Editing Austin Montego (section)

==To market==
[[File:MG Montego Burrells Walk.jpg|thumb|More performance was offered in 1985 from a turbocharged Montego, badged as an MG]]
[[File:Rover Montego 1.6LX 1990.jpg|thumb|A 1990 Rover Montego 1.6LX saloon]]
[[File:Rover Montego Estate Countryman 2.0i 1993.jpg|thumb|A 1993 Rover Montego Estate Countryman]]
[[File:montego museum.jpg|thumb|The last Montego at the [[British Motor Museum]] in Gaydon]]
The Montego was launched on 25 April 1984. It was initially available as a four-door saloon only, filling the gap in the range left by the discontinuation of the Morris Ital saloon two months earlier. However, it would be produced alongside the Ital estate until that model was discontinued in August 1984.

The estate variant was launched at the [[British International Motor Show]] in October of that year. The MG turbocharged variant was released in early 1985, producing {{convert|150|bhp|kW|0|abbr=on}} at 5100 rpm and {{convert|169|lbft|Nm|0|abbr=on}} of torque at 3500 rpm.<ref>{{Cite news |date=1985-05-11 |title=The Rivals |url=https://x.com/motormobilias/status/1778159165338226821 |work=Motorweek}}</ref> It was as the fastest production MG ever with a 0&ndash;60&nbsp;mph (97 km/h) time of 7.3&nbsp;seconds, and a top speed of {{convert|126|mph|km/h|abbr=on}}. The Vanden Plas version featured leather seats, walnut veneer and features such as electric windows, central locking and power door mirrors.<ref name="mmoc"/>

Like the Maestro, the Montego suffered from its overly long development phase, which had been begun in 1975 and which was hampered throughout by the industrial turmoil that plagued both British Leyland and Austin Rover Group during this period. The [[Ryder Report (British Leyland)|Ryder Report]] had recommended the costly modernization of both the [[Longbridge plant|Longbridge]] and [[Plant Oxford|Cowley]] factories, and since Longbridge was to come on stream first - the [[Austin Metro]] was put in production first, even though its design had been started after the Maestro/Montego. As a direct result of this delay, the two cars were now stylistically out of step, having been styled by several different designers - Ian Beech, [[David Bache]] and Roger Tucker had all contributed to the Montego's styling. Ultimately, both the Maestro and Montego had been compromised by the use of a single platform (using common doors) to create two vehicles that served in different size classes - a mistake that BMC/BL had made before with the [[BMC ADO17|Austin 1800]] and the [[Austin Maxi]] in the 1960s. When [[Roy Axe]], installed to replace David Bache as Austin Rover's director of design in 1982, viewed both cars in prototype form he recommended that they be scrapped and the whole styling exercise restarted; but the development cycle had progressed too far for this to be economically viable. Instead, Axe was forced to make last minute changes - so to make the Maestro-derived centre section blend with the Montego's longer wheelbase, the rear wheel arches were accentuated and plastic trim pieces were added to the tops of the doors to disguise the drooping belt line. The trims however were made from a plastic that faded quickly with age, and were poorly fitting.

Like many BL cars before it, early Montegos suffered from build quality and reliability problems which badly damaged the car's reputation amongst the public. In some ways, the technology was ahead of its time, notably the solid-state instrumentation and engine management systems, but the "talking" dashboard fitted to high-end models (and initially used to promote the Montego as an advanced high-tech offering) was prone to irritating faults and came to be regarded as something of an embarrassment by BL and the British press. This feature was discontinued after a short period. There were also problems with the early sets of body-coloured bumpers which tended to crack in cold weather at the slightest impact. The S-Series engine (although far superior to the R-Series it replaced), was also prone to top end oil leakage. Like the Maestro, the gear linkage on the VW-sourced transmissions was also a source of problems.

The Montego was heavily dependent on its home British market for sales, and in particular the lucrative fleet sector where it competed directly with both the [[Ford Sierra]] and [[General Motors]]' [[Vauxhall Cavalier]] (Opel Ascona C). By virtue of their wealthy American parent companies, and their much deeper market penetration into continental Europe compared to BL, both Ford and Vauxhall could afford to offer deep discounts to fleets to increase sales and market share. Also, thanks to Britain's membership of the [[European Economic Community]], both Ford and General Motors could import cars tariff-free from their continental plants to take advantage of exchange rate fluctuations and further undercut BL. This practice greatly damaged sales of the Montego, and its smaller Maestro sister, and only compounded the early issues with build quality and reliability.