Kiwi Maestro
Thanks to Jack Yan I end up at a site dedicated to the basket case that was British Leyland. I never knew a Kiwi provided a voice for the unfortunate Austin Rover Maestro’s digital voice warning system.
The cars | Maestro/Montego | Development story | Back from the Brink - The UNOFFICIAL Austin-Rover Web Resource
The cars | Maestro/Montego | Development story | Back from the Brink - The UNOFFICIAL Austin-Rover Web Resource
Noted motoring journalist and ex-Austin-Rover graduate trainee, Richard Bremner, related his own involvement in the adoption of this device for the Maestro: "This last item enabled me to play one of my tiny roles in the development of the car, for it was me and my boss Evan Mackenzie who were given the task of selecting the voice for the talking Maestros.”
Noted motoring journalist and ex-Austin-Rover graduate trainee, Richard Bremner, related his own involvement in the adoption of this device for the Maestro: "This last item enabled me to play one of my tiny roles in the development of the car, for it was me and my boss Evan Mackenzie who were given the task of selecting the voice for the talking Maestros.”
“Our most controversial decision was to go with a lady's voice rather than a man's, and we picked Nicolette McKenzie (no relation to my boss) because she sounded warm, intelligible and not so authoritative that she would come over as admonishing. Then again, we weren't to know how often her verbal interventions would pipe up in the early, troublesome cars." Interestingly, the actress, who starred in the "classic" BBC saga, "Triangle" was born in New Zealand - fitting for this most British of cars.
“Our most controversial decision was to go with a lady's voice rather than a man's, and we picked Nicolette McKenzie (no relation to my boss) because she sounded warm, intelligible and not so authoritative that she would come over as admonishing. Then again, we weren't to know how often her verbal interventions would pipe up in the early, troublesome cars." Interestingly, the actress, who starred in the "classic" BBC saga, "Triangle" was born in New Zealand - fitting for this most British of cars.
When AUTOCAR magazine contacted the Austin-Rover press office, questioning the nationality of Miss McKenzie they received this response: "...... well, New Zealand is part of the Commonwealth"!”
When AUTOCAR magazine contacted the Austin-Rover press office, questioning the nationality of Miss McKenzie they received this response: "...... well, New Zealand is part of the Commonwealth"!”
“The digital dashboard did indeed prove controversial, but for all the wrong reasons; Nicolette was soon found to be nagging drivers that they had left their doors open or that their engines were running low on oil pressure. All well and good had she been telling the truth, but the system had the disadvantage of being assembled by Britons and, therefore, suffered from variable build quality.“
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