@ To be fair, in the 1970s there was not a huge difference between the top and bottom of the range. Typically a better engine and some fancier seat material. Power steering, electric windows, AC etc. were nowhere to be seen unless you had a Jaaaaaag. 😀
I Remember my dad buying a brand new White Marina VAN in 1973 Reg number EAY843L from Shipsides BL dealer on the Coneries in Loughborough 2 doors away from our tv shop, I remember dad saying had to pay extra for the passenger seat and the Heater ! It came with them but both was a cost option I use to drive it when I was 16/17 those were the days no dpf, no cat converter, no ad blue, no power steering no electric windows no air con no cruise no cam belts or chains or wet belts etc etc nothing to go wrong ! compared to my transit custom today !
Worked on a civil engineering job in the 70s and used hired Marina vans extensively. Much better than the Escorts because they only seemed to have the 1100 versions. 1300cc Marinas were constantly thrashed and if you hulked the bent nail throttle pedal over a bit, heal and toe gear changes became much easier.
The problem here was businessmen trying to cut their way to profitability. Cutting only works if the problem is waste. If the problem is poor quality, it'll only make things worse. A lot worse.
I had a 1750cc Coupe bought at an auction and found it comfortable, reliable and nippy. Later I had a SA spec Mk3 in South Africa and it never let me down. What I disliked about them were the weak lever arm shock absorbers at a time when a conversion to telescopic was just too expensive for me.
The Thatcher government was determined to destroy all the unions, and in my opinion the regular strikes at Leyland were deliberately provoked in order to render it worthless and easy to sell into private hands. BMW wouldn't have taken over if they hadn't seen some real potential. Thatcher succeeded in not only selling off British Leyland, they also decimated or destroyed most heavy industries including shipbuilding and mining, and substantially weakened the unions in the process. The days of the UK being a global manufacturing power are gone forever. Any remaining major carmakers and heavy industry are owned by foreign investors, funnelling any profits out of the industries and out of the country until they eventually fail, or they are moved abroad entirely. And then the "B-word" came along and nailed the coffin lid shut.
I had 17 marinas and a ital years back but still regret selling my GT .I loved them so easy to work on and I restored quite a few but sadly they were always slagged off but they sold well now all but history great video tom
I covered 60,000 miles in my 1300 Coupe during the 1980s. I always called it "The World's Most Ordinary Car". Front engine, RWD, four speed gearbox, water cooled. Everything under the bonnet was accessible and easy to replace.
My brother had a 1974 sedan as his first car. He seemed to enjoy it and kept it for 4 years till the engine was done. His had the 2.3 six and auto trans. It had so much power it could drag off competitors. He did bottom it out and damaged the gearbox so had it rebuilt and worked. It would spin the wheels going from first to second. He ended up selling it to the guy over the road by putting a tin of grease in the engine to stop the amount of smoke out the exhaust. It wasn't a well built car but it did the job.
I cannot believe that anyone test drove a Marina and an Avenger then bought the Marina. It just defies any logic. The only explanation is that people just bought what they were used to. The Avenger was a superior car in essentially every important aspect, but most especially in road handling where it set the standard to beat in the early 1970s. Whereas the Marina handled like a pudding.
The only Avenger I liked was the Tiger - The Mk2 Marina 1.8 HL/TC that I bought 2nd hand in 1984 was an excellent reliable and fast car - faster than any Avenger part from the Tiger - and also better looking than any Avenger as well. These Mk2 HLs were the best looking of all of the Marinas with chrome everything and plush interiors. They also had beefed up anti-roll bars and yes you still had to watch the back end in the rain but that was the same for many rear wheel drive cars back then and I drove that car fast and hard around the twisty lanes around Paisley Scotland no problem back then beating my mates 2.0 S Capri that was worst for handling. The Avenger rotted worst than the Marina did as well although that was not a problem with my Marina as I always rustproofed and serviced my own cars.
In the 70s, the British taxpayer subsidised British built, British cars. Then, from the 80s, the British taxpayer subsidised British built, Japanese cars. Now Ford want the British taxpayer to subsidise incentives for foreign built, foreign cars.
I think the Marina was the right car for the time. The ultra conservative British fleet market was dominated by the utterly conventional models from Ford and you can't blame BL for wanting a share of that market. The Marina was probably meant to compete with the Cortina, but they targeted the MK2 Cortina and didn't anticipate that the MK3 would grow in size. The coupe version was a joke, though. Originally thought to be a stylish model similar to a Capri, BL gave up half way and fitted the coupe with the much too short doors from the saloon making it look really awkward.
I enjoyed this video Tom! I have to relay my own Marina experience though. I had a 1974 1.3 marina coupe in 1982. It was truly and by a huge margin, the worst car I have ever owned or driven. Handling was dangerous, the gearbox crunched badly in every gear and a replacement box sourced from a scrapyard was just as awful. The heater motor failed and a replacement lasted 8 months. The wiper motor failed, a headlamp literally fell out dangling on its wires because the mountings had rusted to dust. The fuel tank top had rusted through meaning anything more than half a tank caused spills on bends and even without spills the stench of petrol permeated the car. There is so much more wrong it would take forever to list and I was actually glad when a big end seized and caused a snapped conrod to pierce the side of the engine finally killing off this monstrosity. I replaced it with a 4 year I older Hillman Imp and despite its own problems, the Imp was vastly superior to the Marina. These were my experiences and I am far from alone in hating this turd in the punchbowl of motoring. It won the worst car in the world reputation fairly and squarely.
So you bought an old heap of an unlooked after 1974 car in 1984 and then blamed the car for your stupidity - just like my uncle used to do and most people back then or who did not look after their cars and then blamed the car when it broke down or things went wrong. I bought a 1978 Mk2 Marina 1.8 HL/TC - an ex-company car in 1984 and it was an excellent and very reliable car - then again I looked after, rustproofed and serviced my own cars. I drove that car fast and hard all the time and had NO problems with the handling of the car because I MAINTAINED it. I was keeping that car for good but a woman drove out without stopping from a junction at lights right in front of me when my side was green writing off my car. Very few of these Mk2 HLs have survived and none in the Tahiti Blue that my car was. It is only the dumb who sucked in the Top Gear or mate down the pub bore drivel that believe it or the Allegro was the worst car in the world - I replaced my Marina with a 1980 Allegro 1750 TC Equipe which was also and excellent and reliable car that was a far more advanced car than the Marina but then again it was designed to be and it was 10 times better car than the agricultural leaf sprung designed by a brick manufacturer Mk2 Escort. The only thing the Allegro was lacking was the hatchback that it was designed for that the dumb management decided it couldn't have in case it took sales away from the Maxi which was stupid as the Maxi was in the class above the Allegro.
0 seconds ago As a town dweller, I love the narrower, quieter, tyres that cars had in those days. Why can't modern cars have quiet tyres? Car noise pollution is terrible let alone CO2 and particulate emissions. Thanks for a great video. I liked the Marina Coupé especially.
I am old enough to remember, in the US, when the marina was being roasted. However, here in the US, blame for the failure of the car was laid squarely at the feet of the British unions who sabotaged the British manufacturers. How do former Union members look on this era? Do they accept any responsibility yet?
I'm old enough to remember when the Marina was being launched in the UK. Unfortunately the blame for its shortcomings cannot be laid solely at the feet of the unions and to think so is to subscribe to a pro-industry bias in the US media at the time. Any open-minded assessment would conclude that management had to bear a significant portion of the blame with a long track record of short sighted, short term decision-making, lack of maintenance of facilities and infrastructure, class-ridden attitudes to managing their workforce and excessive profit-taking. The bit in the vid about the Minor production lines being worn out and management (wrongly) assuming that elements could continue to be used in Marina production is telling of a consistent picture of lack of investment by a management out-of-touch with what was going on with their own machinery - same story with British bike manufacturers. The British car (and bike) industry seemed to cope with falling profits by acquisitions and mergers combined with cost saving and asset-stripping rather than investment and development of new models or rolling improvements in existing ones. That's not a 'union' thing. How do former middle and higher management look on this era? Do they accept any responsibility yet? Or did they retire with golden handshakes and knighthoods like Sir Michael Edwardes, former chairman of BL?
A mate of mine bought a brand-new Morris Marina back in the day. Every time he drove it, he would hear a loud rattling noise coming from the passenger-side door. He took it back to the dealership and a mechanic told him he could fix it in five minutes. He opened the passenger door and removed the door card - reached inside and pulled out a pack of playing cards. He handed them to my friend and quipped, 'you bought a Friday afternoon car'!
In 1988 i owned a 1.8 Marina, a pre-owned purchase with 73k on the clock,, came with a recent service and one years MOT, it cost £200 and came with the caveat to not bother MOT it next year due to rust would be too expensive to fix by then. I happily drove around in it for a whole year clocking up about 8,000 miles and it drove very well, was comfortable, reliable, didn't let me down, and imo looked quite tidy for an old banger. When the year was up i drove it straight into the nearest breakers yard, got my bicycle out from over the rear seat and cycled home. It was a sad day, was sorry to see it go, but in all honesty the rust was getting a bit terminal underneath. To this day it remains the cost effective best buys i've ever had, and fond memories of it being pleasant to drive.
I owned one for 2yrs, and the only reason I moved it on was that it was uncomfortable on long journeys. I was using it for local journeys for most of the time in that period. Nothing broke, no breakdowns in that time. I replaced it with a VW Jetta which stayed in the family for over a decade.
