This is the first Austin America I’ve ever seen posted at the Cohort. I’ve long hoped to find one, but they’ve become unicorns. The America was a very failed attempt by BMC to reposition the ADO16 in the US, as it had been only sold as the sportier and more expensive MG1100/1300. That just wasn’t working, so the Austin 1100 got a new name with which to do battle against the VW, Opel Kadett and the Toyota Corolla. And BMC’s unusual automatic transmission was thrown in the mix. Well, you know where this is going, even if you’ve never heard of an Austin America.
The task set for the America was…impossible. In 1968, the small import car market was red hot, as was the competition. The VW Beetle was still at the height of its powers, selling over 400k units annually. The Opel Kadett was still number two, but would be pushed out of that by the Corolla, in only its second year on the market. All of these cars had been around for some time, and most of all, were built with simple, proven and rugged technology. And here comes the Austin with its FWD, Hydrolastic suspension, and the unusual AP four-speed automatic which shared its oil with the engine.
Needless to say, the America was not up to American standards of use and abuse, and quickly developed a very bad rep. The fact that the dealer network was sketchy only compounded its problems. By 1972, it was gone. As are almost all of them, except this one, of course, shot and posted by John Lloyd. And it was even for sale, at a pretty lofty price. But someone out there must have been pining for one; all it takes is just one.
More:
Jeff Nelson’s colorful take on the Austin America
Roger Carr pays his respect to Issigoni’s and BMC’s Greatest hit: AD016
$3k for an Austin America? Man, that’s tempting. I love that color as well.
Much nicer then the neutral grey 1100 Auntie Merle had.
I always liked those cars, even though I’ve never had the desire to own one. If I’m going to put up with classic British unreliability, it better say Jaguar or better on the hood, or, be a nice sporting roadster. Better yet, I’ll stick with the motorcycles. Same problems, but less parts to dig thru to sort them out.
Favorite review I can remember of this car (Car & Driver?) was the comment that it started with 60(?) horsepower at the engine, ran it thru the automatic transmission, and ended up with 3 horsepower at the front wheels. I think this was in reference to a later model (71 or 72) that had the manual transmission. I think all the early ones came with automatics.
And a smaller truck needed to haul them home from the side of the road.
And given British Leyland’s reputation during the 1970s for unforgivable quality control, it’s no wonder the company is no longer I business.
Pining for one? Nice John Cleese reference there.
A Countryman was thrashed out of frustration by Cleese’s character Basil in the Fawlty Towers episode “Gourmet Night.”
It was red! Great episode of a great show. I was going to post a reference to that show, and I saw you did. It was like a rolling metaphor for Sybil Fawlty.
I think they referred to Sybil’s car as a Maxi.
A Maxi appeared in the second series, but it was a red Austin 1100 Countryman (OLG 142E) that Cleese/Fawlty attacks with a tree branch in the first series.
Leaving aside the legendary BMC reliability (“legendary” in the sense that it never really existed) the real bugbear with the ADO16 in the UK was that they were epic rusters even by the standards of the time – wings,doors, sills, floors, everywhere. What usually finished them off was that the rear subframe mountings rusted through and they developed rear-wheel steering.
According to some accounts, the source of the problem was that Sir Alec Issigonis was given too much of a free hand in the design, and while he was an expert on packaging, he was less so on structural engineering and unwittingly included rust traps in a number of crucial places. He was also no doubt the architect of the dashboard which had all the switches (lights etc.) placed so they couldn’t be reached without leaning forward and stretching. Presumably he had long arms.
Pining?
I thought that remark was made in reference to a Ford?
As in pining for the fords?
I only pine for F(j)ords.
A friend of mine has had one of these tucked away in his garage since 1994-95, before that it sat in his Grandmother’s garage, possibly since the early 70s.
I still don’t know why he never tried getting it going.
Maybe because of our Brit roots, and our many Brit immigrants, the British cars where everywhere in Canada. I have a lot of fond memories, involving “other peoples” Brit cars. Such a blast to drive, and fairly simple to work on. {if you knew what you were doing}
Their failure point ?? The Canadian winter . By the time the late 60’s early 70’s were here, the Brit cars would turn to dust after 4 or 5 winters. The Austin America was very rust prone.
In fairness, all cars and trucks, suffered from premature rust, during that era. But the Austin America and the Rover were the worst.
