In 1980, began my senior year in high school . My first car was a 1978 Datsun B210. Great little car. drove it HARD and never had a problem with it. Looked like the F100 in some ways.
I learned to drive in an F10, and knew it well...A14 engine, and the cleverest clutch design ever....you could change the clutch and flywheel with the transmission in the car. The five speed was only available in the hatchback and oddly, had no overdrive ratio. The factory Clarion radio was excellent
A friend in the dorm owned an F10. We could fit 4 passengers in it, plus driver. One of us, a real pool hustler, convinced us to go downtown to shoot pool, since no one would would play him at any place near campus. The only parking spot really narrow, and the driver wasn't very good at parallel parking. So the passengers each grabbed a corner and carried into the space.
@@Tek-eo3li I wonder whether the Cricket was named after the sport (could it knock the competition for six?) or after the insect (could it stridulate?)
My dad was an auto mechanic . He had one customer who had a Plymouth Cricket. I remember it being a trouble prone car. I don’t know if it was the car in general or that particular customer’s car.
As you have aptly described, I remember stories from my grandmother and my father. The Simca rusted very quickly and both cars we had often wouldn't start.
My first brand new car was a 1971 Cricket. I was a junior in high school, I like the looks of the Vega hatchback but not the all aluminum engine and some of the cars on the lot already had rust pimples in the paint. The Pinto screamed econobox. I had a budget of $2,500 out the door, and living in Miami I had to have A/C, which put Duster's and Mavericks out of my price range. Other than throwing a rod through the side of the engine block at around 6K miles cruising at 60 MPH it was a comfortable, fun to drive car. The engine was replaced under warranty, but it took a little over a month to get one from the United Kingdom.
My father was a Datsun dealer (and BMC/British Leyland). I remember the first 510 bluebirds that came in the store in 1967. All white with blue interior, two and four door cars. Once someone drove one they bought it. They sold like crazy, the 1200 sunny was a great car too, and the 240Z (fair lady) had a waiting list from ceiling to floor. People would take any color and even tried to pay bribes to get higher up the waiting list. Datsun/Nissan was small then. If they had the production capacity the Z could have rivaled the original mustang in sales. When a truck with Z’s on it pulled in a crowd watched it unload.
That cricket looks a bit like it could have been made by Datsun, so its origin surprised me.
Месяц назад+1
I owned two of these little cars, when I was a teenager. Well, two and a half. One of them was a lime green, Cricket/Colt station wagon Frankenstein. The Datsun was an F10 Sports Wagon, and was the superior vehicle.
In Britain, the first front wheel drive ‘Nissan’ was the Datsun Cherry 100A E10, introduced here in 1971. For us in Britain, it was this car that competed with front wheel drive models from British Leyland. The F10 or ‘Cherry 100A F-II’ of course followed, but yes, in comparison to the E10 it was a bit of an odd looker.
Had a Cricket for my first car. 4 speed manual, 4x60 air= 4 windows 60mph!🤣 Only had it for 6 months and crashed it. Only car I've ever crashed so far 47 years later!🤔
The Simca 1204 was obviously influenced by the Renault 16. Torsion bars, front disk brakes, front wheel drive and the hatchback design were on the Renault several years earlier. But I'm also sure the Simca cost less to purchase..
