Hmmm, it's all been said before but... I'm an Australian in my fifties. I learned to drive on my mum's Hillman Minx IIIb. Not thrilling, but solidly built. My first car was a Morris 1100. Very safe handling and surprisingly fun to drive. Tinny sounding doors. I graduated to an Austin 1800 Mk1. Cat-swinging interior space, reasonable performance, very rigid construction with, again, excellent, safe handling and a very comfortable ride. Dreadful gear lever action (although, remember, I had graduated from a Morris 1100, so.....) and, ahem, very tinny doors. My sister had a Morris 1500 Nomad which if memory serves was a five speed. Friends of the family had a V8 P76. My memory is that all of these cars (perhaps not the poor old Minx) had the potential to be developed into very capable motor vehicles for their time. BMC/BMH/BL time and again were just inept and always playing catch up. What a shame.
I agree that,the Aussie 'Leyland Marina 'was better put together than the UK Morris. I owned an Australian 262. It was lots of fun. Most people don't realize what the point of the Marina was supposed to be. It was never intended to be an advanced new design. Many traditional Austin Morris buyers were conservative. A tad put off by the futuristic front wheel gas,suspension offerings from BMC. The Marina was intended to be simple to use. Simple to service and that,featured old but proven traditional engineering. Simple and durable. Over a million were sold. One can hardly call it a failure. I believe that the followers of modern technology, those whom appreciated the likes of the,ADO16 were,shocked the BMC would come up with a Morris Minor replacement.
Each to their own - but basic, bread and butter cars. But honestly, were we any better? Back at that time, we were selling Toranas and Cortinas with 6's in them as family mid size sedans that were almost identical in mech spec to these. The problem was more the climate/mindset they were assembled in. Honestly - if you took a Honda/Toyota from then over to the Leyland factory to be assembled; it would be rubbish as well. Examples? The US launch of the TR7. 53 cars across all dealers. 47 of them had defects, or didn't go. Up to the dealers to get them going - MOST broke down or had a problem. WHO would think that was acceptable? Over at BSA, two examples. A guy bolts on a tail light bracket that has half missing - but still fits it; hangs indicator off the side. When stylist walking past questions? "I don't get paid for Qual control, I am na assembler." BSA decided to paint frames a silver colour to trade on the motocross bikes success, but a senior exec "got some paint ex Army that was cheap." Dove Grey. Looked horrible, not what they wanted, EVERYONE hated it - "but was cheap" - so went ahead. Triumph Stag. Legendary for "overheating". WHY? They were delivered from casting, and MOST didn't have the casting sand washed out of the block - and THEN most had no corrosion inhibitor put in them (alloy heads) - as "the other Triumphs don't have that. (Iron heads.) Get a new Honda and fill the radiator with sand and see how long THAT lasts. Does that make it the cars fault? These cars were never going to set the world on fire. But throw them together/be stupid/treat buyers with contempt - and you WILL go broke. Pretty obvious really. Did any of the companies above DESERVE to survive?????? And I have a Stag - that I have done 340,000 kms in. I can make it run ok. The people who made it couldn't. What does that say. :-)
I would like to advise you that Shannon's actually have a FEW Leyland, yes Australian version of the Marina, insured with you.. Actually , the orange engine bay of a Six cylinder Australian Leyland Marina , IS my husband's.. I will give you that it wasn't a good corner handling car at first, BUT , with K Mac bars , that solved the problem.. He has TWO , Leyland ( Australian versions ) Marina's.. A 4 cyl AND the 6 cyl. Both Coupes.. You actually featured his 6 cylinder on your members page a few years ago. He has had the 6 cyl since April 1975. I could not tell you how many times it had been around the clock. Like the song " it's been everywhere ) .. I think this is very unfair as you cannot compare the English version to the Australian version ,as they had different spec's to each other. Yes it was not the" perfect car " but back then , WHAT WAS.. In the 45 years , he has owned this , it had only let us down TWICE.. Once -- due to getting caught in a flood , and the 2nd time -- due to fuel evaporation.. Not bad for a " DUD". The 4cyl only come by chance , about 15 years ago ,due to a lady wanting someone to love and restore her late brothers car.. My husband done this and now it , can be loved like the 6cyl , forever with us and then our daughters. After all , they got brought home from hospital in the 6cyl , learnt to drive in it ,etc, etc.. A very dissapointing article..
Gail VL I just saw Hubnut's spin in your babies. I loved the four cylinder one. That six is a freak!! I never knew the coupe came with them. I know someone with an automatic four cylinder coupe in pink!
