Morris Marina - was it really that bad?

[Gary C]

Stuart70 said:

Gary C said:

Stuart70 said:

Went from a Mini Metro to an Astra - engine and refinement were a revelation, handing not so much!

.

Must have been a bent and really knackered Astra then as the Astra (at least the Mk1) handled far better than any Metro.

It was a cooking 1.3 Astra Mk1. Handled faithfully but much less pointy than the Metro.
The rest of it was a tremendous step forward.

Memories are from cars that are from 35 years ago, so my full driving god recollections may be flawed but I dd c25k miles in each so it was not for the want of driving.

!

I did 100k in my Mk1 (a few of those miles were airborne too )

Went everywhere. Bought at 30k miles, sold at 130k still on original exhaust only ate one camshaft too !

It did have the gas pressure shocks and the 185 tyres though.

[epicfail]

I had a 1983 1.3 Astra, got it in about 92. I thought it was rather good, always started, when round corners and seemed quite rapid for a 1.3. Wasn't rusty and it kept going for years after I sold it.

Having said that my previous drives were my mothers 1979 1.1 Talbot Horizon, and my first car; a 1972 Triumph Spitfire.

The Spitfire was fab, a whole world of dodgy handling and grip for an 18 year old to play with.

[CDP]

blueg33 said:

M4cruiser said:

Touring442 said:

I was talking to a guy the other day in his 80's. His last British car was a 1976 Alpine that needed a full repaint at a year old due to rust. He had to threaten them with legal action. As soon as the festering turd came back post paint job, he traded it for a BMW 316 and has had about 13 BMW's since.

Folk don't realise how dire British cars were for quality but Chrysler/Talbot were the absolute nadir. Absolute rubbish.

^ ^ but Alpines weren't British, they were French cars, re-badged Simcas.

Assembled at Ryton

IIRC the early Alpines were built in France. Not that the UK built Solaras were particularly rustproof.

[s m]

Gary C said:

My Mk1 had a certain 'fluidity' in the way it steered, and the brakes were well matched.

They could be trail braked into a little oversteer, which was nice but overall, they could be thrashed and thrashed some more.

Only car I have ever out run two police cars in

I had a Mk2 Astra with the 16v chassis set-up and that was very ‘adjustable’ - just like the way many of the French hot hatches were

Never did any police avoidance in it but the local ambulance service used them as fast response paramedic vehicles and I do remember one of the local police guys saying they struggled to keep up with the paramedic’s Astra on the way to an incident ……..in their Senator 24v!

[Touring442]

Rob 131 Sport said:

Interesting comments from a former MOT Tester. I always thought that 70’s and early 80’s Fords were pretty rust resistant.
You didn’t see that many rusty Granada’s or Capris.

Maybe if you lived in Tenerife.

[heisthegaffer]

I asked my old man about his Marina following the thread and he said it was very comfortable.

The reason he got rid of it was he found a rusty hole he could fit his hand through and that's part of the reason the ital came out covered in the cladding to hide rust traps.

[CDP]

blueg33 said:

aeropilot said:

blueg33 said:

As a BL management level person, Dad had a new BL car every 3 months. The Marina wasn't the worst..........

3 months was about the average life span before they started breaking

The Marinas were ok, the first few Montego's were broken before they left the factory

The first few weeks is when most of the problems are likely to emerge. At one point 1st August would be a high point for breakdowns.

[M4cruiser]

CDP said:

blueg33 said:

M4cruiser said:

Touring442 said:

I was talking to a guy the other day in his 80's. His last British car was a 1976 Alpine that needed a full repaint at a year old due to rust. He had to threaten them with legal action. As soon as the festering turd came back post paint job, he traded it for a BMW 316 and has had about 13 BMW's since.

Folk don't realise how dire British cars were for quality but Chrysler/Talbot were the absolute nadir. Absolute rubbish.

^ ^ but Alpines weren't British, they were French cars, re-badged Simcas.

Assembled at Ryton

IIRC the early Alpines were built in France. Not that the UK built Solaras were particularly rustproof.

IIRC The Peugeot 206 was also (later) built at Ryton, that didn't really make it a British car!
The Alpine production was essentially controlled by Peugeot (PSA) which had bought the old Rootes / Hillman etc. Ryton was a French factory innerds on a British site.

[M4cruiser]

... but I've gone off topic (sorry), Back to the Marina, and actually it was about as good as any car of its era (styling, interior etc) until you reached the first bend, which it wouldn't go round without feeling like it was going to fall over.
Even the Maxi (and other BL front-drive cars) were well ahead on that.