Chrysler Corp, owner of Simca, had been using torsion bars since 1957 in the US, and Volkswagen used them since the beginning. The R16 was not Renault's competitor in the Simca's price range, it was larger, more luxurious, and higher priced. I believe the R12, was Renault's entry in that market, and were seen in the US in smaller quantities than the 1204. In Car & Driver's comparison test of 1971 subcompact cars, sold in the US, the Simca 1204 was the quickest in the 0-60 mph test. As I was in the market for my first new car, I went to a local dealer, who sold only Simca and Saab (1 of each in his tiny showroom), and took a 1204 for a test drive. My first experience driving a front wheel drive, and I loved the car. It rode smoother than all the previous imports I had test driven (Fiat 850 and 124, VW Beetle , BMW 2002). It was great handling, especially on the dirt roads I had to use, to get to my girlfriend's house! I bought a four door, which had a more balanced appearance than the 2 door, IMO, in the orange color that appeared on a 4 door 1100 in the video. Ironically. Chrysler stopped importing them, at the end of the month I bought mine, and the dealer ( who even more ironically, kept my 1966 AMC Ambassador DPL trade in, to use as his personal car!) closed up, as Saab didn't sell very well either, in 1971. I drove the Simca hard for 40,000 miles in two years, running several road rallys, and long distance trips from Detroit to the North Carolina coast, across Canada to Maine, and to Wickenburg, Arizona (where it died on the way back, in Springfield, Missouri, in a huge thunderstorm, requiring a drying of the distributor, and cap, which didn't immediately solve the problem, and hauling it home in a 24 foot U-haul, as we were pressed for time, in order to be back for a New Years Eve party. Arriving home, it started right up, to unload it.). At 40k miles, it needed Clutch, brakes including wheel cylinders and master cylinders, and shock absorbers, which I didn't want to invest in. I sold it to my Dad for $400, and he put more than that into repairs, while waiting months for parts. He also loved it and drove it for several years, using it as a work car, so he could leave their primary car at home for my mom to use, as she wouldn't learn to use a manual transmission, which my dad preferred.
@@ramblerdave1339 My Dad had a Simca 1000 when I was growing up, and in the late 50s he had a Simca Vedette which had a 2.4 liter flathead V8 based on a Ford engine. A man had brought it with him from France and traded it in. He loved that car but after a couple of years the valve seals needed replacing and they were unobtanium in the US. Curiously at this time the original owner of the car was returning to France and wanted it back knowing that it needed valve seals and my Dad ended up replacing it with a Peugeot 403. My wife and I owned a 1971 Renault R16 and of all the cars we have had it was our favorite. Extremely comfortable for long distance driving, practical interior, we surpassed 170,000 miles on it before 20+ years of driving rusted it beyond repair.
Not at all. The renault used a longitudinally mounted engine, placed behind the drive wheels (like a pre-war Citroen Traction Avant). The Simca was a much more modern design with a transverse engine.
@@furripupau The longitudinal engine at the rear of the engine compartment gave better handling, I've driven both and the weight distribution is better. It's not as compact though.
The styled steel wheels were made by an engineering firm called Rubery Owen, under the trade name "Rostyle". They were used on several makes of car. Now most styled wheels are made of aluminum, and the tooling cost for each style and size is much lower than that for pressed steel. Now you rarely see two cars even of the same model with identical wheels.
I think people forget the F10 because they weren't very good cars. I remember in a large comparison test of compacts, either Car and Driver or Road & Track rated the F10 lower than even the Renault Le Car. They were not very well made, not very ergonomic (high lift-over for the hatch or trunk unless you bought the wagon), had poor visibility, noisy, and handling wasn't that great. The B210 could be had for less money, so there really wasn't much going for the F10 except if you *really* wanted front wheel drive. When I reached driving age I remember that the F10s were all gone, but you could still find 1st gen Toyota Tercels, VW Rabbits, 70's Subarus etc. all day long.
I don’t understand why Plymouth didn’t offer a rebadged version of the Colt instead of an entirely different, less reliable vehicle. By the 1970s British cars were notoriously unreliable, especially their electrical systems.
Ultimately, they did, the Plymouth Arrow. But Chrysler owned the Rootes Group outright, but only had an interest in Mitsubishi, so the profit per car was probably higher on the Cricket.
@@seed_drill7135 yes, the Arrow was the twin to the colt. You may be right as to your reason why they sold the Cricket. They evidently had reservations because they hedged their bets and sold the Colt through Dodge the same year. I believe they probably knew the Cricket was inferior. But they had to try, just to see what kind of junk Americans would tolerate 😅.
