UK’s rarest cars: 1983 Austin Maestro Vanden Plas – the one with the talking dashboard
Only 10 examples of the flagship Maestro remain on the road. If only the car had been better built, it could all have been so different.
3 July 2021 • 6:30am
The Maestro started life as Project LC10 in 1977. It was due to go on sale in 1980 but didn t appear until 1983, by which time it was already starting to look a little dated
In 1983, investing £6,395 in a new Maestro Vanden Plas was to enter a brave new world. Aside from the electric front windows, central locking, radio cassette player and a sliding roof, the digital facia incorporated a voice synthesiser. An Austin that instructed the driver and passenger to fasten their seatbelts in the dulcet tones of Ms Nicolette McKenzie would surely induce envy in any Ford Escort Mk3 Ghia owner.