I started work at a BL dealer a month after the launch of the Allegro. I thought it was a great car, easy to work on, no real faults worth talking about which were not easily resolved! It was a much better car than the old 1100/1300 in my opinion. If only it had been a hatchback, I can't imagine that we'd be having this discussion. Under rated and I loved them!
My dad bought a 1.1 in 1979. It had a face like a Pug but was comfy. Loads of people bought them as well as the Marina. From my recollection they only became unpopular in the 80s as better and more refined cars came along.
The Allegro was a pretty good car. Much more comfortable than the Ford Escort. The only one I ever had bother with was the 1750 sport. I put that down to the fact it had probably been driven harder by previous owners. I'd happily drive an Allegro even today. Simple to service & simple to fix if anything goes wrong. If BL had stuck with the original design the car would have been as popular as it's predecessor
In 1988 I was in need of a cheep car as a stop gap so I bought a 1979 Allegro with 75,000 miles on the clock, I'd heard all the horror stories but decided to ignore them. I ran that little gem for 2 years and all it needed was a new alternator after about 6 months. I lost a hub cap and got a replacement from a scrap yard for 50 pence. It was the 1300 mark 2 in bright orange with black velour seats, really comfortable. A bit of choke and started whatever the weather, really reliable and did between 40 and 45 miles to the (imp) gallon. When I got married I sold it to my wife's sister who ran it trouble free until some idiot ran into the back of it and wrote it off. I have very fond memories of that car.
I had a 1300 Allegro, kept it a couple of years, it was a cracking little family car that served our needs, it was the car i bought my children home in, it was the car that got me to work everyday and the car that gave us independence as a family all for £195, i put a new clutch in and finally sold it for £250, say whatever you like but when we needed a car, the Austin Allegro done more than we could of ever asked for, about time we started appreciating these cars and realise they helped us build what we have today!!
I had a white Allegro circa 1983, a time when I was picking up cars with an mot at auction for less than £50 and scrapping for not much less when the mots expired. My memory is that it was quite warm, could handle a bit of snow, and had a funny shaped steering wheel. It was very uncool though 😅
Same here, drove my 1300 for 2 trouble free years before selling it on for a handsome profit👍🏻👍🏻 Not once did it refuse to start in cold or damp weather (unlike most of the Fords I owned!!) and it just ran and ran. Loved it and so did the 17 yr old who bought it from me, so much he kept it for at least 4 years!
A very good friend of mine bought a brand new Allegro estate when they first came out. I must admit, I gave him a bit of a gentle ribbing about it at the time, but he wasn't a petrol head and needed a small, but roomy, estate car. The Allegro fitted the bill. Fast forward a year or so, and he's driving into work early one morning. Its a clear, blue sky, and he's driving eastwards, straight into the sun, which was only just above the horizon. He remembers driving into the underpass, but the next thing he remembers is waking up in hospital, with a splitting headache! There was a roadsweeper clearing the underpass, and the lane had not been closed! He never even had chance to brake, and hit it at a considerable speed! He was only in hospital for a couple of days. He got away with bad concussion, and lots of cuts an bruises, but nothing actually broken. He was off work for a few weeks until the doctors were sure he was OK. The police called it a miracle escape! When he went to the scrapyard to retrieve his personal possessions, the folk there were reluctant to let him near the remains of his car. They couldn't believe that anyone had got out of it alive, let alone with relatively minor injuries! The car was completely destroyed, yet the front passenger compartment had protected him extremely well. The car may have been a joke, but it was certainly strong! It saved my friend's life, and I viewed them in a different light after that!
I'm probably the only Yank who was dumb enough to personally import two Allegros to the States, a Sandglow series 2 Estate then much later a denim blue Series 3, both long gone but I'm still in touch with the current owner of the series 3 who himself recently imported a triumph Acclaim Automatic
I like. At the time my father considered it to replace his Rekord. I remember that it cost a little less than the other competitors. A few hundred were imported into Italy
in 1980 i bought a 45k mile one owner 01975 Allegro 1750 sport in Harvest gold. On my way home (3 miles!) the alternator failed. Then the brake pads. Within a week the clutch went. Then i realised the carw as doing about 150 miles before needing a pint of oil. It went back to the garage who said that was normal. So it went to a well renowned local garage to have a recon engine. Two days later the new Austin branded timing chain snapped. Luckily no valve damage. The gear box then failed Over the next few weeks a tie bar pulled through the chassis, and I fitted a number of new drive shafts and CV joints. On week five a ball joint snapped, and the gearbox failed. So, It went in to have a recon gearbox. A week later the flywheel came off the crankshaft wrecking the engine in the process. So another engine. Then a drive shaft failed. I got it running and put it through the local car auction. Losing over half the original investment. But of course I had spent 3 times that repairing it. Just about 6 months after buying the car it had nearly bankrupted me. I bought a Marina. Too days later the grar box failed/i scrapped it and bought an old Cortina. I used that car for three years to recoup my finances. A revelation to drive a car that worked. Decades passed and a variety of Fords, Renaults Fiat, Vauxhalls, Audis and BMW's passed through my hands. Like an idiot in 2004, I decided I had been to hard on BL. I bought a 4 year old Range Rover 4.0 HSE. The whole nightmare started once more...
