In my home town here in Denmark there was a BL dealership, so I saw lots of these cars driving around in the 80's. Especially the estate version was popular.
The Allegro has actually survived quite well and there are a great number still on the road,parts are still easy to get and there is a following for them through the allegro club,there are virtually no foreign cars of the period left on the road in britain today,because they were made out of ultra thin metal and rotted away.
It wasn't the thin metal (except in Italian cars using imported poor quality Russian steel). The Allegro bodyshell had wheelarches that did not have water/mud traps so it actually lasted well. Not so on my favourite Peugeot 204 and on many other cars which had rust traps galore. In addition the galvanic treatment of panels had not been introduced. Careful design turned Alfa Romeo from one of the worst rusting cars in the late 70s to one of the least rusting in the late 80s as they eliminated rust traps and also galvanised bodyshells up to the top of the doors. plastic wheelarch liners also appeared. In this respect Allegro was ahead of the game therefore, but it was design, not metal quality that counted.
@@timhancock6626 Agree about design being the important factor, they also changed the design of the rear suspension on Allegro so there was no rusting rear subframe (don't know the exact details). Also waxed the cavities. I had a D reg. (1986) Citroen Visa 17 RD for many years which had very thin metal panels but never rusted due to the Dinol treatment and paint finish. Did about 180,000 miles in her. Italian cars rusting due to using Russian steel has been denied by others, not sure who's correct!
Hugely underrated car! Audi think so as well! Just take a look at the A1! Has anyone else noticed the trend for modern cars to have a Semi-Quartic steering wheel? Clearly the dear old Allegro was way ahead of its time!!!
The wheel was ahead of it's time, worked really well. The magazines slagged it off when they slid their hands on the wheel when maneuvering the car instead of steering it properly!
Kieran Curtis 1998 ford transits had an oval wheel. The workshop p reg transit had an oval steering wheel. I am sure chrysler tried that first. I am sure on the imperial.
Why the Allegro get's stick for the quartic steering wheel I have no idea. ̶G̶M̶ ̶(Edit)Chrysler started that with the Plymouth Belvedere in the mid 50's, though not a bad word about that? Other manufactures played around with quartic wheels too. I think Audi have recently taken an interest in it.
I think your referring to the 1960 Plymouth. I didn't know Plymouth was part of the GM division I was always under the impression that Plymouth, and Dodge were under Chrysler.
It wasnt just the steering wheel, but it was the first obvious issue with the car. Like the body flex that fired the rear window out onto the road behind you. The suspension that was unstable over 40mph giving lethal understeer ( until they started nailing a plastic spoiler under the number plate). Or the suspension and body producing vibrations that gave thousands of rear passengers chronic vomiting.
It think it was because they designed the dials first then found that they could not be seen through a conventional wheel. So instead of redesigning the dials they just changed the shape of the steering wheel. In the typical "that'll do" BL attitude.
@BLHeritageFilms In the Netherlands from the 80's, I saw allegro's on an occasional basis. They were never a huge succes over here, but I remember them for their remakable styling. I even saw the estate version once. Very rare over here, and always had been so.
I would absoluteley love to own one of these. Nowadays i drive the Citroën visa because they were quite popular in the Netherlands. Almoast the same era...
I had a 1986 Visa 17RD (1769 cc Diesel, naturally aspirated) for many years. It had 178,000 miles on the clock when i sold it (because my parents were changing their car and I got their old Vauxhall Cavalier (Vectra)). Under rated car which gave me 55 mpg seemingly however fast i drove it (a K & N low loss air filter helped, I noticed a step change in performance after fitting it) but I imagine it would have just folded up in a crash like many older designs.
@sharomanet Indeed... there are some cars from the 1990s that are hard to find nowadays. When was the last Rover Metro/100 you saw? So your statement is true. The Allegro may have had many flaws but significant rot was actually not one of them. Not to say they didn't rust and rot, but the bodies were generally stronger than some notable period cars.
Fabulous!!! Can you recall how you came across owning that particular car and what happened to it? The Fox's are regarded as almost mythical so amazing to hear of someone actually owning one. What model and colour was yours? I'm restoring an early Blaze 1750 Series 1 Allegro.