You are correct Gail they were actually very reliable cars and that is why they were popular here in the UK where we had the excellent A and B Series engines in them. I had a 1978 Morris Marina 1.8 HL/TC Mk2 and it was an excellent reliable fast car for its day and I used to drive that car fast and hard all the time and I am still here as I didn't have any problems with the handling as it was upgraded by then in the Mk2. My car was exactly the same as the one behind then at 12.02 in the video only it was Tahiti Blue instead of that metallic blue. Mine was an ex-company car with 71,000 miles on the clock when I bought it and that is what they were actually designed for in the first place the fleet market who loved them because they were simple, reliable and cheap to maintain. Mine was in excellent condition because I looked after it and serviced it myself and I was planning on keeping it for good and then a woman drove out from a junction in a van without stopping writing my Marina CDS 443S off - was off work for a week after that with whiplash but otherwise was fine apart from being gutted at losing my car. replaced that with a 1980 Austin Allegro 1750 TC Equipe which was also an excellent reliable and fast car for back then - these had the same reliable engines that you used in the Marinas over in Australia - as did all of the bigger engined Allegros and the Maxis. I never had any trouble with the build quality of any of my BL cars either and neither did any of my family or friends that owned them either or with their reliability. Usually the people that say anything bad about these cars either never owned them and are respouting the drivel that they have been told by Top gear etc or they never looked after or serviced their cars or bought other peoples unlooked after cars without checking them out first and then blamed the car/manufacturer when the car broke down or had problems. Also funny how plenty of people like yourself are still driving these cars decades later reliably with no problems. Wish I still had both my Marina and Allegro today.
Best car in Australia -according to an enthusiast. I reckon they look good. The Leyland Australia assembled ones were better built than their UK counterparts.
I can understand why Marina didn’t sell in rough road Australia as in Britian poor suspension .BL Management should have modernised BMC A110 it’s the same size as it’s main rivel the Ford Cortina mk3.
@Aussie Pom Regarding the six, it had a B-W 4 speed gearbox fitted, that's it. He even cocked up by going from 1st to 4th and it didn't really seem to notice.
From a few days ago by coincidence a UK viewpoint looking at the volume selling 1300 pushrod (A series ?) with a knowledable young lady owner from the UK Classic car movement ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-J8YMcEFqf-Q.html I cant see too many here wanting a 1300 pushrod Marina, but in the UK it was the volume seller. TC Cortinas and even Capris sold well with 1300s in the UK. I think the 1300s were the volume selling version for these for many years into the 70s.
@ because it sold here in low numbers and doesn't have much interest. I don't personally care if they run a segment on a vehicle that I couldn't give a rat's arse about, I simply won't watch it, and by the amount of views many other Australians agree with me. So from an economic perspective it makes bad use of a companies resources to highlight a vehicle that generates low volumes of viewer 'hits', and in turn less advertising shekels
I had a TC Coupe, it was a very low quality car, window winders snapped, indicator stork would shoot apart, front end was just shocking, handled like wheel barrow, not much go. The key got jamed in the ignition, so may things went wrong. The wooden steering wheel was the best part.
Classic Marina story I read somewhere, was of a new Marina in the UK taken back to the dealers to fix the car moving to the left under braking. Turned out it had a front disc brake on one side and drum on the other side. Likely another one out there with the opposite setup. Another chapter in UK factory quality.
John D I remember hearing that one back in the day when I was working for a BL main dealer and it wasn't just the Marina line. I remember finding cars with different colour door cards front and back and side to side, different colour carpets in the back to the front, incorrectly badged cars and different exterior trim on one side of the car to the other. All these things I saw first hand at PDI. I also remember going to PDI a car one day that was badged and trimmed as a Marina HL and lifting the bonnet and finding a 1.3 unit instead of the 1.8TC I was expecting.
An absolute stinker when new. But now rarely seen. However lever action shock absorbers in a chassis from the Morris Minor was ridiculous by the 1970s !
@@jamesfrench7299 So I gather. It's not easy to find out about Australian built Leyland's here in England, I actually came here looking for the P76. I never knew they existed till very recent. Had BL had any sense they would have used OZ as a proving ground for models and sent some OZ cars to England. A six cylinder marina or aP76 would have rarity value here.
@@garyhewitt489 amazing how removed an offshoot of the same company can be in two countries with very intertwined cultures. Leyland Australia also produced probably the best version if the Mini Moke anywhere with the 1275cc motor (even though I think the 1000cc was a gem) and galvanised body, produced until 1981. We pumped out minis themselves, adopting the flat faced sports front as the standard front instead of continuing the original bug eye look from 1959. LA even assembled a special 10.9m version of the National bus for the local market.
