RE: SOTW: Austin Ambassador/Princess

[CDP]

VPower said:

Just a coincidence, but walking up towards town last night, a Princess passed us!

Might have been an ambassador, but passed by with no noise, no smoke and looked straight and true.

Actually looked very distinctive and I started telling wifey about the PH Princess thread.
She said "Never could see out the back window" and "Was so big" and "Made me feel sick once"!

Shocked me a bit, as I'd forgotten she must of course have driven our one, out on her own with the kids in the back.

I find it funny how people say how big the Princess is. It's a foot shorter than an MG6 which is now considered a medium car. The Mondeo is even bigger.

Admittedly, the Princess is quite wide.

[RolandM]

Was the Princess designed by Harris Mann? the same man who designed the TR7? iirc the original design sketches were quite something and would have been EVEN BETTER than they ended up being, but I guessthat often happens on the way from original design to eventual production

[CDP]

RolandM said:

Was the Princess designed by Harris Mann? the same man who designed the TR7? iirc the original design sketches were quite something and would have been EVEN BETTER than they ended up being, but I guessthat often happens on the way from original design to eventual production

Yes, yes and yes.

[J4CKO]

Just found a photo of one exactly the same as my grandads was, well apart from the headlights,



I wonder how many of those who had a Princess new are still with us ? it wasn't exactly a young mans car, my grandad died in 88 whilst owning a Montego 2.0 HLS (not connected to his demise) but as a man who fought in the second world war he would have no sooner bought a German or Japanese car than taken up break dancing.

A Princess owner, yesterday

Edited by J4CKO on Sunday 7th August 11:13

[LuS1fer]

Simon says said:

When this was in production Honda had the Accord and we wonder what happened to the British car industry at least Ford was making some decent models around this era

The Honda looked like a turd though.

[poo at Paul's]

I saw one coming through Coombe Martin last weekend, with a youngish guy and his missus in it. It looked in really good nick, and I was surprised how large it looked on the road, we get used to all old cars being mini by modern standards.

I have to say, it was pretty cool. Proper blast from the past!
I love seeing these 70'd and 80's car about. Rare sights but nice to see, and nice to see people taking a bit of pride in driving a British car, too.

I suspect the guy in the one i saw brings a fair bit of pleasure ot a fair few (older!) people.
Top sheds. Rare, potentially awful, British.... cool as fook in 2011!!

[CDP]

LuS1fer said:

Simon says said:

When this was in production Honda had the Accord and we wonder what happened to the British car industry at least Ford was making some decent models around this era

The Honda looked like a turd though.

Also 70's Japanese cars rusted like Fiats. One of my father's colleagues bought a brand new Toyota, everybody was impressed by the finish and what you got for the money. A year or so latter it didn't look such a good purchase. Having said that somebody else had a Maxi that kept breaking door handles...

Not to mention the fact the Civic was a Golf/Allegro rival. Honda's first big car was the Montego based Legend.

[johnpeat]

Back in the days that the Russians starting a Nuclear War was the thing politicians scared people into obedience with, there was a joke which went

"What can you do during the 4 minute warning?"

and the variety of punchlines included

"Buy a Datsun and watch it rust"

In fact that punchline changed to Nissan so the 'bulletproof' image of Japanese cars certainly didn't exist in the late 80s/early 90s

At school (early 80s) our Deputy Head drove a Toyota and it was cause for MUCH hilarity with the kids AND the teachers (despite their owning the usual list of Renault 4s, 2CVs tho 1 had the taste to drive a Citroen DS).

[LuS1fer]

CDP said:

Also 70's Japanese cars rusted like Fiats. One of my father's colleagues bought a brand new Toyota, everybody was impressed by the finish and what you got for the money. A year or so latter it didn't look such a good purchase. Having said that somebody else had a Maxi that kept breaking door handles...

Not to mention the fact the Civic was a Golf/Allegro rival. Honda's first big car was the Montego based Legend.

What? The Legend wasn't Montego based. The Legend was a Legend and was a joint venture with the Rover 800. The Princess was really a Cortina AND Granada rival, the Rover was meant to be a premium product following on from the SD1.