So when they put the recon engine in did they not do up the flywheel bolts? And your gearbox guy needs a chat about the driveshafts. I had an Allegro for 5 years with zero issues.
The Allegro wasn’t that bad - in engineering terms it was rather advanced for the time. As you rightly said, it had big shoes to fill, and just didn’t have the style that buyers demanded. In fact, if anything, it looked too European. But I wouldn’t class it as the worst car ever made. For many owners it offered comfortable, reliable and cost effective motoring. It did it’s job - but would always be tarnished with the ‘flying plug hole’ badge on the front wings.
I had several Leyland cars that people love to knock - wedge shaped Princess and Ambassador, two Marina estates, a Maxi and an Allegro. All were cheap to buy used, easy/cheap to service and work on. They carried me around reliably for years when I didn't have much money. I liked them a lot.
could easy get parts from the scrap yard and fit them yourself had one allegro that had every different colour on its doors and bonnet taught the future wife to drive in it
I had a Princess 1.8HL. Engine bolted to the transmission with 3 bolts instead of 6 resulting in the auto box changing down to second gear as I was doing 70 on the motorway. I nearly died and still have the shivvers when I think about it. Cheap styrene plastic door handles and and cheap plastic window winders that fell apart in your hands. Gaps between panels were all over and that awful Hydrogas suspension, I would drive to the office, park my car and by finishing time I'd find the suspension lost gas pressure and it sat on its axles. It was a dreadful car with no saving graces whatsoever. It was a company car so I got them to give me a nice Cortina MK3 which was excellent in every way.
@@henrygingold6549 Funny they used the same window winders etc on all the other BL cars and they never broke on the BL cars I or my family owned nor on the BL cars we serviced and looked after in the garage I worked in in the 80s/90s. The hydrogas was an excellent system and there was NO problem with that system or pipes until like any other car it was old and things rusted underneath. After driving hydrogas BL cars especially my 1980 Allegro 1750 TC Equipe I have always noticed how "crashy" normal cars are to drive on our roads and wish I still had that Allegro today because it was far superior to normal cars - only Citroens were better although they were far more complicated/troublesome and expensive to repair as they got older.
My dad had one. It scared the living daylights out of him going around roundabouts, if it ever started in the first place, hed have to change bulbs and fuses on a very regular basis. And when repairing it something else would break. He used to leave the keys in and no one would steal it. Very roomy and comfortable though.
At least your dad realised - my old man had one in 75 and suffered the famous 'wheel falling off' incident although I do understand this was due to poor maintenance at the dealer - but nevertheless it was a weak car. And then he gave me an old cheap one at 17 for my first car - maybe he was trying to kill me off 🤣🤣🤣🤣Very generous to get me a cheap old car - don't want to sound ungrateful - but why oh why would you choose an Allegro!!!!
Allegros were actually very reliable cars when looked after and CHEAP parts were not used in them. Never had any problems with the 1978 Allegro 1500 LE that my brother then mother owned or the 1980 Allegro 1750 TC Equipe that I owned not the Allegros that we looked after and serviced in the garage I worked in the the 80s/90s. Some people just continuously bought unlooked after heaps or never looked after their cars in the first place and then blamed the car/manufacturer.
My Dad had a 1750 Sport Austin Allegro. It had the square steering wheel. It was actually a great car and really good on long trips. We had family in Bristol and would drive there from Dover. We also took it to Spain on one holiday. The engine was very powerful and the hydragas suspension smoothed out the roads.
