Mr Miller Snr bought one of these when I passed my driving test to keep me away from his Montego that I had reversed into a wall. He went away to look at a low spec Cortina Estate which I would have been very happy with but came back with a car very much like this one, a red Y reg 2 litre HL with a beige cloth interior. I was devastated, I was up for a Cortina Estate but this thing was something grandads drove (which was most probably why he bought it). It was our communal family car and never had any petrol in it, it floated around like a dingy in the middle of the Atlantic and in all the time we had it I never worked out how to fold the rear sear so it was a difficult car for a young man to entertain in. My disdain for this vehicle led me to leave home and move 300 miles away and not have a car at all. I feel much warmer towards the big daft thing now.
Sir, thank you for sharing your Montego and Ambassador memories. We very much enjoyed our time with this one, just as I have enjoyed driving three Montegos previously. Interesting how your car was also one of these 2.0 HLs, right down to the registration letter. I can imagine that this was never much not a young man's car back in the day!
windymiller5058 ... just remember that in life - and in knowing how to get the rear seat back to lay flat in an Austin Ambassador - man can only supply blood pressure to one head at a time ... 🤗 ...
Ah" thank you sir" this is a very agreeable example. I've owned several princess's and 2 ambassador's my favourite was a light green ambassador 2:0 HLS with elec front windows and power steering! It was a 83A reg: i owned from 89-91 then i sold it and the last time i saw it , in 93 it had a cab aerial on it at a mini cab office it even had a sticker in the window that said your, now traveling ambassador class! I ran a check, on it recently and it hasn't been taxed since 1994) i remember changing the twin carb's for a single carb set up, apart from that it was very reliable.
I was amazed when I encountered this very car recently while out in my Princess, first time meeting another wedge in the wild in the 12 years I've had mine. They're a perfectly competent classic with enough parts bin sharing for the oily bits that you can generally keep one going mechanically without having to spend a huge amount of cash, they're just very difficult to find these days. It's a far cry from the 90s when you could sometimes struggle to give one away.
Yes, I think Michael sometimes does take this to work, actually. Some parts are hard to get, from what I understand, but there are numerous shared components. They are much rarer than a Princess, that is for sure!
Brilliant review, Mr Lloyd, I've always had a bit of a morbid curiosity about these, especially the Vanden Plas spec one. Originally, the VP spec was meant to have all-around electric windows, hence the 4 blank switches on the dash.
That makes sense, sir. I also have been interested in these for many years, and I finally had my wish granted last month when I was able to drive this one.
@lloydvehicleconsulting It's brilliant when you can drive something you've always wanted to. It wasn't necessarily a bad car, probably more badly executed than anything and too late. I drove one of my dream cars at 18, and it was a dark grey 1992 Mercedes W140 600SEL with a beige leather interior. I was working as a car valeter, so from the late 90s to the mid-2000s, I was driving all kinds of things which were current, E39s E46s, Mercedes W202s, W203s W210s W220, all the usual German fare etc I did notice the decline in quality on those newer Mercedes-Benz models certainly.
I like that very much. The interior is light, airy and apparently comfortable. I remember when the Princess came out I did not like the body shape at all but now I do. My taste must have changed. The glove box, by the way is charming 😍. I must be going mad!
Yes, we all seem to have actually been re-evaluating cars like this, haven't we? The interior is very spacious, and the visibility was excellent. Not the fastest or prettiest car, but much better than it has any right to be.
Thank you for this video! A car never sold in New Zealand but would have been a hit if it had! Its Princess predecessor was very popular in, and even produced, in my country.
As usual Sir, a fine review! Growing up on my estate there was a red one just like this which i loved to look at on my way to school. For me as a kid was the shape. Cavaliers, Cortinas and Solaras, etc. were all too boxy. This and the Sd1 really were stylish. I did not know the front was lower as only a 4 . You are a fountain of knowledge, Sir 🫡
Yes, the bonnet line is lower than a Princess. These are stupidly rare cars now. It's funny what one remembers from childhood, isn't it? Glad you enjoyed it!
Absolutely fantastic Sir! I do love an Ambassador. I also like the Ital a great deal, and I find both the Ambassador and the Ital far more appealing than the Princess and Marina of which they were heavily based upon. Another excellent review Sir, and I'm glad its a car that you revere!