I had a 1977 1.3DL in the mid eighties, bought it off my mum. Shortly after buying it, the gearbox broke - a circlip on the lay shaft broke, so I lost 3rd gear... New Marina gearbox (4 speed) £135, new Ital gearbox (5 speed) £185 - no contest - 4 speed on the lever - 5 in the box! I also beat a 3 litre Mk1 Granada in a drag race on Southport Beach - so light the Marina skipped along while the Ford dug itself two big holes! 🤣 It was sandstone beige (Puss) with chocolate brown vinyl roof! 😝
@@kevincraven4038 Your off your head. Ital was just a facelift . 2.0 litre was auto because it struggled with the torque (twisting Power) of the engine everything else was 4 speed man Marina and Ital.
I did the same with an 1100 escort van bought for £50, but I did slip in a 1300 motor at the same time. On the van suspension it handled like a go-cart. And yes, the Ital was available in a 5-speed manual.
They worked there and just happened to be filmed together? 3 of the most well-known 70's actors worked at BL whilst at the same time as making top movies and TV shows? MS was making films - usually scantily clad. GAC Citizen Smith and films. MR On The Buses. Barber was slightly later as Denzil.
The 1100 with its "hydrolastic" suspension was, like the Mini, brilliant. The Marina, by comparison, was a primitive throwback by comparison. It readily deserved to fail and to take the horror that was BL with them. BL destroyed everything they touched.
A friend of mine had a lime flower 1.8 TC Jubilee back in about 1988. He took me for a spin in it on a car park and I can safely say it was hilarious. Great looking car especially in that colour. When the suspension finally disintegrated later that year due to "enthusiastic" driving he pulled the TC and Jubilee badges off and gave them to me. I still have them 36 years later 😊
I only travelled in a Marina once. The short journey was in my best mate's dad's brand new 1.8 in about 1972. My only memories of the occasion was a terrible squeaking from the brakes, and various assorted rattles.
Thanks Tom for another of your excellent, well researched, objective and engaging presentations. One thing about the Marina and George Turnbull which seems to be little acknowledged is that Turnbull requested two Marinas as a parting gift from BL, then took them with him to Korea, where he established Hyundai as a car manufacturer. Sadly, for a significant time, BMC management had a policy of not competing with Cortina, which led to them being in an increasingly difficult position in the marketplace. The fact that the Marina emerged at all is actually quite remarkable. We can only speculate what the car would have been like if its creators were able to design and build what they really wanted!
I had a 1300 and 1800 marina “in the day”. Have today I liked the 1800 best. I then had an ital…tbh worse than marina. I also had a Sherpa which I liked best, a real character. Coming home late one night, fully loaded, lost both head lamp bulbs due to severe vibration and brake fade stopping on a slip road off the m32. New shocks at each service, front doors filling up with water, second gear synchro failing and core plug falling out of the engine on the m5. Then a transit😄👏
Just like today, the bean counters want the comfort of high margin cars which are low volume sellers. However, without a high volume seller every bolt and nut for the high margin cars cost more and more since the companies volume purchasing power disappears! They should had focused on the all new Marina and got it out the door in the 1970's. Having one good car selling well improves the whole company and most importantly the public image!!! Again, automotive companies seem to get some of the worst managers in the whole industry! You need strong product focused managers that are willing to step in and add cost to make the first production models have the best quality possible, then do cost reduction when it can properly be accomplished without having serious quality consequences!
"They should had focused on the all new Marina and got it out the door in the 1970's. " Wasn't the Maxi the priority of the Leyland group? It had front drive, a hatchback, excellent packaging etc?
When the marina was first launched it was a completely woeful specimen of car, early production models having been given to the press to test we returned with everyone complaining about the absolutely appalling handling this in fact delayed the overall launch as the front suspension geometry was reset redesigned and a new angle fitted to the caster and camber of the car , this was done by effectively altering the length of the top lever arm shock absorber and the small design to the front top steering ball joint . Whilst this improved the feel of the driving of the car and made it feel less like the front wheels were actually going to fall under themselves when you called and the damn thing is hard because of the lack of movement on the top swivel is actually compromised the ride in the handling hence the marina's reputation for woeful road matters .
I always understood the lower trunnions were shortened. The top balljoints were changed but that was later. I bought a 71 TC that had the original type trunnions, they were huge compared to the redesign. I'm sure only 1.8s had the recall, the 1.3 were lighter and didn't suffer from the understeer as the heavier motors did.
Had to inner wheel arches. Anything coming off the front wheels got flung behind the headlights or against the firewall. Cars of that era rusted like crazy. The Marina excelled in that respect due to all the aforementioned crud behind the headlights. My father had a 1.8 in which 'Bondo' - body filler was a significant part of the structure holding the headlights in. The colour I can only describe as 'dog s__t brown'. The vinyl seats almost guaranteed to fry bare skin if the car had been left in the sun. The front running gear became a popular upgrade to the Moggie Minor. We had also had the competing Ford Cortina Mk3. With the 1300 engine. The body would take the Ford 'Essex' V6 also used in the Granada so the 1300 engine looked minute.
With any of the 70s and 80s cars I had experience of, none of them new, rust was easily the biggest talking point. A solid marina beat a rusted escort. A rusted Hillman trumps a rusting marina, but both needed endless work. And so on.
"rust was easily the biggest talking point" It was! Why didn't British Leyland start dip galvanising cars of their own initiative, as a unique selling point of superior quality against the competition? Alarmingly, to the contrary of that, internal BL training films tend to suggest that most if not all BL manufacturing equipment was -- far from state-of-the-art -- run down and out of date! Severely lacking investment in state-of-the-art technology to produce the world's highest quality cars. :(
My Dad bought a Marina from a neighbour who worked at the Cowley plant where they were built. (Up until then he had owned several Allegros but had bought a caravan and needed something a bit more substantail with which to tow it!) It was a 1.8litre 4-door saloon and was 20 years old at the time. I don't think it was nearly as bad as a lot of others made it out to be. I agree that it was a victim of circumstance as it was mainly down to bad management and workers industrial actions. I guess that was commonplace back in the 70s across the whole industry.
I had a 1.8 Coupe, bought new in 1972. It was quick but the suspension was dangerous, despite what was claimed about revised geometry. I think that only the twin carb 1.8 actually had the better front setup. At over 80 mph all steering control was lost. It happened to me on the A64 driving towards York when I found the car just drifting towards the centre reservation with no steering control. Slowing gently did get control back, but I never tried to get it over 80mph again. When he car was new BMC build quality issues showed themselves, Firstly the clutch hydraulics failed on the first long drive and the master cylinder was replaced. The new engine was burning oil and had to have all four pistons replaced with correctly fitting ones. B series pistons were a selective fit and the ideal was that a piston without rings should just slide slowly down the bore under its own weight. The replacement (under warranty) made the engine much better, and my car was probably faster than most.
I just vaguely remember the Marina, by the mid seventies all car import from the UK to Norway had stopped up. Unhappy customers started buing Japanese instead. But I think a friend drove a mustard yellow Marina for a while, around 1983. The car was borderline free. He said that the electrical system was unreliable, water leaked in from everywhere and the car rusted badly. But the Marina was simple, roomy for the size and very easy to fix. A year later, he had a steady job and bought himself a brand new Escort mk3. German made. The Marina went to the crusher with terminal rust. It could not have been more than 10-12 years old.
All cars had rust problems back then even BMW and Mercedes and the Japanese cars were worst than most for rust - just look at videos by the likes of Yorkshire Car Restoration to see how badly German and Japanese and all cars back then rusted right up into the early 2000s. I had a 1978 Mk2 Marina 1.8 HL/TC and it was an excellent and reliable car and I had no problems with rust because I rustproofed and looked after and serviced my own cars. Most people never rustproofed their cars and most people back then and probably now did not like to spend money on servicing their cars either and then blamed the cars when they had problems or broke down. I was keeping my Marina but it was written off when a woman did not stop at a junction and just drove out right in front of me. I replaced that car with a 1980 Allegro 1750 TC Equipe which was also an excellent and reliable car - the Allegro was one of the first mass produced cars to be rustproofed from the factory but even that did not help cars back then as once they weer out of warranty the owners or second owners never bothered to keep maintaining the rustproofing so these cars ended up scrapped because of rust as well. The Escort Mk3 was a rust bucket as well as we welded lots of them back then to keep them going in the garage I worked on hence why there is so few of them left these days as well.
@@williamwoods8022 Yes, I know. I’ve owned several sixties and seventies cars back when they were just dirt cheap old bangers. They all needed patching. But nothing terminal. Many cars did rust a lot after salting became common in the late sixties. Most owners opted for rust proofing (Tectyl, ML), with various results. But the average life span of the early seventies car was still around 17 years here in Norway, only a few models had to be scrapped after around ten years because of rust. Various Italian models were horrendous, but - sadly - also some (not all) BL cars gained a reputation for both rampant rust and unreliability, and almost all BL vars had disappeared from our roads by the mid eighties, while most seventies German, French, Swedish and Japanese cars soldiered on a few years more. As well as UK Fords and a few Vauxhalls. BTW: Remember, I wrote my little story about a then ten year old car 40 years ago. Not about today’s survivors on the classic scene. And, i really like old UK cars!
I honestly always liked the styling of the Marina, and despite the simple and dated underpinnings I to this day maintain it was not worse than say a contemporary Viva or the Avenger. The Escorts and Cortinas were a bit ahead quality wise.
