Part of Edwardes' plan was to introduce a completely new range of mass-market models to replace the current offerings, designed and built using state-of-the-art technology.

Preliminary design work for LC10 began in 1977, with production scheduled to begin around 1980 – which would have seen it go on sale around the same time as the Ford Escort MK3 and the original Vauxhall Astra.

It was a departure from previous front-wheel drive cars from the company in dispensing with the famous Issigonis transmission-in-sump powertrain that had been pioneered in the Mini.

The rear strakes on the tailgate of these models enabled a cleaner break away of the air flow round the back of the car.

The MG and Vanden Plas versions had solid-state instrumentation with digital speedometer and vacuum fluorescent analogue displays for tachometer, fuel and temperature gauges, trip computer and a voice synthesis warning and information system.

[10] The HLE model had a somewhat downtuned engine and received Volkswagen's "monstrously long-geared" 3+E transmission to maximize fuel economy, at the cost of severe performance loss.

To further improve the HLE's economy, it was fitted with an econometer and the same black rubber fins along the sides of the rear windshield as was the MG Maestro.

[5] The plastic bumpers were the first of their kind, being made from polybutylene terephthalate (PBT), allowing them to be painted and then oven cured at the same high temperature as the car's steel body.

The 1.3 base models gained reclining front seats, door bins, locking fuel filler caps and clocks.

The HLS and 1.6 automatics gained tinted glass, central locking, electric front windows, velour upholstery and upgraded radio-cassette players.

The MG Maestros gained electronic fuel-injected 115 bhp (86 kW) versions of the 2-litre O-series engine, uprated suspension and ventilated front disc brakes, colour-keyed exterior trim, tinted glass, central locking and leather-trimmed steering wheels.

The 1.3 City X added full carpeting, cloth upholstery, head restraints, a rear parcel shelf, a radio and a manually operated choke.

The range was sustained by the noisy but economical direct injection naturally aspirated Perkins diesel unit launched the previous year.

It was one of the fastest production hatchbacks in the world with a top speed of 129 mph (208 km/h), making it faster than the Ford Escort XR3i and RS Turbo, as well as the Volkswagen Golf GTI.

In June 1989, Autocar & Motor wrote: 'The latest Maestro's are well-built cars, comfortable to drive and still, after all these years, blessed with that fine handling/ ride combination.

However, disinterested passengers love the back seat, while the driver can relish the model's marked reluctance to visit filling stations.

Here's a hatchback for buyers who are really serious about the substance rather than the image – and with a price tag that's thousands of pounds lower than most of its rivals (shown in our comparison chart), you start saving even before your first forecourt stop.

Around 2,000 vehicles were produced before the company (Rodacar AD) ceased production in April 1996 due to high import costs of the components and little demand for the cars.

The National Database for Motoring Insurance has records of models registered between "R" and "51" number plates, meaning the overall period of Maestro availability, new in the United Kingdom, was from 1983 to 2001.

The tooling was then sold to First Automobile Works (FAW) in China, where the Maestro was available to the Chinese motoring market in both hatchback and van models.

In 1994, Rover established Rodacar, a joint venture with a Bulgarian company to produce Maestros at a new factory in Varna, using CKD kits sent from the UK.

[15] Two British dealers, Parkway Services in Ledbury and a company called Apple 2000 in Bury St Edmunds, acquired unsold Maestros from Bulgaria and sold them in the UK, converting most of them to right-hand drive.

FBHVC (Federation of British Historic Vehicle Clubs) tested and approved lead replacement fuel additives, work out at only a couple of pence a litre.

Muddying the water slightly, contemporary sales literature for the MG Turbo (and the owners' handbook) advised drivers to use only 4* leaded petrol.

In 1997, three years after production of the Maestro ended in the UK, the Chinese tobacco company Etsong acquired the tooling and intellectual property rights to the car.

A survey by Auto Express magazine, conducted in August 2006, revealed that the Maestro was Britain's ninth most scrapped car of the previous 30 years, with just 11,574 examples still in circulation and in working order in the United Kingdom.

The Maestro was now not only behind the all conquering Ford Escort and Vauxhall Astra (which first outsold it in 1985) in the sales charts, but also behind some foreign competitors including the Volkswagen Golf and Peugeot 309.

The Maestro was available in the following trim levels: The Austin and MG Maestro were an early example of product placement on UK television and after the car was launched in March 1983, it featured prominently in several TV programmes, including BBCs Tomorrow's World which dedicated a part of a programme to explain how the car was developed and demonstrate the synthesized voice feature.

Channel 4's soap opera, Brookside (1982–2003), wrote an entire storyline where the characters, Paul and Annabelle Collins, 'downsized' from their upmarket Rover SD1 for a more basic Austin Maestro.

Also in 1983, the BBC TV series, Juliet Bravo (1980–1985), the main character, Inspector Kate Longton (Anna Carteret), drove a gold Austin Maestro (registration SOJ 626Y) This was seen in every episode, as well as in the opening titles, from September 1983 - curiously, according to the National Motoring Database records, the Y-registered Austin Maestro Inspector Longton drove was first registered in February 1983 - one month before the car was officially launched.