I took my test in an old ambassador VP back in the 80’s and it started playing up on the test…as the auto choke jammed on and it was running rich which was a regular problem with the Twin carb setup. The examiner actually passed me still, as I managed to nurse it around the test route and his advice was Scrap the F)’#ing car as he actually had one previously with the same problem lol. The Hazard lights on ours got plenty of use.
Goodness me, what a story! You are absolutely right, anything from the Rover Group's predecessor companies from before about 1984 became virtually valueless by 1990. I imagine that is why the examiner told you to get rid of it! I quite like the Ambassador Vanden Plas, though, but good luck trying to find one...
OMG I am old enough to remember these, cant be man left now. Does look quite good condition for its age. last time I saw one, well m memory does not seem to go back that far.
Thank you very much indeed for watching! The weather was awful when I filmed this, but I had been waiting to get hold of one for years, and so I persevered. Both this and the Princess were wonderful.
These are stupidly rare, not least because they had a very short production life, but it is strange that the one you used to travel in was almost exactly the same!
Great video, I had vanden plas on a A plate years ago, nice comfortable drive , but needed a 5 speed box tho, I also have late princess . Regards mark .
Hello sir , there was an ambassador used in a pop video , by a band called badly drawn boy , cant remember the track right now but its a really good song . Also tasty classics , ben restored a blue one on his channel. I have only ever been in two princess in my life and both where very impressive inside and nice to ride in , even if as a child i couldnt get my head arround the shape and design from the outside. I rember the rear arches on the princess used to rust for fun. I also remember a bloke where i worked in 97 had an ambassodor, by this point obviously what he owned was like a wreck but he was chuffed that i knew what car he had .😂
Sir, we have heard of Tasty Classics quite a lot recently. Having driven a Princess and an Ambassador, I can assure you that they are nowhere near as bad as some say that they are. The rust was bad, but it was also terrible on a lot of other 1970s and 1980s cars. Ambassadors would have had virtually no value in 1997!
Thank you for the review sir. A shame there were no 6 cylinder noises of the Princess but I do prefer the styling of the Ambassador. Delightfully 80s cool.
It's a really interesting car, principally because, despite its reputation in some quarter, it ended up quite ordinary in the context of the time, and it lived for such a short period. It's definitely not a terrible car, more just quite ordinary, and actually all the more special for it, since they are so rare.
Wow, what a rare and wonderful beast. I have particular affection for the Ambassador ‘Sprint’ nicknamed by my dad and I after he owned 2, and we realised they were anything but quick. I learnt to drive in a slightly later 2.0HL - and very nice it was too. Except the gear change, which was dreadful and also the too light power steering. Otherwise, roomy, comfortable, with the most amazing ride and (to my eyes at least) handsome. Sadly, the world had moved on by 1982/3 when these were launched, the the Cavalier mk2 was the much better, albeit not as cavernous bet. I have conversed with Mr Shuttleworth on the AR Online website about his love for the Ambassador.
We have something even rarer than this coming up on the channel soon, sir, but the Ambassadors really are not common at all, and it is only thanks to the dedication of enthusiasts like Michael that any of these survive at all. There is conflicting information out there about whether the 2.0 HL was also available with twin carbs, but this one is a single car, so a little bit less power than the Vanden Plas, for example. I have seen that article on the AR Online site...
Oh yes! You are really spoiling us with this review. Took a while for BL to offer the hatchback, although it meant re-engineering the body shell maintain structural rigidity. Why oh why the Ambassador was never offered a tachometer I cannot fathom. (In 1995 I bought a punk rock compilation CD that had the very entertaining 1978 hit single "Jilted John" on it. I never knew about John Shuttleworth or the Austin Ambassador song until many years later).
Yes sir, that single was a very early Graham Fellowes effort. I was determined to get hold of an Ambassador, and I managed it in the end. Thank you very much indeed for watching once again, sir.
A neighbour had a beige Ambassador, EHA219Y in the 1980s and once had a ride in it. This car is not dead as I imagined but SORN, and no idea where it is.
I had identical one mine was A plate, i liked the car but the o series engine liked consuming oil, had a princess with 1.7 o series that to liked its oil. I bought them to tow my trailer which they did easily.
