Development on the new model, intended to succeed both the Morris Marina and the Princess ranges by the turn of the 1980s, had begun in 1977 but ultimately the new car was not launched until seven years after development had started; in the meantime, the Marina had been updated and rebadged as the Morris Ital from 1980,[1] whilst the Princess had been updated as the Austin Ambassador in 1982.

The Honda based Triumph Acclaim had also been introduced in 1981 largely as a stop-gap to keep potential buyers interested in BL products until both the Montego and the Rover 200 series were launched in 1984.

When the designs diverged, the Montego became project LM11 (the Maestro being LM10), and remained based on a lengthened version of the LC10s Volkswagen Golf style front MacPherson strut / rear twist beam chassis.

As with the Maestro, there was a high-performance MG version which again used the solid-state instrument cluster, trip computer, and synthesised voice for the information and warning systems.

The dashboard fitted to the Montego was superior to that originally designed for the Maestro and featured a rally-style tachometer, a service indicator and a representation of the car showing open doors, lights left on, etc.

An estate variant, with larger luggage capacity than its competitors,[3] two additional rear-facing child seats and self-levelling suspension, also styled by Roy Axe, followed shortly and received instant acclaim, winning the company a Design Council award.

[4] 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.

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.

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.

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).

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.

[7] The AR16/17 concepts were however abandoned in November 1988[8] due to lack of funds, and a facelift to the existing car (designated AR9) released in 1988 enhanced its appeal, which was buoyed up by both the Perkins-engineered diesel model, and the seven-seater version of the "Countryman" estate.

Car Mechanics ran a de-mobbed RAF officer transport Montego bought from a Ministry of Defence auction in 1996.

[12] Montegos continued to be built in small numbers in CKD form at the Cowley plant in Oxford until 1994, when production finally ended.

In August 2006, a survey by Auto Express revealed that the Montego was Britain's eighth-most scrapped car of the last 30 years, with just 8,988 still in working order.

Contributing to this, areas of the bodywork that were to be covered by plastic trim (such as the front and rear bumpers) were left unpainted and thus unprotected.

From about 1989 onwards, a wider range of models were imported by a new company, Rover New Zealand; this included sedan versions for the first time.

The main Auckland dealer developed an air conditioning system as an option for these models in conjunction with local specialists.