The Austin Metro Story

It’s 1975 and British Leyland faces an enormous challenge: petrol prices are skyrocketing. BLs own Mini which created this category way back in 1959, is showing its age. It’s too small and is much less practical. Britain had just entered the Common Market, a forerunner to the European Union, and what British Leyland needs is a class-leading “supermini” of its own to take on the rest of Europe. What it doesn’t have is the money to develop it. Video link: https://youtu.be/kduRyHBMNsY

Episode Transcript

(00:03):
Welcome to the first Big Car podcast! In eachepisode I talk about a car and go through
its history, from development, usually toits demise. In the first episode we’ll be
talking about the Austin Metro. That’s avery famous car in the UK. It’s of some
note on the continent but people outside ofEurope probably have no idea what this car

(00:26):
is. It’s a car that signalled British Leyland’sfight back against foreign supermini competition,
but also cars produced in Britain like theFord Fiesta that had taken the market by storm.
If you want to watch these videos, then takea look at my YouTube channel – just search
for the same title as this podcast - “BigCar”. In fact, these podcast are audio versions

(00:49):
of those videos that I started making 5 yearsago. Anyway, on with the show.
It’s 1975 and the newly created BritishLeyland Motor Corporation faces an enormous
challenge. Petrol prices are skyrocketing,and customers are rushing to buy fuel economical
small hatchbacks like the Fiat 127 and Renault5. British Leyland’s own Mini which created

(01:13):
this category way back in 1959, is showingits age. It’s too small and is much less
practical. Britain had just entered the CommonMarket, a forerunner to the European Union,
and what British Leyland needs is a class-leading“supermini” of its own to take on the
rest of Europe. What it doesn’t have isthe money to develop it.

(01:34):
It’s not like British Leyland hadn’t thoughtof updating the Mini before. Alec Issigonis,
the creator of the original Mini had starteddevelopment of the 9X in 1967. This was a
car designed not only to be more practicalwith its hatchback tailgate, but also simpler
to manufacture, having less than half theindividual parts of the original Mini. It

(01:58):
died under political decisions in the newlycreated British Leyland but showed there was
plenty of room to improve on the originalMini.
British Leyland took another look at updatingthe Mini in 1972 with the ADO 74 concept.
This was to be a clean sheet replacement,using all-new body, engine and suspension.

(02:20):
Both marketing and management got behind thisnew project as they expected this new bigger
car would deliver bigger profits. But in theend the project to make an all-new car was
just too costly. British Leyland was hurtlingtowards bankruptcy and the £130M cost was
just too much. It was ironically killed offon the eve of the October 1973 oil crisis.

(02:46):
And so to the 1975 decision to green lightthe supermini project once more. British Leyland
took the lessons learned from ADO74 and appliedthem to the new clean-sheet design, ADO88.
This time the whole company was united inmaking sure the cost of the project didn’t
spiral out of control. It was quickly decidedto make do with the existing “A” series

(03:09):
engine from the Mini. Although an ageing designfrom the 1940s, the A series showed it was
still suitable for a modern supermini. Toimprove it for the Metro, £30M was spent
taking modifications from existing Mini MGand Cooper variants, while doing further improvements
such as making it more rigid. This made theengine more fuel economical and meant the

(03:32):
engine could go longer before needing a service.
Another problem with the previous ADO74 projecthad been “feature creep”, each department
adding their own requirements to the projectuntil the car became a Frankenstein creation
that didn’t satisfy anyone. The team wascommitted to making sure the car didn’t
grow in size, so it could hit the price pointthey were aiming for. However, with the increasingly

(03:57):
lengthening development period, it meant thecar had to be constantly updated as competitors
introduced newer and better superminis oftheir own.
ADO88 took an innovative approach to suspension,using the Hydragas system from the Austin
Allegro. Instead of conventional springs anddampers, the Metro used a ball of nitrogen

(04:18):
gas and fluid to iron out the bumps in theroad. It was a great design, and at the Metro’s
launch it gave the best suspension of allcars in its class, but it could have been
so much better. The Hydragas system was alwaysdesigned the link the fluid from front and
rear suspension, giving a smoother ride, butthis was removed due to cost cutting. The

(04:40):
Metro would have to wait until 1990 untilits suspension reached its true potential.
The original brief had been to create a smallercar than the competition with the same interior
space. With the innovative new suspensioncreating an open, airy interior, designers
and management felt they were onto a winningvehicle. But with British Leyland’s market

(05:01):
share dropping, there was a sense of urgencyto get ADO88 into production as soon as possible.
By 1978 the car was getting ready for production,but focus groups hated the design. With British
Leyland’s success riding on the new Minibeing a hit, management brought in David Bache,
who had recently styled the Rover SD1, todo a last-minute styling job. In just 5 weeks

