Back in 1981, this was probably one of the most photographed cars in the world by the paparazzi. It was owned by the then Lady Diana Spencer and the press followed her wherever she went in the lead-up to her wedding to Prince Charles.
Although I never knew or met Diana, I've always had a great respect for her. Seeing the car recently at the Coventry Transport Museum made me think of the similarities that the Duchess of Cambridge faced before marrying Wills.
Prince Charles visited the manufacturing plant at Longbridge in Birmingham when the car was being reviewed at it's launch in 1980. I'm not sure if it's because he liked the Metro or if he was just being patriotic, but he decided to give one to Diana as a present.
The Metro was intended to replace the Mini but ironically the Mini outlived it - the Metro, (or Rover 100 as it was then known) ceased production in 1997 whilst the Mini came to the end of the line in 2000. Looking at the car now shows you how much bigger and more complex superminis are nowadays, as well as how dated the Metro has become...
Despite its very long life, the Metro sold well, even towards the end despite being one of the most dated designs on sale at the time. Altogether, 1,500,000 vehicles were sold in the United Kingdom making it the seventh most popular car ever to be sold in the country during its 17 year lifespan.
Durability was not its strong point though as the Metro was one of the most scrapped cars in the middle of the last decade. The DVLA back in 2006 had 21,468 Metros still on the road, just 1.5% of those originally registered.
'A British Car to Beat the World' was the slogan used on the launch advertising campaign. Despite the relative success of the car and one mad 6R4 rally bred Metro, one thinks this was a bit optimistic.
Share your memories/thoughts...
