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The Morris 1800 was the sort of limo of the range and a nice car and then you had the Vanden Plas the luxury of all the models
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A Van Den Plaas Allegro edition of anything mediocre would get heavily mocked as well, now we have the Ford Vignale range!
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A Van Den Plaas Allegro edition of anything mediocre would get heavily mocked as well, now we have the Ford Vignale range!
But none of them have a pseudo Rolls Royce grill glued to the front.........!
I get the feeling that if Keeping Up Appearances had came out a few years earlier, the VDP Allegro is what Richard and Hyacinth would have had instead of the Rover 216!.
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But none of them have a pseudo Rolls Royce grill glued to the front.........!
Haha, true, although Vignale do have their own unique grills. The pseudo RR grill was quite terrible, I cant even defend it like I was about to! Of its time is all I can say, and even that is a stretch. The concept was a good one, the execution less so. Take away the grill snd it was an alright product, especially before VDP got bean counted.
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How about the Austin Ambassador an impressive sounding large car but really ugly in my view with its wedge front.
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The Ambassador was actually a lovely car to ride in, incredibly spacious and comfortable. It originated as the Austin Princess if I recall. There's one up the road now and looks tiny against modern cars, at the time it was huge. I'd like to have a spin in it to remind myself how competent the modern vehicle is. Like so many of the BL range, a reasonably decent design but spoiled by lousy manufacturing practices, poor components and poor quality assurance.
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I had an Ambassador 1.7, replaced the 1.8 Princess. The concept was a good natural progression. The reality was a pile of poo.
The 1.7 was woefully lacking torque where it was needed. The strengthening put in to retain rigidity for that massive tailgate increased the weight, adding to the lack of torque, increasing fuel consumption.
It warped it's front discs with monotonous regularity and the back brakes would snatch for the first couple of applications every cold, damp morning. The handbrake would stick on overnight and I broke a thumb replacing the front, upper suspension bushes.
There was a rubber 'o' ring sealing the high pressure oil feed in the cylinder head gasket that had a short life, dumping oil over the engine bay.
The thermostat was in the coolant filler on top of the engine and would seize in there, resulting in a new thermostat housing whenever the thermostat needed replacing.
That was the BL 'O' series engine that was only ever used in the Princess/Ambassador and Ital IIRC. Had a very short life, I wonder why?
The only advantages I can think of were SWMBO no longer had to put youngest daughter into the boot to reach items in the f***hest corners of the Princess and I once got a 10' 6" ladder in it with the tailgate shut.
Edited by bathtub tom on 24/03/2021 at 09:57
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That was the BL 'O' series engine that was only ever used in the Princess/Ambassador and Ital IIRC. Had a very short life, I wonder why?
It was also used in the Maestro/Montego, the Rover SD1 and in the early poverty version of the Rover 800 (my boss had one to replace a Talbot Tagora).
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I had an Ambassador 1.7, replaced the 1.8 Princess. The concept was a good natural progression. The reality was a pile of poo.
The 1.7 was woefully lacking torque where it was needed. The strengthening put in to retain rigidity for that massive tailgate increased the weight, adding to the lack of torque, increasing fuel consumption.
It warped it's front discs with monotonous regularity and the back brakes would snatch for the first couple of applications every cold, damp morning. The handbrake would stick on overnight and I broke a thumb replacing the front, upper suspension bushes.
There was a rubber 'o' ring sealing the high pressure oil feed in the cylinder head gasket that had a short life, dumping oil over the engine bay.
The thermostat was in the coolant filler on top of the engine and would seize in there, resulting in a new thermostat housing whenever the thermostat needed replacing.
That was the BL 'O' series engine that was only ever used in the Princess/Ambassador and Ital IIRC. Had a very short life, I wonder why?
The only advantages I can think of were SWMBO no longer had to put youngest daughter into the boot to reach items in the f***hest corners of the Princess and I once got a 10' 6" ladder in it with the tailgate shut.
The O-series was a development from the B-series and itself spawned the M=series - the O-series also was used in Maestra and Montego
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Back in early 80s I'd had a succession of minis and was a big fan of the A series tuning scene, Cooper's, 1275gt, etc. After a short period with a hand Me down 1.9 cavalier, I made the huge error of believing the Metro was a natural and improved successor to the mini, so I bought a 2 year old 1.3, I'd wanted an MG metro but couldn't afford it. The thing was a nightmare, the seat broke in the first week, the brakes binded and squealed, and the points needed changing every few weeks. It burned oil too, which was normal then. A huge disappointment! After one year, I put my finger through the front wing, while polishing it. I swapped it for an Astra and the difference was like night and day!
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I'd wanted an MG metro but couldn't afford it. The thing was a nightmare, the seat broke in the first week, the brakes binded and squealed, and the points needed changing every few weeks.
You just got a bad 'un .... :-)
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You just got a bad 'un .... :-)
British Leyland were famous for their Friday afternoon cars! When they were not on strike I still don't think they made anything Monday till Thursday
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I remember going to view/drive an MG Maestro and the state of the demonstrator stunned me. In 500 miles the interior had virtually disassembled itself and the car was actually off the road due to engine failure. They promised to ring me when it was sorted and loan it to me for a day to make up for my wasted trip.