Bought a lime green Allegro 1300 automatic estate with no reverse gear for £10 from Guildford car auction in 1990. It was fine and I only got caught out once because I couldn't reverse. Learnt to park leaving large gaps and used right foot out of door to push it back if I had to. Great fun and makes you think outside the box 😅.
As an American, I'm absolutely loving your videos about the British cars nobody seems to want to remember or talk about (except me!). I seem to remember reading somewhere that the original door handles on the Lotus Esprit were sourced from the Austin Allegro?
The door handles were used across a wide range of vehicles - I'm not sure if the Marina was first to use them, the lotus esprit and TR7 sports cars did, as did the Stonefield 4x4 and 6x4 off-road goods vehicles
2 experiences of Allegros. I hired one for 2 weeks in 1977 and drove it about 1600 miles around Scotland with no issues at all. Late 1977 while driving a Ford Escort I passed a broken down Allegro which had a collapsed rear nearside wheel.
Most of the anti British Leyland stories were created by the other car makers, who wanted a bigger share of the market, the cars were no worse than any of the competition, in fact the Leyland Cars were far more modern than much of the competition in many ways.
Unfortunately that’s not true, my Father purchased a Rover SD1 in 1977, a stunning car, but on the way home the power steering pump failed, overnight it rained and the door seals were so badly fitted the carpets were soaked..his previous P5 was totally reliable, and I ran a Rover 600T as a company car that was again reliable and quick..but 1975-79 seemed a total horrendous period..
the All-agro, as it was know when I was an apprentice in the early '80s, got its name because so many things used to go wrong with them compared to most other British built cars at the time. and once a name sticks its difficult to shake it off. the car was a very good all-rounder, well designed with excellent packaging and I for one liked the styling. a good range of engines and trim levels gave it a very broad appeal. I much preferred the Allegro over its predecessor the 1100. it should have had a hatch-back from the outset like the Maxi. so what if the two cars would have competed against each other with some buyers - a sale is a sale!
It also puzzles me that there was no 5 door estate version of the mark one and mark two Ford Escort. They only did the estate versions of these as 3 door.
I got a white 1500 (early 1976 P reg) from my parents as a first car (borrowed, eventually transferred to my name in 1990 when it was all but dead with a vague plan to fix it). When my parents bought it in 1986/7 it has been stored over winter without antifreeze and needed a replacement cylinder head Being quite spirited as a new driver may have contributed to the engine overheating and a crack developing the engine block. Copious amounts of block seal cured this, then the water pump went (can't think why). Replaced the water pump with some help and large levers. Then it was a complete surprise that the radiator started leaking ... that was 'repaired' with fibreglass ... then the cracked engine started weeping (eventually getting to motorway journeys being carried out at 50mph to get more distance between overheat / stop on hard shoulder to add water / occasionally chat to the police about letting the engine cool down before adding water as adding cold water to a hot engine might crack the block / drive until it overheats cycle ... at 70 it overheated in about 5 mins!). I fitted a household 20A switch to the dash to bypass the thermostatic fan switch so I could start cooling early in traffic / leave it on at higher speeds) All of that could be traced to the treatment by a previous owner (apart perhaps from a tiny bit of blame going to the numpty with the fibreglass ...) ... The fan switch mod (and the coat hanger aerial in the shape of a waving hand were just normal mods for these poor cars then! The only other issues I had were the clutch slave cylinder failing (just outside a motor parts shop) and the drivers seat springs breaking on a motorway slip road (1001 uses for a bungee clip) ... and the slightly perished rubber fuel pipe that looped over the camshaft cover needing replacing before it started leaking petrol on a hot surface ... Compared with other cheap first cars in the late 80s, it was roomy, comfortable and fast ... it even had a 5 speed gearbox! And most of the time you could change gears fine (OK, towards the end first was a long way to the left, maybe something had broken at that point) Fond memories of a reasonably good first car ... much better than legend has it As to BL, it wasn't the only car company plagued by strikes in the 70s ... not even the only one in the UK ... but perhaps it had worse relations internally than companies that a well meaning government hadn't forced to merge ...
Dad had allegros from before I was born, with the last one passed becoming her first car, a white estate that we got when building our house, carrying bags of cement, etc. He had about 6 in that time I believe. Best car in the snow he has ever driven, a car that would get him up into the tree covered hills in the Forest of Dean when volvos, saab, and everything else could not get up. Only thing he ever had problems with was doing ball joints, a lot! And oil consumption. The 1.5 twin choke was quite lively back then. A lot of people that bought them thought they were good. A lot of people that never had one have heard or watched the Clarkson style slating. By the time the later ones were introduced, they were pretty good. Just as good or better than most of the competitors offerings of the time
When it was first launched and drivers had to jack the car up to change a wheel, the back window would pop out and smash on the ground. The answer from BL was to keep all the doors closed. So much for testing cars when designing them.
