It's not fast. It's not quiet. It's not modern. What it is though, is a bona fide British classic, one of the most honest driving experiences you can still have on New Zealand roads. The MGB GT is an iconic car that is easy to drive, surprisingly sprightly as you feel the power build from low down revs, and is virtually guaranteed to get people smiling and talking wherever it goes. Condition inside and out is superb, and has reliably covered thousands of trouble free km. Being a hatchback it's also surprisingly practical for luggage and boy does that exhaust note sound tasty! 

From $140 per day or less, short throw gear stick close at hand, the rorty sports exhaust burbling behind you, and sparkling 70s Rostyles ready to roll, you feel like getting carried away in a spirited, involving drive. The 1800cc engine with twin carbs has plenty of pulling power for getting you up those twisty mountain roads, and sitting so low to the ground with your legs stretched out in front of you gives a feeling normally reserved for going far faster. Or you could proceed in a more civilised manner with a leisurely cruise in overdrive, pootling around without disturbing the contents of the picnic basket, just enjoying the admiring glances and the stunning scenery. Either way, it'll be serious sports car hire fun!

Not being able to wipe the smile off your face? You're likely to appear in quite a few photos and find strangers smiling and wanting a chat! OK the ride is somewhat unrefined and bouncy, you are low down in a little car, and you won't exactly hear a pin drop inside at full tilt with the windows open, with quite a few creaks at any speed. You'll also need to adapt your driving style to cope without power steering, ABS brakes or other modern safety aids, and you certainly can't drive it with 'one finger' - it's an involved always hands on driving experience. The heating is somewhat parsimonious, and for overnight starts from cold you'll need to use the manual choke and possibly cope with some 'exuberance' when it's on, and hesitations when it's not quite set right, but that's pretty easy to work out, and all part of the classic experience.

A key thing is one size doesn't fit all. Although the seats aren't saggy, it definitely won't be as comfortable as modern cars. The big fixed steering wheel plus basic seat adjustment with cosy seat size means if you're a little on the large side and/or long in the leg, you may struggle to fit comfortably or operate the controls safely, and folk over 6'2" probably can't fit at all. In other words, you'll need to feel OK driving an older classic that can have a few foibles but that's all part of the adventure. Overall, she's pretty easy to drive with a reasonably light clutch - but you will need to be able to translate the miles per hour on the speedo into kilometers per hour, (we give you some visual aids on the dial).

Any car can have problems, and older cars probably have less to go wrong with them than their modern equivalents in the first place. "Didn't miss a beat" has appeared many times in our happy customers comments. This one's done thousands of kilometers of trouble free motoring, including a couple of 12 day 2000km+ South Island road trips, and in over 60 hires has had just two failures to proceed. In the unlikely event of issues, you do have roadside assistance included.

Mainly original, the BGT has had several useful updates including to the seat belts, rear safety brake light, battery and cooling system. She's regularly serviced and has to pass the Certificate of Fitness (CoF) test required for rental cars every 6 months. Please be aware though, that this is a 50+ year old car without ABS, traction control etc so the only real driver safety aid is you, the driver, and whilst good for its day, the car has nothing like the crash protection offered by modern cars. She's very capable of keeping up with modern traffic and climbing big hills without losing speed though!

Pretty pampered. Whilst she's not concours with some paint cracking in parts, she's certainly not down at heel. Inside, the seats and door linings have been re-covered with period headrests added, the seats don't sag, all the dials work and the dashboard still sports it's fully covered speckled black metallic finish, setting off the original all working chrome rimmed dials. Outside, you'll need sunnies in our typical Nelson weather to admire her paintwork and acres of chrome, including the exhaust tail pipe which sets it all off nicely.

A surprising amount - 1 large suitcase and 2 medium holdalls can be easily swallowed by the hatch and the rear bench seat can take more, but piling it up too much can eat into your rear vision. Please refer to the Seating & Luggage tab above for exact dimensions but note she's strictly a 2 seater.

At a midlife crisis point seven years into its lifecycle, our 1972 BGT, (or is it B GT?), was one of the few variants fitted with the recessed grille and rare overdrive, which acted as an electronic 5th and indeed 6th gear, (it could be engaged whilst in 3rd or 4th physical gears). Costing just $3,000 nzd when new, roughly $43,000 in todays money, it was marketed as well, something of which the previous generation would not approve, its slightly racy character matched by slightly racy advertising. My mother definitely did like them though, it's her old car you'll be driving....

If the MG was made one year later in 1973, there would be some hard decisions to make...but it wasn't, so for 1972 there aren't. As an interesting aside, the B GT doesn't have just one but two songs written in it's honour - how many cars get to have that?!

Now we acknowledge driving music is a very subjective thing, but clearly here, we’re right. So download, hire our Portable Bluetooth Speaker & enjoy!

Check out the rest of our classic best road trip driving tracks here and put RentAClassic on your play list… 

Just like age, you never ask a lady her top speed, but you certainly feel like you're shifting. She has no problem keeping up with modern cars, especially going up the hills, and you'll be having a lot more fun then they will!

"For people who like getting their fingernails dirty....."

"Characterful, charming and good clean fun......and that's just our fingernails...."