How Austin's Allegro briskly took BL to bankruptcy 

"... to make sure that the doors really do fit." (12:50) Stunning attention to quality, not seen anywhere else.

To think: BL made a bunch of hatchback-shaped cars,… that weren’t hatchbacks, in a time when hatchbacks were en vogue. That encapsulates British Leyland management in a nutshell.

A truly dreadful car. I remember going into a BL showroom with my Dad (a chartered mechanical engineer) to see one of the first Allegros and being very embarassed by his undisguised contempt for the shoddy workmanship. He actually bent the front bumper out of shape with the fingers of one hand. I'll never forget the look on the salesman's face!

My dad bought a brand new All Aggro soon after it came out. A few months later he was driving in the dark, went over a bump, and all the lights went out! Scary and very dangerous. It appears that none of the wires going into and out of the fuse box had actually been soldered! His next car was a Fiat.

Leyland made quite a habit of snatching defeat from the jaws of victory

Apparently when the last Allegro Equippe was sold, the designer was given a wooden spoon. But my Dad had one as a company car, and although the headroom was not really good enough for me in the back, the engine was fantastically torquey when I was learning to drive. It was a 'put it in 5th gear and leave it there even going up Telegraph Hill in Devon' sort of engine. and in my view, the relatively fat 175 tyres finally made it look right. It was a design that needed fat tyres to work.

I had one and can confirm: Overtaking had to be planned two miles before the event, rust was a real problem, the suspension was actually really good and comfortable, controls were adequate, economy was adequate, parts availability was very good. Why did it go? I put mine into reverse and the wheels did just that but the car stood still - ripped the control arms clean from the bodywork. Could have been much better I suppose but I do miss it!

When it comes to quartic steering wheels the Ferrari LaFerrari is clearly the Austin Allegro's spiritual successor!

My grandfather got an early Allegro with all it's "features" like water leaks and so. After grandpa passed away, the car remained in the family until the garage issuing the annual roadworthy certificate politly asked not to come again next year... :-)

I'm very thankful of that kind of content. The combo of BL mishaps and the thorough use of Lucas Electric parts is always fascinating to me

I love my Allegro LE. Only three left on the roads. 200 or so Allegros in general left.

Harris Mann said in an interview that he hadn't been told that the E series engine was to be used. And while the Mk2 Escort was more stylish, it rusted at the sight of water, while the Allegro was very rust-resistant than most of ots competitors.

Interesting the “bizarre” add for the regent in Italy is a take off on Steven Spielberg’s first movie “Duel”

Ah, the car that defined my childhood - an orange P-reg Allegro with plastic seats that burned in summer. It died a slow, painful death due to lack of servicing, plus a windscreen replacement that rusted the floor away as it let in so much water we did the "Jaws" theme every time we went in it. I think my dad paid the scrap yard to take it!

When I was a kid in the late 70s and 80s the Allegro was everywhere, even we had an estate version for a bit and it was lovely and to ride in, I remember me and my sister loved the striped seats, it was an Allegro 2 from the 80s

In about 1985 my dad went around a corner in our purple allegro and the back door I was leaning up against swung open resulting in me rolling along the tarmac splitting my head open. This is why I remember our allegro, it also had a rust hole in the floor

I was an apprentice for two ‘leyland’ companies in the early 80’s. I can tell you now that workers taking home car parts was rife. Downing tools at the drop of a hat was rife. Hatred towards management was rife. It’s no wonder the British car industry went down the pan... The camaraderie was brilliant though and we had a great time - pretty good pay, easy work and good redundancy pay offs. With hindsight it was the unions that were really the spoke in the wheels of industry back then. In my opinion. I never had an Allegro but I had a few Triumph Dolomite Sprints (which required new sills at only 4 years old) and Maestro and Montegos. Gosh. Cars were shite back then.. I’ve got a 2001 BMW X5 that I’ve had for 8 years and it’s still going strong after 20yrs. Just shows how engineering has advanced. I wonder if a 2021 car will be around in 2031..