I owned several US spec Austin Marinas, they were generally terrible, most Americans had no idea they existed, I liked them because they were dirt cheap because nobody wanted them yet they had a bit of charm if you didn't take it seriously and didn't mind the electrical issues. I other odd quirk and maybe this was a B series 1800 quirk, 3 of my Marinas had oil pressure issues, to the point one of them, even full of oil the engine seized
Funny I never had any electrical issues with my 1978 Mk2 Marina 1.8 HL/TC and never had any oil pressure issues and neither did my brother with his 1974 Mk 1 1.8 Super. They were actually excellent and very reliable cars and my HL was a very quick car in its day because it was a TC. The electrical system on these cars was very simple so their should have been no issues with them - then again lots of people used cheap parts on their cars instead of using the manufacturers parts such as Unipart or Lucas which I used on mine. Then they blamed the car/manufacturer or Lucas for the problems/breakdowns. You also had the problem of "Clem" down at your auto repair shop being clueless about foreign cars as Jay Leno has said many times on his RUclips videos so how many problems did they cause.
My sister had an orange Marina sedan in 1986, here in Australia. I remember her showing it to me, I said "What on earth is THAT", she replied "I don't know, my boyfriend got it for me for $500". These Marinas were built in Australia, but we're never popular here. I remember thinking the build quality was obviously poor, really cheap and nasty interior, under bonnet electricals that looked like an amateur had maniacally connected everything in a careless frenzy.
I had a blue Marina. Bought it cheaply second hand. Comfortable on quite soft suspension, economical, large boot and never let me down. Certainly not an exciting car but generally served me very well indeed.
I converted a 1.3 Delux Marina to a 1.8 TC and It was a fairly quick car. The ride was great and the seats were comfortable. It didn't go round corners too well though....
We have a Morris marina and a ford cortina mk3 gxl and the ford seemed like a Rolls Royce compared to the Morris. We used to call the Morris a shed on wheels.
I had a 1978 Marina 1.8 HL/TC and my brother had a 1976 Ford Cortina 2.0 GXL and my Marina Mk2 had a more modern and much nicer interior than the Ford and was a far more reliable car as well. The Cortina was wider than the Marina but the Marina still had more space inside in the back especially. You could also open and start the Cortina like all Fords back then with any key hence why the Cortina got stolen and was written off and my brother was not sad to see the back of it - he replaced it with a 1978 Allegro 1500 LE which was a far more reliable car as well and had more interior space than the Cortina even though it was an Escort class car. Me and my fellow workmates never bought Fords as the company we worked for at the time used Escorts and Cortinas as company cars and they went through engines and gearboxes as if they were wear and tear items. We tried to get the company to change away from Ford but they would not because Ford just fixed them under warranty and because Ford sold the cars cheap to companies to keep up their sales so when we left that company and bought our own cars we avoided Ford like the plague.
The Marina was built in Australia too and was not well received by either the public or media. When it was released it seemed like it was already ten years older than the other cars on offer. That coupled to pretty bad builds quality spelled out it's doom. Making things worse was Leyland Australia's decision to stuff a six cylinder engine into it to try and compete in the newly formed light six market.
I had a 1.7 Ital s a hire car, very supportive seat, quite nippy, and much better than I was expecting. With a decent facelift (and a hatchback based on the Marina Coupe) there would have been sales to be had.
My primary teacher had an actually very attractive 2 door marina coupe - but the head had a Humber Sceptre, which I occasionally got a lift back home in. Er... different class!!! My aunt, who had fallen on hard times, swapped her Triumph 2500 PI in a beautiful navy blue for an Ital in s++t brown. What a comedown...
I remember a friend had a very well-used Morris Marina when I was a Young Farmer. My friend was showing off with his purchase. He entered a corner too quickly, and we ended up boot first in a ditch. One of the neighbouring farmers came and towed it out with hardly so much as a scratch on us or it.
I've driven over 100k miles in Marinas, a 1.3 Deluxe coupe and a 1.8 Super Deluxe saloon and found them to be excellent family cars. They were cheap to buy, reliable and easy to maintain. The 1.8 in particular had loads of low down torque and sounded beautiful when accelerating, particularly at 2000rpm where there was a real sweet spot in the sound. I found the handling fine too, no worse than many other 70s cars.
I learned to drive in one; my father had them as company cars for many years. Changing gear felt like stirring custard, but they used to drive from Plymouth to Aberdeen, all 630 miles, in one day with no problem. Try that today!
I loved my Marina, I once had 8 people inside the car and 3 in the boot when I was at college, the diff went not long after... I got a new diff off a Post Office Marina van.
Good to reminisce. The audio description is good but I find most of the video a distraction - adverts and sections with well-known actors (from the day), repeated and often adding nothing to the real story. Insofar as the cars go, my dad (a motor mechanic) owned several Marinas over the years and always liked them. A good basic car that was easy to maintain. I owned a couple, too - a 1700 estate version and a saloon (an Ital, used by my wife). Spares were easy to source, and cheap. My only issue with them was corrosion - something all cars suffered from 30/40 years ago.
My dad bought a second hand one and drove it for years. All five of us going on holliday in it. After my father, my sister drove it a few years. Then I bought it from my sister for 90 Pound. It was my first car. Loved it. Sad ending after I launched it over a speed bump. Flew 2 foot off the ground. After landing it was rustfree😂 The exhaust broke off at the engine block. Had some real memories with that car. Was sad to see it go.
My first car in 1969 was Morris 1100 (1964), loved it! dropped my friends Beetle and someone who bragged with a Mini Cooper. I 1975 i fell in love with the Autin Marina 6, an automatic, 2,6l I think, and nearly bought it. My wife said it was too fast/expensive. I think she had a gut feeling, who knows.
I had a 1973 Marina TC, Harvest Beige (brown) Apart from a trunnion breaking while on a holiday, it was a reliable car. However the local Council dustcart, wrote it off. Replaced it with a MkII Escort 1.1 Pop Plus similar top speed, twice the economy, and cloth seats. Marina was okay in it's day, but the Ital was a rubbish re-hash.
It's possible that actors used in promotional films for British Leyland worked for the company as acting work in the 1970s was very insecure with low pay for most actors.
I must have had the only bad Marina out of all those commenting on here! I bought a two year old one owner Morris Marina 1.3. I knew the seller and it had full history. Hand on heart it was the worst car I have ever had. In all the years since I have never had a car as bad. Synchromesh had gone on third gear, I knew when I bought it but I was eager to get a two year old car at the age of 21. It leaked through the windscreen into the foot well and it leaked through the boot. I didn’t find this out for months as it was 1976 and one of the hottest, driest summers on record. Fuel tank leaked from a number of perforations. The front breaks were twin leading drums and ever two weeks they needed adjusting or the car would pull to one side. I did very few miles but the rear drums would squeal and had to be constantly removed to clear break dust. It rotted like a dead fish in the mid day sun. The front valance was particularly bad. My father paid for it to be overhauled but in a few months it was as bad again. Oh, then there was the SU carb that constantly wanted topping up with oil. So when people say to me the Marina wasn’t as bad as they make out I think they have rose tinted glasses. My Sister had an Allegro around the same time and it was worse in some respects. I bought a rare for Britain Peugeot 304 after that and people said, foreign rubbish but it was a brilliant little car.
Having learn't to drive in an MG1300 and then owned a couple of Minis, it was a great shock to get a Marina 1300 as my first company car. Compared to the cars I had driven previously the road holding was eye opening! The rear end was very light and slid out easily on damp roads, I soon learned the meaning of opposite lock! The other issue was that the rear wheels would lock up momentarily when doing fast downshifts. A horrible car.
Hi Tom , whist working for the Met olive we had marina vans I think it was 440, also attached to our dept was a ital estate 1.7 , my van Lovery brookmabs green but was very basic inside tho . Great vid mark
We had one in the 70s/80s. It was literally terrible. The cornering was worse than an oil tanker. The 1.3L accelerated so slowly, that it was unsafe to join the motorway, especially up hill, but worst of all was the poor build quality and rampant rust. Interesting choice of video clips...
Your so wrong, it’s painfull- these thing’s literally fell apart after a few years moderate use. Granted not all did but build quality wise they can’t be compared or on quality of parts
@@illsaveyes Garbage - I had a 1978 Marina 1.8 HL/TC in 1984 and it was an excellent and very reliable car and it did not fall to bits - then again I serviced and rustproofed my own cars plus I drove that car fast and hard all the time as well. The Mk2 Escorts and the Mk3/4 Cortina company cars that the company I worked for before that went through engines and gearboxes as if they were wear and tear items and we tried to get the company to but anything apart from Ford but they wouldn't because Ford just fixed them under warranty and because they sold the cars cheap to companies to keep up sales so me and my fellow workmates never bought Ford after that. Ford ended up dumping skips full of their VV carbs as well because they were crap and causing very bad starting problems - I remember my neighbour trying to get his Mk2 Escort to start for ages every morning - he eventually got rid of that car and replaced it with an Astra. Too many people have rose tinted views of Fords from back then.
@ no marina or ital was ever better than an escort, you could abuse fords without service n they go forever. Where at b/l exactly did you used to work?
Why didn't they take it racing and rallying to gain cred and cool factor like the Escort? BL had some of Coventry-Climaxes best engineers on hand at Jaguar, who could have souped up the cylinder heads for high performance, the way Cosworth did for Ford.
They were imported here 71-74 as the Austin Marina . I have an original brochure I've had since new . We bought a used 72 Plymouth Cricket (AKA Hillman Avenger) instead. Honestly quality wise both cars were in a dead even neck and neck race to the bottom of the trash bin.
Worked on the British Gas fleet of Marina/Ital vans in the late 70’s/early 80’s. Got to admit they were awful but they made me a lot of money in bonuses because of the amount of work we had to do on them. Gearbox rebuilds were the norm and the front suspension was a very weak point. They weren’t a ‘Friday afternoon car’ They were a ‘every day of the week car’
I had a white MkI 1300 Marina Coupé for a very long time and were quiet happy with it. One of my mates stil owns it today. I had too much stuff back in the days and he decided to buy it.
