You would imagine Princesses are brought up on a diet of Rolls-Royces, Jaguars and maybe the occasional Range Rover. For Princess Diana, well, that was probably true, but she displayed her trademark common touch with her choice of wheels in the early ’80s, with this Mk1 Austin Metro.

Said to have been a gift from Prince Charles and now known as the ‘courting car’ for this reason, it unknown whether the Prince chose the car or whether Diana did. Certainly the Prince tended to prefer more refined automobiles, a MGC GT and Aston Martin DB6 being in his collection at the time.

The Metro was an endearing choice given its humble nature and it was Princess Diana’s public image who benefited from the choice, whoever picked the car. We might suggest it was Diana who chose it however, as being gifted a Metro from an Aston Martin driving Prince would be a tad insulting, had Charles surprised Diana with it.

Diana’s ownership of the humble 998cc Metro couldn’t have been a better advert for the Metro in Britain, which was a sales success domestically. However, the Metro did not prove to be the car to conquer Europe as it was first hoped to be, being hampered by an ancient drive train and incredibly rust-prone body. Needless to say, it didn’t save BL like promised.

Still, the Metro seemed more than adequate for Diana, being a practical hatchback with exceptional space efficiency, good fuel economy and sure road holding. The Metro never quite reached the classlessness of its older brother, the Mini, but is increasingly becoming a cult classic today.

The car now sits in the Coventry Transport Museum, just next to the Longbridge factory were it was made, where Prince Charles inspected the first Metro ever produced. By the looks of things, it still runs occasionally too, judging by the obligatory oil tray in the photo.