The last Talbot Tagora goes for a Drive 

I had a 1981 2.2 during my final undergrad year at university. I just liked buying ludicrous cars to drive back then. It was a ten year old by then and up for sale for £500. I think I was drawn to it by its sheer size and squareness. The dashboard used to flash like a Christmas tree but it never broke down and is fondly remembered. Some great memories and stories of ‘the old crate’ as I christened remain whilst other cars are largely, if not completely, forgotten. Most comfortable car I ever owned. We often picnicked in it with coca-cola supercans (if you remember them) lined up on the dashboard. Till this day I can’t resist dropping in the phrase ‘Jimmy Hill had one you know’ when mention of the mighty Tagora is made’.

Rumour has it the boot is still open 😳 Forgot these things even existing, cracking find fella!

In Germany, people considered Talbot as Simca's last revenge and shunned almost everything sold under that brand except for a few Horizons, perhaps. I could have told this car was a Talbot but the model name had long escaped my memory. Thank you for showing this rare survivor.

Hi Matt, Fantastic. My father worked for Talbot in the early eighties and we had one as company car for six months - 2.2 GLS

Hello from Ireland, love the content, in the 80's worked in garage where my boss used to work for Talbot/Chrysler so we got a lot of work on Talbot Solara's, horizon's, Sunbeams, horrible Samba's, and Tagora's. Did a couple of services on Tagora's and on one Tagora a head gasket, I thought they were a nice car and visually had a hint of Aston Lagonda about them. As for other Talbot's (except the Samba) good cars, but sometimes on a quiet night if you listen closely you can still hear those dished cam followers clicking away from all those Simca engines 🤗👍👍👍

What a lovely car! Talbot made quite a few different cars in the early 80s: Samba, Sunbeam, Horizon, Avenger, Solara, Alpine, Tagora, Rancho

What an awesome, well thought out car. Those seats are so typically French and wonderful. They look very like Renault 25 seats. What a time warp of a car and I can only imagine the smell and comfort. Heady stuff. Superb video Matt

I loved these things when they were new - you can definitely see some Peugeot 604 influence in the styling and proportions. Fantastic dashboard - elements of Citroen, and an oh so minimal design, which was very ahead of its time. Pity they didn’t sell!

Fantastic - that's pretty unicorny. Fun fact I found out was that Jimmy Hill had a 2.2GLS when he was director of Coventry City. They had a sponsorship deal with Talbot.

A lot of journalists in France said that PSA decided, after finding out this new car in the Chrysler deal merger, to kill the Tagora because 3 to 4 French "executive cars" competiting in the same company was too much : 505/604, CX + Tagora. And Talbot was a new brand without any track records in luxury cars (except during the 30's). Peugeot decided to freeze all the Talbot marketing investments and didn't allow discount price on this very expensive car in the 80's. The best way to quickly kill the Tagora in 1983. Yours is an amazing survivor, kudos to preserve such a rare car! Sorry for my poor English, I did my best 😉

The problem was even when Talbot existed no one had heard of Talbot. Same with Sunbeam, the other Roots Group leftover. And for the 12 people who actually knew of Talbot, the backstory of multiple owners and a tiny sales channel would have scared them off anyway.

My uncle and aunt had a 2.2gls in light blueish gray, this was in the early to mid 90s. I remember faintly a road trip in that car as a kid, the backseat was wast and it was like a massive sofa. The dashboard was something from a spaceship for a kid like me. They loved the car and it was super rear in Norway, he sold it because it was really difficult finding spare parts for it. Its a car you never see anymore. Its a shame because it was kind of a good car that was not selling in big numbers at all.

What a great looking car, it just screams 80s. I was born in 81 but seeing a Tablot was already pretty rare at that time. The only Talbot's that i remember seeing driving around back then were horizons.

I saw one of these go through chesterfield car auctions about 30 years ago, I don’t recall a bidding war lol

Great review, must of been a bit nerve-racking at times, especially knowing it's the only one, left on the road, very interesting car.

It makes a change to have someone present cars so enthusiastically without sarcasm or stunted views. Keep em comin’ Love the Tagora. My Parents had a Solara back in the day with heater matrix failure. Apparently a common issue.