@tomdrives as far as I know. It is stored in a nice collection, one of three cars back then, near Bournemouth and is stil active, according to the DVLA.
My best mate served an apprenticeship with British Leyland in the Seventies. He could entertain you for hours about the short comiings of these cars but I 'll stick to just one. A new car was delivered with cloth seats in the front and vinyl seats in the back! Nuff said!
Well, you say that. AFAIK Shanghai Motor owns the Morris, Austin and Wolseley brands as well as MG, and have every right to bring back the Morris Marina! 😮
At the time of its launch, the Marina was no worse than anything else British on sale at the time. It’s main competitors, the FD Victor, mk3 Cortina and Hillman Avenger were all traditional, RWD cars with simple suspension, aging engines and de-contenting to meet a strict production cost. Marina was just a response to the fleet market, which had rejected the more sophisticated FWD Austin cars. The Marina’s only fault at the time was the under steer issue encountered with the larger engined models, and being based on the packaging of the mk2 Cortina - it hadn’t been anticipated that both the Cortina and Victor would increase in size in their upcoming new models. The Marina’s biggest fault however was that it was always going to be a stopgap, and it ended up being in production until 1984 (latterly badged ‘Ital’) at least 10 years too long.
The Marina (TJG 114T) was the car that scarred me as a child being driven on Saturdays to go shopping praying none of my mates would see me in it (baby sick brown with a poo brown vinyl roof). It made such an impression on me I vowed when I left home never to own anything as terrible as that monstrosity.
This was a lousy era for the domestic car market; one in which private buyers would have to wait, pay extra for even a second wing mirror, and even more for something that resembled a radio. As so often happens in football BL were so focused on beating Ford, that they forgot about the threat from Japan and even Italy, where some very nice cars were being made. Looking back , most cars were unbelievably crude and lacking in refinement. Those that weren’t were met with suspicion (Citroen for example) and as your video claims, the fleet market had the manufacturers by the ball joints.
I had a 1.8 TC in a turquiosey blue colour, never missed a beat.The only issues was the oil filled suspension legs, they where forever getting changed and let the handling down.
I remember my dad buying a marina estate (beige) in 1976 … P reg I think….it was his first ever brand new car….the chrome bumpers started to rust within 3 months 😮
I had one as a company car here in New Zealand and disliked it intensely. The quality was not great, but the thing I really disliked about the Marina was that it just looked so cheap and nasty. I was greatly relieved when the company I worked for replaced it with a Cortina. They later shifted to buying GM Holdens as fleet cars.
The Morris Marina, a car only matched in sheer dreadfulness by the Austin Allegro. Needed a new design, so they decided to reskin the Morris Minor, fitting disk brakes but retaining the awful front suspension joints. Then they fitted the "B" series engine into it, and the extra weight turned a bad handling car into an awful handling one. I was horrified when I first read of it's deficiencies when new, and how anyone could eulogise such vehicle is beyond me.
I loved my Ital.. I remember sitting at some lights late at night and some twat in a Bmw pulled up and started giving it the revs and the looks.. He must've been shocked when I left him behind (or he missed a gear)but up and onto the motorway we went and he must've been so embarassed getting gapped by an old Morris.. He chased me downin his Bmw 3 series(E30).. I had to take my foot off the gas and let him pass at about 115 as all my fillings were getting shook from my teeth and I was glitching the matrix as the wheel was shaking so much my hands were in a paralell dimension.. It was my last night with my Ital as I was moving away for new job. I gave her away to a chap from my old office thinking he'd fix her up.. within 6months he took her round the back of the garage and shot her..
In 1966 I bought a new Mini. It wasn't even badly built, it was horribly built, but I liked it anyway. But I liked the first MG version of the 1100/1275 Marina and would eventually have bought one, but then the shape changed to a more anonymous version and I - luckily bought a new BMW 2002 in 1970, which functioned near flawlesly, and I haven't had a British car since then!!!
Did over 95,000 miles in a 1974 1.3 coupe when I was on the road for Fox's Biscuits. . Went like a rocket, with a bonus of near on 35mpg. Loved it - especially the cavernous boot for loading boxes of biccies! They replaced it with a Vauxhall Chevette, which was very pedestrian by comparison.
The Marina is universally panned by people who never driven or owned one, I had an 1.8 Super Coupe, later replaced by a TC Coupe, my Mother has a 1.3 DL 4 door, they only problem experienced I had was a corroded fuel tank on the 1.8 Coupe, I fit Spax shock absorber conversion to the TC & it ran 4 years trouble free, the Marina was no worse or better than the equivalent Ford or Vauxhall of the day👍
I've owned & used both types of "BL" products: 1100, 2200, Marina & Ital. The latter two being far inferior, but the Fleet market target for them made perfect sense. When relatively new and properly maintained, they were perfectly serviceable. They didn't go or handle like a period BMW, Jaguar or Alfa - but who had one of them as a Fleet car? The "BL" and Ford products were BUDGET cars, of course they weren't great cars and of course the Ford's (with their much larger markets and therefore budgets) were better suited. But not by much...
I've no idea how they sold over a million of them. The Cortina was so much better and got updated regularly. The Marina was built to compete with the Mk2 Cortina but ended up going against the drop-dead gorgeous MK3 Cortina. Then later that became the MK4 and 5 which were also beautiful, The poor old Ital even had to compete against the Sierra. It wasn't even on the same planet! I did have a Marina back in the day but only because it was free and I couldn't afford a Cortina.
It did what it said on the tin, i had 2 back in the 80s and i liked them my Dad owned a 1.8 Est and it was fine. It was no better or worse than its competitors at the time of launch. It was however kept in production far too long and as a result was vastly out of date at the end in Its Ital form.
Unfortunately here in Australia the Marina was complete Rubbish, perhaps the Australian motoring environment was too harsh for the Marina. Before my retirement I spent my working life as a used motor trader. As a used car the Marina could be purchased for next to nothing due to their catastrophic resale value, but most traders wound not stock them because of the warranty issues which inevitably occur. Unfortunately, here in Australia it was sadly a Dog.
I had a 1972 Morris Marina coupe 1.8 TC, in midnight blue with red stripe and rostyle wheels. It sounded like a MGB to me, very throaty noise from the exhaust.
I was growing up in Australia when the Marina was launched. There you could get it with a six cylinder which went like a rocket but handed like a trolly. A relative flipped one at speed in Tasmania. I was amazed when I returned to the UK in 1979 to see them still in production. Nevertheless I always like the coupe. From all accounts the 13 handled a lot better. Certainly don't remember anyone joking about them or the Allegro at the time. Later yeah.
Back in the 80's we had a marina, the local policeman ran into the back of it in his fard fiesta. The marina suffered a few scratches on the rear and the fiesta lost most of it's front ! We had it for five years and it only let us down once when the throttle cable snapped. I don't really see everything you mentioned here. As a matter of interest have you ever owned or driven one?
I remember as a wee Lad, my Dad coming home with his brand new Morris Marina Coupe TC. As a child I was impressed! 😉
I was gutted we got the basic model
@ To be fair, in the 1970s there was not a huge difference between the top and bottom of the range. Typically a better engine and some fancier seat material. Power steering, electric windows, AC etc. were nowhere to be seen unless you had a Jaaaaaag. 😀
I Remember my dad buying a brand new White Marina VAN in 1973 Reg number EAY843L from Shipsides BL dealer on the Coneries in Loughborough 2 doors away from our tv shop, I remember dad saying had to pay extra for the passenger seat and the Heater ! It came with them but both was a cost option I use to drive it when I was 16/17 those were the days no dpf, no cat converter, no ad blue, no power steering no electric windows no air con no cruise no cam belts or chains or wet belts etc etc nothing to go wrong ! compared to my transit custom today !
Worked on a civil engineering job in the 70s and used hired Marina vans extensively. Much better than the Escorts because they only seemed to have the 1100 versions. 1300cc Marinas were constantly thrashed and if you hulked the bent nail throttle pedal over a bit, heal and toe gear changes became much easier.
That was well worth watching just to see Madeline Smith.
She worked there.
@@tomdrives And all the other well-known actors who were in the promo film ?
A bit concerning seeing Arthur (from On the Busses ) ...probably his fault the Marina failed 😆
The problem here was businessmen trying to cut their way to profitability. Cutting only works if the problem is waste. If the problem is poor quality, it'll only make things worse. A lot worse.
I had a 1750cc Coupe bought at an auction and found it comfortable, reliable and nippy. Later I had a SA spec Mk3 in South Africa and it never let me down. What I disliked about them were the weak lever arm shock absorbers at a time when a conversion to telescopic was just too expensive for me.
The Thatcher government was determined to destroy all the unions, and in my opinion the regular strikes at Leyland were deliberately provoked in order to render it worthless and easy to sell into private hands. BMW wouldn't have taken over if they hadn't seen some real potential. Thatcher succeeded in not only selling off British Leyland, they also decimated or destroyed most heavy industries including shipbuilding and mining, and substantially weakened the unions in the process.
The days of the UK being a global manufacturing power are gone forever. Any remaining major carmakers and heavy industry are owned by foreign investors, funnelling any profits out of the industries and out of the country until they eventually fail, or they are moved abroad entirely.
And then the "B-word" came along and nailed the coffin lid shut.
I had 17 marinas and a ital years back but still regret selling my GT .I loved them so easy to work on and I restored quite a few but sadly they were always slagged off but they sold well now all but history great video tom
That’s a type of masochism the Marquis de Sade would be proud of! 🤣
I covered 60,000 miles in my 1300 Coupe during the 1980s. I always called it "The World's Most Ordinary Car". Front engine, RWD, four speed gearbox, water cooled. Everything under the bonnet was accessible and easy to replace.
