Worst car ever made and sold in the UK?
Discussion
My first car was a 13 year old Austin A40 and the A-Series 1098cc engine in that took 2 years of utter abuse without complaint. Even when it froze, it just knocked the core plugs out - tapped them bak in, refilled adn away it went. It did blow a head gasket on one occasion but it took about an hour or two to change.
Engines were tougher beck then though. I had a Mk 1 Cortina 1200 which I drove from Cardiff to Chester constantly running out of water and was refilling it from any river I came across. Proved to be a duff radiator cap but the A-Series was way mor characterful.
I confess that a friend of mine bought an Escort Mk 3 1100 and that cetainly had to be right up there with the worst cars ever made with it's incredibly heavy, numb rubber steering and the turgid dynamics of a sack of lead potatoes with no redeeming features at all.
Engines were tougher beck then though. I had a Mk 1 Cortina 1200 which I drove from Cardiff to Chester constantly running out of water and was refilling it from any river I came across. Proved to be a duff radiator cap but the A-Series was way mor characterful.
I confess that a friend of mine bought an Escort Mk 3 1100 and that cetainly had to be right up there with the worst cars ever made with it's incredibly heavy, numb rubber steering and the turgid dynamics of a sack of lead potatoes with no redeeming features at all.
I've had quite a few cars over 40+ years, but two that stand out were the Marina - drum brakes with no servo, wipers set up for LHD - and for the disastrous gearchange the Maxi. The Marina I pranged on the second day when I couldn't stop quick enough and went into the back of a lorry. The best was a W124 Mercedes. Went for years and years and was still running well when I sold it with 220,000 on the clock. I just got bored with it.
lowdrag said:
I've had quite a few cars over 40+ years, but two that stand out were the Marina - drum brakes with no servo, wipers set up for LHD - and for the disastrous gearchange the Maxi. The Marina I pranged on the second day when I couldn't stop quick enough and went into the back of a lorry. The best was a W124 Mercedes. Went for years and years and was still running well when I sold it with 220,000 on the clock. I just got bored with it.
My experience entirely reflects yours.The last models from BLMH BMC Leyland or whatever it transmogrified into were dire in the extreme. The designs (?) were dreadful the quality control literally non existent.
In the end I switched to Audi, VW and Volve.
Sold my last Audi diesel A4 with 568,000 miles on ON$E engine. Never even replaced the motor once. Had 6 cam belt changes two clutches one alternator all the electrics still worked including the sunroof, windows. alarm, central locking and the stereo. Perfect.
Similarly my last Volvo S40 2 litre petrol sold at 268000 miles not a fault everything worked not a trace of rust though it was ten year old then.
Just the way it is now.
Of all the tragedies in British motoring history the unremitting waste of the advances that Issigonis. Leonard Lord and others created with the Morris Minor and then the Mini made in British car manufacture were revolutionary.
They put British motoring manufacturing right at the forefront of automobile design.
There never has been a better very small car than the Mini. To this day.
All wasted entirely over the next twenty years.
Steffan said:
Of all the tragedies in British motoring history the unremitting waste of the advances that Issigonis. Leonard Lord and others created with the Morris Minor and then the Mini made in British car manufacture were revolutionary.
They put British motoring manufacturing right at the forefront of automobile design.
There never has been a better very small car than the Mini. To this day.
All wasted entirely over the next twenty years.
They put British motoring manufacturing right at the forefront of automobile design.
There never has been a better very small car than the Mini. To this day.
All wasted entirely over the next twenty years.
We had amazing innovators but managed to screw it up by making our car manufacturing industry pretty much a joke. U T said:
Nope, sorry. You've gone in with Morris Ital, but I'm going to have to raise you with Austin Ambassador. The Morris Ital was indeed a lazy facelift of a rubbish car, the Marina, but the Ambassador was an even lazier facelift of an even worse car, the Princess.
I rest my case for the prosecution.
The Ambassador was referred to as the car the Princess should have been.I rest my case for the prosecution.
It also had a hatch rather than a boot, so not a small facelift.
Also its design was pretty striking (as were the workers) in its day
I like em
sparkyhx said:
The Ambassador was referred to as the car the Princess should have been.
My mate had an older gold Ambassador 2.0 and it was extremely reliable despite him calling it "Kevin". My father had a Princess 2 2200 HLS and it was also extremely reliable and had no quality issues at all. They weren't all bad.In fact I was quite surprised the Ambassador didn't sell more as it was vast inside and not a bad looker but I guess the dull name didn't help.
The Princess was also pretty advanced in having a transverse 6 inherited from the old 2200 of the 60s.