Love the interior and those seats actually look the definition of warm & comfortable.

I remember all of the Talbots being comfy and a good ride. However I also remember the rust issues and the clattery noisy engines.

My cousin had a Talbot Solara as a sort of farm car back in the late 90s, and I always liked the design of that car. I always knew the Tagora existed, but don't think I've ever seen one in flesh. Now that I have seen one in excellent detail I realise it has much of those same design elements I liked in the Solara but more refined and upmarket. The interior is especially lovely, and seeing it in such mint condition... Wow! Now I would love to own one, but I believe they're just as scarce in Finland as they are in the UK. Excellent review once again, thank you!

Always thought these were front wheel drive....learn something new every day.🙂

I remember one on a forecourt in Bilston in around 1989. Didn't shift for months. People just went for the Granada, Rovers or Carltons. Lovely thing and that interior is more appealing than anything new I've seen recently.

I sat in one!! When I was young we lived next door to a Talbot dealer. IIRC he had 2 of these in the showroom, a red V6 and a 2 tone silver 2.2. He had the engine and interior swapped round and kept the 2-tone silver V6 as his own car. We had a Horizon which also had the same trip computer (we also had at different times 2 Alpines, 4 Avengers and 3 Simca vans)! I've still got the original brochure for the Tagora somewhere! Just a small point, when PSA bought Chrysler Europe all the cars were badged as either Chrysler, Simca or Dodge for the commercials - they must have looked back through the catalogue of marques that they had acquired to find a new name to apply, Talbot which was originally an Anglo-French company must have fitted quite well. Looks like I'll never get a chance to own a Tagora, I hadn't realised they were quite so rare :-(

Very interesting review, Matt. As always, informative and engrossing. Keep up the good work.

Thank you for this amazing video. I went to see one that was for sale used in 1989, it was not in the condition that it was described and I did not buy it but these were extremely cheap by that time. I had a few Talbots, 3 Alpines, a Solara and Samba... I did a lot of miles in all of them. Back in the mid 80's a good well maintained used Alpine or Solara was an absolute bargain, you had to accept the ticking camshaft noise as part of the appeal! They were extremely comfortable and in GLS spec were well equipped for the day.

The V6 engine had two triple-barrel Weber carbs. which resulted in a higher power rating over the fuel-injected versions used by Peugeot. Also, the fuel crisis of 1979 did not help and Talbot had to lower the projected sales figures. And it wasn't really advertised effectively so the public didn't know about it. I loved the car. I was a technician for Rootes/Chrysler/Peugeot back then and went on the Tagora course in Coventry. It was a 4-day course and went into everything about the car. I also drove an SX from my garage to London, a dealer transfer, and was very impressed with the car's handling, performance and quietness. I wish I had enough money to buy one back then!

Just tripped over this review and it brought back lots of memories! My father used to work for Peugeot-Talbot and had both a 2.2GLS and a 2.6SX that followed a Peugeot 604, and I was fortunate enought to drive them all. The 2.6SX was pretty quick but did like to drink the fuel. In it's time both models offered something demonstrably better than the usual Ford and Vauxhall fodder. But the Tagora did suffer with the general image of Talbot at the time and looking like an englarged Solara. Such a shame it didn't sell in good numbers. Thanks for the review.

Back in 1983 I worked for Peugeot Talbot Car Rental in Belgravia and we had two on our fleet!! They weren't bad cars but didn't hire well and were swapped for 505's. We rented one to some young lads once, a strange hire, and were later called by a Police Station in N. London who told us it had been used in a crime in Birmingham and was available to collect from their yard. But when I arrived to collect it had gone. The Police explained that the miscreants had been released on bail and had promptly gone back to the desk with their hire agreement and the Police had released it to them!!!! Never saw it again!!!! 😄

Great car Can remember them when I was young ( sub 10 years old) but even then you didn’t see that many Really good review and as thorough as ever😊

The reg. no. looks to be that of Peugeot management role car; they were nearly all SX variants and was the only way they could sell them. We used to first service these cars for those entitled to them roughly every three months as the factory gave them a new one after that time. The design suffered from misguided conception that if you upscaled a smaller model (the Solara) then you could sell to the executive sector but they, wisely, stayed away in droves. All our techs. disliked them and when one caught fire when being tuned the mechanics pushed it into the yard and let it burn (I think the owner was happy with that outcome too!).Along with the Ranchero this is a model best forgotten.