My brother had a 1974 sedan as his first car. He seemed to enjoy it and kept it for 4 years till the engine was done. His had the 2.3 six and auto trans. It had so much power it could drag off competitors. He did bottom it out and damaged the gearbox so had it rebuilt and worked. It would spin the wheels going from first to second. He ended up selling it to the guy over the road by putting a tin of grease in the engine to stop the amount of smoke out the exhaust. It wasn't a well built car but it did the job.
I cannot believe that anyone test drove a Marina and an Avenger then bought the Marina. It just defies any logic. The only explanation is that people just bought what they were used to. The Avenger was a superior car in essentially every important aspect, but most especially in road handling where it set the standard to beat in the early 1970s. Whereas the Marina handled like a pudding.
The only Avenger I liked was the Tiger - The Mk2 Marina 1.8 HL/TC that I bought 2nd hand in 1984 was an excellent reliable and fast car - faster than any Avenger part from the Tiger - and also better looking than any Avenger as well. These Mk2 HLs were the best looking of all of the Marinas with chrome everything and plush interiors. They also had beefed up anti-roll bars and yes you still had to watch the back end in the rain but that was the same for many rear wheel drive cars back then and I drove that car fast and hard around the twisty lanes around Paisley Scotland no problem back then beating my mates 2.0 S Capri that was worst for handling. The Avenger rotted worst than the Marina did as well although that was not a problem with my Marina as I always rustproofed and serviced my own cars.
My first car was a Marina Coupe. In Australia we had the 2.6 litre E Series 6 cylinder engine. It went like stink! Loved that car😊
The "Led six",remember the add,slagging the Japanese pronunciation,soon to be seen off by Nissan's L series OHC blue six.
In the 70s, the British taxpayer subsidised British built, British cars. Then, from the 80s, the British taxpayer subsidised British built, Japanese cars. Now Ford want the British taxpayer to subsidise incentives for foreign built, foreign cars.
Only if they're electric. Planet saving doesn't come cheap. It comes to the sound of state subsidies.
I think the Marina was the right car for the time. The ultra conservative British fleet market was dominated by the utterly conventional models from Ford and you can't blame BL for wanting a share of that market. The Marina was probably meant to compete with the Cortina, but they targeted the MK2 Cortina and didn't anticipate that the MK3 would grow in size. The coupe version was a joke, though. Originally thought to be a stylish model similar to a Capri, BL gave up half way and fitted the coupe with the much too short doors from the saloon making it look really awkward.
I enjoyed this video Tom! I have to relay my own Marina experience though. I had a 1974 1.3 marina coupe in 1982. It was truly and by a huge margin, the worst car I have ever owned or driven. Handling was dangerous, the gearbox crunched badly in every gear and a replacement box sourced from a scrapyard was just as awful. The heater motor failed and a replacement lasted 8 months. The wiper motor failed, a headlamp literally fell out dangling on its wires because the mountings had rusted to dust. The fuel tank top had rusted through meaning anything more than half a tank caused spills on bends and even without spills the stench of petrol permeated the car.
There is so much more wrong it would take forever to list and I was actually glad when a big end seized and caused a snapped conrod to pierce the side of the engine finally killing off this monstrosity.
I replaced it with a 4 year I older Hillman Imp and despite its own problems, the Imp was vastly superior to the Marina.
These were my experiences and I am far from alone in hating this turd in the punchbowl of motoring. It won the worst car in the world reputation fairly and squarely.
So you bought an old heap of an unlooked after 1974 car in 1984 and then blamed the car for your stupidity - just like my uncle used to do and most people back then or who did not look after their cars and then blamed the car when it broke down or things went wrong. I bought a 1978 Mk2 Marina 1.8 HL/TC - an ex-company car in 1984 and it was an excellent and very reliable car - then again I looked after, rustproofed and serviced my own cars. I drove that car fast and hard all the time and had NO problems with the handling of the car because I MAINTAINED it. I was keeping that car for good but a woman drove out without stopping from a junction at lights right in front of me when my side was green writing off my car. Very few of these Mk2 HLs have survived and none in the Tahiti Blue that my car was. It is only the dumb who sucked in the Top Gear or mate down the pub bore drivel that believe it or the Allegro was the worst car in the world - I replaced my Marina with a 1980 Allegro 1750 TC Equipe which was also and excellent and reliable car that was a far more advanced car than the Marina but then again it was designed to be and it was 10 times better car than the agricultural leaf sprung designed by a brick manufacturer Mk2 Escort. The only thing the Allegro was lacking was the hatchback that it was designed for that the dumb management decided it couldn't have in case it took sales away from the Maxi which was stupid as the Maxi was in the class above the Allegro.
Why are you complaining, you got one of the better ones !
@ 😆
0 seconds ago
As a town dweller, I love the narrower, quieter, tyres that cars had in those days. Why can't modern cars have quiet tyres? Car noise pollution is terrible let alone CO2 and particulate emissions.
Thanks for a great video. I liked the Marina Coupé especially.
Because cars are MUCH heavier, it was common for cars to weigh 750KG, now its common for them to weigh up to 3,000kg.
I am old enough to remember, in the US, when the marina was being roasted. However, here in the US, blame for the failure of the car was laid squarely at the feet of the British unions who sabotaged the British manufacturers. How do former Union members look on this era? Do they accept any responsibility yet?
No is the short answer!
I'm old enough to remember when the Marina was being launched in the UK. Unfortunately the blame for its shortcomings cannot be laid solely at the feet of the unions and to think so is to subscribe to a pro-industry bias in the US media at the time. Any open-minded assessment would conclude that management had to bear a significant portion of the blame with a long track record of short sighted, short term decision-making, lack of maintenance of facilities and infrastructure, class-ridden attitudes to managing their workforce and excessive profit-taking. The bit in the vid about the Minor production lines being worn out and management (wrongly) assuming that elements could continue to be used in Marina production is telling of a consistent picture of lack of investment by a management out-of-touch with what was going on with their own machinery - same story with British bike manufacturers. The British car (and bike) industry seemed to cope with falling profits by acquisitions and mergers combined with cost saving and asset-stripping rather than investment and development of new models or rolling improvements in existing ones. That's not a 'union' thing. How do former middle and higher management look on this era? Do they accept any responsibility yet? Or did they retire with golden handshakes and knighthoods like Sir Michael Edwardes, former chairman of BL?
A mate of mine bought a brand-new Morris Marina back in the day. Every time he drove it, he would hear a loud rattling noise coming from the passenger-side door. He took it back to the dealership and a mechanic told him he could fix it in five minutes.
He opened the passenger door and removed the door card - reached inside and pulled out a pack of playing cards. He handed them to my friend and quipped, 'you bought a Friday afternoon car'!
In 1988 i owned a 1.8 Marina, a pre-owned purchase with 73k on the clock,, came with a recent service and one years MOT, it cost £200 and came with the caveat to not bother MOT it next year due to rust would be too expensive to fix by then.
I happily drove around in it for a whole year clocking up about 8,000 miles and it drove very well, was comfortable, reliable, didn't let me down, and imo looked quite tidy for an old banger. When the year was up i drove it straight into the nearest breakers yard, got my bicycle out from over the rear seat and cycled home. It was a sad day, was sorry to see it go, but in all honesty the rust was getting a bit terminal underneath.
To this day it remains the cost effective best buys i've ever had, and fond memories of it being pleasant to drive.
I owned one for 2yrs, and the only reason I moved it on was that it was uncomfortable on long journeys. I was using it for local journeys for most of the time in that period. Nothing broke, no breakdowns in that time. I replaced it with a VW Jetta which stayed in the family for over a decade.
Well documented and accurate. A very sad combination of events
Thank you
I had a 1977 1.3DL in the mid eighties, bought it off my mum. Shortly after buying it, the gearbox broke - a circlip on the lay shaft broke, so I lost 3rd gear... New Marina gearbox (4 speed) £135, new Ital gearbox (5 speed) £185 - no contest - 4 speed on the lever - 5 in the box! I also beat a 3 litre Mk1 Granada in a drag race on Southport Beach - so light the Marina skipped along while the Ford dug itself two big holes! 🤣
It was sandstone beige (Puss) with chocolate brown vinyl roof! 😝
I think your alarm clock went off after this. Ital was 4 speed only.
@@simonhill2820 No, big selling point was better economy from 5-speed...
@@kevincraven4038 Your off your head. Ital was just a facelift . 2.0 litre was auto because it struggled with the torque (twisting Power) of the engine everything else was 4 speed man Marina and Ital.
I did the same with an 1100 escort van bought for £50, but I did slip in a 1300 motor at the same time. On the van suspension it handled like a go-cart. And yes, the Ital was available in a 5-speed manual.
It wasn’t. I’m not arguing anymore you’re getting confused.
Looks like they still had money for actors in their adverts.
Madeline Smith, Michael Robbins,
George A Cooper and Paul Barber.
They worked there, it's definitely not an internal video about quality that was an absolutely unnecessary overspend 😂
They worked there and just happened to be filmed together?
3 of the most well-known 70's actors worked at BL whilst at the same time as making top movies and TV shows?
MS was making films - usually scantily clad.
GAC Citizen Smith and films.
MR On The Buses.
Barber was slightly later as Denzil.
@@IN_THIS_DAY_AND_AGEdon’t forget GAC was in Grange Hill
The 1100 with its "hydrolastic" suspension was, like the Mini, brilliant. The Marina, by comparison, was a primitive throwback by comparison. It readily deserved to fail and to take the horror that was BL with them. BL destroyed everything they touched.