[CDP]

M4cruiser said:

IIRC The Peugeot 206 was also (later) built at Ryton, that didn't really make it a British car!
The Alpine production was essentially controlled by Peugeot (PSA) which had bought the old Rootes / Hillman etc. Ryton was a French factory innerds on a British site.

As soon as Peugeot bought Chrysler the former Rootes facilities were all doomed. I can't help thinking the same about Vauxhall. French ownership is not good.

[LuS1fer]

CDP said:

As soon as Peugeot bought Chrysler the former Rootes facilities were all doomed. I can't help thinking the same about Vauxhall. French ownership is not good.

Not entirely French as they are owned by Stellantis which is a 50-50 merger between the Italian-American Fiat Chrysler Automobiles and the French PSA Group.

[CDP]

LuS1fer said:

CDP said:

As soon as Peugeot bought Chrysler the former Rootes facilities were all doomed. I can't help thinking the same about Vauxhall. French ownership is not good.

Not entirely French as they are owned by Stellantis which is a 50-50 merger between the Italian-American Fiat Chrysler Automobiles and the French PSA Group.

They were under PSA until the merger and I suspect the French are the senior partners. I really can't see Chrysler holding any sway. Macron would pay to close it out of spite.

[Touring442]

blueg33 said:

Princess body shells were stored outside. They were rusty before they got to the paint shop. Dad saw it first hand on one of his audits.

What factory would that have been?

[Mr lestat]

M4cruiser said:

... but I've gone off topic (sorry), Back to the Marina, and actually it was about as good as any car of its era (styling, interior etc) until you reached the first bend, which it wouldn't go round without feeling like it was going to fall over.
Even the Maxi (and other BL front-drive cars) were well ahead on that.

Isn’t that because the suspension was carried over from the Morris Minor

[Touring442]

The Minor 1000 was a superb wee thing to hoon around in. Tiff Needell learned to drive in one. In the end, very little was carried over from the Minor but it was a case of damned with faint praise - X Type Jag/posh Mondeo etc. There is bugger all wrong with torsion bars or lever arm dampers for that matter. For all that, the Marina was somewhat ill conceived and could have been a lot better.

But you know what? A lot of new cars sold today are quite frankly utter garbage. Horrid, ugly, cheaply made, bad riding stboxes like the Craptur, Juke, Mokka and junk like that. Folk don't know any better.

[coppice]

Tell you what - they drive and ride light years better than any Marina ever did .

[Mr lestat]

Touring442 said:

The Minor 1000 was a superb wee thing to hoon around in. Tiff Needell learned to drive in one. In the end, very little was carried over from the Minor but it was a case of damned with faint praise - X Type Jag/posh Mondeo etc. There is bugger all wrong with torsion bars or lever arm dampers for that matter. For all that, the Marina was somewhat ill conceived and could have been a lot better.

But you know what? A lot of new cars sold today are quite frankly utter garbage. Horrid, ugly, cheaply made, bad riding stboxes like the Craptur, Juke, Mokka and junk like that. Folk don't know any better.

Front suspension was carried over as per the rear set up from the minor. It handled badly according to most reviews at the time and most people hate it. However go fill yer boots

[4rephill]

Touring442 said:

The Minor 1000 was a superb wee thing to hoon around in. Tiff Needell learned to drive in one.......

Tiff Needell has said in interviews/Youtube videos that the Minor 1000 was ideal for learning about controlling power over-steer because the rear wheel drive, combined with cross-ply tyres, made it east to get the rear end to step out and hold a slide on roundabouts and such like, all at slow, safe speeds.

[LuS1fer]

4rephill said:

Tiff Needell has said in interviews/Youtube videos that the Minor 1000 was ideal for learning about controlling power over-steer because the rear wheel drive, combined with cross-ply tyres, made it east to get the rear end to step out and hold a slide on roundabouts and such like, all at slow, safe speeds.

I do wonder about things like this. I had the lower, faster Austin A40 Farina but the fact is that while the crossplies easily let go, the brakes were rubbish, the steering was far too slow and the suspension would just load up and squirrel and bounce about. A tautly suspended German saloon it was not

[CDP]

LuS1fer said:

4rephill said:

Tiff Needell has said in interviews/Youtube videos that the Minor 1000 was ideal for learning about controlling power over-steer because the rear wheel drive, combined with cross-ply tyres, made it east to get the rear end to step out and hold a slide on roundabouts and such like, all at slow, safe speeds.

I do wonder about things like this. I had the lower, faster Austin A40 Farina but the fact is that while the crossplies easily let go, the brakes were rubbish, the steering was far too slow and the suspension would just load up and squirrel and bounce about. A tautly suspended German saloon it was not

When the Minor came out in 1948 how taut were the German saloons it was up against? From all accounts the suspension was good for its time, just not good enough for 1971 under a much heavier body...