I know it doesn’t feel like (I’ve only just got used to writing “2022”) but next year is now this year, so to speak. So, welcome to 2023, just 50 years on from 1973 and these selections of new and revised cars. Which would you have chosen?
These video extracts are from a long defunct television programme called “Drive In”, broadcast mostly in London and the south east of England by the then regional provider Thames Television. It was a typical consumer information programme. centred on motoring and new cars, and was unlikely to set the hares running any which way. After all, Thames wanted advertising revenue….
This first extract features the British cars, and you can sense a bit of then fashionable criticism of British Leyland (not then government owned but heading that way) and its works, while also bemoaning that the rest of the industry was (then) American owned. but the Jaguar XJ-C looks tempting, even if the Morris Marina Jubilee edition is something to worry less about.
So, perhaps you’d prefer a Continental, meaning from Western European, car? The Renault 12 looks practical if a bit dull, the 5 a bit more perky, the Alfasud tempting, the Montreal odd in metallic brown but perhaps most intriguing was the temptation of next year’s Citroen GS Bi-Rotor. Elegance points go to the Fiat 130 Coupe and the Mercedes-Benz 450SEL, perhaps the best car of the 1970s?
And then there were the Japanese cars. Only 6 cars, from 3 brands, but for each of them full equipment (Radio! Rear window heater! Electric aerial!) was a feature. Left unspoken was the growing reputation for reliability, and also the longer term corrosion issues of some. Still, there were rotary engined Mazdas.
So what’s your choice? Whilst you decide, you can listen to the best music of the year, no, of the decade – Tubular Bells by Mike Oldfield.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KXatvzWAzLU
Happy New Year!
In 1973 I bought my first British sport car a Bugeye Sprite for $400 I really couldn’t afford any of those cars on my minimum wage part time job while going to college. None of my friends had new cars.
Gosh, that Thames intro triggered memories for me. As an American, I saw that into every time I watched “The Benny Hill Show”, which was often.
As for the cars shown, I’d have to take the Volvo, because… Volvo. Although I didn’t see a Ford Capri presented, I think that would have been a pretty good choice for ’73.
For me the Thames intro triggered memories of watching Danger Mouse and its spinoff Count Duckula as a child.
I’d probably take the Escort, that probably would have been a good choice for a European car from that era. At least, if I were the one making the payments. If money were no object, one of the Mercedes, obviously.
Note side-view mirrors….or lack of.
I would take the Ford Escort RS 2000.
Never mind the cars; “Tubular Bells by Mike Oldfield” is “the best music of the decade”?
Shirley, you must be joking.
🙂
yohai71,
Yes Tubular Bells is a damn good song,
And don’t call me Shirley!
It’s a damn good number but best of the decade? Well, that’s a big claim.
(Tongue in cheek, Roger, tongue in cheek)
It is in my book, bit YMMV, and that’s fine.
What I appreciate most is the large variety of manufactures.
The Europeans were spoiled!!!
That TV program(me) reminds me of another, more recent one: “Electric Dreams”, in which a British family’s house and home was taken back to 1970 in terms of equipment, configuration, contents, and decor(!), and they lived an approximation of the 1970s at the rate of one year per day—with innovations being dropped off on their doorstep the morning of the ‘year’ they gained traction. The whole show’s worth a watch, but I’ve cued up the main car-related bit here:
A Cortina 1600E (executive) in aubergine ! A real dream car – I’d be more than happy to have a mint one today. Cortina GT engine and suspension, with better trim.
My biology teacher at Grammar School had one just like that then, even that colour. I don’t think she ever had trouble steering it!
I worked with a girl who would drive to work in her boyfriends gold 1600E. She was quite small, and drove in bare feet – never had any trouble at all.
While I haven’t seen this particular series, this seems to be a common BBC doc theme. I’ve seen similar series set in the teens, ’20s and the ’30s. Quite an eye-opener, especially as the woman in the ’20s family (or was it the teens?) tried to adjust to having a cook/housekeeper. It fairly did her modern-liberated-woman head in, to be told someone of her husband’s status HAD to have at least one servant, and that she herself was not allowed to work. There’s something about seeing people live out an era that makes history come alive.
While I love the seventies, I wouldn’t wish that wallpaper on anybody!
Most of those plus all the Australian models were available here Japanese cars sold ok not as well as other markets and freshly licensed teens like me wanted but could not afford a hot Ford Escort or Mini, but ended up with something older and mostly clapped out,
Ive owned dozens of early to mid 70s cars, Australian, British and Japanese they hung around used for many years but I dont want anymore right now.
One Japanese car not featured there that was on sale in 1973 is the Honda Civic, though at the time it was their only car. The price, at just under £1000 was competitive, but the question at the time would be could they make cars as well as they did motorbikes?
The MGB V8 had a compelling attraction when it was shown, but it didn’t last long, not even to the end of the video.
The young man being interviewed at the end of the last segment was sharp; much more than one would typically find in a comparable setting today.
Great collections. Thank you for compiling this, Roger. After watching Jay Leno’s feature on the Alfa Montreal, I came away, impressed. Beautiful styling, especially attractive nose. And the V8’s exhaust note, is addictive. Headlight cover operation is cool. Bad colour choice on the example, in the video segment.
Wow, this brings back memories, not all of them good. On the basis of ‘better the devil you know’, I’ll go for the Cortina.