The roller by the handbrake will be a speaker fader, front to rear.

What a remarkable car, and what a privilege it must have been to drive it. Top work as always, thank you Matt!

My father had a 2.6 SX from 1981. Traded his Audi 100 5E CD for it, much to my temporary disgust at the time. It was a light metallic blue (although for some reason the tax book said 'grey'). The seats were very comfortable, I think it was the first and only car I fell asleep in the back on a long journey. They were a little disastorous in some ways, the Michelin 210/65/365 TRX tyres were £100 per corner in 1984, the rear diff blew up wiping itself, the torque tube, the gearbox, clutch and flywheel all in one go, and destroyed my father's back when it suddenly went from 60mph to everything locked up. But....when that thing hit 5,000 rpm it sounded incredible, hence the reason I never forgave the auld lad for selling it and not passing it on to me! 😂 It was odd, it was wonderful, and it was a massive pain in the ar5e, but it was loved up until it was replaced with a Scorpio 2.9i. Oh, and that roller control behind the handbrake was the front/rear fader control for the speakers. The stereo was an option item in Ireland: we had a Clarion unit that was stolen from the car when it was in for the diff repair work. It was replaced with a Blaupunkt Toronto SQR45. I may have been a little too obsessed with a car I wasn't old enough to drive..

This is the sort of thing I follow this channel for - fantastic video! 👍🏻

You've done it again treating us to something completely different. I remember these because they were such a rare sight when new, a shame really as I quite like the looks and the interior is especially nice and unfussy especially the dash. Thanks.

My Dad worked at our local Peugeot Talbot dealership and I remember going in there and sitting in all the cars when I was a young lad. It was around the corner from my house and the transporter unloaded the cars in my road. I remember watching one of these being pushed off as it wouldn't start lol! Did actually see an SX in Ipswich a few years ago in an awful shade of green. Loved all the old Talbot's, brings back great memories so thanks for this.

Another gem! We had an Talbot dealer in our village in the 80s. Seen these Tagora's back in the day, but they where not sold that much. The Horizon was popular in our region, only they rusted so badly. People in our street had a 1307. Great video review Matt!

I've always been fascinated by these and it's great to finally see such a thorough review of one. Keep up the awesome work!

I see you've found out about the Naylor's doorhandles :-) This one apparently has upmarket ones, because for the smaller cars I know, the Horizon, Simca 1100 and 1307, the keyholes in the front doors weren't integrated into the doorhandle, but were placed separately on the door. I'm glad that some people preserve these cars (apparently there is someone in Southern Germany or Switzerland who even has two or three Tagoras). I always thought those joint French/British development under the Chrysler Europe umbrella were quite nice cars, but the Tagora was let down by internal PSA policy. The Peugeot rear axle was partly responsible for the slightly weird looks of the Tagora, and I don't think it was ever marketed properly.

Amazing car, i remember seeing a talbot in the early 90s as a young child and being fascinated by its square styling. Never seen too many after that, nice to have this detailed overview of these fantasitc but forgotten cars.

My father proudly participated in the design of the Tagora. He spent most of his working life at Jaguar and then Whitely, both in Coventry

Hello from France, Great video! Thank you very much. Very rare car indeed. I remember when it went out on the market. With its sharp lines, It looked already a little bit old fashioned in the early 80’s. And the decision to have a non injected version of the PRV (like the Peugeot 604 (my car actually) / Renault 30 and Volvo) was also strange. I remember that the official explanation is that they wanted to have the most powerful version of the PRV. Actually it was the most powerful French car on the market when it was released. But very soon overpassed by the 505 turbo injection and others. Also the Peugeot dealers were not too much enthusiastic to sale this car and rather pushing the customers to buy a 505 or a 604… A pity that this car did not have its chance. So thank you again for your video and sorry if my English is not perfect :-)

Good vid.Lots of detail and you are correct.Ive never seen one. Thanks for the education.

