The British Car So Bad, Bulgaria Gave it Back! The Apple 2000 Austin Maestro

As a 17 year old in 1982, the maestro and montego were modern looking cars to me A white maestro MG turbo with red seatbelts or a green montego mg turbo were cars to lust after.👍

I’m from Macedonia and remember a neighbor in the late 90’s went to Bulgaria and got one of these exactly like this. A few months ago I drove by the old neighborhood and the car was still there!

Hey there, a fan from Bulgaria here! So cool to see the story about the ill-fated Bulgarian production of the Maestro. Myself I have seen maybe two of these in my entire life down here (one of them entirely abandoned and beaten up), it's safe to say they are quite a rare beast.

The fact that JayEmm can get in a car like THIS and give it an honest and useful appraisal gives great credence to his integrity and the reliability of his reviews of much newer and ridiculously more expensive cars. Honesty on YouTube... A rare thing indeed! Definitely my favorite YouTube car reviewer!!!

That was a blast from the past! 😳 I used to work for Apple 2000 in Culford in 1998/99. These all arrived from Bulgaria in Red, White and black as a left hand drive. I used to remove the storage wax from these, then steam clean and mop the paintwork, ready for the forecourt/showroom. Some were converted in house as right hand drive (as per your example) dash and pedals, but things like mirrors, headlights were forgotten about and when a customer complained that they couldn't see in their mirrors, or cars kept flashing them, it was my job to go to the breakers find Maestro RHD mirrors and headlights, clean them up like new, then fit them. You will probably notice that the wipers go the wrong way and the mat is stitched in the passenger side. O miles on a N plate, however the last handful were sold on an X plate as they had a cat fitted. As for 4th gear, I was forever sitting up on a ramp, while the gear linkage was been adjusted underneath. I would actually love to drive one of these once again, been a good 22 years since! My first car was a horrible clove brown Maestro, for £40! But to see these in 98 in mint condition was something! Great vid, interesting! 👍👍

Whilst cars like the Maestro may have been mocked in their day, I find them quite charming now and I am so glad there people out there who want to preserve them and give them TLC.

Has that...thing...got side pipes? That's gotta be worth at least 3 cool points.

The maestro 1.3L , B201 MKD in Red was my first car . Took me all round the country 91-92 raving. Never let me down!!

Many memories of tooling around in cars like this in my youth - the bit about dropping ones standards at 17 is very very true indeed! It's incredible how cool a car becomes by the sheer virtue of being able to drive it!

Ha ha I bought a brand new diesel meastro in April 1992. I had it over 10 years and did over 100, 000 miles it gave 60 mpg! I had a prolapse disc in my spine and it was the only car I felt comfortable in!

I loved my MG 2.0i Maestro, so much so that I am on the lookout for one as it's probably my favourite car i've ever owned. Yes it had it's issues (did several headgaskets and really needed a replacement head) but it was a nice car to drive, very comfortable, spacious and most importantly it handled very well. James if you are interested in driving a TVR Chimaera that's been modified and modernised (V8 devs stage 3 top end and modern megasquirt electronics) get in touch and we'll sort something out.

I actually filmed a left hand drive "Rodacar" version of one of these about a year ago. Driven tonnes of other Maestros as well, although not an Apple 2000, very interesting to see to one actually in East Anglia!

Bloody marvelous. A car most of us can relate to, unlike the top end super cars, which 99% of will never even sit in, let alone own or drive. Yup, right up my street this. A most enjoyable watch. Ian at Hub Nut will be most proud of you.

My Grandad worked most of his life at British Leyland, he used to tell me stories of driving the bare chassis of the trucks to the coach builders. They used to have to take their own wooden box to sit on, and some goggles. I remember him picking me up after school in his new Maestro.

Bulgarian here:) Very nice video, I didn't know that the unsold cars from Bulgaria have been shipped back to UK. My dad used to drive one of the Austin Maestros built in Varna as a company car for few years (think it's been 2005-2007, somewhere there). It was a 2.0l 60hp. naturally aspirated diesel, dark blue hatchback and in fact it was the first car I drove, so I have a bit of soft spot for it. I remember that the wipers were turning on when going through a pothole and the dash was visibly vibrating when the engine was at idle. But, at the end of the day, I like it, it has its own charm and even back then, it was a bit of an exotic on the road. Regarding Rodacar, as far as I know, one of the reasons for their massive fiasco was that they have had negotiated with the government a significant share of the production to be bought by the state for internal service (police cars, low level officials transport, etc.) but the numbers planned have never been achieved since the government opted for Lada 2105 - a cheaper but crappier car. But we were still defacto ruled by the communists back then...

When I was 'in the trade' many years ago I had a 1.3 as a courtesy car, with 350000 miles on it!! Although some of my customers refused to use it, it just went on and on... I even sold it on to a customer when I moved and closed that business. I also bought my wife a 2.0l efi in British racing green with red pinstriping what a hoot of a car! Finally I had a 1.3 van that too seemed just to get on with it too. The only major problem with them all was the ever present rust!

Wow this brings back memories, I had a C reg one of these in poo, sorry, Russet brown many years ago, I bought it for £175 as an emergency transport solution, one clutch and 4 years later it was still going, couldn't kill the thing. Best £175 I ever spent, really wish I still had it 🥺 It had the very brittle plastic impact bumpers fitted, I used the tried and trusted gaffer tape repair system to cover the holes up on that car too 😁

It might have been interesting to mention the China connection to the Maestro too - these cars were still being made by FAW in hatchback and van models until 2006 (including the FAW Lubao CA6410, a Maestro/Montego hybrid!) The van model was reintroduced in 2008 as the Yema SQJ6450 which was reworked into SUV-styled wagon versions - the Yema F99, F10, and the F12 in 2012 (some nice pics on the Wiki Leyland Maestro article).

I loved my Maestro, I traded in my Maxi for it, loved that too! I went through a multitude of Leyland models as my Dad was a manager at a main dealership.

Hi mate. I can't emphasise enough how happy I am that you feature all manor of vehicles as opposed to just the new / expensive ones. Keep up the good work :)