My father was failing the 1100 on rust at their first MOT.
A friend of mine had a lime flower 1.8 TC Jubilee back in about 1988. He took me for a spin in it on a car park and I can safely say it was hilarious. Great looking car especially in that colour.
When the suspension finally disintegrated later that year due to "enthusiastic" driving he pulled the TC and Jubilee badges off and gave them to me. I still have them 36 years later 😊
I only travelled in a Marina once.
The short journey was in my best mate's dad's brand new 1.8 in about 1972. My only memories of the occasion was a terrible squeaking from the brakes, and various assorted rattles.
Thanks Tom for another of your excellent, well researched, objective and engaging presentations.
One thing about the Marina and George Turnbull which seems to be little acknowledged is that Turnbull requested two Marinas as a parting gift from BL, then took them with him to Korea, where he established Hyundai as a car manufacturer.
Sadly, for a significant time, BMC management had a policy of not competing with Cortina, which led to them being in an increasingly difficult position in the marketplace.
The fact that the Marina emerged at all is actually quite remarkable.
We can only speculate what the car would have been like if its creators were able to design and build what they really wanted!
Well researched and nicely presented...thanks
Thank you :)
I had a 1973 Marina 1.8 TC saloon in the early eighties. It wasn't a bad car, it was reliable, comfortable and quite fast.
I had an 1800 tc model. Seemed quick at the time. Twice I brole one of the rear cart springs pulling away too quickly.
I had a 1300 and 1800 marina “in the day”. Have today I liked the 1800 best. I then had an ital…tbh worse than marina. I also had a Sherpa which I liked best, a real character. Coming home late one night, fully loaded, lost both head lamp bulbs due to severe vibration and brake fade stopping on a slip road off the m32. New shocks at each service, front doors filling up with water, second gear synchro failing and core plug falling out of the engine on the m5. Then a transit😄👏
Believe it or not, there was a convertible option available back in the day (Mumford)
Just like today, the bean counters want the comfort of high margin cars which are low volume sellers. However, without a high volume seller every bolt and nut for the high margin cars cost more and more since the companies volume purchasing power disappears! They should had focused on the all new Marina and got it out the door in the 1970's. Having one good car selling well improves the whole company and most importantly the public image!!! Again, automotive companies seem to get some of the worst managers in the whole industry! You need strong product focused managers that are willing to step in and add cost to make the first production models have the best quality possible, then do cost reduction when it can properly be accomplished without having serious quality consequences!
"They should had focused on the all new Marina and got it out the door in the 1970's. " Wasn't the Maxi the priority of the Leyland group? It had front drive, a hatchback, excellent packaging etc?
When the marina was first launched it was a completely woeful specimen of car, early production models having been given to the press to test we returned with everyone complaining about the absolutely appalling handling this in fact delayed the overall launch as the front suspension geometry was reset redesigned and a new angle fitted to the caster and camber of the car , this was done by effectively altering the length of the top lever arm shock absorber and the small design to the front top steering ball joint . Whilst this improved the feel of the driving of the car and made it feel less like the front wheels were actually going to fall under themselves when you called and the damn thing is hard because of the lack of movement on the top swivel is actually compromised the ride in the handling hence the marina's reputation for woeful road matters .
I remember dad's marina estate used to slide around roundabouts such was the rear end road holding
I always understood the lower trunnions were shortened. The top balljoints were changed but that was later.
I bought a 71 TC that had the original type trunnions, they were huge compared to the redesign. I'm sure only 1.8s had the recall, the 1.3 were lighter and didn't suffer from the understeer as the heavier motors did.
Had to inner wheel arches. Anything coming off the front wheels got flung behind the headlights or against the firewall. Cars of that era rusted like crazy. The Marina excelled in that respect due to all the aforementioned crud behind the headlights. My father had a 1.8 in which 'Bondo' - body filler was a significant part of the structure holding the headlights in. The colour I can only describe as 'dog s__t brown'. The vinyl seats almost guaranteed to fry bare skin if the car had been left in the sun. The front running gear became a popular upgrade to the Moggie Minor.
We had also had the competing Ford Cortina Mk3. With the 1300 engine. The body would take the Ford 'Essex' V6 also used in the Granada so the 1300 engine looked minute.
With any of the 70s and 80s cars I had experience of, none of them new, rust was easily the biggest talking point. A solid marina beat a rusted escort. A rusted Hillman trumps a rusting marina, but both needed endless work. And so on.
"rust was easily the biggest talking point" It was! Why didn't British Leyland start dip galvanising cars of their own initiative, as a unique selling point of superior quality against the competition?
Alarmingly, to the contrary of that, internal BL training films tend to suggest that most if not all BL manufacturing equipment was -- far from state-of-the-art -- run down and out of date! Severely lacking investment in state-of-the-art technology to produce the world's highest quality cars. :(
An era when BL even managed to fit rust prone tyres.
My first job, involved driving a Marina van. I loved it. I also hitch hiked in those days, Marina drivers often gave me lifts, I really liked the car.
Thanks for the reply Tom ... as I said it was a curve ball thought ... keep the B.L facts coming ... best wishes
My Dad bought a Marina from a neighbour who worked at the Cowley plant where they were built. (Up until then he had owned several Allegros but had bought a caravan and needed something a bit more substantail with which to tow it!) It was a 1.8litre 4-door saloon and was 20 years old at the time. I don't think it was nearly as bad as a lot of others made it out to be. I agree that it was a victim of circumstance as it was mainly down to bad management and workers industrial actions. I guess that was commonplace back in the 70s across the whole industry.
I had a 1.8 Coupe, bought new in 1972. It was quick but the suspension was dangerous, despite what was claimed about revised geometry. I think that only the twin carb 1.8 actually had the better front setup. At over 80 mph all steering control was lost. It happened to me on the A64 driving towards York when I found the car just drifting towards the centre reservation with no steering control. Slowing gently did get control back, but I never tried to get it over 80mph again.
When he car was new BMC build quality issues showed themselves, Firstly the clutch hydraulics failed on the first long drive and the master cylinder was replaced. The new engine was burning oil and had to have all four pistons replaced with correctly fitting ones. B series pistons were a selective fit and the ideal was that a piston without rings should just slide slowly down the bore under its own weight. The replacement (under warranty) made the engine much better, and my car was probably faster than most.
i worked for a company that bought a fleet to use as taxis , i don't have enough time to list all the problems they gave us as mechanics !
I just vaguely remember the Marina, by the mid seventies all car import from the UK to Norway had stopped up. Unhappy customers started buing Japanese instead. But I think a friend drove a mustard yellow Marina for a while, around 1983. The car was borderline free. He said that the electrical system was unreliable, water leaked in from everywhere and the car rusted badly. But the Marina was simple, roomy for the size and very easy to fix. A year later, he had a steady job and bought himself a brand new Escort mk3. German made. The Marina went to the crusher with terminal rust. It could not have been more than 10-12 years old.
All cars had rust problems back then even BMW and Mercedes and the Japanese cars were worst than most for rust - just look at videos by the likes of Yorkshire Car Restoration to see how badly German and Japanese and all cars back then rusted right up into the early 2000s. I had a 1978 Mk2 Marina 1.8 HL/TC and it was an excellent and reliable car and I had no problems with rust because I rustproofed and looked after and serviced my own cars. Most people never rustproofed their cars and most people back then and probably now did not like to spend money on servicing their cars either and then blamed the cars when they had problems or broke down. I was keeping my Marina but it was written off when a woman did not stop at a junction and just drove out right in front of me. I replaced that car with a 1980 Allegro 1750 TC Equipe which was also an excellent and reliable car - the Allegro was one of the first mass produced cars to be rustproofed from the factory but even that did not help cars back then as once they weer out of warranty the owners or second owners never bothered to keep maintaining the rustproofing so these cars ended up scrapped because of rust as well. The Escort Mk3 was a rust bucket as well as we welded lots of them back then to keep them going in the garage I worked on hence why there is so few of them left these days as well.
@@williamwoods8022 Yes, I know. I’ve owned several sixties and seventies cars back when they were just dirt cheap old bangers. They all needed patching. But nothing terminal. Many cars did rust a lot after salting became common in the late sixties. Most owners opted for rust proofing (Tectyl, ML), with various results. But the average life span of the early seventies car was still around 17 years here in Norway, only a few models had to be scrapped after around ten years because of rust. Various Italian models were horrendous, but - sadly - also some (not all) BL cars gained a reputation for both rampant rust and unreliability, and almost all BL vars had disappeared from our roads by the mid eighties, while most seventies German, French, Swedish and Japanese cars soldiered on a few years more. As well as UK Fords and a few Vauxhalls. BTW: Remember, I wrote my little story about a then ten year old car 40 years ago. Not about today’s survivors on the classic scene. And, i really like old UK cars!
08:55 Someone leaving an AM factory driving a Ford Escort.
Not much faith in the cars that they were making.
Could have been a supplier, temporary workforce or other non-employee.
@5.47, isn't that Denzil??
He worked at BL ;)
I honestly always liked the styling of the Marina, and despite the simple and dated underpinnings I to this day maintain it was not worse than say a contemporary Viva or the Avenger. The Escorts and Cortinas were a bit ahead quality wise.
I'm a big fan of its styling as well, handsome car.