@@lloydvehicleconsulting i was putting in about 1 litre every 400 miles back then the 1.7 had 70 odd thou miles and the 2.0 was about 45 thou……assumed it was normal as there were no clouds of smoke. Later on i had a 1.6 s series maestro no issues there or with the diesels which i thought the best thing done to a maestro…..super economy great starting for diesel at the time.
A classic British missed opportunity I looked into the history of this princess-ambassador story a while ago. I can’t remember the number but cost Austin rover an absolute fortune to turn what looked like a hatchback but wasn’t a hatchback into something that actually was a hatchback…structural redesign required. Didn’t help that it looks identical to the earlier model so people didnt appreciate the re-design. A bit like original Vauxhall Astra saloon sold alongside the more popular hatchback…but that car was designed to be a hatchback from scratch, so taking a tin opener to the back didn’t pose the same problem. …that is what Austin rover should have done from day 1. In hindsight gearbox in sump was probably too limiting…..no 5th gear. Removing the 6cyl engine option also limited export potential. But all that aside, it looks like the car would make a very comfortable longer distance vehicle.
Yes, I think we covered some of the development story of the car in the video. I don't know why they bothered fundamentally re-engineering the car for sales in just two countries for two years, but they did. It looks sort of similar to the Princess, even if very few panels are the same. The Mark I Astra Saloon/Hatchback situation was very odd. The four speed gearbox is actually OK, although you can't rush the changes. No Cortina was ever sold with a five speed gearbox, for example. It was surprisingly comfortable to drive, though.
The Princess and Ambassador have a transmission in sump layout, so I don't think that the gearbox was shared with any other car. The cost of developing a five speed gearbox was presumably prohibitively expensive, but would have been worth it!
PS. I own a few classic cars at moment. And one of my friends has a 2200 princess auto . That i have 1st refusal on , if he decides to sell it. We often sell eachother car's in our group. I bought a 1972 triumph 2000 in orange/ off him recently i feel the triumph 2000/2500 is a underated car, that actually is a good alternative to a rover p6. That i also own
Well, if you ever fancy having any of your cars featured on the channel, my e-mail address appears on screen very early in the video! Never tried a Triumph 2000 myself, but have wanted to do so for years.
The Austin Ambassador should have been kept going longer and promoted properly. Five speed gearboxes were rare in cars at this time so most rivals would have only four ratios. The looks were good and the space is enormous. They should have given the Princess a hatchback and let the Maxi, SD1 and 18/22 Series sell alongside each other. Subsequently killing off whichever one, if any, that experienced falling sales. BL Management was always baffling. While BL Design Teams and Engineers were quite amazing in the Products that they turned out.
Yes, they really should have developed a five speed for these, although something like a Mark V Cortina was never available with one either. The practicality is superb with these cars, as is the visibility. The situation with internal politics at British Leyland which meant the Princess never got a hatchback was a bit silly, really.
@@lloydvehicleconsulting Thought that comment worthy because I recently ordered a Corgi model of a Rover from the same period with such a shade of red paint and similar coloured interior too!
@@lloydvehicleconsulting They really are. The one that is for sale is from 1981 and has the round headlights, which I like more. Just a shame it isn't a hatchback
I think the front lamps, indicators and grill let down the styling of these, otherwise I think they look quite good. I think back in 1975, not everyone was on board with a hatchback for this size of car, so it's understandable why it stayed as a saloon. Cortina was saloon/estate only. Cavalier was saloon only, although there was a 2-door sports hatch.
Some people prefer the front end of the Princess, I think. As you say, hatchbacks for larger cars were not very common when the 18-22 Series was launched in 1975, although they started to become much more common within just a few years.
Nothing what I could say in a brief reply would even scratch the surface of trying to explain why things ended up the way they did under British Leyland...
What a dreadful mistake the princess and ambassador were, hatchback was too late, no rev counter ever and no 5 speed box on an executive car 🤣🤣, some special coffee was served 😉
@@lloydvehicleconsultingI regularly used to manage to change from 5th to 1st in my dad’s……..embarrassing and potentially expensive! An awful, baulky inprecise gearbox. The cars weakest aspect.