Think I could still fix just about anything that’s likely to go wrong on a new one. Unless the British blokes threw in some new assembly faults their Aussie cousins hadn’t caught up with! Seriously, they had a terrible rep for slapdash assembly here, and with Japanese quality products available for the same price or less, the result was a foregone conclusion. I’m not knocking the Japanese one iota; I drove nothing but Japanese products since. While I may want to support old Eric the assembly plant worker next door, I need to have a car I can rely on. (Oh that’s right, he built Toyotas at AMI. Bad example.)
So why wouldn’t I have chosen something Japanese from this lot? Because they were a bit squeezy inside still (that 1.7 metre width thing), and they hadn’t quite got the spring/shocker thing sorted out yet.
I had a AMI Toyota Corona well used it was one tough little car, first Japanese car I ever owned and not my last Toyota, Not a great handling car though it took another few decades to make Japanese brand cars drive properly.
Slightly before my time, but as popular as the Exorcist was with ‘Tubular Bells’, I heard ‘Smoke on the Water’ more often. From cars and bars, and in backyards, in the Spring and Summer of ’73. Very popular, for years with rock fans. From Deep Purple’s 1972 album, Machine Head, but released as a single in 1973.
OH yes, memories!
In the science lab one day while the teacher was out, our resident muso Libor hooked up a ripple tank’s frequency generator to a speaker, and proceeded to play a reasonable rendition of Smoke on the Water – LOUD! All along the corridor doors flew open as teachers tried to figure out what was going on.
I’m still amazed he could do that; must’ve had quite a gift.
Haha! That’s great! Extremely popular with rock fans. It made a rebellious statement for many. The opening guitar riff is timeless. People stopped what they were doing, to hear it. I was looking at ‘Smoke on the Water’s’ chart performance as a single, and according to Australia’s Kent Music Report, it only reached #54. Blasphemy! It did great in Canada and the US. Reaching #4 on the Billboard Hot 100 in 1973. And #2 on Canada’s RPM Charts.
Legendary guitar riff.
I believe that opening riff is Ritchie Blackmore on Stratocaster and believe it or not Jon Lord on Hammond organ played thru a Marshall stack and heavily distorted.
It got a lot of airplay!
Wow, listing to the Thames opening music sure brought back memories, mostly from shows running on our local The Knowledge Network and PBS KCTS 9 stations.
My choices: XJ-C, what a stunning looking car, and the Crown wagon. Those would be great in my garage. A looker, and something reliable and functional.
The two 1973 cars that leap out would be an Escort RS1600 with the Cosworth BDA and a Citroen GS station wagon since the CX wouldn’t be out for another year and the DS was a little bit past it
Of what was available on the US market in the not-a-huge-American-car sizes, we only got the Marina and Avenger (under the Plymouth Cricket alias) among British sedans at this point; on the other hand the Pinto and Vega were as competitive as they’d ever be, past early teething troubles but not yet outdated. Still, I think I’d have snagged one of the last Datsun 510s.
I had the opportunity (if not to say blessing) of working on many, if not all, of these cars when I did this for living in the UK and Austria in the late 80s and all through the 90s. Back then some of them were still around, either on their last legs being used as cheap transport or just becoming coveted (Jag XJC for example). My choice of the Toyota Crown as an everyday car (after a thorough rust-proofing) should thus not come as a surprise. But for the weekend I’d have a TVR or a Lotus Elan Sprint…
These were fun. The 6 cylinder Jag-ewe-ar is something I still find quite appealing.
Yes, Gawd help me, so do I!
Even after owning two of these British masochistic subtle torture devices.
Can I have a hidden away, maytag reliable, with a working air conditioner and heater, 5/7/10 year old American car “on the side”, for the 3 (at least!) days out of 7 when the chosen Jaguar “failed to proceed” out of the garage and down the street?
(Yes, I speak with the voice of automotive experience.)
Just don’t pick the Marina. Ask me how I know…
Oddly enough the MK3 Cortina led the sales charts in NZ just after our conservative govt introduced a tax on anything over 2.0 litres Government departments and fleets accounted for most of the sales as they replaced their fleet of HQ Holdens though the Cortinas used as much fuel and many more suspension components to do the same jobs, we got exUK CKD pack Cortinas and they just didnt cope well with abuse kiwi style.
That was the prototype Jaguar XJ Coupe, built on a Series 1, platform.
1975 before the beauty went into production.
The last car that Sir William Lyons worked on as a stylist.
That Austin Allegro sums up everything that went wrong with British Leyland.
Harris Mann’s original design looks more like the Alfa Romeo Alfa Sud Sprint.
A low sleek bonnet and a Hatchback.
Instead a barrel shaped thing, that handled like a pig, with worse driver vision than its predecessor the ADO16.
When the VW Golf Mk1 (VW Rabbit in the USA) was launched the following year !!!
And those awful autumnal colours that lasted till the late 1979, dreadful.
It also sums up the UK political dogma. Jaguar, Triumph, MG and the discontinued Austin-Healey, brought in the money selling to the USA, specifically the West Coast.
But money was wasted on the Allegro, rather than building Giovanni Michelotti’s redesigned ADO16, which looked like the BMW 2002.
Idiot Marxist Union leaders. Lazy workers. Incompetent Managers wanting to get to their Pension. And Lord Donald Stokes.
There are still folks who think “1990 was 20 years ago”, 😉