I owned several US spec Austin Marinas, they were generally terrible, most Americans had no idea they existed, I liked them because they were dirt cheap because nobody wanted them yet they had a bit of charm if you didn't take it seriously and didn't mind the electrical issues. I other odd quirk and maybe this was a B series 1800 quirk, 3 of my Marinas had oil pressure issues, to the point one of them, even full of oil the engine seized
Funny I never had any electrical issues with my 1978 Mk2 Marina 1.8 HL/TC and never had any oil pressure issues and neither did my brother with his 1974 Mk 1 1.8 Super. They were actually excellent and very reliable cars and my HL was a very quick car in its day because it was a TC. The electrical system on these cars was very simple so their should have been no issues with them - then again lots of people used cheap parts on their cars instead of using the manufacturers parts such as Unipart or Lucas which I used on mine. Then they blamed the car/manufacturer or Lucas for the problems/breakdowns. You also had the problem of "Clem" down at your auto repair shop being clueless about foreign cars as Jay Leno has said many times on his RUclips videos so how many problems did they cause.
My sister had an orange Marina sedan in 1986, here in Australia. I remember her showing it to me, I said "What on earth is THAT", she replied "I don't know, my boyfriend got it for me for $500".
These Marinas were built in Australia, but we're never popular here. I remember thinking the build quality was obviously poor, really cheap and nasty interior, under bonnet electricals that looked like an amateur had maniacally connected everything in a careless frenzy.
I had a blue Marina. Bought it cheaply second hand. Comfortable on quite soft suspension, economical, large boot and never let me down. Certainly not an exciting car but generally served me very well indeed.
I had a few Marinas, including an Ital and a Marina van. They were OK, didn't have a lot of trouble with them, the main issue being the poor handling.
I converted a 1.3 Delux Marina to a 1.8 TC and It was a fairly quick car. The ride was great and the seats were comfortable. It didn't go round corners too well though....
We have a Morris marina and a ford cortina mk3 gxl and the ford seemed like a Rolls Royce compared to the Morris. We used to call the Morris a shed on wheels.
I had a 1978 Marina 1.8 HL/TC and my brother had a 1976 Ford Cortina 2.0 GXL and my Marina Mk2 had a more modern and much nicer interior than the Ford and was a far more reliable car as well. The Cortina was wider than the Marina but the Marina still had more space inside in the back especially. You could also open and start the Cortina like all Fords back then with any key hence why the Cortina got stolen and was written off and my brother was not sad to see the back of it - he replaced it with a 1978 Allegro 1500 LE which was a far more reliable car as well and had more interior space than the Cortina even though it was an Escort class car. Me and my fellow workmates never bought Fords as the company we worked for at the time used Escorts and Cortinas as company cars and they went through engines and gearboxes as if they were wear and tear items. We tried to get the company to change away from Ford but they would not because Ford just fixed them under warranty and because Ford sold the cars cheap to companies to keep up their sales so when we left that company and bought our own cars we avoided Ford like the plague.
The Marina was built in Australia too and was not well received by either the public or media. When it was released it seemed like it was already ten years older than the other cars on offer. That coupled to pretty bad builds quality spelled out it's doom. Making things worse was Leyland Australia's decision to stuff a six cylinder engine into it to try and compete in the newly formed light six market.
I had a 1.7 Ital s a hire car, very supportive seat, quite nippy, and much better than I was expecting. With a decent facelift (and a hatchback based on the Marina Coupe) there would have been sales to be had.
My primary teacher had an actually very attractive 2 door marina coupe - but the head had a Humber Sceptre, which I occasionally got a lift back home in. Er... different class!!! My aunt, who had fallen on hard times, swapped her Triumph 2500 PI in a beautiful navy blue for an Ital in s++t brown. What a comedown...
I remember a friend had a very well-used Morris Marina when I was a Young Farmer. My friend was showing off with his purchase. He entered a corner too quickly, and we ended up boot first in a ditch. One of the neighbouring farmers came and towed it out with hardly so much as a scratch on us or it.
I've driven over 100k miles in Marinas, a 1.3 Deluxe coupe and a 1.8 Super Deluxe saloon and found them to be excellent family cars. They were cheap to buy, reliable and easy to maintain. The 1.8 in particular had loads of low down torque and sounded beautiful when accelerating, particularly at 2000rpm where there was a real sweet spot in the sound. I found the handling fine too, no worse than many other 70s cars.
My friend had one I remember it reaching 100 K miles as well I've even got a photo of the odometer 😂😂
I learned to drive in one; my father had them as company cars for many years. Changing gear felt like stirring custard, but they used to drive from Plymouth to Aberdeen, all 630 miles, in one day with no problem. Try that today!
I loved my Marina, I once had 8 people inside the car and 3 in the boot when I was at college, the diff went not long after... I got a new diff off a Post Office Marina van.
Good to reminisce. The audio description is good but I find most of the video a distraction - adverts and sections with well-known actors (from the day), repeated and often adding nothing to the real story.
Insofar as the cars go, my dad (a motor mechanic) owned several Marinas over the years and always liked them. A good basic car that was easy to maintain. I owned a couple, too - a 1700 estate version and a saloon (an Ital, used by my wife). Spares were easy to source, and cheap. My only issue with them was corrosion - something all cars suffered from 30/40 years ago.
Owned two in the early 80's, never had any problems
Loved the integrated fog lights in the 'Special'. However the Morris Ital was a facelift too far.
My dad bought a second hand one and drove it for years. All five of us going on holliday in it. After my father, my sister drove it a few years. Then I bought it from my sister for 90 Pound. It was my first car. Loved it. Sad ending after I launched it over a speed bump. Flew 2 foot off the ground. After landing it was rustfree😂 The exhaust broke off at the engine block. Had some real memories with that car. Was sad to see it go.
My first car in 1969 was Morris 1100 (1964), loved it! dropped my friends Beetle and someone who bragged with a Mini Cooper. I 1975 i fell in love with the Autin Marina 6, an automatic, 2,6l I think, and nearly bought it. My wife said it was too fast/expensive. I think she had a gut feeling, who knows.
I had a 1973 Marina TC, Harvest Beige (brown) Apart from a trunnion breaking while on a holiday, it was a reliable car. However the local Council dustcart, wrote it off. Replaced it with a MkII Escort 1.1 Pop Plus similar top speed, twice the economy, and cloth seats. Marina was okay in it's day, but the Ital was a rubbish re-hash.
I agree, the ital was a mistake but that's what makes it a bit of a unicorn in the BL world
Lots of familar faces in the film, Paul Barber, Michael Robbins, Maddy Smith and several others that I recognize.
It's possible that actors used in promotional films for British Leyland worked for the company as acting work in the 1970s was very insecure with low pay for most actors.
The original piano magnet.
I must have had the only bad Marina out of all those commenting on here! I bought a two year old one owner Morris Marina 1.3. I knew the seller and it had full history. Hand on heart it was the worst car I have ever had. In all the years since I have never had a car as bad. Synchromesh had gone on third gear, I knew when I bought it but I was eager to get a two year old car at the age of 21. It leaked through the windscreen into the foot well and it leaked through the boot. I didn’t find this out for months as it was 1976 and one of the hottest, driest summers on record. Fuel tank leaked from a number of perforations. The front breaks were twin leading drums and ever two weeks they needed adjusting or the car would pull to one side. I did very few miles but the rear drums would squeal and had to be constantly removed to clear break dust. It rotted like a dead fish in the mid day sun. The front valance was particularly bad. My father paid for it to be overhauled but in a few months it was as bad again. Oh, then there was the SU carb that constantly wanted topping up with oil. So when people say to me the Marina wasn’t as bad as they make out I think they have rose tinted glasses. My Sister had an Allegro around the same time and it was worse in some respects. I bought a rare for Britain Peugeot 304 after that and people said, foreign rubbish but it was a brilliant little car.
I remember Australian built Marinas with a 2.6 straight six... not bad at all.
Having learn't to drive in an MG1300 and then owned a couple of Minis, it was a great shock to get a Marina 1300 as my first company car. Compared to the cars I had driven previously the road holding was eye opening! The rear end was very light and slid out easily on damp roads, I soon learned the meaning of opposite lock! The other issue was that the rear wheels would lock up momentarily when doing fast downshifts. A horrible car.
Hi Tom , whist working for the Met olive we had marina vans I think it was 440, also attached to our dept was a ital estate 1.7 , my van Lovery brookmabs green but was very basic inside tho . Great vid mark
We had one in the 70s/80s. It was literally terrible. The cornering was worse than an oil tanker. The 1.3L accelerated so slowly, that it was unsafe to join the motorway, especially up hill, but worst of all was the poor build quality and rampant rust. Interesting choice of video clips...
The Marina was probably equal to the Mk1/2 Escort in terms of mechanical and build quality. Unfortunately, it didn’t have any credibility.
Your so wrong, it’s painfull- these thing’s literally fell apart after a few years moderate use. Granted not all did but build quality wise they can’t be compared or on quality of parts
The Escort was equally prone to rust and vehicle breakdowns. A reflection of seventies build quality.
@@illsaveyes Garbage - I had a 1978 Marina 1.8 HL/TC in 1984 and it was an excellent and very reliable car and it did not fall to bits - then again I serviced and rustproofed my own cars plus I drove that car fast and hard all the time as well. The Mk2 Escorts and the Mk3/4 Cortina company cars that the company I worked for before that went through engines and gearboxes as if they were wear and tear items and we tried to get the company to but anything apart from Ford but they wouldn't because Ford just fixed them under warranty and because they sold the cars cheap to companies to keep up sales so me and my fellow workmates never bought Ford after that. Ford ended up dumping skips full of their VV carbs as well because they were crap and causing very bad starting problems - I remember my neighbour trying to get his Mk2 Escort to start for ages every morning - he eventually got rid of that car and replaced it with an Astra. Too many people have rose tinted views of Fords from back then.