[Dangermouse78]

Not too sure about the gold paint but I do like the Ambassador, My uncle had one when I was a kid & I loved it. Personally I'd have it & swap the engine to something atad more modern... perhaps the 2.5 V6 from the MG ZT???

[paul_k]

My mother had one of these and I used to drive it.
Quite a good looking car in its day the twin headlamp Austin, but lots of problems.

I remember the head gasket blowing, the auto box would keep changing between 2nd to 3rd to 2nd for no apparant reason all manner of other annoying faults and serious rust starting at the front skirt after only a few years. My parents complained bitterly to Austin about this to be told they all do it and it's not covered by the warranty.

2 amusing moments stand out one was when it came back from a service to have the hydagas suspension pumped up. The car was sitting seriously up on one side as they had put too much pressure in!
The other was the auto gear selection lever snapping off making drive selection difficult...

Torque steer was especially bad and the number of turns lock to lock was excessive. Nearly killed it when I drove my fathers car into the back of it, however my mother finally wrote it off into the back of another car.

[carlingofblack]

My Grandad had a 1980 V reg Princess 2.2 HLS Auto. God, I loved that thing when I was about 3 or 4. In fact, was easily the coolest car in my book as a kid...

[newoldfart]

I worked for a BL dealer when these were launched.At the launch evening that the dealer held
not only had the chrome fallen off one of the headlamp reflectors which if i remember was
covered up with a paper floor mat but one of the outside door handles came off in the customers
hand.In spite of this i still bought one in the mid eighties and regretted it from day one.
Overheating was the biggest issue since the only time it didn,t was either when i bypassed
the heater or took out the thermostat.(something to do with alrlocks i believe).
It did however have a couple of slightly unusual features for its time however.
I believe you could test some of the warning lights by pressing the appropriate switch
and i think it was the first mass production car to have height adjustment for the drivers seat

[rovamota]

robert carter said:

The launch of these cars, if I remember correctly, were delayed by several years, because the Unions would not allow the Austin 3litre production line to change over to the production of the new model until the production of the Austin 3 litre had reached its agreed target of production. Even though the Austin 3 litre was not selling and were being heavily discounted. If the Unions were not as strong and able to dictate the running of the company these cars could have been launched as early as 1970.

Wrong! The ADO71 (Princess) was still on the drawing board in 1970 and a full size clay buck wasn't built until late 1971. It was launched in March 1975 because that was when it was ready; nothing to do with the 3-Litre.

The Princess was a well engineered product and was the epitome of Austin-Morris in 1975, shading everything in the segment that was on sale at the time and it received rave reviews. But if Austin-Morris had ensured it was built well from the outset, the story may have been entirely different, but instead a potentially brilliant design was comprehensively scuppered by the old curses of poor development, technical inadequacy and hopeless industrial relations.

There's a good feature about the Princess in the latest issue of Classics Monthly and although most of you guys may not like the Princess, quite a lot of people do. and I do believe that the blue Princess has now found a very happy buyer, who happens to be female!

[Simon says]

CDP said:

LuS1fer said:

Simon says said:

When this was in production Honda had the Accord and we wonder what happened to the British car industry at least Ford was making some decent models around this era

The Honda looked like a turd though.

Also 70's Japanese cars rusted like Fiats. One of my father's colleagues bought a brand new Toyota, everybody was impressed by the finish and what you got for the money. A year or so latter it didn't look such a good purchase. Having said that somebody else had a Maxi that kept breaking door handles...

Not to mention the fact the Civic was a Golf/Allegro rival. Honda's first big car was the Montego based Legend.

