Clearly economy cars were now in vogue as the fuel price rises bit hard. It appears that overseas buyers took around 73, Marinas in Respectable enough, but nowhere near the , suggested by Filmer Paradise, who left British Leyland in alongside Harry Webster. A lot had changed since the Morris Marina had been conceived in — back then, the concept of a mechanically simple car that would sell to fleet buyers and overseas, seen in the light of the success of the Ford Cortina Mk2, made a lot of sense.
However, by the climate had changed. Many of the problems with post-war British cars could be traced to poor quality components from outside suppliers. In Europe those seeking a simple basic car now had a new choice — something Japanese, something well-built and reliable. The wind of change was also affecting Ford of Great Britain. In , it sold , Cortinas in Britain, but only built , cars here, a difference of only for export.
It also enabled the American-owned giants to merge their British operations with their European compatriots, share design expertise and make the same models in other plants. Ford found its UK factories infected by hard left groups at a time of slipping quality.
It was a brilliant tactic, if British car workers would not do the job, then Ford would get someone else to do it instead. It also meant that Ford could continue to supply the UK market when its British plants were strikebound, thus maintaining market share — a luxury not seriously available to British Leyland.
The Morris Marina had only ever been intended as a rush released parts bin special, pending the more thorough development of a properly thought out replacement, known as the ADO Perhaps the resources devoted to this front-wheel-drive car should have been focused on a rear-wheel-drive Marina replacement?
In , UK car sales increased to 1,, It all made logical sense, but there was one problem. Having gained a foothold in the fleet car market, the stopgap Marina would be left to wither on the vine until , when the LC11 later renamed LM11 was launched.
Rival Ford had not been idle, though. In January the new Ford Taunus was introduced in continental Europe. This was basically a re-styled Cortina Mk3. Ford GB was able to continue selling the Mk3 in undiminished numbers in the UK until it was ready to launch the Taunus as the Dagenham-built, badge-engineered Cortina Mk4 above , which went on sale at the end of September Ford could also supply European markets hitherto the province of its UK subsidiary, with European-built cars.
General Motors had not been idle either. In the end to keep costs down, a different nose, designed by Wayne Cherry, was the only obvious styling feature to set the Vauxhall apart. It was not until August that the first Cavalier emerged from a British factory. In a car market of 1,, units, imports rose to The British economy was booming as UK car sales were 1,,, but Sales briefly rallied, but by and large the car remained the same.
In an expanding market and without the strikes that had crippled it in , British Leyland actually manufactured fewer cars in — ,, compared to , in It showed that BL came only third among manufacturers supplying cars for company representatives.
However, the Trade Unions Congress soundly rejected this and advocated a wage rise free-for-all. Confrontation loomed. The Prime Minister, James Callaghan, surprised everybody by not calling an autumn General Election, arguing that the economy would further improve by the spring of — and the Labour Party would achieve a comfortable victory in the polls. Despite what should have been a crippling dispute, Ford was able to maintain their commanding lead in the UK market thanks to imports from the continent.
In the final year of the s, new UK car sales soared to a record 1,,, but imports now accounted for In September it was calculated that, at the existing rate of penetration, the foreign car manufacturers would have the whole of the UK market within eight years, This was when the Mini was only two-years old and before the Morris appeared. So many hopes had been raised in the intervening years and it had all come to nought. Total production in the decade was 1,, It certainly sold better than the outgoing Farina saloons, of which , were built between and However, the Marina never came close to its sales expectations, competing in an overcrowded market against the American-owned giants, which could feed UK demand from their continental factories, their strike-bound British plants becoming increasingly superfluous and marginalized.
With hindsight you would not have done the Marina, because the Barber Boom meant you could have sold all the ADO16 instead to the more profitable private market. Surprised to hear they were starting on it in 67 — I thought the Marina was rushed through after the takeover. The 1. I recall it was necessary to withdraw the TC version to modify the front suspension. The usual problem of BL introducing a new model before it was properly developed. Leaving the buyers to complete the job.
Consequently the model is seen as flawed product with ancient Morris Minor front suspension. Inevitably sales fall short of expectations. Compared to the vast and at the time desirable Cortina range even Jackie Stewart drove one the Marina was another boring Morris. Had the ADO16 survived longer, Marina sales would have been even lower. The even more appalling Allegro made the Marina the least worse BL choice. The parts bin was there. Would have made far better use of development funds rather than the endless investment in blind alley super Mini projects that finally produced the low profit Metro in Blimey, I can still remember Raymond Baxter reviewing the new Marina and pointing out the recycled Morris Minor suspension….
One of the crudest things I remember about Marinas was opening the fuel filler flap and seeing the road beneath…. For a car developed in two years on almost no budget using only parts from obsolete models its success was phenomenal. Despite its aged underpinnings it outsold the Viva, Avenger and Hunter. I believe it could have been even more successful and competitive for longer had it been based on fwd ADO16 and Maxi mechanicals. By making the Marina rwd did not make it any more reliable- unreliability in BL cars came from poor manufacture, not from any deficiency in their design.
An identically styled fwd Marina with 1. So the answer to the Mk 2 Cortina which has been in production for a while is to introduce a.
Sure Ford did their bit to help — with springs that were too soft and interiors that fell to bits but eventually improved things. I owned a 1. Having read the contemporary road tests I can only say that they were very kind to what was a truly awful thing.
Had anyone from the factory actually driven one during the design stage? My memories of the thing? I did have a good drive in one — curiously the TC with a large trailer and a Renault 4 on the back. It steered beautifully — so presumably the poor steering when solo was due to the weight distribution being wrong.
It doesn't cover cars that were off the road prior to the introduction of SORN, or cars that have never been registered on the road since manufacture. If you can't find your car, it doesn't mean that the DVLA thinks it doesn't exist! Most vehicles are listed under the make and model recorded on their V5 documents. In some cases though, the make and model name isn't properly recorded and the the vehicle will be counted under one of the following alternative categories:. Users' questions. Esther Fleming October 3, Table of Contents.
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