I had an Allegro 1.3 HL To be fair. Its was a good car... It got me around, never let me down, was serviceable at home with very basic tools

My parents bought one new in 1978. Within days they noticed oil leaks on the drive and called the dealer. The workshop foreman came round to tell them it was a design fault with the sealing washer to the sump, nothing they could do! In the Winter it was slightly warmer leaving the heater off than on (seriously, I do not exaggerate). Bearings in two wheels went after just two years and cost a fortune to replace, £115 in 1980, and repairs kept coming year after year. My father sold it three years later and to my amazement bought a Marina! You can guess the rest.....

In the eighties I had an Allegro, which after 50,000 miles was drinking around a litre of oil every 100 miles. My wife worked at the Porsche importers in Reading and got a couple of the guys in the workshop to re-build the engine. They built it so tight that they couldn't start it, so had to tow it along the A4 at around 40 mph and then crash it into second gear. So we had the only Allegro with an engine built by Porsche engineers.

Parents had an Equipe which they ordered with a black vinyl roof. It was fun to drive and was pretty quick for the day. It was also completely reliable.

I took my driving test in an Allegro. The radiator sprang a leak on the way to the test centre and we patched it with Radweld for the test. It held together and I passed first time.

My dad had one in the 70s. Steering wheel was the only thing at the time that had the Mickey taken out of it at the time. Always had affection for the car especially the front wheel drive. Appreciated the breaks as well as there was one incident when in the snow it stopped quite well in icy conditions when I was certain we were going slide into the car in front. Can't remember any mechanical problems with it though it was bought new.

the wheel fell off my uncles allegro on the motorway, he didn't realise until he pulled off about 100 miles later.

Pavarotti had an Allegro. Then he got a Nissan Dorma.

Even though I didn’t know the existence of this car, I watched this video just to enjoy your storytelling skill! It’s such a great experience! Cheers from Brazil!

We had an Allegro Equipe 1750 (twin carbs btw), interestingly you could opt for simpler and narrower coachline stripes (same colour red & orange) not Starsky and Hutch swoops so we did just that. Passed my test in that car. V reg. Happy days foglights, deep black air dam and corroding alloys!

I passed my test in one , it needed the suspension firming up a bit , & the gearchange also , so it felt less rubbery , but it went , well , never broke down , didn,t guzzle fuel , & was a basically simple car to learn on . When serviced right , a good car for it,s era . I heard all the nightmare stories , electrics catching fire , wheel bearings collapsing , but the one I used got serviced right , this made all the difference . (It belonged to an ex policeman , & the garage dare not mess HIS car up . ) All these years later I can still remember the reg, no.

Erratum: The Allegro was, as far as I can tell, never banned from the Mersey tunnel. I got this info from a Quentin Wilson documentary, and I presumed he'd checked his facts. However, I can't find direct evidence to say it had, and the Allegro owners club state it's not true, so there's no direct evidence to say it wasn't (but then try proving a negative!).

Thanks Big Car for the history of Austin Allegro!

In Uruguay at the beginning of the 2000s a consignment of cars that had been confiscated in the port for more than 20 years were auctioned and these were Austin Allegro and Morris Marina from the importer of the time that had gone bankrupt; the result was that for a while we had Allegro and Marina for sale 0km in the market ...

I remember shaking my head every day on my way to school in the late 70s as I walked past my neighbour's Allegro Vanden Plas. Timeless indeed 😁

My sister's mate had a yellow one back in 1990, we called it the Flying Banana

I've been so looking forward to this! My mum owned one in the 70s. Within two weeks of taking delivery the entire engine had to be replaced under warranty. To be fair, it never gave her any trouble after that.

I owned two and loved them both!

I remember seeing them as a child back in the 70's. Suffice it to say I was unimpressed even then.

The Austin Morris 1100 is still a handsome design after all these years.

Phenomenal levels of detail and hard work go in to your fascinating videos and for that, I applaud and thank you my man!

I was given one as a company car, replacing a Austin 1300. The Allegro was so bad I asked for my 1300 back.

Great video Andy! So many missed opportunities for BL with the Allegro. Especially if you compare it to the successful Alfasud you featured earlier!

My father bought an Allegro new back when I was a kid. He had previously had a Maxi and a Marina and numerous Minis.. He had nothing but issues with the Allegro and Motor Corp New Zealand never really sorted it out. Eventually he got a local mechanic to tear down the engine to find out what was wrong with it and find out why it was so gutless. Turns out half the transporting corks had been left in the ports when the engine had been assembled so the engine could never breathe.