WRONG the legend was not based on any British car i.e Honda double wishbone suspension & designed and built in Japan only the later 2.5's where built here and still nothing to do with the Montego in any shape or form,early Japanese cars post 1978ish rusted no quicker than British models,yes I will agree the very early cars were rot prone but but 1 year + later I don't think so was it parked in the north see by chance? and the Civic was more reliable than any Euro or British car of that era lets at least have a bit of accuracy here please lets not even mention how quick a pre 1978 Golf could be swept down the drain once shown a few winters now that was a rot box

Edited by Simon says on Sunday 7th August 20:45

[P9UNK]

just driving from Hungary to the UK at the moment so cant read 200 odd comments thank goodness but great sheds...Princess one of the last of Leylands visions, flawed of course (but then lets be honest who was going to compete with what Germany and Japan went on to do, even the once super strong Detroit failed). My dad had a Princess amongst other company cars from Ford and Vauxhall, and back then it was one of my favourites.

[VPower]

CDP said:

VPower said:

Just a coincidence, but walking up towards town last night, a Princess passed us!

Might have been an ambassador, but passed by with no noise, no smoke and looked straight and true.

Actually looked very distinctive and I started telling wifey about the PH Princess thread.
She said "Never could see out the back window" and "Was so big" and "Made me feel sick once"!

Shocked me a bit, as I'd forgotten she must of course have driven our one, out on her own with the kids in the back.

I find it funny how people say how big the Princess is. It's a foot shorter than an MG6 which is now considered a medium car. The Mondeo is even bigger.

Admittedly, the Princess is quite wide.

As she is still only 5' 3" I think it being wide and replaced a Renault 5 it was big to her.

I on the other hand actually really liked it. The 2ltr overhead cam engine was very good and always liked the shape.

And I have to say if I was after a shed, I'd get another one no problem based on condition.

Just to add way back in 1975 a chap where I was an apprentice had a Datsun Sunny and it REALLY was a rusty pile of crap! Or so he said.
Of course they fixed things, but back then the attitude was a car with 100,000 miles or ten years old was long overdue for the scrapper!

[rovamota]

Here's a row of them at the national BL Day today at Peterborough...



And a rare Special Six Automatic.

[stegt4]

anything fast said:

leghorn said:

Thanks for reminding me why the British Motor industry died.

The Brtitish motor industry dies because no one invested any money in new cars or reaearch and development

people actually bought these and they are okish cars! it was the turds like metros and montegos that nailed the coffin shut.. shame

No it wasn't! The company was actually doing quite well then.

nickythesaint said:

A little bit of sick just came into my mouth. Hateful machine.

How the hell would you know, with a comment like that i would assume your 12 years old....soon.

jrchannon said:

I am unable to have any affection WHATSOEVER for one of the cars responsible for the death of the UK car industry.

If there's a few hundred left then that's a few hundred too many in my book.

It's a scar - destroy it.

How on earth do you work that one out?

J4CKO said:

"Kill it, its British", listen to yourselves ffs !

Thn go an get back in your German/Japanese car whilst pondering where we went wrong, it wasn't all down to the cars or the workforce.

I agree, this 'it's BL so it's crap' is a very poor attitude of some fools on here, as usual.

urquattro said:

Zumbruk said:

Please, someone buy these and burn them.

Very uncharitable statement, there is lots more crap (politicians and bankers)deserve the flames before these two functioning old cars deserve that fate, BL stuff was not all rubbish, BL management and unions deserve that accolade in my opinion.

Quite agree with you urquattro but give him a break, he is probably bored and waiting for his dole money.

LuS1fer said:

CDP said:

Also 70's Japanese cars rusted like Fiats. One of my father's colleagues bought a brand new Toyota, everybody was impressed by the finish and what you got for the money. A year or so latter it didn't look such a good purchase. Having said that somebody else had a Maxi that kept breaking door handles...

Not to mention the fact the Civic was a Golf/Allegro rival. Honda's first big car was the Montego based Legend.

What? The Legend wasn't Montego based. The Legend was a Legend and was a joint venture with the Rover 800. The Princess was really a Cortina AND Granada rival, the Rover was meant to be a premium product following on from the SD1.

Further to LuS1fers comment, The Maxi was not a door handle breaker.
Typical of some of the anti BL rubbish posted on this thread!
My father owned two, both were good cars in their day.

Edited by stegt4 on Monday 8th August 04:05

[thatone1967]

saw one of these yesterday, parked by the side of the road with one of the " we will collect your car for scrap" signs in the window... never knew they existed until then.