin Rover era output) survive now and perhaps shows how inherently bad they were. One of the oddly coloured blue Maestro’s was parked partially under a tarpaulin at a garage in Chale Green on the Isle of Wight until about 2022, but it’s nowhere to be seen now.

I had a Skoda Estelle as a cheap stop gap car once. It was a 1987 “Top” of the range model……..; yes such a thing existed!

The build quality was not as bad as might have been thought (not great though) but mechanically they were simple and quite robust. I recall one night the engine severely overheating and finally coming to a stop with a bang about 200 x yards from home. I let it cool down and managed to drive it firing on 3 x cylinders the last 200 x yards home where it sat for 2 x months before I decided to scrap it. The battery had gone flat, but once charged and put back on, I could not believe that after that time, and on 3 x cylinders, it started first time! Got £50 for it I think!

My late Uncle, who I had bought it from, bought a Skoda Rapide as a replacement which he always swore was like driving a rear engined Porsche Carrera in the context that although slower and not as prestigious, the rear mounted engine made it handle like one. Never having driven a Carrera, I couldn’t comment!

[hepcat]

I had that lengthy period of only being able to afford wrecks with no brakes which saw me buy Skoda's-for 4 or 500 I could get a 6 year old Skoda that would last me a year or two or (for the same money) a disaster of a Ford that would last three months. The most dangerous thing about them was the throttle cable which ran from the excellerator pedal,under the car to the engine. I had a couple disconnect-whenever on the M-Way I always stayed in the nearside lane no matter what just in case it went and I needed a quick swing onto the hard shoulder.A really-potentially-lethal fault. Once -on a Rapid(I still think the "R" needed to be swapped for a "V") the idle was low,so I got me a screwdriver and opened up the idle screw on the carb. Nothing. I took the screw out. No difference. I screwed it in jam tight. Not a jot of difference to the idling speed! So I just went to a junk yard,got a carb out of a defunct Skoda,plonked it in- problem solved!!! Once I thought my battery was flat so I got a jump off a mate and it simply drained the hell out of his battery. The earth strap (I kid you not) had come adrift-the worse thing was that it was earthing through the throttle cable(wisps of smoke!)!Thank God it wasn't the petrol tank!! They were certainly "character" cars-I actually liked them. The true affect they had on me was when I-much later-bought a VW Skoda that had a stop/start eco engine. When the engine cut out at the trafic lights my heart sunk and I thought "Now I've got to humiliate myself again and push it out of the way" which happened on a few occassions with the Estelles and Rapid!! I was that conditioned ! I also had a rust riddled Mini-it had a radio aeriel on the wing. I picked my mate up-drove less than a quarter of a mile to the pub and there was a hole in the wing and no aeriel !!! Needless to say I have absolutely zero car snobbery and am delighted I can afford cars that work fine!

[Fuggletim]

The Mini thing holds true! My first car was a 1964 Mini Minor. I remember reversing out one night and thought that the lights seemed dimmer than usual on both dipped and main beam, BUT on the Driver’s side the ground seemed very brightly lit. When I got out to look, I found the headlight had fallen out of the heavily rusted wing and was shining down to the ground and only held by its cable!