(first posted 1/22/2017) No, this is not a 1981 photo. The 1977 (year built) Austin Allegro above visited last year’s Alfa Romeo show in September, but I surely haven’t seen one of these since the mid-eighties or so.
This Allegro, powered by the 1.5 liter BMC engine, is a 1975-1979 Series 2 with a 4-speed automatic transmission. The production of the original Allegro started in 1973.
It looks like a hatchback, but it isn’t. And that’s just plain stupid. The Allegro “sedan” was also available as a 2-door and there was also a 3-door estate (wagon).
Lots of rear window stickers on this Special(ty), all of them period correct. Quite common back then to cover up your rear window with stickers.
Here’s the brochure. The vinyl top is another typical period correct item. It had to express luxury and plush, no matter the size of the car, as it was even available on a Ford Fiesta. Every car model was entitled to get its dose of Broughaminess. Or Vanden Plasiness, in this case.
Shortly after I took the pictures a man got in the Allegro saloon, cranked it up, and drove off. A completely hassle-free procedure. Then again, the weather conditions were ideal: dry, not too cold, not too hot.
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Very well preserved example of a perfectly horrible car! At least one should be kept like tbis to remember me evetyone of just how awful British cars were in the 1970’s.
Oh come on! Overhead camshaft engine, rack and pinion steering, front wheel drive, hydragas suspension.. It’s not horrible, it’s merely… An acquired taste?
Yeah, “an acquired taste.”
Much like haggis, black pudding, and Marmite.
All delicious. But I don’t like Allegros…
BL Deadly Sin #1 — amazing it’s still running. These were still occasionally seen in the UK when I lived there 20 years ago. Pretty sure the ones that still ran have all been smashed by Top Gear since then. A truly dreadful design. By 1977, the famous quartic steering wheel had already gone though. Funny how when Imperial did it, it looked weird but interesting, but when Austin did it, it just looked atrocious.
” a man got in the Allegro saloon, cranked it up, and drove off. A completely hassle-free procedure”
Must be a Belgian built example then!
And is that a Taunus Coupe next to it?
Yes, a Ford Taunus Coupe. Two weeks after this event I visited the Audi show. And guess what showed up ? Another Taunus Coupe. Both were in an excellent condition. I’ll combine them into one article soon, got plenty of pictures.
Now about “the procedure”…here’s a classic:
I forgot how hilarious that show was!
Never seen it, but I understand the Basil Fawlty character was based on the owner of a real hotel where Monty Python stayed. He asked them to leave because he didn’t like the way they held their eating utensils.
Should have been a proper hatchback from the outset as well as produced an optional booted saloon / sedan bodystyle like the following Vanden Plas-based photoshop.
hehehe. Baby Jagortina
It is funny how the Austin Allegro looks better as a booted 4-door sedan / saloon compared to the existing pseudo-hatchback bodystyle.
Meanwhile some believe that the Morris Marina would have been a more suitable basis for a Vanden Plas model compared to the existing Austin Allegro.
Front of Vandne Plas Marina photoshop – http://i188.photobucket.com/albums/z88/Captain_Slow1991/vpmarina.jpg
Rear of Vanden Plas Marina photoshop featuring rear lights from the Marina estate (albeit both images found elsewhere) – http://i188.photobucket.com/albums/z88/Captain_Slow1991/vp1800ars.jpg
Harris Mann’s sketches of a proposed Vanden Plas Marina – http://www.morrismarina.org.uk/2016/02/12/vdp-marina/
To be honest, the Allegro ‘4d fastback’ sans VdP grille is a guilty pleasure. As is your photochop effort, but no boot for me.
Did not make them myself, found the photoshops elsewhere.
You inspired me…
“Roscoe, arrest them Duke blokes!”