Last time I saw one of these, it was spectacularly rusty. But I still wanted one. I drive an Avenger now but had also driven Horizons so this was right down my street.

I was the Chrysler Europe Product Planning Manager for the C9 programme that became the Talbot Tagora. If I can help with any questions about the background to this car just ask. I will do my best within the realms of my fading memories! Bob Hopkin

Great review Matt, a rare car indeed, the problem with this car was that in the uk Badge Snobbery existed even in the 80’s so as you indicated driving to the office in your “executive” Talbot probably wasn’t going to win you anymore friends or slaps on the back when others would be brandishing a Jaguar, BMW or even a Rover key ring. The other issue with Talbots was their tendency to dissolve as the metal wasn’t top quality and neither was the rust proofing. This one is in extremely good condition though and it’s good to see such a great example still on the road.

Yes, I've seen one. Seen many, in fact, and sat in them. I was very keen on the PRV V6 version too, back in the day, It was not meant to be, however.-and I am shocked that there is only one of these left on the road. Lovely video and fond memories.

Thanks for this excellent video, brought back so many memories of my dad’s 1981 2.2 GLS.

For sure this goes beyond unicorn territory, short-lived due to the PSA buy-out of Chrysler Europe. The looks are uncannily like the later 740/760 it's unreal. Fascinating to me (at least), so much so I bought the brochure from the Bay E. I've never seen one in the flesh and probably will never drive one, so much thanks for bringing this to us Matt!! I've just searched Autoscout one of the biggest European used car website and didn't find a single Tagora!!

I worked for Poplar garages in Five Oaks Billingshurst in 1982/83 and only saw two Tagora's in this time. I remember the seats were okay but the rest of the car looked to me like cheap rubbish. All the Talbot cars as I remember were cheap feeling inside and rusted at the first spot of rain. The Peugeot cars were far better. The Ford Granada and Peugeot 505 were far better cars in many ways. I did not know the 2.6SX was not available in automatic form, well that would have killed it from the getgo, everyday is a learning day. A great review, shame about the interior camera that would not focus.

My uncle a mechanic had a Talbot Van. Not pretty but it was huge. That is the only Talbot I have ever seen. It was called the Express van and as of 2016 there was still 5000 of them around. Never seen the inside of it. Not sure if Talbot cars were ever sold here in Ireland. Done a Google search and no luck :( I would have loved if the parents had of bought one of these. We did have a huge big Citroen CX do. The Talbot Express van (along with its identical sister vehicle the Fiat Ducato) was a popular base vehicle for motorhomes and campervan conversions. According to the website How Many Left?, as of June 2016 there were fewer than 40 Alpine/Solara models, 20 Horizons, 10 Sambas and only one Tagora still registered with the British Driver & Vehicle Licensing Agency, compared to well over 5,000 Talbot Express vans.

Another enjoyable & interesting video keep up the good work on the channel 👍👍

What a find! I remember reading reivews at the time and looked at one in a showroom but do not remember seeing one in the wild. Great to see this out and about now.

04:48 - the SAME bottle that we had here in Brazil, in the Ford Corcel, between 1968 and 1974!

Awesome video, I love all the oddball touches in 80's cars,...

Thanks for taking me for a drive in the Tagora 😎

Well done Matt on a great review I always remember my cousin Ronnie had a brand new Tagora a 2.2 GL I believe and he used to let me sit in it as a boy a lovely car he kept it many years and traded it in for a Rover 820 fastback The interior and boot were massive and specs were good but big French saloons have never sold massively here which is a shame The glass coolant bottle was also in my parents horizon we had one explode once when the car overheated but was easy to repair at least! Looking forward to the next one!

I had a 2.2 GLS - absolutely loved it! 👍👍

Incredible dashboard and surprisingly modern interior. In test drive i think the trunk was open :)

Wow, you've smashed it out of the proverbial park with this one! The engine sounds way more refined than I expected, I always associate that era of Talbots as sounding like a tombola full of nails.