Colt was a great car. British manufacturers couldn’t modernize because of incompetent management and lousy factory workers did horrible jobs when they weren’t striking and it was iffy if you could get cars or parts in the US because of dock strikes. Too bad because they had some great fun cars in the 60’s.
Месяц назад
@@seed_drill7135 Dodge Colt.
Месяц назад+1
@@dmandman9 One of my first cars was a Lime Green, Cricket/Colt Frankenstein station wagon.
Questions. GM & Ford already had good subcompact vehicles in Europe. Why didn’t they import them or retool a factory to build in North America? I know GM did import the Opel Manta and GT and Ford imported the Capri and one reason they failed was the high cost over their competitors. There were other vehicles they could have imported or built in North America. Instead they pushed the Vega and Pinto, both infamous for their own problems. I believe the Ford Capri could have been a great Mustang II and the Opel Manta was a better vehicle over the Vega.
They sold it only for 3 years. So i guess, you never really had a chance. Today, also in Europe you won't See any Simca cars any more... orvthey called Chrysler...
In 1980, began my senior year in high school . My first car was a 1978 Datsun B210. Great little car. drove it HARD and never had a problem with it. Looked like the F100 in some ways.
I had a 1978 Datsun 510 hatchback. It was blue with chrome rims and black louvers over the rear window. It was fantastic.
Absolutely love the dual side draft weber set up at 11:20 ! I had a similar setup in my Datsun truck when I was a kid.
I learned to drive in an F10, and knew it well...A14 engine, and the cleverest clutch design ever....you could change the clutch and flywheel with the transmission in the car. The five speed was only available in the hatchback and oddly, had no overdrive ratio. The factory Clarion radio was excellent
I used to see Datson B210’s everywhere. They ran forever or at least until the body rusted off.
A friend in the dorm owned an F10. We could fit 4 passengers in it, plus driver. One of us, a real pool hustler, convinced us to go downtown to shoot pool, since no one would would play him at any place near campus. The only parking spot really narrow, and the driver wasn't very good at parallel parking. So the passengers each grabbed a corner and carried into the space.
I had a 71 Cricket as a teen. Not a quick 0-60 at all. It did have a good 4 speed transmission that was easy to shift.
@@Tek-eo3li I wonder whether the Cricket was named after the sport (could it knock the competition for six?) or after the insect (could it stridulate?)
It reminds me of my mom's 1977 Dasher (aka: Passat in every other country).
I once owned a 1967 Datsun 1600 (Fairlady). That was a fun car to drive....way more reliable than the British Leyland stuff
My dad was an auto mechanic . He had one customer who had a Plymouth Cricket. I remember it being a trouble prone car. I don’t know if it was the car in general or that particular customer’s car.
Back in the days I owned a Datsun 120 A FII Coupe, baby blue, it was a low powered hottie
As you have aptly described, I remember stories from my grandmother and my father. The Simca rusted very quickly and both cars we had often wouldn't start.
My first brand new car was a 1971 Cricket. I was a junior in high school, I like the looks of the Vega hatchback but not the all aluminum engine and some of the cars on the lot already had rust pimples in the paint. The Pinto screamed econobox. I had a budget of $2,500 out the door, and living in Miami I had to have A/C, which put Duster's and Mavericks out of my price range.
Other than throwing a rod through the side of the engine block at around 6K miles cruising at 60 MPH it was a comfortable, fun to drive car. The engine was replaced under warranty, but it took a little over a month to get one from the United Kingdom.
The A/C was dealer installed and mine had the upgraded interior. The high back buckets were very comfortable.
They should have kept producing the 510 a far better car.
My father was a Datsun dealer (and BMC/British Leyland). I remember the first 510 bluebirds that came in the store in 1967. All white with blue interior, two and four door cars. Once someone drove one they bought it. They sold like crazy, the 1200 sunny was a great car too, and the 240Z (fair lady) had a waiting list from ceiling to floor. People would take any color and even tried to pay bribes to get higher up the waiting list. Datsun/Nissan was small then. If they had the production capacity the Z could have rivaled the original mustang in sales. When a truck with Z’s on it pulled in a crowd watched it unload.
