Worst car ever made and sold in the UK?
Discussion
From personal experience the quirks of my dads allegro sportwagon ( sorry estate), three door estate, brown vinyl seats, constant breaking down, rust within three years, scrapped after owning from new after eight years gave it some character.
The Maestro that followed was bland, boring AND unreliable.
So the Maestro gets my vote.
Sure plenty others will disagree....
Mike
Edit : beaten to it!
The Maestro that followed was bland, boring AND unreliable.
So the Maestro gets my vote.
Sure plenty others will disagree....
Mike
Edit : beaten to it!
Like shooting fish in a barrel this one....
May I present the Morris Ital. A lazy facelift of an already rubbish car, badly put together by people who couldn't care less about their job.
There's loads of other stuff from the 50s which is objectively terrible but quite entertaining today, normally powered by a 2 stroke bike engine but I don't think they are officially 'cars' so don't really count.
May I present the Morris Ital. A lazy facelift of an already rubbish car, badly put together by people who couldn't care less about their job.
There's loads of other stuff from the 50s which is objectively terrible but quite entertaining today, normally powered by a 2 stroke bike engine but I don't think they are officially 'cars' so don't really count.
S1_RS said:
The Allegro was a better car than the Maestro, that was a crap car.
Well I had a Maestro 1.6L in like a skin colour with brown interior.... It was a carb not injection. Rust was diabolical
Dash fell apart which I Vosges back together with wedges and glue...
Seat foam collapsed
Radio speakers stopped working.
I rebuilt that car mechanically totally stripped engine braking and cooling system and the engine was a gem never once broke down I simply stripped it as a learning exercise with my old man.
For instance - the Talbot Horizon.
This from Wikipedia, "The collapse of Chrysler Europe in 1978 and its subsequent sale to Peugeot meant that the car was hurriedly rebadged using the exhumed Talbot brand for the remainder of its life. From 1980 production expanded to the former Chrysler Europe Ryton plant, near Coventry in England.
In 1981, Series II models were introduced, with some minor improvements. By then however, the Horizon was becoming increasingly uncompetitive next to rivals such as the Volkswagen Golf, Opel Kadett/Vauxhall Astra and the third generation Ford Escort. The rattly and unrefined ohv engines which had been carried over from the Simca 1100 were largely to blame, while body corrosion was a serious issue, at least until Series II, giving many cars a short service life.
Due to corrosion problems there are few left, Horizon is now a rare sight with possibly less than 200 surviving examples in the UK.
The end of Horizon production in 1987 also marked the end of the Talbot badge on passenger cars."
This from Wikipedia, "The collapse of Chrysler Europe in 1978 and its subsequent sale to Peugeot meant that the car was hurriedly rebadged using the exhumed Talbot brand for the remainder of its life. From 1980 production expanded to the former Chrysler Europe Ryton plant, near Coventry in England.
In 1981, Series II models were introduced, with some minor improvements. By then however, the Horizon was becoming increasingly uncompetitive next to rivals such as the Volkswagen Golf, Opel Kadett/Vauxhall Astra and the third generation Ford Escort. The rattly and unrefined ohv engines which had been carried over from the Simca 1100 were largely to blame, while body corrosion was a serious issue, at least until Series II, giving many cars a short service life.
Due to corrosion problems there are few left, Horizon is now a rare sight with possibly less than 200 surviving examples in the UK.
The end of Horizon production in 1987 also marked the end of the Talbot badge on passenger cars."
t escort Mk5 and make it a bit worse in all ways and then model the front on a dead fishYou guys ever owned a Maestro? I've got one and it's a blinding little car. A series is peppy and characterful, it's easy to service yourself, does everything you need a small economical car to do. The best thing? you don't have to worry about leaving it in the car park. Everything will rust away if it's abused, just a shame that most people that bought them were old dears that didnt maintain them.
I'm not saying it's sexy, or fast, or in any way desirable - but what makes them the worst car produced in Britain?
I'm not saying it's sexy, or fast, or in any way desirable - but what makes them the worst car produced in Britain?
jamiebae said:
Like shooting fish in a barrel this one....
May I present the Morris Ital. A lazy facelift of an already rubbish car, badly put together by people who couldn't care less about their job.
There's loads of other stuff from the 50s which is objectively terrible but quite entertaining today, normally powered by a 2 stroke bike engine but I don't think they are officially 'cars' so don't really count.
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.May I present the Morris Ital. A lazy facelift of an already rubbish car, badly put together by people who couldn't care less about their job.
There's loads of other stuff from the 50s which is objectively terrible but quite entertaining today, normally powered by a 2 stroke bike engine but I don't think they are officially 'cars' so don't really count.
I rest my case for the prosecution.
Mr serge said:
got to be the morris ital
+1 on this. Naming it the Ital was a bit rude, I think Italdesign nearly sued as they were only involved in a very limited capacity. what's more shocking is that a lot of the running gear is carried over from the Morris Minor, including the leaf sprung live axle at the back. It was the dullest and most unimaginative car possible, which I think makes it the worst. In comparison, the Allegro, with a brand new (admittedly not great) engine, four wheel independent suspension and "novel" steering wheel at least shows they made a bit of an effort.
Welshbeef said:
S1_RS said:
The Allegro was a better car than the Maestro, that was a crap car.
Well I had a Maestro 1.6L in like a skin colour with brown interior.... It was a carb not injection. Rust was diabolical
Dash fell apart which I Vosges back together with wedges and glue...
Seat foam collapsed
Radio speakers stopped working.
I rebuilt that car mechanically totally stripped engine braking and cooling system and the engine was a gem never once broke down I simply stripped it as a learning exercise with my old man.
It was without a doubt one of the most durable long lived designs ever produced in the UK. Or indeed anywhere else. 5,500,000 built.
Nearest engine to a Meccano set I have ever rebuilt.
Utterly understressed, magnificently forgiving: I ran one in a Mini once from Aberystwyth to Nottingham with a leaking radiator stopping every ten miles to top up.
Boiled time and gain. Never blew the gasket never caused any problem
Except when I switched it off it overran for a minute because the carbon in the combustion chamber was glowing.
Imagine that in a K series. Bang.
Or a Duratech. Bang. Or a Vauxhall Red Top Bang!
But sadly as cars the inadequate build quality and poor design ruined BMH etc
The Marina was an unsafe indeed a dangerous car on release.
The handling was appalling before urgent suspension changes were made post test driving by journalists. That car should never have been made.
The worst I think.
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.
Objection your honour. The Ambassador was at least on a par with the competition in terms of technology, the Ital was at least 15 years behind the times. It was RWD with a live axle, badly packaged, fitted with engines which would have been dismissed by Noah as a bit past it, and suspension from some kind of Albanian's donkey cart. In spite of this tried, tested and thoroughly de-bugged 'technology' it still managed to be hopelessly unreliable.I rest my case for the prosecution.
The Ambassador could also almost be called 'stylish', something which could never be said about the terminally dreary Ital.
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