@ no marina or ital was ever better than an escort, you could abuse fords without service n they go forever. Where at b/l exactly did you used to work?
Why didn't they take it racing and rallying to gain cred and cool factor like the Escort? BL had some of Coventry-Climaxes best engineers on hand at Jaguar, who could have souped up the cylinder heads for high performance, the way Cosworth did for Ford.
One of those strange BL cars I only know from old Top Gear episodes. (Here in USA, I never even heard of this.)
They're interesting things, there's a lot of cool old interesting British cars
They were imported here 71-74 as the Austin Marina . I have an original brochure I've had since new . We bought a used 72 Plymouth Cricket (AKA Hillman Avenger) instead. Honestly quality wise both cars were in a dead even neck and neck race to the bottom of the trash bin.
@@roguedalek900 I'm curious about BL because my concern is US automakers may be heading towards a similar death spiral in the next few years.
I wonder what poor unsuspecting customers bought those ‘demo’ cars that has been driving around in the sea. 😳
They landed these cars in Canada at $1000 more than a Toyota Corolla. Can you guess what happened?
Worked on the British Gas fleet of Marina/Ital vans in the late 70’s/early 80’s. Got to admit they were awful but they made me a lot of money in bonuses because of the amount of work we had to do on them. Gearbox rebuilds were the norm and the front suspension was a very weak point. They weren’t a ‘Friday afternoon car’ They were a ‘every day of the week car’
I had a white MkI 1300 Marina Coupé for a very long time and were quiet happy with it. One of my mates stil owns it today. I had too much stuff back in the days and he decided to buy it.
Is it still doing well?
@tomdrives as far as I know. It is stored in a nice collection, one of three cars back then, near Bournemouth and is stil active, according to the DVLA.
My best mate served an apprenticeship with British Leyland in the Seventies. He could entertain you for hours about the short comiings of these cars but I 'll stick to just one. A new car was delivered with cloth seats in the front and vinyl seats in the back! Nuff said!
One thing for sure, it’s all history, now.
Well, you say that. AFAIK Shanghai Motor owns the Morris, Austin and Wolseley brands as well as MG, and have every right to bring back the Morris Marina! 😮
At the time of its launch, the Marina was no worse than anything else British on sale at the time. It’s main competitors, the FD Victor, mk3 Cortina and Hillman Avenger were all traditional, RWD cars with simple suspension, aging engines and de-contenting to meet a strict production cost. Marina was just a response to the fleet market, which had rejected the more sophisticated FWD Austin cars. The Marina’s only fault at the time was the under steer issue encountered with the larger engined models, and being based on the packaging of the mk2 Cortina - it hadn’t been anticipated that both the Cortina and Victor would increase in size in their upcoming new models. The Marina’s biggest fault however was that it was always going to be a stopgap, and it ended up being in production until 1984 (latterly badged ‘Ital’) at least 10 years too long.
The Marina (TJG 114T) was the car that scarred me as a child being driven on Saturdays to go shopping praying none of my mates would see me in it (baby sick brown with a poo brown vinyl roof).
It made such an impression on me I vowed when I left home never to own anything as terrible as that monstrosity.
This was a lousy era for the domestic car market; one in which private buyers would have to wait, pay extra for even a second wing mirror, and even more for something that resembled a radio. As so often happens in football BL were so focused on beating Ford, that they forgot about the threat from Japan and even Italy, where some very nice cars were being made. Looking back , most cars were unbelievably crude and lacking in refinement. Those that weren’t were met with suspicion (Citroen for example) and as your video claims, the fleet market had the manufacturers by the ball joints.
I had a 1.8 TC in a turquiosey blue colour, never missed a beat.The only issues was the oil filled suspension legs, they where forever getting changed and let the handling down.
I remember my dad buying a marina estate (beige) in 1976 … P reg I think….it was his first ever brand new car….the chrome bumpers started to rust within 3 months 😮
I had one as a company car here in New Zealand and disliked it intensely. The quality was not great, but the thing I really disliked about the Marina was that it just looked so cheap and nasty. I was greatly relieved when the company I worked for replaced it with a Cortina. They later shifted to buying GM Holdens as fleet cars.
The Morris Marina, a car only matched in sheer dreadfulness by the Austin Allegro.
Needed a new design, so they decided to reskin the Morris Minor, fitting disk brakes but retaining the awful front suspension joints. Then they fitted the "B" series engine into it, and the extra weight turned a bad handling car into an awful handling one. I was horrified when I first read of it's deficiencies when new, and how anyone could eulogise such vehicle is beyond me.
I loved my Ital.. I remember sitting at some lights late at night and some twat in a Bmw pulled up and started giving it the revs and the looks.. He must've been shocked when I left him behind (or he missed a gear)but up and onto the motorway we went and he must've been so embarassed getting gapped by an old Morris.. He chased me downin his Bmw 3 series(E30).. I had to take my foot off the gas and let him pass at about 115 as all my fillings were getting shook from my teeth and I was glitching the matrix as the wheel was shaking so much my hands were in a paralell dimension.. It was my last night with my Ital as I was moving away for new job. I gave her away to a chap from my old office thinking he'd fix her up.. within 6months he took her round the back of the garage and shot her..
😂😂😂😂😂👍🏾
Morris Marina was a bloody good cars I had a few of them very reliable for their time. The big problem was they made them for to long
Great video! There are some very famous 70's actors appearing in some of the footage, which I guess was some sort of training video for BL employees?
In 1966 I bought a new Mini. It wasn't even badly built, it was horribly built, but I liked it anyway. But I liked the first MG version of the 1100/1275 Marina and would eventually have bought one, but then the shape changed to a more anonymous version and I - luckily bought a new BMW 2002 in 1970, which functioned near flawlesly, and I haven't had a British car since then!!!
Did over 95,000 miles in a 1974 1.3 coupe when I was on the road for Fox's Biscuits. . Went like a rocket, with a bonus of near on 35mpg. Loved it - especially the cavernous boot for loading boxes of biccies! They replaced it with a Vauxhall Chevette, which was very pedestrian by comparison.
Sounds amazing, a company car I assume? It's a shame we don't have a "70s rep snapshot" type of video.
The Marina is universally panned by people who never driven or owned one, I had an 1.8 Super Coupe, later replaced by a TC Coupe, my Mother has a 1.3 DL 4 door, they only problem experienced I had was a corroded fuel tank on the 1.8 Coupe, I fit Spax shock absorber conversion to the TC & it ran 4 years trouble free, the Marina was no worse or better than the equivalent Ford or Vauxhall of the day👍
My Dad's boss owned and drove one.
He panned it.
He then bought a Daihatsu Applause and loved it.
I've owned & used both types of "BL" products: 1100, 2200, Marina & Ital. The latter two being far inferior, but the Fleet market target for them made perfect sense. When relatively new and properly maintained, they were perfectly serviceable. They didn't go or handle like a period BMW, Jaguar or Alfa - but who had one of them as a Fleet car? The "BL" and Ford products were BUDGET cars, of course they weren't great cars and of course the Ford's (with their much larger markets and therefore budgets) were better suited. But not by much...
The BL story should be on every business school syllabus on how to destroy a business
I've no idea how they sold over a million of them. The Cortina was so much better and got updated regularly. The Marina was built to compete with the Mk2 Cortina but ended up going against the drop-dead gorgeous MK3 Cortina. Then later that became the MK4 and 5 which were also beautiful, The poor old Ital even had to compete against the Sierra. It wasn't even on the same planet! I did have a Marina back in the day but only because it was free and I couldn't afford a Cortina.
It did what it said on the tin, i had 2 back in the 80s and i liked them my Dad owned a 1.8 Est and it was fine.
It was no better or worse than its competitors at the time of launch. It was however kept in production far too long and as a result was vastly out of date at the end in Its Ital form.
I agree
@5.59, Arthur (On the Buses)
A lot of stars worked for BL, including Madeline Smith.
@@tomdrives Yes I did notice her & also George A Cooper
Unfortunately here in Australia the Marina was complete Rubbish, perhaps the Australian motoring environment was too harsh for the Marina.
Before my retirement I spent my working life as a used motor trader. As a used car the Marina could be purchased for next to nothing due to their catastrophic resale value, but most traders wound not stock them because of the warranty issues which inevitably occur.
Unfortunately, here in Australia it was sadly a Dog.
I had a 1972 Morris Marina coupe 1.8 TC, in midnight blue with red stripe and rostyle wheels. It sounded like a MGB to me, very throaty noise from the exhaust.
I was growing up in Australia when the Marina was launched. There you could get it with a six cylinder which went like a rocket but handed like a trolly. A relative flipped one at speed in Tasmania. I was amazed when I returned to the UK in 1979 to see them still in production. Nevertheless I always like the coupe. From all accounts the 13 handled a lot better. Certainly don't remember anyone joking about them or the Allegro at the time. Later yeah.
The Marina Six sounded crazy to me.
@@tomdrivesWorth a clip of its own 😊
I think they built them in Australia, along with a few Bl cars that you cannot get in the UK. New Zealand had a Leyland factory too, I believe.
I almost bought a purple Marina as my 1st car. Instead I bought a clapped out Capri lol. Cheers from Canberra 🇦🇺
my first 2 cars ever- would love to have my orange 1.3 coupe back again- can't actually remember ever selling it ! ; ))
Coupes are quite rare now
Back in the 80's we had a marina, the local policeman ran into the back of it in his fard fiesta. The marina suffered a few scratches on the rear and the fiesta lost most of it's front ! We had it for five years and it only let us down once when the throttle cable snapped.
I don't really see everything you mentioned here. As a matter of interest have you ever owned or driven one?