Still waiting.
Bought an XR3i and that was rubbish as well.
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I remember about 1976 3 friends bought 2 japanese cars a toyota and a datsun and a little honda and i was asking why they didn'y buy british.
We all know the answer now.
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“ We all know the answer now.”
Fifth columnists? (joking)
Edited by Metropolis. on 24/03/2021 at 17:51
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Quentin Willson discusses the Allegro in the Car's the Star:
www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wu48FVwUnO8
There's a Part Two but the quality is not good in places (the video, not the car...)
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I remember about 1976 3 friends bought 2 japanese cars a toyota and a datsun and a little honda and i was asking why they didn'y buy british.
But there was a period soon after that when many Japanese cars were made from rubbish steel. They obviously stopped doing that quick enough.
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Even when they improved the steel, a common complaint was that the metal was goo thin. If I recall correctly this even happened with the Lexus LS400 at launch, before they remedied it on a facelift.
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There was the time when BL were delivering cars without spare wheels. There was industrial action at their suppliers (as seemed always to be the case) and they had worked out that delivering without spare wheels meant that they could sustain production a bit longer, delivering the wheels later via dealers.
It's just occurred to me that Reliant might have had the same thought processes?
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I have mentioned it before, but when I was in switzerland the cars that came from BL, Rover and Jaguar were all subjected to Swissfinish by the importer and everything was checked over thoroughly, before being sent on to dealers.
From ARonline.
The Swiss Finish
Switzerland made much of the Swiss Finish programme conceived by importer Emil Frey AG. This was designed to counter the reputation for poor quality that afflicted BL cars in the 1970s and supposedly involved cars for Swiss customers being extensively reworked once they entered the country.
They typically bore a Swiss Finish badge or sticker once on the road. JT feels this procedure (something similar happened in Denmark) was a little over-hyped, with the extent of re-working often equivalent to simply a thorough Pre-Delivery Inspection. Longbridge/BL HQ was apparently not happy about the publicity given to such rectification programmes, but as Switzerland (and Denmark) were independent distributors, powerless to stop it.
Swiss sales volumes (which as elsewhere dwindled depressingly as the 1970s progressed) had once been heavily dependent on the Mini (many of which were supplied to Switzerland from AUTHI). The Rover SD1 was a car which found favour in the Swiss market but, there as elsewhere, it was held back by serious quality glitches and supply hold-ups related to strikes.
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I have mentioned it before, but when I was in switzerland the cars that came from BL, Rover and Jaguar were all subjected to Swissfinish by the importer and everything was checked over thoroughly, before being sent on to dealers.
From ARonline.
The Swiss Finish
Switzerland made much of the Swiss Finish programme conceived by importer Emil Frey AG. This was designed to counter the reputation for poor quality that afflicted BL cars in the 1970s and supposedly involved cars for Swiss customers being extensively reworked once they entered the country.
They typically bore a Swiss Finish badge or sticker once on the road. JT feels this procedure (something similar happened in Denmark) was a little over-hyped, with the extent of re-working often equivalent to simply a thorough Pre-Delivery Inspection. Longbridge/BL HQ was apparently not happy about the publicity given to such rectification programmes, but as Switzerland (and Denmark) were independent distributors, powerless to stop it.
Swiss sales volumes (which as elsewhere dwindled depressingly as the 1970s progressed) had once been heavily dependent on the Mini (many of which were supplied to Switzerland from AUTHI). The Rover SD1 was a car which found favour in the Swiss market but, there as elsewhere, it was held back by serious quality glitches and supply hold-ups related to strikes.
BL/AR operated something similar themselves when they were trying to sell the 800 series, badged as Sterling, in North America - they set-up a workshop in Long Beach, California with employees from the Midlands to rectify and fettle the cars as they came off the boat - ultimately unsuccessful though.
Edited by RT on 25/03/2021 at 13:12
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Now here's a novel idea - why not just build the things properly in the first place...
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Yes Sterling has a horrible reputation in the USA, and I think many of them really wanted to like the brand. A poshed up British Honda actually appealed!
I would love to know if the Japanese importers did something similar with Land Rover, I have heard rumours of such but difficult to research really. They certainly come back to the UK in good condition and less rattles than the used stock here (in my experience).
Amazing BL didn’t come to the conclusion that quality sells and maybe the fact importers had to resort to such measures was a sign that there was a problem. Maybe they did and were powerless in the face of unions, maybe both were to blame. Once a culture sets into a company it is very difficult to change it. A failure that will be debated forever snd a day.
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Even when they improved the steel, a common complaint was that the metal was goo thin.
That's a new one - hadn't heard it before .... :-)
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Seen a VW T25 pickup today (single cab). Can't say for certain it was a working vehicle as there wasn't anything in the back, but it wasn't 'pampered'. While it wasn't (as far as I could tell) rusty, its paintwork was a bit flat. Hardly ever see them these days.
Honestly, I'd love one for my work!.
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