The Crack Fox said:
I'm going to suggest something a bit more modern... the original Vauxhall Frontera. Reliability, performance, image, and consistently low JD Power scores by owners count against it.
I used to supply QA inspection kit to car plants back then, the IBC factory where they were made in Luton was worse than stuff I saw in the 3rd world, happy days....
Was the Sintra made there too?I used to supply QA inspection kit to car plants back then, the IBC factory where they were made in Luton was worse than stuff I saw in the 3rd world, happy days....
aw51 121565 said:
Strongly agree, the A-Series is a good 'un - punches well above its weight. The 1.6 in a Maestro was either an R-Series or an S-Series though 
. S-Series was good - "the thinking man's engine" the blurb called it, and it just went on and on with oil leaks - but the R-Series inherited fragility from the E-Series in the Allegro and Maxi (head gasket failure, for example).
....
My first thought was to name the Maestro (the parents had one in the 80s). However on reflection it didn’t break down, went from 5k to 100k miles before the clutch went (mainly driven by my mother!) and took us on numerous holidays in a comfortable enough manner. It was cheap to buy as well and had a funky grey velour interior. . S-Series was good - "the thinking man's engine" the blurb called it, and it just went on and on with oil leaks - but the R-Series inherited fragility from the E-Series in the Allegro and Maxi (head gasket failure, for example).....
Yes the arches went early on and needed botching. The door handles lasted a couple of winters (brittle plastic), the heater broke repeatedly, and the thing wasn’t very economical and was slow (1.3L). However it wasn’t the worst car ever built by the UK, I suspect.
Ahhh, you youngsters...
I had two Princesses, they were ok.
I had a Wartburg Knight (how many others on here can say that?) and I still remember it fondly.
The worst Brit-made and sold motor I ever came across was called a Rodley.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rodley
I had two Princesses, they were ok.
I had a Wartburg Knight (how many others on here can say that?) and I still remember it fondly.
The worst Brit-made and sold motor I ever came across was called a Rodley.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rodley
mikey77 said:
The worst Brit-made and sold motor I ever came across was called a Rodley.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rodley
Winner!http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rodley
BuzzLightyear said:
In fairness, it depends how you read the OPs question. It could either be
A) the worst car that was both made and sold in the UK, or
B) the worst car made (anywhere) that was sold in the UK.
I assume from the OPs later post that he actually meant B.
HTH
BL (no relation!)
Eats shoots & leavesA) the worst car that was both made and sold in the UK, or
B) the worst car made (anywhere) that was sold in the UK.
I assume from the OPs later post that he actually meant B.
HTH
BL (no relation!)
thinfourth2 said:
The escort Mk6
Take the already quite s
t escort Mk5 and make it a bit worse in all ways and then model the front on a dead fish
To be fair I bought a diesel one for 140 quid off ebay for a stag weekend and it was no-where near as terrible as I expected. Yes it was dull and unspectacular in any way, but nothing about was subjectively offensive enough to be considered awful. Take the already quite s
t escort Mk5 and make it a bit worse in all ways and then model the front on a dead fishPlus it did a good two hours running around brunters with a dead battery, and then managed a trip to Cornwall and back afterwards!
I'm not sure if my vote is valid, as I believe the bulk of it was manufactured in India:
Rubbish reviews, rubbish rebadging exercise, rubbish to drive, rubbish build quality, overpriced, generally irredeemable. They predictably sold about five.
The Crack Fox said:
I'm going to suggest something a bit more modern... the original Vauxhall Frontera. Reliability, performance, image, and consistently low JD Power scores by owners count against it.
I used to supply QA inspection kit to car plants back then, the IBC factory where they were made in Luton was worse than stuff I saw in the 3rd world, happy days....
Whilst I understand the bad press Fronteras get, I've got to say my mate had one which was pretty much indestructible... Although his was an earlier one with the Isuzu diesel. Were the later ones the issue or was he just lucky?I used to supply QA inspection kit to car plants back then, the IBC factory where they were made in Luton was worse than stuff I saw in the 3rd world, happy days....
I had an Ital and a Maestro and drove a Montego a fair bit. Oh, and a Metro at one point too. The Ital was certainly the worst of them. It was my first car. The only good thing I remember about it - apart from it being preferable to walking or getting the bus - was that there was a well sighted uphill bend near my house that was always covered in loose gravel, and I used to enjoy giving it a bootful of throttle half way round it. Until I tried the same thing on the wet and greasy road to Whitby, and ended up neatly parked in a layby on the other side of the road. Crap tyres or crap suspension, probably both, it certainly didn't have enough power to justify being so tail happy.
The Crack Fox said:
LuS1fer said:
Volvo360 said:
Was the Sintra made there too?
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