My grandparents had an Austin / BL dealership. As such my parents always had a demonstator car as their day to day car. Can remember when they had an Allegro and the one side of the suspension collapsed on the way back from holiday. Good old days :)

I loved my Allegro, it taught me so much about repairing engines.

VandenPlas is a Dutch name, and in the Dutch language, all consonants are spoken, so with the "s" at the end.

I’ve seen a 1980 chocolate brown Austin Allegro Vanden Plas in Glasgow a couple of years ago. Beautiful looking car.

Happy to learn that wrong exterior design killed the car, not the fact that it fell to pieces while driving.

One thing they did get right (well by 70's standards) was the rust proofing, particularly compared to the Italians

Thank you. This was my most awaited Big Car story 😃 now I’m hoping for Princess story 😉

I think it's fair to say that the car designers within British Leyland at that time were severely hamstrung by all kinds of ridiculous constraints, such as the gearbox-in-sump and rather asthmatic engines. The A-series and E-series engines both had a tendency to leak oil because of the gear change rod entering the gearbox below the level of the oil, with sliding seals, close to the road and exposed to road spray. That's a deadly combination. My dad had a Maestro with the A+ engine and the VW gearbox on the end of the engine, and it was 100% reliable and very smooth. This meant that when my Dad had his Allegro Equippe, he had to carry a can of oil around with him all the time because of loss of oil through the gearchange, where there would often be a small puddle under the car when it had been standing for a while. Plus the very nice alloy wheels of the Equippe were porous, which meant the tyres would go down fast. Stuff like that was just stupid. I heard that David Bache was eventually fired because of an argument with management where he eventually punched someone. I don't know what it was about, but I wouldn't be surprised if it was frustration boiling over.

This is from back in the time when it was 100% necessary to be a competent mechanic and skilled DC electrician if you wanted to have a prayer with an English car. In the hands of a man who knew what he was doing and sorted the cars they could be really good. Usually it was a man who was passionate about a Jag , Daimler, Rolls, Bentley, Aston, Jensen, Triumph, Rover, MG, Healey, Mini, Maxi or Minor derivative that was likely to be considered interesting enough to get sorted and doted over.

I loved my Allegro. Never let me down. In fact, I can't remember it having a single problem.

My father had one of these horrible things, I remember the engine falling off its mounts and bouncing over cats eyes on the sump!

James's may done very good piece on the allegro where he asked the designer how it went from his drawings to what was launched,his answer was the bean counters cutting corners and "disappointed " was not the word he used lol

I worked at Leyland in the seventies and bought a new Allegro 2 1100 in 1978. It was ok but very under-powered. The unions ran the shop floor production and all the management came from Shop Stewards. No wonder the place went bankrupt!

Every time I learn something new about the British car industry I'm amazed at how they literally got everything wrong. I mean literally EVERYTHING.

I find it absolutely staggering that more than 600k of these were 'sold.' Great content on this channel - better quality than some higher budget counterparts - inc some on tv. Thanks for uploads.

17:14 - So appropriate that the Two Ronnies would promote it. "Until then, it's good night from me." "And it's good night from him."

I worked on the production line at Longbridge which produced those things, not a happy period. It was the case of typical British management of a company, but on a grandiose scale, you simply would not believe some of the stories. I on a regular basis suggest they divert the production line from where it left the trim, through the offices, before it arrived at the mechanical assembly, just to remind them they made cars, because I'm sure most of the people there didn't know that. The expression it was a complete joke really doesn't cover it...

Thanks for these great videos on British consumer cars! I love getting a good historical background on all these cars I've seen on TV & movies my whole life, but never knew what they were. I've always been fascinated by the individual style languages of different car makers, and it's great to see the evolution of models I'm not immediately familiar with.

I used to walk home from my Primary school (shows how long ago this was..) One day a friend's Mum offered me and another boy a lift in her new Allegro. She drove to the other boy's house first, whereupon the Allegro conked out and refused to restart. As I was now further from my own house than the school was, I actually had a longer walk home thanks to the unreliability of this truly dreadful car.

A friend of mine bought a new Allegro 3 estate (he was a family man). In the first 6 months it developed a list of basic faults including badly leaking windows and seats you couldn't recline without the covers tearing under the stress. He returned it demanding his money back.