Were everywhere, that is. Scads of Brits immigrated to Canada in the ‘ 50 ‘ s and 60’s, and many thought American iron was huge and wasteful, so they bought British cars. They simply could not take the climate. The roads in eastern Canada were mighty rough in those days, and there were literally millions of tons of road salt slathered all over the place instead of ploughing. A car like this wouldn’t survive three Quebec winters. The Mini was never a hit because it was too low, and the only import that could really hack the Canadian winter was the Volvo.
Most Brits then bought cheap Pontiac ‘ s and Meteor’s like everyone else.
By 1980, British cars were gone, even in Victoria BC. .
Volvos were built in Halifax, Nova Scotia, from 1963 to 1998:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Volvo_Halifax_Assembly
In 1973 I was walking past a Brit car garage in Boulder, Colorado, that had several Americas out front. More out of curiosity than serious interest, I asked one of the guys if it would be a good idea to get one.
He said, “It’s a piece of crap–if someone gave you the car and $100, you’d lose money.”
I remember a print ad for the America that showed a man’s lower body sticking out from under the car with the headline: “Do not drink the suspension system.” The body copy went on to say that because the fluid in the Hydrolastic suspension contained alcohol, they’d had to put something in it to make it undrinkable, or they would have had to pay liquor tax on every America they imported.
Viktor Suvorov claimed, in his book “Inside the Soviet Army,” that during the invasion of Czechoslovakia in 1968, many Russian troops drained vehicle radiators to get drunk on antifreeze.
It sounds a bit like a tall tale to me, but I’m not in a position to deny it.
EJ Potter (aka the Michigan Madman,of V8 drag bike and jet trike fame) made an electric drag racer from one of these among many of his mad as a bag of badgers drag racers.
Don’t go near it you’ll be sorry!.There were plenty better small cars around then and now.
I remember its advertising tag line from 1970-“The first car designed to be your second car”.Truth in advertising?
That’s assuming you want to believe it was “designed”. I always thought it was a cheap conversion by committee, designers not needed.
If only this car had been built to the standards of the average Japanese sedan of the late 60s-early 70s. AND, perhaps, perhaps if BL hadn’t figured (rightly or wrongly?) that a car that “bettered” the mighty VW….. AND had an automatic transmission for near the same price as a “beetle” was what Americans were pining for.
If I remember correctly, the vast majority of these were equipped with automatic transmissions….or was that an impression that the advertising/marketing pushed VERY hard? (The sportier MG had the manuals and the “sensible” Austin the auto shifter?).
Our neighbor replaced her Volvo 544 with one of these, with the manual transmission. After a few years it mostly sat curbside, while she drove her TR3, which she drove into the (and her) 80’s. The Austin was also blue, but a lighter, more Aqua shade than this one.
My grandpa being British, had an Austin America 4 door. I remember riding with him on an occasion and looking at the unusual speedometer with the ribbon indicator, as he shifted through the gears. He had it for just a few years, then traded it in for a 70 AMC Hornet. I remember my dad commenting that it was so unlike him to own a Hornet.
Another Alec Issigonis milestone – a larger front wheel drive Mini really. Full of technical innovation but flawed in its execution and complex to build and maintain. Rust was the number one enemy – both in the UK and everywhere else – these were usually very rusty by the third or fourth year – particularly the front and rear suspension subframes.
But in their defence they handle like a go-cart and have good room inside for 4. Probably was never really suited for US conditions but a hoot on English country lanes.
I remember how discouraging the magazine road tests were. Consumer Reports commented that the dome light lens melted from the heat of the bulb. Replaced under warranty, the replacement lens also melted. R&T commented that every nut and bolt on the car was loose. They worked their way from one end of the car to the other tightening bolts, and remembering how they never had to do that on a Volks.
My dad mentioned that one of his nephews worked for BL in New Jersey and offered to get me a car with his employee discount…..sorry…pass.
I remember the last two Americas I saw in the metal: a ratty looking one blew past me one night in 80, and I frequently saw a very minty looking 71 (different grill) when I was in grad school in 81. And this was in Michigan, with it’s ice, snow and road salt.
One of my favorite Austin America videos. Shows what can be done with an America, given enough time, money and work.
I’m completely unsurprised by R&T’s comment regarding untightened fasteners.
The only reason I refrain from stating that, “British Leyland is a textbook example of ineffective industrial management and poor labour relations” is because referring to it as a “textbook example” sounds too theoretical.
British Leyland was no textbook example; it has actually served as an oft-cited textbook case study.
