A year of Maxi-ing

Time flies when you're having fun, and the weekend just gone marked the first anniversary of buying the Maxi. It's hard to believe a whole year has passed so quickly, so what has happened to the car in that time? It may have been overshadowed in recent weeks by the unexpected arrival of the Renault 6, but the Maxi hasn't been forgotten. To be honest, there really isn't much to report as it just keeps on doing its thing without a fuss.

The Festival of the Unexceptional was its first outing with the new wheeltrims

We have now almost used up the 2000-mile allowance on this year's insurance, which we thought would be more than adequate but quickly disappeared as the car is just so enjoyable to drive, and of the three cars we had at our disposal the Maxi was the one getting most use. That's ten times the previous owner's annual mileage and it is definitely running much better for a bit more use. Mechanically it has proved itself to be in fine fettle, as among its many journeys it completed a 70-mile round trip to Bedford and back on the hottest day of the year, much of that cruising at a steady 70mph or more with no hint of overheating.

Doing normal car things and being a mobile workshop in the Field of Dreams

Being driven like that must have come as a shock, as the elderly previous owner struck me as someone who would never travel at that sort of speed and would bumble around in fifth gear at 30mph. It certainly seemed to need a good 'Italian tune up' and is now quite comfortable at motorway speeds, finding a natural sweet spot around 65-75mph but with more power in reserve if you need it. The fifth gear is a real bonus for long-distance cruising and it is far more refined at speed than most of its four-speed contemporaries, aided by the Hydrolastic suspension's ability to soak up the bumps on today's poorly-maintained roads. It can more than keep pace with modern traffic and has never once let us down, so who says old cars are slow and unreliable?

The first show at Whittlebury just a few days after purchase

The Maxi is excellent at just being a car and doing everyday car things, so it's far more than just a showpiece. It regularly gets chosen for commuting to work, going shopping and visiting friends and family, and is a thoroughly practical classic so I'm really starting to see its appeal back when it was new. One particular occasion sticks in my mind when it switched instantly from show car to shopping car, having left a show and headed straight to Lidl where it was loaded up with shopping bags, which it can swallow in huge quantities thanks to the hatchback and capacious interior. The only problem is that it's so low it tends to disappear between the tall modern blobs and isn't easy to find in a car park - I reckon it isn't much higher than many of today's sports cars and looks tiny even alongside superminis, such is the bloat afflicting cars nowadays.

Seeing double. With a very similar car found at a scrapyard.

Despite its diminutive exterior dimensions, the interior space is enormous and even my 6'3" frame is quite comfortable in the back with plenty of head and legroom. I don't know if this is true but the Maxi is supposedly smaller than the current Fiesta yet has more interior room than the Focus. The bed capability hasn't yet been put to the test but it is often displayed in this form at shows, the comments either being "I didn't know they could do that" or "I remember sleeping in one". Not counting club events, we have only seen one other Maxi at a general classic car show this season and have never yet encountered another out on the road. Despite its rarity, parts are actually not that hard to find as most are shared with other BL cars and a surprising amount are common to the Mini, which of course has a massive following and spares availability that's second to none.

First sight on the seller's drive in the rain. It's come a long way since then.

A Maxi is not a car for people who want to keep a low profile; everywhere we go it attracts masses of attention and within minutes of arriving there is always someone who wants to talk about it. Even in the exotic company of supercars and Rolls-Royces, visitors still make a beeline for the humble Maxi as it's far more relatable and they have stories to tell about such a car. I'm amazed how many have recalled personal experiences of the Maxi, usually good ones too. We've met people who built them at Cowley, who were taken to school in them, who learned to drive in them and who had them as company cars back in the day, and everyone seems to have something positive to say about them, which is very surprising for such a supposedly unloved car.

It still drew the crowds among some seriously exotic company at Bicester Heritage

A lot of work has been done but all small jobs that are basically fiddling and tinkering, with nothing that had to be done urgently or required taking it off the road, and it passed its first MOT in our ownership with flying colours. Cosmetically, apart from a good clean and polish it has been fitted with a more correct grille badge and a set of chrome wheel embellishers, small changes but ones that made a big difference to the appearance, and several club members have remarked how much better it looks now than it did when the previous owner had it. A large cache of parts were recently purchased from the club's spares officer to make further improvements as and when the mood takes us, but there is nothing vital that needs doing and the car can be enjoyed just as it is.

Fleet shot. Maxi and Renault are not dissimilar from the back.

I have to admit that in the twelve months we have had it so far, I really have fallen in love with this car. It has the perfect combination of rarity, practicality and reliability and is a distinctive classic with enough modern features to still make it perfectly useable as an everyday car today  The Maxi really should have been a world-beater and had it been made by anyone other than British Leyland it probably would have been. I say let people continue to slag it off and give it a bad reputation, as we Maxi owners know better and it can be our little secret.