Whilst I was at school I had read an article (I think in "Motor Sport") about Sheila van Damm and her successes in rallying Sunbeam-Talbots in the 1950's, so I researched the history of Clement-Talbot, which was very distinguished. At that moment, just when I was thinking "they should make a new Talbot", Peugeot made a whole range of new Talbots. I was delighted, but not wealthy enough to buy one. People saying "never heard of them" made me fume.

So reminiscent my old talbot solara sx and in such great condition too 👍👍

Such a cool design, especially the interior - cracking car !

That sliding choke looks like such a good idea and I love that single spoke steering wheel

Very pretty car. Headlights look like those fitted to Pug 604 of the day. Glass radiator expansion bottles are a Reno. thing of the day. Think this is the car that created a lot of interest at the ‘Festival of the Unexceptional’. Beautiful 😍

You can thank the scrap scheme for that being the last one on the road 😢 so many now absolute classics were scrapped and I know some of them were Talbots. Even a Austin Healey 3.0 ltr 🤯

beautiful interior/exterior colour combination, and SUCH clean condition! Like a BEAUTIFUL new car!

had an 86 Peugeot 505, window switches, gear shift and hand brake all look Peugeot. Interesting that was a concern with this car, as the 505 was the only car I've had with bi-level heating, loved that!! the Tagora interior is very nice, as a whole, but the heater controls are disappointing looking... considering the pride of place given the choke!?! thank you for this review *furiousdriving* so very cool to see the PVR twin carbs and a 5 Spd :)

Great review as always Matt. I had completely forgotten about these. For it's time it was fairly well specced apart from the manual choke. However I love the sliding choke control 😃

My dad's Chrysler Alpine had the same glass coolant expansion tank in it as the Tagora. It funny how you don't forget these things & it was a long time ago. I'd say its boxy, but not as boxy as say your Volvo 740. Loving the design of the alloys 👍 has a futuristic look to them. I don't know why that a large top of the range exeutive car doesn't have either a sunroof or air con as standard. Being an 80s car a sunroof would of been the norm, & air con (if available) would have been an expensive option.

I'd totally forgotten about these! I last saw one on display at the NEC about a decade ago

What a lovely car, my Dad used to own an 'A' reg Talbot Alpine and the seats in the Tagora remind me of them 😊

This must be kept in a museum. A gem!

Wow, what a find. Back in the 80s when my dad had a Talbot Alpine (dreadful car, btw - chopped it in for an Opel Rekord 2.0 berlina in 81 after just 18 months), I always got quite excited whenever I saw one of these. Our neighbour’s son actually had one. Very exotic even then. Sadly, because of the current trend for all cars to be Nurburgring heroes, I don’t think we’ll see the like of this driving experience ever again. Cheers!

I once owned one of these. It was a great car, roomy, comfortable and huge!

As a child, I had the 1982 pocket book of the Observer's Book of Automobiles pretty much when it came out - with a white Cavalier SR on the front. That was the first time I saw a Tagora. Your video today is my second. If this pattern follows I'll see another one 2062. If cryonics works anyway...

I'm sure the GLS was equipped with the 5 speed manual as standard. The roller in the centre console will have been for the speaker balance I assume, as in many cars of the time. I remember sitting in an SX in about 1982, in a showroom in Leeds. The velour splendour was something to behold.

Beautiful car, a labour of love, money well spent. I used to see these cars regularly as executives at Talbot Linwood car plant near me had them. I owned a Talbot Solara Minx for six years, sounded like a diesel and fuel consumption was like pulling the plug on the bath. (Especially engine cold on choke.)

I have heard of these, even though we never got them in Australia. Great to see a review on one. A very interesting car, in my books.

I remember when this car was released around the time I left school started working. I loved the style and saw it at the motor show at the NEC back in the day. At a guess some of the reasons for the lack of sales may well have come from the marketing given that it was in direct competition with other PSA group cars. Anyway I'm pleased to see this review of a car that I liked as a young adult but do not recall seeing on the road. Many thanks for sharing.

What a lovely car, and an outstanding survivor. Such a shame production was so limited!

An amazing car, thanks for sharing. Despite the slightly strange styling and underdog image I always found these appealing cars. Quite like the Sunbeam, Alpine/Solara and 2-Litre also but they do not have the same quirkiness as the Tagora.