My mother had one in the 70s and 80’s. Lovely comfortable car from what I remember, but there again, she was a civilised driver and not a pedestrian killer like some of the flat top hairstyles driving around in the Ford Escorts and Vauxhall Astras of the time..

The three door 'estate' was actually awesome, a shooting brake small car that made the rest of the styling almost look good! Always seemed like a British 'Waynes World" car, the AMC Pacer, I'd totally drive one!

I think you'd agree that the demise of BL was the sum of it's parts not just on the Allegro. The unions brought British motor mindustry to it's knees . Particularly "Red Robbo" ! I do recall that on the 4 doors you were not allowed to jack the car up with the doors open !

I remember seeing one of these in my local high street. The front wheel had come off and was on the other side of the road. I was just a boy but still recall the wheel still had the brake disk in it.

I'm surprised the Austin Allegro did _anything_ briskly

"I see you have car!" "Austin Allegro...Chocolate Brown".

The later ones were nothing as bad as most people thought, and were no less reliable than other cars in its class of the time. I lived in Thailand for many years are there are a few of them there that were daily use till at least 2016 when I left.

My 1st car was a 1979 Allegro 1500 in a nice frog green colour. I think I paid £750 for it in 1991. You had to double de-clutch to get it into 3rd and the engine eventually gave out after a few months. It was a good car to learn auto mechanics on as me and my friends ended up swapping the engine (bought from the local scrap yard for £50 each) 4 times before I eventually got rid of it for £50 in 1993. The 1st engine swap took us about 16 hours, by the 4th one we had it down to about 90 min. I still remember the reg number - ERM 656 V. Fond but probably rose tinted memories! Edit: I just looked it up on the UK vehicle enquiry service and it was originally a 1750. I bought it with a 1500 but did swap a 1750 back into it.

My Dad bought an early orange one with low miles and the quartic wheel - he loved it - the only problem was finding a buyer when he got too old to drive it. Lovely comfy drive and easy to maintain, including the dashpot carburettor. Paintwork was a little scruffy until he t-cut it.

I disagree about it not doing any one thing well. The ride and roll resistance were outstanding compared to most cars. It felt like a much bigger car for the evenness of the ride, yet had fantastic roll resistance. For example, I had a lift to work in a Volvo 340 one day, and when my colleague took me round a sharpish left-hand bend that I would normally zoom round in my Allegro MkII estate, I grabbed the door handle because I thought we were going to roll over.

My 1977 Austin allegro was the low point in my car owning life. I member driving from oxford to chiswick in about 1988 and thinking all "I want is a car with windscreen wipers that work..."

Taught to drive in an Allegro, 6 lessons, and passed my test, first time, in a basic model. Brilliant on hill start when slowly releasing the clutch the nose would rise up in the air letting you know to fully release the clutch and keeping the revs up and away you would go.

When I’m having a rough day with my MG, I watch these videos and the happy gent who hosts them has me loving the cars, good and bad ones, in no time. Cheers!

Theres a lot of flat bottomed steering wheels out there so they were half right!

10:00 No doors, a weight saving safety device, good for performance!

It must have been a big facepalm moment when Harris’s chiselled designs turned into the dumpy looking car we all know. Such a missed opportunity! It could have been an Alfasud destroyer.

“The target market for the Vanden Plas was the retired executive giving up his Jaguar” I don’t think that market was a big as BL hoped. If you’re retiring and haven’t saved enough to keep or buy another Jaguar, you haven’t really landed as well as you’d hoped. Great video!

Thank you for these documentaries 👍👍👍🇬🇧🇬🇧🇬🇧🙏

My dad had an “Austin Aggro” if I remember it had a lovely whine in 2nd gear 😊 Excellent trip down memory lane, even in a flying pig. Love to see the Vauxhall Chevette story please.

Back in the early eighties when my parents had a Mini Estate and a Honda 250 motorbike as their main forms of transport we borrowed my Grandparents All-aggro to go on holiday to the south of France (from Stockport). Despite the fact it wasn’t the most reliable nor quickest form of transport it took our family of four there and back without a hitch, it wasn’t glamorous, it wasn’t exciting but it opened up a whole world we’d never experienced before. A year later we did it in a Marina and repeated the feat. Only when my Dad got a Ford Sierra company car did we get a car that would do the trip without having to check the health of the engine every time we stopped. Yes it’s easy to pick holes in their performance, styling and reliability but both the Marina and the All-aggro took our family to holiday destinations that I’ll never forget.