@@garyhewitt489 Leyland Australia or BMC before that made a lot of cars here in Australia. Morris and Austin cars were sold together in the same showroom. In the mid to late sixties they decided to get serious and try and challenge GMH, Chrysler Australia and Ford Australia in the marketplace. In the early seventies the P76 was born to compete in the family car market. The Marina was heavily promoted and yes a six cylinder version was available to compete with compact six cylinder cars from Holden and Ford. Every thing looked good. A complete range covering all segments of the market. The Mini, the Marina and the full size P76 with a hatchback and wagon variant to follow. With all of those except the Mini quality control was bad and although the P76 won Wheels car of the year in 1973 word spread about it's assembly woes and Leyland Australia were in trouble. So much money and so many dreams were invested in that car and it is a shame really. The inevitable happened, Leyland in the UK itself was in trouble and they sent out David Abell to make it profitable or close it down. The P76 was canned along with the Force 7 hatchback and proposed wagon. In many waysthe P76 was ahead of it's local opposition with that lightweight V8 that people still talk about these days. Production continued in New Zealand for a while after that but after the last of the kits were built up the P76 dissappeared for all time. Leyland/BMC was not the only car company that assembled or manufactured British cars here. Chrysler Australia following their parent companies takeover of Rootes started assembly of Hillmans. Ford Australia assembled Escorts and Cortinas the latter being offered as both a 3.3 and 4.1 litre six cylinder along with the 2 litre four. The Hillman sold reasonably well for Chrysler but by then Datsun and Toyota were making huge inroads and the last of the Hillmans remained unsold in showrooms for months after. They gave up and following their parent companies tie up with Mitsubishi started, assembly of the Valiant Galant. It was a solid hit. It was also marketed in the US as the Dodge Colt. Ford Australia meantime were copping heaps of flack about the Cortina's build quality. They struggled to get it right but never quite got there. Chrysler Australia struck the same problems with the Chrysler Centura (180) I think it was called in Britain. Both very good cars but the fit and finish of the Holden Torana and the Japanese cars was superior and that's where the buyers went. Ford had much better success with the Escort though. For some reason the kits supplied to assemble those were of much better quality. Ford gave up and ended up rebadging Mazda's to create the Telstar to replace the Cortina and the Laser to replace the Escort. Chrysler to gave up on the Centura. They had a choice of either the European Chrysler Alpine or the Mitsubishi Galant to assemble here to tackle the small car market. They went Japanese and called it the Sigma. It was a runaway success and became Australia' best selling small car. That was the seventies. The only Leyland product that was still being made here was the Mini, and that got canned. Anything else was imported. Leyland trucks were popular for a while but the Japanese soon took care of that. The Triumph Dolimite, Rover 3500 and Range Rover were available but they had limited success. Jaguars were very, very highly regarded but there was plenty of talk about dodgey electrics and general reliability issues much to the delight of Mercedes Benz and the big local V8 barges being built by Holden, Ford and Chrysler.
@@area51isreal71 Thanks for the info, very interesting. You mention the Chrysler180 and I had completely forgotten about that, it was no success here. Build quality was the big killer for BMC/BL. Here the workforce was totally demoralised, the output shoddy, the factories traditionally run on piece-work, the industry used as a political football, the wages held down with Govt incomes policies, strikes etc. The dealers were being streamlined and so were looking for product to sell, they ended up selling imports very well! Once the decline started, cash got tight,new designes were scrapped or done on the cheap to use old bits . Even Jaguar nearly died, Rover was throttled,Triumph killed. It could so easily have better, the Stag, SD1, Jags, RangeRover, could all have been so much better. The alloy RoverV8, small daimlerV8, the 2L turbo diesel in the Montego, even the little K series were good, BL were years ahead in front wheel drive but it all died
I disagree on the first part but agree to an extent in the last bit. They were fine as long as you didn't need to work on the front end or replace the radiator.
@James French The Japanese came in and just decimated cars like this on all fronts. Superior materials, machining, quality, reliability, style... depending on the model, haha.
The Sydney built Morris Leyland Marinas had excellent corrosion protection and faired better than Datsuns,Toyotas, Mazdas and Subarus of the time. Their Morris minor engines were proven reliable designs. They were the ultimate utilitarian mass produced hack that did the job they were supposed to with simple maintenance and were a handsome looking car. Most important, they were a very un-asian car wearing the very Anglo British Leyland spinning L marque that the Japanese could never claim.
