Today in ‘In the Wild’ we have a wonderfully original Austin Metro. A modest Brit that you saw quite often here in his time, but has been worth a second look for a while now. It looks like the Metro is still being used for what it was intended: unpretentious and cheap transport in urban areas.
Where Volkswagen tried to continue the success of the Beetle in a modern way with the Golf, Austin made that attempt with the Metro as a contemporary Mini. Both parent company British Leyland and the British car industry in general were very keen to produce a real sales hit again, so in 1980 the Metro was put forward with high expectations. The design was smart and modern (hydragas suspension!), only the technology was a bit in the way of the Metro. It was not as refined as that of direct competitors, because for that Austin reached for the basics of the tried-and-tested but outdated powertrains of the Mini.
The result was that the Metro underperformed and was also quite noisy. This, combined with the mediocre British build quality and the fairly high price, made it difficult for the Metro outside its home country. In the Netherlands, the Metro therefore did not go further than relatively modest sales numbers of no more than 2,000 per year in the beginning, to just over 1,000 at the end in 1990. The successor, the Metro-based Rover 100, could, despite its Firmly refreshed design and newer engines can no longer turn the tide.
Although you could still regularly bump into an Austin Metro in the 80s and 90s, they quickly disappeared from the streets after that. Today, according to our records, there are only a few dozen left. This gray one is one of them. AutoWeek reader Koen Smit saw him in his natural habitat, loaded with groceries in a parking lot at a supermarket. It seems that this Metro is still used daily for much-needed rides and that makes us happy. If it had belonged to an enthusiast, the Austin would probably just have looked a little neater, so that makes it extra special that someone decided to buy this little Brit two years ago. We hope he gets the love he needs. In any case, the fresh MOT is an encouraging sign that the Metro can handle it for a while.
– Thanks for information from Autoweek.nl