My Mum once had an Allegro Estate. Sky blue. One of her favourite cars.

I actually like the looks of the Allegro. Pretty smooth looking car IMHO. A friend of mine had one, and we travelled back and forth to university with 5 students cramped up it, our luggage in the tiny booth and me holding my guitar between my legs because there was no room left anywhere else. I had a Maestro many years ago and really loved the car. The rust monster took it from me and I had to scrap it.

The Allegros greatest problem was that it just wasn’t as good as the car it replaced

I had an Allegro 3 1300. No complaints. Served the family of 4 well.

In 1977 I purchased a Morris 1300. Memory tells me it was a 67 or a 68 model. The one curious thing about it was the oil light would come on when going around a "roundabout" on the A12 if I was a quart low on oil. LOL but otherwise it was a good car to go back and forth to my base... because the heater worked.

Well, as much as there's wrong with this car, I actually always liked (and still do like) its design. I really think its design is up there with a VW Golf 1 or an Alfasud (each of which represent some different school of design of the era). The Allegro's shape really is clean and very concise from every angle. It even manages to look good with it's puny wheels. The only version I'd really blame as visual accident is the Vanden Plas with its bloated nose and ginormous temple grille. Why they never made it into a hatchback is beyond anyone, I believe. If the British still preferred saloons, well, the Allegro missed the separate boot section anyway. And if you go for that "fastback" shape, why not have the advantage of the 3rd/5th door go along with it? Strangely enough, Opel/Vauxhall also had such strange versions in their Kadett/Chevelle (and still Astra!) lineup into the 1980s. As did VW in their earlier Passat 1 range - and that's DESPITE selling hatchback versions at the same time for a little more money. (OK, I get the idea... But having additional manufacturing costs for those two versions surely must have eaten up much of those additional revenues...

A friend in High School had a Rover P-6. I love that car. Plenty of power with the V-8 and handled well. Great memories.

I drove one back to London from Glastonbury, in 1995, after an intense festival meant my friend was too frazzled to drive. I wasn't in tiptop condition either and but it truly was a thoroughly unpleasant journey.

At least It was comfortable to ride in.

It wasn't really the questionable styling of the Austin Allegro But the absolutely DISMAL building quality that saeled the doom of BL as a whole.

In the early 80’s my dad had a sporty white allegro company car. Drove really well, we loved it.

My favourite bit was in the advert when BL claimed the spoiler was 'Designed to add stability at higher speeds'... That heady 100 MPH! The standard car did 91MPH and the Allegro 3 did 96 MPH. I certainly wouldn't enjoy doing 90 in any BL machine! Having said that the BL story and failures are fascinating; it was such a HUGE company.

Ah yes, Leland, buying up everything and then crashing hard! This car though, my feelings, I see why people don't find it beautiful. It tries to be rounded but gets stuck in the middle.

I do remember the distinctive sound of the 'Allegro Whine' which I vaguely remember was when they were reversing? An unmistakeable sound though :)

The Italian ad at 11:36 is an homage to "Duel," Steven Spielberg's first movie (made for American TV but released theatrically in Europe).

The gearboxes I described thusly: Like trying to stir a box full of hammers with a screwdriver. You guys must have been so proud of your home-grown torture machines! :P

My father often talked about his hatred of this car but he hated the Marina even more.

Jeremy Clarkson did an amusing comparo between the Alegro and Marina for his Clarksons Car Years Who Killed the Brittish Motor Industry. Its a good laugh.

I had one for more than ten years...In British Racing Green...1500 Super with 5-speed gearbox..Died after 28 years and 287 000 km(190 000 miles) due of corrosion..Just few minor problems,low consumption,good starting even in - 22 degrees,good road holding,comfortable driving and seats...Minors-Small luggage room with difficult entry,weak heating,hard gear shifting(you can use to do it)...I was satisfied and have many good memories..\! Always drive of and always returned home...it´s not bad result,I think..? It was one of best cars on our market(Czechoslovakia)