That cricket looks a bit like it could have been made by Datsun, so its origin surprised me.
I owned two of these little cars, when I was a teenager. Well, two and a half. One of them was a lime green, Cricket/Colt station wagon Frankenstein. The Datsun was an F10 Sports Wagon, and was the superior vehicle.
My first car was an '81 Datsun 310 GX and it was a very good machine
I remember the clutch being extremely easy to replace. I think it was easier than any other front wheel drive vehicle.
@@dmandman9 had to replace the transmission in it and it was super easy. Even having to pull the whole engine
A friends uncle designed that back end of the Cricket.., the front end had been designed in the US ... The Averager was well accepted in the UK ...
In Britain, the first front wheel drive ‘Nissan’ was the Datsun Cherry 100A E10, introduced here in 1971. For us in Britain, it was this car that competed with front wheel drive models from British Leyland. The F10 or ‘Cherry 100A F-II’ of course followed, but yes, in comparison to the E10 it was a bit of an odd looker.
Had a Cricket for my first car. 4 speed manual, 4x60 air= 4 windows 60mph!🤣 Only had it for 6 months and crashed it. Only car I've ever crashed so far 47 years later!🤔
In the 1970's the Datsun plant assembled Volkswagens. They shared the same paint schemes.
My first car was 120A F II, four door saloon version.
The Simca 1204 was obviously influenced by the Renault 16. Torsion bars, front disk brakes, front wheel drive and the hatchback design were on the Renault several years earlier. But I'm also sure the Simca cost less to purchase..
Chrysler Corp, owner of Simca, had been using torsion bars since 1957 in the US, and Volkswagen used them since the beginning. The R16 was not Renault's competitor in the Simca's price range, it was larger, more luxurious, and higher priced. I believe the R12, was Renault's entry in that market, and were seen in the US in smaller quantities than the 1204. In Car & Driver's comparison test of 1971 subcompact cars, sold in the US, the Simca 1204 was the quickest in the 0-60 mph test. As I was in the market for my first new car, I went to a local dealer, who sold only Simca and Saab (1 of each in his tiny showroom), and took a 1204 for a test drive. My first experience driving a front wheel drive, and I loved the car. It rode smoother than all the previous imports I had test driven (Fiat 850 and 124, VW Beetle , BMW 2002). It was great handling, especially on the dirt roads I had to use, to get to my girlfriend's house! I bought a four door, which had a more balanced appearance than the 2 door, IMO, in the orange color that appeared on a 4 door 1100 in the video. Ironically. Chrysler stopped importing them, at the end of the month I bought mine, and the dealer ( who even more ironically, kept my 1966 AMC Ambassador DPL trade in, to use as his personal car!) closed up, as Saab didn't sell very well either, in 1971. I drove the Simca hard for 40,000 miles in two years, running several road rallys, and long distance trips from Detroit to the North Carolina coast, across Canada to Maine, and to Wickenburg, Arizona (where it died on the way back, in Springfield, Missouri, in a huge thunderstorm, requiring a drying of the distributor, and cap, which didn't immediately solve the problem, and hauling it home in a 24 foot U-haul, as we were pressed for time, in order to be back for a New Years Eve party. Arriving home, it started right up, to unload it.). At 40k miles, it needed Clutch, brakes including wheel cylinders and master cylinders, and shock absorbers, which I didn't want to invest in. I sold it to my Dad for $400, and he put more than that into repairs, while waiting months for parts. He also loved it and drove it for several years, using it as a work car, so he could leave their primary car at home for my mom to use, as she wouldn't learn to use a manual transmission, which my dad preferred.
