I had a 1960 Riley 1.5 and can confirm everything said in the video. It is pretty much the perfect small classic car. All the good features of the Minor with a bit more power to keep up with modern traffic.
Lovely to see this. When I was a very young boy a grey over cream example was the first car I can remember at home. Then my day bought a second one in old English white. And a Riley 1.5 in a sort of Maroon colour. When the white 1500 retired to my uncles farm yard due to rot, where it sat for a number of years until scrapped, it became a giant play car for me 😃 Oddly enough I was at the Bexhill classic car show recently and there was a 1500 there. The interior smell took me straight back to travelling in our 1500s, exactly the same smell and unmistakable about 45years later!
Never rated them when they were running around in the 70s. I suppose they were old cars by then. However, it was me who was not discerning enough. It's a fine model, building on the Minor's good points and making them better.
I thought the name was pronounced Wools-Lee. I had one as my daily back in the late 80s/early 90s. It was quite rusty. Nowadays you can purchase a lot of repair panels which oddly were scarce back then. It was reasonably fast but had poor brakes and seats were not great for long journeys.
Wolseley family right up to the mid 70’s . Dad had numerous 6/110’s an mom had two hornets. Beautiful quality cars that really had snob value to them back I that day
I remember travelling in my parents Wolseley 1500, GUR 754C in Maroon B. Really liked the illuminated grille badge as a 5 year old. Lived in Hertfordshire and many trips to Wales and Devon and I remember my Dad sericing it but no breakdowns so it must have been pretty reliable.
I had a 1957 one as my first car. I sold it after 6 years for the save £75 I paid for it. My Wally had spots and fogs, an alternator and went all across Europe. It had seat belts and normally four petrol pumps in a cardboard box in the boot to swap over when the next one stopped working. Not to forget the harry moss cassette player!
Good review as always, the 1500 is a very capable car and so long as your prepared to get your hands dirty it’s can be used regularily. I had a Wolseley 1300 back in the mid 2000’s and found it a reliable car, the rot around an in the rear subframe and sills is what finished mine off as they weren’t as valuable then as they are now, plus I had nowhere to store it.
Actually, on the continent you’d buy a Fiat 1100 or an Alfa Romeo Giulietta or a Lancia Appia, at the same period... of course, the badges didn’t light up on these.
Posh Morris Minor? More like sawn-off A55 (Mk1). Minor floorpan (as A40 farina) with A55 body panels.Typical BMC cost cutting. Don't matter really - cracking little motor. Senior Mistress at my School had a gorgeous powder blue one upgraded from her A35. Happy days!
I see that no attempt was made to sit in the back of the world's only 4 door 2 seater! For anyone's interest, these cars evolved rather more in Australia, with 1622cc and tailfins and longer wheelbase. Search for pics of the Morris Major Elite.
My mum's first car in 1973 dad paid £35 the garage wanted £30 for it as it was or another fiver for them to write a MOT for it they didn't look at it just wrote a certificate it had Micky mouse on the driver's door and mini on the passenger side eventually went for banger racing when mum got a Austin 1100
The Morris Minor certainly won the day, staying in production until 1971 with over 1.6 million sold, small wonder the Wolseley only stayed in production until 1965 and only selling 104,000 with the Riley doing even worse at just under 20,000! Can’t say I liked the look of it either, the Minor was a unique design, the Wolseley however was just an ungainly nondescript shape, kind of an in between not quite Morris Minor / Hillman Minx!