@@russellsretrorides1486 thats cool hows the resto going-is it an ss version (cause of the 1750cc engine) The 'fox' cars were all scrapped in about 1983 (according to the DVLA) which is sad to hear as early cars are so rare.
The design would still look up to date even today. really, if the exterior was updated slightly and the inside where styled by ford GM Fiat or Peugeot the car would be attractive compared with Chevrolet Spark Opel Hyundai and so on.
Well, I had two estates. Compared to a mini that was more expensive for the same engine size, working on and modifying the engine was so easy, and the loadspace with the seats down was colossal. And the ride was of course sooo much better
It was never meant to look quite so plump, but more lean. When they made the body pressing bucks, they didn't anticipate the amount of 'spring' in the steel correctly so it all looks more rounded and fatter than the original design models (which look pretty good, have a look on aronline),
They claimed to have designed the Allegro so carefully. So why did it have problems with rear windows popping out and bending in the middle if jacked up or towed? VW successfully made the jump from the Beetle to the Jetta in less than 10 years. BL fell flat when they tried to jump from the Mini to the Allegro.
Don't forget that Austin Morris jumped from the Morris Minor 1000 to the 1100 / 1300 (ADO16) at about the same time that VW made the jump to their Type 2 (the Beetle being the VW Type 1). Trouble is BMC etc. design `on the hoof' trying out designs on the public (the original Mini had a gearbox `featuring' plain bearings for example that didn't last) so doing damage to the cars reputation. It was true that the rear window could `pop out' if the correct jacking points were not used, not sure about the car `bending in the middle' though. On early cars rear wheels did fall off when incompetent mechanics `flogged up' the retaining nut as could be done on ADO16 (Austin Morris 1100 / 1300). I believe that the Allegro had adjustable bearings that should not be tightened fully (a warning label was hurriedly added to this effect). BL could I guess be criticised for not anticipating that this human error would occur when changing the design.
Does anybody know where the promo films were shot? It looks like the Allegro is out in the American west. That bridge with the large arches could be the giveaway but I do not know where it is.
@@herseem If you take a look at the Wikipedia page for the BMC A-Series Engine it makes interesting reading. There was a 1 litre A-Series Diesel made and used in a tractor & for Marine applications. It would not have been suitable for the Allegro in standard form with it 's maximum power output of 15 HP however. Of course there was a Diesel version of the `B' series engine also, as used in the Austin Cambridge (my parents had friends in the Netherlands who had an Austin Cambridge Diesel and they had great service from it. Unfortunately they then bought a Maxi 1500 Mk 1 that did not give good service! (cable operated gearbox & poor design of OHC lubrication that was hurriedly put right on later cars)).
@Skoda130 They were made in Belgium too I think, or at least a few. So it is likely a few would appear in the Netherlands from time to time. They actually imported some from Belgium to the UK from time to time, when things were difficult if I remember correctly. The Estate is fairly rare even on its home territory!
I loved the Allegro at the time. I still have some Allegro brochures somewhere including the Vandan Plas brochure. Just a shame it was potluck whether you got a good one at the time. Vanden Plas one's seemed to be very good quality though both trim and mechanicals.
Fully agree. First of all, after seeing this video, I think I have seen these cars 100 times before on the streets. But I haven't! In fact, they do not exist at all in Germany. Nonetheless, they look like if everyone in my street was having one.
The Allegro ended up being a bit of a joke, this wasn’t really fair at the time it came out it was as good if not better than the opposition but the problem was they made it too long and It was outdated and looking stupid by the time it was finished, poor management industrial unrest politics all, They should have stayed as Austin Morris they probably would be still around now
i actually like the old alligator lol, but i have memories of getting up at 4.30 am in the morning to push my dads up the street to get it started! i swore that it would not happen to me when i grew up, so i became a mechanic (jaguar), i would have one though lol.
Super caisse l'Austin Allegro.On en dit tout ce qu'on veut mais cette auto,quand elle est bien entretenue,n'a AUCUN souci de fiabilité.La mienne a 59000 KM au compteheures et la vie est belle!
And after all the proud words it still looks "dumpy", like a lot of BL stuff (Inc the Maestro). Wheels and headlights too far it look bulbous. The rear is ok apart from that shot on its own when it looks like a front. And as for the name! Couldn't be any rougher sounding if they shoved a Welsh double-l in.