@@ramblerdave1339 My Dad had a Simca 1000 when I was growing up, and in the late 50s he had a Simca Vedette which had a 2.4 liter flathead V8 based on a Ford engine. A man had brought it with him from France and traded it in. He loved that car but after a couple of years the valve seals needed replacing and they were unobtanium in the US. Curiously at this time the original owner of the car was returning to France and wanted it back knowing that it needed valve seals and my Dad ended up replacing it with a Peugeot 403.
My wife and I owned a 1971 Renault R16 and of all the cars we have had it was our favorite. Extremely comfortable for long distance driving, practical interior, we surpassed 170,000 miles on it before 20+ years of driving rusted it beyond repair.
Not at all. The renault used a longitudinally mounted engine, placed behind the drive wheels (like a pre-war Citroen Traction Avant). The Simca was a much more modern design with a transverse engine.
@@furripupau The longitudinal engine at the rear of the engine compartment gave better handling, I've driven both and the weight distribution is better. It's not as compact though.
Interesting, "hockey stick" taillights. Make memo to NHL NETWORK, Hockey Night in Canada, etc.
Those 'styled steel wheels' on the Hillman Avernger look like the same wheels on MG's and the Ford Capri.
The styled steel wheels were made by an engineering firm called Rubery Owen, under the trade name "Rostyle". They were used on several makes of car. Now most styled wheels are made of aluminum, and the tooling cost for each style and size is much lower than that for pressed steel. Now you rarely see two cars even of the same model with identical wheels.
I think people forget the F10 because they weren't very good cars. I remember in a large comparison test of compacts, either Car and Driver or Road & Track rated the F10 lower than even the Renault Le Car. They were not very well made, not very ergonomic (high lift-over for the hatch or trunk unless you bought the wagon), had poor visibility, noisy, and handling wasn't that great. The B210 could be had for less money, so there really wasn't much going for the F10 except if you *really* wanted front wheel drive. When I reached driving age I remember that the F10s were all gone, but you could still find 1st gen Toyota Tercels, VW Rabbits, 70's Subarus etc. all day long.
This is Hillman Avenger
I don’t understand why Plymouth didn’t offer a rebadged version of the Colt instead of an entirely different, less reliable vehicle. By the 1970s British cars were notoriously unreliable, especially their electrical systems.
Ultimately, they did, the Plymouth Arrow. But Chrysler owned the Rootes Group outright, but only had an interest in Mitsubishi, so the profit per car was probably higher on the Cricket.
@@seed_drill7135 yes, the Arrow was the twin to the colt. You may be right as to your reason why they sold the Cricket. They evidently had reservations because they hedged their bets and sold the Colt through Dodge the same year. I believe they probably knew the Cricket was inferior. But they had to try, just to see what kind of junk Americans would tolerate 😅.
Colt was a great car. British manufacturers couldn’t modernize because of incompetent management and lousy factory workers did horrible jobs when they weren’t striking and it was iffy if you could get cars or parts in the US because of dock strikes. Too bad because they had some great fun cars in the 60’s.
@@seed_drill7135 Dodge Colt.
@@dmandman9 One of my first cars was a Lime Green, Cricket/Colt Frankenstein station wagon.
Questions. GM & Ford already had good subcompact vehicles in Europe. Why didn’t they import them or retool a factory to build in North America? I know GM did import the Opel Manta and GT and Ford imported the Capri and one reason they failed was the high cost over their competitors. There were other vehicles they could have imported or built in North America. Instead they pushed the Vega and Pinto, both infamous for their own problems. I believe the Ford Capri could have been a great Mustang II and the Opel Manta was a better vehicle over the Vega.
Have never seen a simca 1204 in the United States.
They sold it only for 3 years. So i guess, you never really had a chance.
Today, also in Europe you won't See any Simca cars any more... orvthey called Chrysler...
I thought cricket was a Mitsubishi made car.
It was! As with its twin, Colt.
Thanks. Thought I was going crazy for a minute.
No, Dodge imported the Colt made by Mitsubishi. Very different car. Anyone who called the Colt and the Cricket 'twins' was blind.
,,Comapct''? Look at your thumbnail.