🙂

Rolled in glitter……..

We had one when I was kid. I can’t remember anything about it except it was brown.

Here is a montage of 80’s car adverts, include Vauxhall’s Chevette and VW’s etc..

I had a Morris Ital (sort of Marina with different headlights) when I was a student. Simple engineering (rear wheel drive, carbs), dreadful styling, completely reliable and comfy. Also started rusting after 5-6yrs.

That Marina was far from the worst car of the era…

Excellent BB. 🙂

Anyone else think the Princess was actually quite good looking?

Just me?

My parents had a Princess for a while when I was a kid, I vaguely remember horrible nylony brown seats but not a lot else. They also had an Allegro at one point but things were partially redeemed when they got a Triumph Stag

I seem to remember a Morris Marina 1.4 Coupe auto in beige appearing in my life when I was a student. £400 and I was ripped off. Biggest pile of rubbish I ever owned. We parted company after a few months. But not before multiple breakdowns in the most inconvenient of places.

my mate had a marina – driveshaft held up in the middle with string

to be fair, that wasn’t actually factory-fit

Mate of mine had a marina TC which was actually not bad. Rear dampers would fade badly over the bumps though.

I feel a strange sort of affection for the Princess when I look back at it.  The wedge styling, hidden wipers, FWD platform etc were ahead of their time, it’s just a shame that British Leyland realised the project rather than anyone else.

We churned out some risible crap in the 1970s, just as the rest of the European car industry was getting it’s stuff together.  A year separates the Austin Allegro and VW Golf, but they might as well belong to different decades.  Having lived abroad during the late 80s in what used to be a marketplace dominated by BL, there were the usual jokes about British cars that were wholly deserved.

It’s easy to blame the unions and the stylists, but remember that BL cars were manufactured abroad (namely South Africa, Australia and New Zealand) and were crap there too.  A good deal of BL’s problems stemmed from the jingoistic arrogance of management who refused point blank to follow the example set by Johnny Foreigner, until it was far too late and a truncated (and newly privatised) Austin Rover ventured into a deal with Honda.

The same was true of the British bike industry – they were crap.  I really don’t understand the affection for these things – they were crap BITD – the only difference now is they’re old and crap!

There is a well known forestry manager ( in these parts ) living less than 50 yds away from me ..who still has one..not as his main car..but is always tinkering .

Beige with a brown vinyl roof ..yuk!

Possibly the worst car I have ever driven as a young rep….and didn’t it morph into the exotic sounding Ital..🤣

I’ve a soft spot for the Princess (MK2) too. My father had one for years, in beige with leatherette brown roof and orange/brown interior. HLS 2.0L iirc. Fwd, wedge shape and optional rear seat belts made it a real step forward from the Renault 5 or Amigo camper all 5 of us used to squeeze into. I remember it feeling huge and wafting along, full of camping gear off on holiday.

Only replaced by a lease Sierra 1.6 when he got a new job and was traveling lots. I remember we were all so excited by the Sierra – first new car in the family – and then I also remember it not being that great…

I once drove a mate’s Sierra GLS twin cam.  I remarked that it handled as though the front and rear ends of the car were designed by two different departments.

Said friend (who still works at Ford) replied that indeed the front and rear suspension were designed in two different countries – Germany and the UK!

The competition took a different approach…

Coolest car advert ever ..

VW took a different approach – note that the car in question is a GTI 16v, a hot hatch with stiff suspension and class leading performance – I also used to have one of these!

I thought this was going to be about what the adverts should have said about the car.

Like this….

I had a Marina. 1.8. I bought it off James Hunt. Not THE James Hunt, as it turned out. It was rubbish but in fairness it never actually broke down. It was incredibly basic and cheap and easy to fix.I replaced several rear springs with items from scrap yards.

The reason it was crap was fundamentally a reluctance to invest. Prior to the 70s BMC cars were technologically advanced and reasonably well-made. By the time of the Marina and the Allegro it was all corner-cutting. The Marina had the B series (or A series in the 1.3) engine with pushrods and dashpot carb, dating from the early 50s. The front suspension was from the Morris Minor, and the seats were from B and Qs garden dept.

The Allegro could have been a pretty car but was lumbered with a high bonnet because of the way the engine was fitted in. The VW Golf et al took the tranverse engine and front wheel drive that was partially pioneered by BMC but just developed it better (i.e. spent the time and money to get it right). The Japanese took mostly very conventional and derivative technology but just set their quality standards much higher. The ultimate admission of defeat was the Triumph Acclaim, a rebadged Honda that the former Austin 1100 customers took to in droves.

Car ad featuring the tune ‘You’ll be under my wheels’ by The Prodigy. Inspired…