I’ve said many times I have a real soft spot for these cars. I hitchhiked a lot as a teenager in the UK in the mid-to-late 1960’s, and these cars were among the most common cars on the road at the time. They were fast and maneuverable, modern, comfortable, and clearly well-designed in terms of their basic qualities. They seemed almost revolutionary to a Canadian kid used to typical Detroit packaging, and they thrived on the smaller British roads of that era. Great video.
I owned an Austin America witht the automatic. I had previously owned two minis, an Austin 1100 and an MG 1100. I liked BMC cars at that time, actually I still do like BMC cars. One thing about the America, the oil pump for the engine also supplied pressure for the automatic transmission. Ask me how I know this. The America was not really a bad car, I drove it for four years and only had the one failure. After all of the other BMC vehicles that I had owned, I could fix almost anything on these except the transmission, and that did not break.
While it occurred in the pre-war years, the early “world car” the Austin Seven begat Bantam, That begat the first Jeep. So while the BL Austin America may not have had the desired impact on the American market, Austin itself had an impact on America even if in a round about way.
There is a junkyard in Fairfield, Maine that had one of these mounted on a pole 20 feet up in the air. Bill’s Auto Salvage, “where the car is on the pole”, was their motto.A wind storm blew it down a few years ago. I always thought they should have changed their motto to “where the car Was on the pole.”
He’s not dead, he’s pining…..
Fantastic cars in a country where it doesn’t snow, and if you have a competent BMC mechanic handy. At one stage there were three of these in my family, but all were replaced by Japanese cars when none of the local mechanics wanted to work on orphan technology any more..
if you want to run one of these now, there is hope. http://www.austinamericausa.com/ the guy who put up this site has an extensive list of mostly user implementable engineering corrections to address the “teething pains” that sunk this car in the USA back in the day. fascinating reading.
Thanx for the reminder to stay far away ! .
I like the overall looks of this and the color (? colour ?) is *perfect* , the price isn’t bad *if* the whole car is as nice as it looks .
I do love me some BMC vehicles too but I well remember these new and how the owners hated them so much .
I’m one of those fools who lives in the Desert where LBC’s don’t rust too terribly fast and I drive one daily , I love it .
-Nate
I remember these very well. In the early 70s my car was in the body shop, and my neighbor was very nice to loan me one of these. It is absolutely the Worse car I have ever driven. Grossly underpowered and the shifter was like a stick shoved in a bucket of mud. Just shove it in the general direction and hope you get the gear you want. I thought a car this small and from Europe would drive like a go kart. Not this one, very disconnected. And 40 yrs hasn’t softened my opinion of these.
It seems like one stupid miscalculation besides throwing them together haphazardly was that they were geared too low for driving at highway speeds. The guy with the website changed the final drive ratio to get the revs down to around 3500 at 70. Meanwhile VWs had a long fourth gear.
A friend of mine had an automatic one in that same blue. It did have amazing room inside and rode way better than it had any right to do. Eventually for some reason he left it idling for a long time. The fan quit and it overheated and lunched the engine.
Something I don’t understand is that in the olden days cars like the Citroen 2CV and Mini and 1100 had suspensions variously interconnected front to back so bump impacts on one wheel were spread to the other and short wheelbase pitching was cut in half. No one does this anymore, even on cars that could really use it like a Smart.
Oddly, the last car on earth that needed this was the last real mid-fifties Packards, and they did have a mechanical front to back linkage.
Always thought these were good-looking little cars. From what I understand, looks are deceiving in this case!
I knew someone with a yellow automatic example that he owned for a short time in the mid ’70’s. Rode once in the back seat and was impressed with how roomy it was and how smooth the ride was. Made it to the liquor store and back without failure. Next time I saw him it was replaced with a ’74 Vega. I think I was told the transmission failed.
Back in the day, Road & Track would occasionally run “After the New Wears Off” articles about a reader’s long-term experience with his car. In the mid-60s they had one of these about an MG 1100 owned by a man in Los Angeles. He was pleased with the car overall.
A few years ago I used to see an orange Austin America with vinyl roof (presumably not from the factory) and collector license plates on the 8500 block of 17th Ave. NW in Seattle. In hindsight I should have photographed it for the Cohort.
In 1974 I was hitchhiking from Eugene to Los Angeles, Somewhere in northern California I got a ride in a stick-shift America. I must have struck up a bit of conversation with the driver about the car, but I don’t remember details. I didn’t get a strong impression of the car one way or another.