The resemblance between a VdP Allegro and Mercury Bobcat is pretty strong, and makes me wonder what the “posh” version of Harris Mann’s planned low-cowl Allegro would’ve been like.
nlpnt
If referring to Harris Mann’s original uncorrupted Allegro sketch than cannot say to be honest, perhaps a Vanden Plas version of such a car would feature a more subtle front-grille along similar lines to the Wolseley 18-22 Princess.
http://www.leylandprincess.co.uk/Wolseleypagenew.htm
I believe this was the car I was taken home from the hospital in when I was born (or possibly the model before). My grandpa had bought granny an Austin in the 70’s and at the time the only vehicle my folks had was a 1952 international pick up. From the family lore the car was a lemon from the start and finally met its demise when my aunt got in an accident while attending college. For years after the only brand that grampa would buy was GM. Recently he surprised us by going rouge and purchasing grandma a Nissan rouge…
My mothers brother had a 2 door. We never heard him complain about it.
Even in NZ where old British cars survive and even thrive Allegros and Maxis are quite rare and unwanted by most old car nuts there are some about and thats a good thing but even Marinas survive in far greater numbers than these.
Now that REALLY says something….even Marinas are preferable!!! I have never heard that before and doubt I ever will again.
Why? Other than what the idiots at Top Gear did probably because the brand is gone so no one can sue them, the Marina was pretty much as good or bad as any of its competition of the time from the likes of Vauxhall or Ford. All were RWD econoboxes of fair to middling reliability and quality.
I’m going to stick my neck out and posit that this car – just like the Chevy Citation after it – was, strictly speaking, no better no worse than any number of small sedans of the time. As with the Citation, the main problem was quality. Had these been Japanese-reliable, they would have been remembered today as a somewhat quirky design (for example, as the Datsun F10 is seen these days) which helped BL during a difficult period. And yes, I did work and drove them, having spent 12 years in the UK when they were still a part of the road scene.
If ever there was a car that deserved being called a bit “Special” this is it….
A few years ago I ran across an article in a British newspaper about a woman who was restoring one of the last Allegros to be built. It was that unattractive mustard yellow. The article mentioned that she was in her early 40s and her husband was ~20 years older.
If a woman 20 years my junior would marry me, I’d be glad to indulge her hobby of restoring a crap car! Beats adultery and substance abuse any day!
“Mr. & Mrs. Lucas, I’m sorry to see you here in divorce court today; with luck your marriage can be saved. Now, what are the grounds for divorce? Adultery? Substance abuse?”
“No, an Austin Allegro, your honor.”
“Ah, she ran you over with it, then.”
“No, sir…she [sob] *restores* them!”
“Good GOD! Out! Both of you! It’s a nightmare!”
Ah, the All Aggro. Having never seen one in the metal (on the wrong side of the atlantic), I was quite surprised to find out this *wasn’t* a hatchback. This is a condition shared with a very controversial American pair of platform twins–perhaps they’re the Allegro’s transatlantic cousins?
Aaaaand I forgot to attach a photo. D’oh!
Oddly, there was a 5-door hatchback version of it’s predecessor (the ADO16 1100/1300) in Australia, the Morris Nomad. Inevitably it looked a little awkward from the back whereas the Allegro shape would make more sense as a hatchback. There was a strong reluctance to provide any internal BL competition with the Maxi even though the Allegro was a size down from it.
Despite their flaws, have always wondered how the Austin Allegro or even the larger Austin Princess / Ambassador would have fared in the US and North America as a whole.
Terrible.
Name one British passenger car (except Jag/RR/Bentley) from 1960 on that didn’t bomb out in the US. And Jaguar would have headed into the tank due to its ever-worse reliability rep except for Ford buying them.
The cars you mentioned would have likely been the worst BL disaster in the US ever, for a number of pretty obvious reasons.
Sadly I’d have to agree, even though I love British cars. The Austin Marina & Rover 3500 give an idea of how the Allegro would’ve fared, I’m afraid.
Likely the case though while British cars largely had a bad rep, would it have objectively been any worse in comparison to say the Yugo or 70s-80s US malaise era cars in general such as the Chevrolet Chevette, Ford Pinto, AMC Pacer, etc?
Lack of hatchback or performance model notwithstanding, the Series 3 Allegro had most of the flaws iron out and was basically the car that it should have been from the outset.