Love the Allegro my Dad owned 2 as family cars growing up in New Zealand, a brand new 1979 Austin Allegro LE 1300 4 speed and mid 1980's he brought a Lovely 0ne owner 1976 1300 Super which I learnt to drive in. I have recently brought a New Zealand 1978 Austin Allegro 1500 LE Automatic they are actually a great design roomy and modern feeling for the period being front wheel drive . Great review Tom Loving your videos here in New Zealand 👍🏼.
I inherited my 1976 1.3L Metallic Bronze Allegro (UK reg KKG429P) from my dad - he replaced it with a 1.6 Vauxhall Cavalier LX Mk2 in the mid 1980s. I already had my motorbike license, but on passing my B test this was my first ever car - the one I’d initially learned to drive in too, though I had 10 hours of lessons and passed my test in a driving school car. The floor in my Allegro was rotten, despite it having been regularly wax oiled, so I welded an almost entire new floor into it using 10” x 14” steel plates, the biggest size my dad could sneak out in his lunch bag without getting caught. The rear hydro gas suspension support mounts were easy to swap out if you had two jacks, and I did so without needing to depressurise the system. Changing the rear wheel needle roller bearings required an initial minuscule torque setting, followed by undoing this and returning it to just hand tight - many got this wrong and it led to a bad reputation and wheels coming off as you note in the video, but I’d bought the Haynes workshop manual (I still have it!) and this setting was quite clear if people had been bothered to read the details. I did break the gearbox; revving it to the red line and dropping the clutch to spin the front wheels will do that, but I also rebuilt it with scrapyard salvage parts - lesson (and mechanical sympathy) learned. It did get through an exhaust and an alternator during the 4 years and ~30,000 miles that I owned it; it sadly was beyond economical repair at its 1989 MOT, so at 113,000 miles and 13 years old it was scrapped. I have many amazing memories with that car - I left home and moved 300 miles away in it with a job promotion; returning back to my family home every few months - never missed a beat. The back seat was also memorable for reasons that YouTune might not be happy with, so I’ll leave that to your imaginations. I still love to see restored Allegro’s at classic car meets.
The styling. It’s just wrong. If it had been a looker I think a lot would have been forgiven. It’s too fat,it’s not a hatchback,the front is too fussy. This was a time of clean lines and BL served up a suet pudding.
My first car was a white Allegro 1300 (Mk 1), but without the quartic steering wheel. I really loved that car, the ride was so smooth, especially compared to other cars I'd been in up until then. It did let me down on the M1 one day when the water pump failed at 70mph! By the time I got it stopped the engine block had cracked!!!! I had a reconditioned replacement engine that worked fine for the rest of the time I had that car. I still have fond memories of it. Jonathan.
The Allegro biggest problem was BLs management attitude towards staff in turn causing hostility, BL really could have been a world beater but always so many missed opportunities.
My first car, was a N reg allegro, Many happy memories of that car, it spent more time off the road, than on the road. That’s why it was called the Austin aggro ..
Great video 👍 The failure of the design was as explained by retropower engineer "the heater and bulkhead has the biggest impact of any car build". The other reason was the over tall engine's etc.
Amazingly practically every car manufacturer with a performance version of their cars now uses a variant of the quartic steering wheel. Even more oddly is the fact that my 2006 Defender TD5 appears to use the same switchgear for the indicators 34 years after they were shown in the Allegro and possibly even earlier on other models.
Another fantastic example of a great viewing thank you your channel it’s leap ahead of car channels because it’s on facts not up selling like other car channels which I don’t agree, maté keep up on good work
I did an Audi launch event and during our product training much was made of the interconnected suspension control system using gas and fluid and the squared off steering wheel ……. Just like an Allegro I piped up! It’s incredible how many once laughed at BMC/BLMC/BL/ARG/Rover ideas and designs when looked at intelligently are actually very good. Austin were true innovators while Ford and GM were plodders. Plodding was a much better idea back then 🤣
In 1991 I drove my metallic gold (with brown vinyl roof) Austin Allegro round Eastern Europe, not long after the Berlin Wall had fallen. We travelled through France, Belgium, Holland and Germany, then spent a month touring through Poland, Czechoslovakia, Hungary & East Germany. Throughout the 3,800 mile trip the only thing to go wrong was an indicator bulb that had to be replaced (naturally I carried a set of spares on the trip).
