AUSTIN METRO 1.0 CITY

Year of manufacture 1986 Recorded mileage 3200

Asking price £9995 Vendor Kim Cairns Classic Cars, Snettisham, Norfolk; 01485 541526; kimcairnsclassics.co.uk

WHENITWASNEW

Price £3845 (3dr) Max power 44bhp Max torque 52lb ft 0-60mph 16.5 secs Top speed 64mph Mpg 47.5

Unless you’ve been living under a rock, you can’t fail to have noticed the proliferation of everyday cars from the 1970s, ’80s and ’90s at classic car meetings across the past decade. The Festival of the Unexceptional is one of the biggest champions of marvellously mundane motors from these eras in the UK, and since the inaugural event in 2014 it has grown year-on-year and is now hugely popular, drawing enthusiasts from across Britain and further afield. The 2024 edition is on 27 July in Lincolnshire, if you would like to see what all the fuss is about.

I’m not afraid to admit that this isn’t my go-to classic era, but it is one fuelled by nostalgia, which is precisely why this timewarp Metro caught my eye. It takes me back to being a child in the back of my much-loved grandpa’s dark-red example, scooting round suburban Glasgow, gazing at the black-plastic steering wheel and dashboard, and the grey-ish fabric upholstery. Knowing him, his was as fastidiously cared for as this almost box-fresh example; exceptionally unexceptional, you might call it.

It is being sold by Norfolk-based Kim Cairns, who states that it “must be one of the best in existence”. The Metro has covered a mere 3200 miles and, apart from a new exhaust system, is just as it left the factory: this is truly a White Diamond time capsule. On 30 May 1986 it was registered by Mann Egerton Norwich, then bought by a Miss May a few months later, on 11 July. She clearly loved the diminutive Austin, because she hung on to it for more than 20 years. When it was sold at auction on 10 June 2007, it showed a little more than 3000 miles on its odometer and it has accrued a further 200 or so miles in the course of being moved around between collectors. It comes with its original plastic wallet containing its factory logbooks, plus it has all its tools and an unused spare wheel. There’s a service history, too, and it’s being sold with a fresh MOT certificate.

Scrolling through the photos, it really does look like a new car. Even the Mann Egerton dealer sticker in the rear window hasn’t faded with time. And the brown-and-beige trim, with the wonderfully of-its-time brown-plastic dash and steering wheel, are the icing on the cake. Basic, but brilliant. It won’t be everyone’s cup of tea, and is definitely for those who prefer gentle motoring, but this perfectly preserved survivor deserves to be cherished.

SUMMARY

CHOSEN BY Lizzie Pope

FOR Timewarp condition; low mileage; nostalgia

AGAINST Will it deteriorate too much with use?

WHY SHOULD I BUY IT?

If you want to be a star at a future Festival of the Unexceptional, this could be just the thing