Yes; much worse.
Well, than the Chevette, Ford Pinto, AMC Pacer, in any case. It’s probably best to just leave the Yugo out of this consideration, as it couldn’t get much worse than that.
The Chevette, Pinto, and Pacer did not have reliability/quality issues, at least not serious ones. In fact, all three were/are considered to have been pretty tough little cars that were easy to keep going.
The simple reality is that even if the Allegro was much better than it turned out to be, Americans were totally off Brit cars by then, except a few sports and luxury makes, although Rover bombed out spectacularly.
Among other issues, the BLM cars had a very weak dealer network and support. That alone was a turn off. Believe me, if the Allegro had come over here, we’d still be writing about it’s spectacular failure here.
Don’t forget that by 1977 or so, the Japanese had made huge inroads, and their quality and reliability were in a whole different world, literally. And that applies to pretty much any European cars at the time. If you go look at old long-term tests like those done by auto, motor und sport, for 60k and 100k kilometers, the failures were inevitably extensive and embarrassing, for all European makes; some worse than others. Damaged/blown engines, transmission failures, axle failures, and a huge raft of all kinds of other minor and major issues.
The Europeans had to really get their act together quality/reliability-wise in 80s, or risk having the Japanese eat up a large share of the market. It started out a bit like that, but the big improvements by the Europeans in the later 80s and 90s is what saved them from a full-scale Japanese invasion.
Obviously, BL was not among those that got their act together in time to save themselves. And Rover hopped into bed with Honda.
About as well as the Austin 1300/America.
Paul – “Name one British passenger car (except Jag/RR/Bentley) from 1960 on that didn’t bomb out in the US.”
Well, there aren’t many, but the Mini was one. It was not exported in huge numbers but remained popular and in demand right up until it was withdrawn in 1968 (and that was simply due to issues with it being too expensive to re-engineer for emissions requirements).
But I would of course agree with the gist of what you are saying… most British-built smaller cars of that era were just not suited for American tastes/needs. Add in the fact that many of the BL designs of that time were unattractive, launched with multiple engineering flaws that should have been ironed out in the development phase and typically suffered from appalling build quality – they really stood little chance of success in the US.
After all, the 1100/1300 family of cars which were really pretty good cars for their era and a top seller in the UK and Europe, when sold as the “Austin America over here were not a success. So the Allegro – which most observers would say was inferior to the car it replaced ! – would have been a non-starter.
The Allegro was certainly Deadly Sin #1 of the British Leyland era and a real nail in the coffin because they were expected to sell in large numbers like their 1100/1330 predecessors and fell so far short of expectations, at a time when BL desperately needed them to succeed. You can cite other BL models that were total flops, but the Allegro was such a key plank in their product strategy and so much was riding on its success, that is what makes the failure so very damaging.
We had one in the family when I was a kid growing up in the UK. It was a 1300 ex-police patrol car (“panda car” ). to be honest, it served us pretty well. My dad was someone thrifty who bought cars purely on functionality rather than style so he was not at all bothered by the fact that it was dumpy, ugly and not cool. He was also very practical and capable of fixing most issues at home so could keep it running easily enough. I do remember my Dad talking about how capable it was in snow and ice conditions, with the classic FWD and “wheel at each corner” layout.
I always feel it is slightly ironic that BMC/BL suffered for their innovative technology like their FWD packaging and hydrolastic suspension and lost sales versus competitor like Ford or Vauxhall that stuck with more conservative layouts and technology – yet the transverse engine FWD layout that BMC pioneered with the Mini, 1100/1300 was to become the dominant configuration that is now to be found under the hood of the vast majority of small/medium cars built today.
Don’t know that I agree on that. I think the Mini was never terribly popular in the USA, they did sell quite well in Canada (having the stronger British connection) but as the 70s wore on they became a rare sight, thanks to the terrible reputation of all British cars, spotty dealer network and other reasons outlined by Paul above.