By most measures they weren't brilliant but for a short period in the early 80s my dad hit hard times due to reduced hours. He had to do without a car for a while and then when he finally got back on the road it was in a nail of a £50 Allegro. He drove me to my first job in it and he taught me to drive in it. It provided unfashionable but reliable transport for which we were grateful until he got back into his work stride again. Soft spot for it because of this.
Great video tom and great top by the way . My dad built the Allegro and was a shop steward at the time i can always remember he was home a lot as they were on strike again i was only about 5 or 6 but i can still remember it lol
Maybe your wife shouldn't have bought other peoples second hand unlooked after heaps then because Allegros were actually very reliable cars when looked after like the 1978 Allegro 1500 LE that my brother then mother owned and my 1980 Allegro 1750 TC Equipe and all of the Allegros that we looked after in the garage that I worked in in the 80s/90s. My uncle used to buy heaps all the time and then complain about how unreliable and crap the cars were.
In 1985 I bought my mum an orange 1300 Allegro..... And you know what. There was feck all wrong with it. It was perfectly adequate for my wee mum to run to the shops or collect me from the pub. Ok it burnt a little oil and was fond of a set of plugs too often but mum loved it. It had bags of character and plenty of smile's per miles....
The 1750 sport was a load of fun. The biggest problem with the allegro was the lack of a hatchback -allegedly due to the idea it would take sales from the maxi....
Good point GM/Chevrolet had some great cars that could have changed a lot of minds but anytime something was too sporty or had too much power the Brass Hat guys would say it would eat into Corvette territory. The first time I saw an Opal Monza Coupe I thought why don't we have that in the US. And we did it was called a Toyota Supra.
@@markcollins457I Used to work in a Vauxhall /Opel main dealer in the eighties and used to work on and drive the monza coupes and senators. Haven't seen one for years as sadly due to our climate they have long since dissolved 😪. My favourite Monza coupe was the mid eighties facelift model.
When I was growing up in the 1980s / early 90s in north west England, there were still a number of these, along with things like Morris and Triumph (and even one Ambassador!) kicking around my local area. It wasn’t until years later that I learned what a controversial car this really was.
My father owner a vanden plas allegro 1500 automatic in the early 80s. He had it for many years and had no serious issues with it except a bit of surface rust from time to time which he always got repaired. The hydro elastic suspension was so comfortable.
My father bought one in 1978. It was a 4 door, 1.1 lt, brown one. He was a fan of British car manufacturing and a mechanic himself. I have many memories of this car. Essentially, it is an incredibly reliable car for its time, very easy to maintain, economical to run, and comfortable to drive. No, it's not the kind of car you'd use to chase racing performance, but it wouldn't hesitate to go faster than usual, although only to a certain extent. On long trips, it was very comfortable, and the interior space was quite large for the standards of its time.
Or insurance man used to come around every month collecting the monthly installments. I was just a kid but I remember him buying an allegro when it first appeared, he was so impressed with it showing it off to me. Can't remember how long after but he got a puncture, took it to a tyre garage to get it fixed and they buckled the body and the window popped out. I can't remember the outcome as BL was blaming the garage for jacking it up in the wrong place the garage was blaming BL for not sending any instructions about jacking points, I do know the replacement wasn't another allegro 😂
Mt grandfather had an Allegro. When it broke down, he literally abandoned it. Left it where it stopped, keys in the ignition and walked away. I sometimes wonder what happened to it.
The company I was driving for acquired a brand new Allegro and I was assigned it on day one. I managed to drive it out of the underground car park and about 100 yards down the road before the gear linkage broke in the middle of a busy junction. The company sent the car back - I wasn’t upset!
My first car was an Allegro 1500 SDL Estate, my mates ridiculed me but it was great, always started on cold, wet mornings and never let me down. My mum had a 1500 Automatic saloon, same applied. My uncle had a 1300SDL, totally abused it for 5 years and it always kept going, although he did rate the (much newer) Mk.5 Cortina 2.0GL that replaced it far better. I think it was just the odd shape that folks didn't like. Like it's predecessor the 1100/1300 (again my parents had one which they loved) they were tidy cars with the bombproof A-Series engine.
