Supermarket car park: Circa 1970’s

[Milkyway]

This might jog or bring back a few memories;


From memory, I would have been in my Dad’s:

Early: ‘59 Consul ( Yellow / Black roof with grey vinyl interior... loved that front bench seat)

Mid: ‘66 Cortina MK1 1500 GT. ( Dark Blue...Quick motor)

1978: New Viva GLS. ( Red / Tan velour interior... felt very posh)

Perhaps retitle this as.... Car parks of the 70’s.
( The more photos the merrier).

Edited by Milkyway on Thursday 27th January 12:51

[Mr Tidy]

Lovely photo.

In Henry Cole terms that's a car park full of porridge!

[85Carrera]

At first glance, 5 Renaults, 1 Citroen, 1 VW beetle, 1 Opel, everything else British.

The last hurrah of the British motor industry.

[Chubbyross]

Can you imagine a Muira or Countach parked amongst those cars? Jaws would have dropped.

[blueg33]

85Carrera said:

At first glance, 5 Renaults, 1 Citroen, 1 VW beetle, 1 Opel, everything else British.

The last hurrah of the British motor industry.

Indeed. (2 Citroens by the way;) )

At the approximate time my family would have been in either: Humber Hawk, Marina Estate or Mums Mini. My uncle would have been in his Etype

[Turbobanana]

1976 at the earliest, I believe, due to the presence of what I think is a Chevette saloon slap bang in the middle (between the Passat Estate and the Maxi).

So, we would have been either in the Mk1 Escort my dad saw fit to respray yellow from blue, or the Renault 16TL that followed it (which looked identical to the one in the centre of the pic).

[coppice]

Chubbyross said:

Can you imagine a Muira or Countach parked amongst those cars? Jaws would have dropped.

If not perhaps as much as they'd drop now if they found a Renault 6 and 12 parked among the giant SUVs .

The chance of seeing a Miura (nb spelling) back then was virtually zero. Despite being a car spotter from '67 and a driver since 1971 I have only ever seen three- the first at Mallory Park F2 meeting in 1971 and I have still never seen a Miura being driven on the public road .

Even my humble Clan Crusader virtually stopped the traffic in 70s rural Lincolnshire , where I worked at the the time. Come to think of it ....

[Ambleton]

Can't remember the last time I saw a GSA... In fact, I haven't seen quite a lot of those "average joe" cars in a while. Always forgotten heroes of daily life.

Probably not many around as they weren't deemed exceptional in any one single way, so were just left to die.

[Milkyway]

Looks like the Maxi is on ‘L’ plates... wonder how they got on.
No doubt, a lot of those interiors matched the colours of Sainsbury’s too.

Edited by Milkyway on Wednesday 26th January 12:03

[Dermot O'Logical]

And those very spaces are still in use today, except they're populated by huge, lardy, bloated SUV's, driven by huge, lardy, bloated, obnoxious people. And their huge, lardy, bloated, obnoxious offspring.

Probably.

The photo isn't Lordshill, Southampton, is it? It looks depressingly like it.

[tog]

Yes, it is Lords Hill.

https://www.sainsburyarchive.org.uk/catalogue/sear...

The Sainsbury archive is great for stuff like this - just search for "car park".

[TameBritishMuslim]

Is there an Avenger in there??

[LuS1fer]

TameBritishMuslim said:

Is there an Avenger in there??

Two, in fact
There must have been a local Renault dealer as there are quite a few of those.
There are also several Citroens, an Opel Record, a Passat estate but few, if any, Japanese cars.

[Tom8]

Love that. When you see pics like this and also on youtube cine films of people driving around towns you notice how colourful and varied cars were back then. Today, black, silver white German things.

[austin]

Just look at all the colours, these days that would all be white, silver, grey or black.

[Hub]

Mr Bean shops at Sainsburys!

[Milkyway]

Saw this on the same 70’s FB page:
I think that the Invacars had their own bays near the entrance.
..one comment was:
“ Waiting for them to all start up, belching black smoke & rushing for the exit”.
My neighbour had one, he barrel rolled it across a field. A bit shaken up, but both he & his Labrador were OK.

Edited by Milkyway on Wednesday 26th January 13:59

[ZymoTech]

Milkyway said:

Looks like the Maxi is on ‘L’ plates... wonder how they got on.
No doubt, a lot of those interiors matched the colours of Sainsbury’s too.

Edited by Milkyway on Wednesday 26th January 12:03

If it was anything like my first tentative driving lessons, in the parental Maxi, not very well at all. It was a horrible thing, built like a tank and steered like one as well - coming back from a lesson I mis-judged the turn into our driveway and took out a corner of the hedge and knocked over a bit of rockery. The car was OK, not a scratch or dent on it. The paintwork was chocolate brown with a beige interior, so not too dis-simliar to Sainburys' corporate livery at the time.

[Dynion Araf Uchaf]

this photo is better https://www.sainsburyarchive.org.uk/catalogue/sear...


looks like a Samba Rallye in the front. Probs '91

[Milkyway]

Meanwhile... around the back.
( A few other supermarkets were available)