Brilliant review. I remember these interesting cars back in the day. Nothing else quite like them. Really enjoyed this one.

never heard of this. had a Solara back in the day... loved it very willing motor

Some points to correct, Talbot brand was resurrected by PSA, until then the cars were sold as Chryslers in northern Europe once tge Rootes" brands were pensioned off and Simca in Southern Europe. As PSA lost rights to use the Chryslsr brand so the cars were sold as Talbot and Talbot-Simca respectively. The change in suspension was to improve performance, had it continued as part of Chrysler it woukd have had a rear axle controlled by a panard rod as per the 180 and torsion bar sprung wishbones lifted straight from the Alpine, Solara and Horizon. Instead it received a 604 front end and 505 rear end, why it is inset at the back, they did not even adopt a different sub frame. This long travel well damped set up was comparable with Mercedes and a cut above the offerings of Opel and Rover and as good if not better than the Granada. The interior was heavily influenced by the David Bache's original SD1 interior and for all its blandness it did wear well as this example shows. The reason for the push button style ventilation without fresh air was that when the car was designed they recognised that with its modest underpinnings it would need some USP. So it was made big to offer a sense of value and being plugged into Chryslers parts bin to offer Air Con a good decade before such things became common in European execs. However with a cut off from Chryslers parts bin they lost access to a supply of a cheap air con system (it being a standard item in but the most basic US cars) and so all ended up with the base versions ventilation, although because supply contracts had been established with the Alpine, Horizon and Solara for the trip computer, those were still available from Chrysler. With hindsight they should have kept it as a value car keeping its simple underpinnings as planned and brokered a deal with Chrysler for cheap air con and used it on the Tagora and offered it as well in the 604 and CX.

I still remember when they came on sale in The Netherlands in the late 70's. A quit luxury car.

I knew about these, but have never seen one in the metal. The boot and bonnet seemed to be very loose and flappy though.

Loving those seats!

this car looks more like the robocop aesthetic than robocop. i love it, it's that 80's idea of the future, but _simplified._ especially the door cards with that two tone grey, those big ⬆️⬇️ window buttons and the giant holes for the speaker grill. i'd buy THAT for a dollar!

I love the additional smell description. A true differentiator in car reviews, this really places me back in my old Citroen. ‘Sweet and musky’! 😂

Reminds me a lot of a big R9!! Another great video - thanks again.

Great looking interior. Particularly love the center console

If I recall correctly, the Warwickshire and England bowler Bob Willis had one, because he could fit in it easily...!

Dare I say probably better made than an SD1 re materials etc. Twin Webers... wow!!!

I love these old obscure euro cars and learning about them!

My dad had a 1981 GL in this exact colour, brings back happy memories

Interestingly the 2.2 version of the type 180 engine was used in just 4 cars: Talbot tagora, Matra murena, Peugeot 505 turbo(not to be confused with the 2.2 non turbo wich is a different engine altogether) and the Citroen BX 4TC

I owned an even rarer Talbot:- the Solara, which was the Tagora's big sister. They were both great cars but had 1 shared truly awful and impossible major fault -- the heater system! The heater matrix was made with such a small bore that it clogged up really fast, so no warm heating or demisting. And if that wasn't bad enough, within minutes of the matrix clogging up with muck from the coolant system the heater matrix pipes would split and drip scalding hot water on your foot. And getting the heater matrix replaced meant the whole dash had to come out, as it sat right behind the radio. But for ride,handling and comfort it was great.

Like most of the GREAT IDEAS back in the 80's if it wasn't a Ford badged car it never got the praise it REALLY, deserved.

Lovely video, thank you. My parents had a Talbot Solara, which looked similar inside (if I remember correctly!).

Wow ! How it took me 4 months to catch this video I don't know ! I own an (almost) identical car to this one but it's been off the road since '94 and as such never needed to be SORNed ! I wish I could finish repairing it but as it's fuel consumption could go as low as 5mpg ! I believe that it would "eat me out of house and home" There's lots wrong with it but as it's not full of hi-techery it should be fixable (although god only knows how to replace the tyres !) Anyway thanks for the video, maybe it can help popularise (?) the car again for when I eventually sell mine !