I used to drive a friends Allegro 1500. Compared with my Peugeot 204 the Allegro was very poor, The Allegro engine was asthmatic and rough, the scuttle shook, the interior materials were poor, the paint was poor, the brakes indifferent, the steering had an 'over centre' action that destroyed the road feel. The quartic wheel was just too thin and felt cheap and nasty. So did I like anything about the All Aggro ? Overall I liked the shape, though not the front styling. Where the Allegro really shone was the efficient use of body space, but thats about it. I never looked forward to driving it as it gave you nothing back, whereas the Peugeot 204 gave you a better driving experience than you were expecting in pretty well every department, ride, handling, steering, brakes, comfort and an enthusiastic lightweight engine that revved nicely. No contest I'm sad to say.
Not just one 204, I had two, saloon and estate and a 304 and a 404 and a 104 and a 305SR and a 205GTi . Then I fell out with later models and moved into Alfa Romeos.. We had three 504s in the wider family and a few 403's back in the early 1960s which were my dads. Why would you question what I wrote. It is only my opinion of course, but its a firmly and honestly held one. Rusting aside, the engineering in Peugeots was outstanding until the 1980s when they rather lost the plot IMHO.
Also they sold over 1.6 Million 204s and 1.1 Million 304s (much the same car). Less than 700,000 Allegros..all models. Well you can work it out for yourself.
Perhaps your friends Allegro 1500 was a poor example or wasn't maintained properly (dirty air filter for example), I don't know but can't really damn the Allegro judging by just one vehicle. One of the worst `features' of the Allegro to my mind was the dreadful tinny, plasticky fascia with the instrument pinacle perched on top that you have to look at a lot of the time as compared to the pleasant fascia of the Austin 1100 (the Morris 1100 had an awful plastic fascia) and the later Maxi's wooden fascia. No Allegro ever got a Tachometer (as a kid especially a car without a Tacho was not cool and they are a useful instrument). The transfer gear whine of the 1100 / 1300 cars should have been designed out by the this time as it was for the 1500 / 1750 cars. The Allegro was a big improvement on ADO 16 1100 / 1300 regarding corrosion which, admittedly was not difficult (I read that Pressed Steel pointed out the numerous rust traps in ADO 16's design to Sir Alec Issigonis but he said build it as is btw). I agree with you that Peugeot have made quality cars for many years and of course the 403 was made famous by Columbo 😄 The 504 was probably my favorite Peugeot, a lovely understated car.
The styling is not pleasing and is a fussy mess of lines around the top of the nose, when you compare it with the clean styling of the Golf or Alfa Stud or 104 of the time. But it could have got away with those looks had the best selling 1100 and 1300 models in the range not offered worse performance and interior space than the out going ADO16 along with the bad press about early car reliability and industrial action (launch delayed by a strike). The mk2 resolved a lot of the reliability issues, finding 3 inches of rear leg room just by a redesign of the rear seat etc, you have to wonder why this and reliability issues were not addressed on the mk1, the car seemed to sum up the "it will do" attitude of the UK car industry of the 70s.
I think BL was doomed regardless of what car they made. They could've made ford escorts or Cortinas and it still would be a flop because all the strikes, mismanagement and careless workers.
Not a hatchback. Serious error. Along with all the other errors. Solid till it went over a bump. And rust proofing that clearly attracted rust. And hideously ugly. Otherwise lovely colours !
I love this ad! Almost ubelievable efforts at hyping everything they could, from external bits like grilles and rims. And the biggest whoppers throw in " european car" as an excuse.compared to its european competition it was an ugly duckling against citroen, renault, and fiat. Comparative trim levels left it far behind. Build quality awful, paintwork dreadful, it leaked in the rain, popped out its windscreen and rear window. The engine was basically a big A series from the mini.inner trim of cheap vinyl and plastics, uncomfortable seats, bad driving position. Suspension that was unstable over 40mph and vibration that gave entire families violent car sickness. Sadly by the time they fixed it all, and turned it into a great, comfy, reliable, great ride and handling, well made car--- the allegro mk3, it was too late, it being replaced by its better younger version, the maestro. And austin rover even managed to repeat most of the screwups from the allegro with that. Even down to the twanging cheap bang on closing the doors.