My evidence is anecdotal, as I don’t have sales figures for Canadian Minis, or what year they were last sold. But in Hamilton ON in the 1970s VW and Honda had serious looking dealerships, while British marques were available from a little multi-brand dealership/garage in the industrial part of town.
I think the irony is that BMC/BL suffered for their innovations because they brought them to market half baked, and it was up to others to fully develop them.
The Mini sold in minute numbers in the US. So much so, that I wrongly assumed that it wasn’t even officially imported to the US. When I finally got my Encyclopedia of imported cars, I learned otherwise.
I was a very astute car-watcher in the 60s. In my Iowa City years (’60-’65), a university town with lots of imports of all kinds, I never once saw a Mini. In Towson, MD, there was a British import dealer nearby, and I never saw a Mini there, or around anywhere. I don’t think I saw my first Mini in the US until I move to CA, and then it was an very occasional Cooper/S, which I assumed had been privately imported. I have never seen a basic Mini (850) in the US, in all my years.
Apparently they were available, but folks sure weren’t buying them. I saw a decent number of MG 1100s (ADO16), and later some Americas, which the dealer in Towson was pushing, and some Marinas, and of course the sports cars, but Minis? Nary a one.
Thee base Mini was not at all appealing/competitive in the US, as it was just way too small compared to a VW or such. There’s no doubt that the only ones being sold in any numbers at all was the very niche Cooper/S.
Only Peugeot ever copied the BMC east west gearbox in sump style and only for one model, Everyone else did the sensible thing and put the transmission on the end of the motor
BMC’s system was a huge dead end it led to short engine life and gearbox failures, and repairs were impossible as nobody but a BMC dealer would touch one.
Lamborghini “copied” the transverse engine / gearbox in sump model for the first two versions of the Miura.
In continental Europe the conservative layouts and technology that the likes of Ford and Opel produced were considered as primitive and old fashioned as cars from the Eastern Bloc with a similar butt of all jokes image to boot, until the mid/late-70s onwards when they began to adopt FWD.
Ford of Germany went from producing the FWD Taunus P4/P6 (essentially a production version of the Ford Cardinal project that could have made life difficult for the VW Beetle had it been given the green light in the US) to the significantly less sophisticated RWD Taunus TC / mk3 Cortina.
BMC in retrospect should have updated the FWD layout to feature end-on gearboxes for the Mini and 1100/1300 as well as produced Cortina / Granada sized RWD models with hydrolastic / all-independent suspension instead of the FWD 1800/2200, which early on was a lot smaller (Farina B-sized) and featured RWD being loosely derived from Issigonis’s work at Alvis with the abandoned TA175 / TA350 project.
Mini was one. It … remained popular and in demand right up until it was withdrawn
More Beetles were sold in any given month during 1960 than Minis were sold in their entirety over the eight year 1960-1967 run they were available in the United States (less than 10,000). The Austin Marina was wildly “more popular”…
When I was living in Boulder, Colorado, in 1972, I had a coworker who had a Rover P6. At that point it had been parked in his back yard for some years. He said he’d once hit a deer with it, and getting the crash parts had been a slow process. Rover’s New York and Los Angeles offices had gotten into a turf battle over which office was to supply the parts.
From a U.S. perspective, it’s amazing that a car company, indeed an entire county’s car industry, could repeatedly screw up so bad, and then culminate with the production of a car that is, apparently, as bad as the Allegro. Having never seen one, I can only imagine.
Check that – GM did have the Vega, and then Oldsmobile diesel, and then the Citation, and then the whole raft of other sins they committed in the 1980’s. Perhaps the U.S. equivalent of the Allegro is the Citation? Or the Vega?
Headlight moved out board.
Incredible, that one change makes it look much less frumpy and sad. The Allegro 3 was a much better look but by then it was too late.
https://nihilistnotes.blogspot.com/search?q=Allegro
Comparing the appearance of the Allegro with that of the Alfasud demonstrates how fine can be the line between aesthetic success and failure. An inch or two here and there or a subtle change in an angle or curve and one emerges lithe and the other ponderous.