(05:26):
he transformed a van-like design with straightsides and an almost vertical tailgate into
the shape that launched. The team also workedon upgrading the interior comforts to make
it compete with the competition.
With so many changes, the codename changedto LC8, or Leyland Cars 8. Production geared

(05:46):
up at a new £200M robotic assembly line ata new dedicated factory at Longbridge near
Birmingham, and the car was rushed throughanother set of exhaustive tests to ensure
it was ready for the public. British Leylandemployees were asked to choose the name and
decided on “Metro”. However, once thename was announced Metro Cammell, makers of

(06:07):
trains and buses objected, meaning early Metro’swere badged as “Mini Metro”. It was launched
with much patriotic fanfare, promising “aBritish car to beat the world”.
The car was an immediate hit with the public.It quickly became the best-selling supermini,
with famous owners like the future PrincessDiana being widely photographed in it. By

(06:31):
1983 production hit a peak of 130,000 vehicleswith only the Ford Escort and Sierra outselling
it.
Fast forward to the mid 80’s and a replacementMetro was in the works. Austin Rover, as British
Leyland was now called, had been working onhighly fuel-efficient cars using the ECV3

(06:53):
test programme, and these ideas were usedin the Metro replacement codenamed AR6. The
car was larger and would use the new K-seriesengine that was in development for the new
Rover 200 series. It was to have an all-aluminiumshell to save weight and would have a much
lower drag coefficient, helping produce acar with excellent fuel efficiency. It failed

(07:17):
to make it to market for the same reasonsADO74 failed, lack of money. This was a complete
redesign rumoured in the order of £500M,and the Government didn’t want to give money
to develop an all-new model when the recentlyreleased Maestro and Montego had been such
a sales disappointment. They were eyeing tosell Austin Rover, and investment in new vehicles

(07:40):
wasn’t on their mind.
The Metro had received a minor facelift in1984, but by the mid to late 1980’s it was
looking dated. The steep angle of the steeringcolumn meant the car drove like a bus, and
competitors like the Peugeot 205, VauxhallNova and Ford Fiesta were roomier and drove

(08:01):
better. The gearbox couldn’t accommodatethe 5th gear that was starting to appear in
other superminis. With only limited fundsavailable the R6 program was started, which
was an update to the car while keeping thesame body. It received the much-needed new
K-series engine and a 5th gear, plus the Hydragassuspension was finally connected front to

(08:24):
rear, producing much better handling. Finally,the front of the car was lengthened to make
the driving position more conventional.
And so, the marketers were given the job ofselling the updated model. Since 1987 the
Austin name had been dropped and the Metrowas known simply as “Metro”. For the 1990

(08:45):
R6 launch the marketers wanted something clearer,so went with the Rover Metro in the UK, and
Rover 100 on the continent. This cheapenedthe Rover brand somewhat but helped give the
Metro a boost in prestige in the competitivesupermini category.
The new model was well received by the press,heaping praise and awards on the diminutive

(09:08):
car, and going on to win “What Car’s”“Car of the year” in 1991. Despite being
one of the smallest superminis on the marketsales were strong, indeed stronger than Austin
Rover had been expecting, and remained stronginto the mid-90’s.
There were to be no more major updates tothe Metro. Management were eyeing the new

(09:29):
Mini replacement which was to hit the roadsin 1998 and felt the car could die a natural
death. In 1995 the Metro got another minorfacelift, and another rebadging to make it
the Rover 100 in line with the rest of Europe,but this update marked the beginning of the
end. The Metro had been lauded as having ahigh safety rating when it was launched in

(09:53):
1980, but despite gaining additional sideprotection and airbags cars had become much,
much safer. In 1997 the Metro received a disastrous1-star rating in the Euro NCAP safety testing
and this report made headlines in all thepapers, calling the little car a death trap.

(10:15):
Sales dried up and the Metro production endedat the end of 1997, after 17 years. Although
it was designed as a replacement for the venerableMini, the Mini ended up outlasting it by 3
years before being reborn by BMW. However,the Metro can be seen as a great success.
Almost 1½M cars were sold, making it the10th most popular car sold in the UK according

(10:39):
to the Society of Motor Manufacturers. Itwas likely the first car many people drove
while trying to pass their driving test (meincluded) and will be fondly remembered for
years to come.
Well, I hope you enjoyed that dive into theAustin Metro. If you like these podcasts then,
tell your friends, or tell anyone really!And again if you want to see these podcasts,

(11:02):
take a look at my Big Car YouTube channel.Thanks for listening and I’ll see you in
the next episode!