@@gravelDave From the outside looking in it appears that the supporters of Red Robbo didn't have the nowse to realise that they were consigning themselves to oblivion. The striking workers must have cost themselves and their families a brighter future.
BL did not have the $$$ to invest in modern assembly methods. Juts look at the videos. Blokes on cloth caps and cardigans using hand tools to bolt the cars together.
@@ataxpayer723 BL did not have the $$$ to invest simply due irresponsible and incompetent financial management. All the other mainstream vehicle manufacturers of the era 1968 to 1986 not only found the $$$ but actually grew. BL management was a ship of fools captained by Vassal Lords who operated in the same manner as their nobility forefathers treating workers as Surfs. They were so useless the government has to step in like child protection officers. Unsurprisingly Barber, Turnbull, Edwardes, Musgrove, Day all personally did well financially with some of them even being Knighted for incompetence. No surprises then when BMW took over none of the aforementioned were offered roles.
@@ataxpayer723 If only the blokes in cloth caps had actually assembled cars to be sold then monies could have been reinvested into BL. You can't sell cars while the (not) workers are outside on strike. The money lost during strikes could have been the difference. I worked in England for 5 years and was shocked by the class system and the poor attitudes of the incorrectly named 'working class'. They were their own worst enemy.
I bought a new 1500 in 1976. I got rid of the silly steering wheel after 3 months. I lost a front wheel , good job i was only doing 40 mph. The list of breakdowns is so long it would be boring. After 3 years i had it towed to a scrap merchant. Then i bought a second hand volvo 144. That was a real car, and it saved my confidence in car makers.
I've owned them consistently for 30 years, current one for 12 years. I've never had an unreliable one, proper maintenance helps with this. I have driven then all over Europe too. I love them, but realise that I'm in a minority. But yes to my mind it typifies British 70s motoring. Harris Mann was very much a lovely man and was very approachable.
My driving instructor had a new one, he was so proud of it. After two months the engine completely failed, and took months to replace. I had to find a new instructor with a working car.
The Allegro was very popular when I was at college, comfy, spacious and reliable. Many had them and we all either drove or took rides in them.The square steering wheel was actually very sensible to get in and out, indeed my wifes modern Fiat has the same idea.
I had the estate version - I loved it. Yes it developed a list to port and needed the suspension pumping up every few weeks but it was a comfortable ride and home maintenance was quite easy - those were the days.
Fair points made and strikes combined with grossly incompetent management was the slow suicide of the British car industry. I owned 2 Allegro estate cars at different times, either side of giving German cars a try because my first 2 cars had been Beetles and they were well made. By contrast the early Golf was tinny and expensive and the Passat was an electrical disaster. VW thought that its name would continue the myth of good engineering and the French jumped into the gap. Strange Renaults and Citroens were actually rather brilliant and when the Renault 5 arrived, so did the hatchback as a stylish and likeable performer. The flat bottom and strong upper frame made it good for sports too. It was actually strong despite using light steel. I never took to the BMCL 1100/1300 simply because the Italian style was a waste of body space and the engine was no longer efficient in MPG or ability to be tweaked (except by Triumph and MG) to have enough quality in build or steel quality for flat panels to make sense. It sold well because there were no other British choices at the price point and was heavily discounted at dealerships. The Fiesta and Corsa were yet to arrive and Rootes was in chaos after the Imp had been insufficiently developed -- with plants being 400 miles apart and a 4-door or hatch would have done well. The Allegro's design and mechanicals made for a good all round small/medium type car without Italian designers and with comfort, safety and low maintenance baked in. The Hydrogas suspension would have been trumpeted by other car makers and the low air resistance was nothing like the square boxes made by everyone else. The estate actually heralded the far later MPV products from Japan and making a hatch version from the start would have created a winner for Europe and Commonwealth countries. It needed a range of engines from small for the basic family saloon/hatch to what the Renault 5 series and Peugeot 205 became with different trim levels and either Laycock overdrive or a 5-speed box on a possible 1500 cc as well as a diesel version. The stupid steering wheel was actually easily replaced with a normal one in dealerships but was actually quite usable as it was -- except in late pregnancy! Lights and warning lights all round were the right size and proper Smiths/Lucas dials borrowed from Triumph would have avoided internal blandness. However, the UK media interested in BL strife settled on the Allegro for spitefulness and so did motoring TV programmes. Calling it the Allegro was a bad decision when it was not designed for chucking around so much as daily, solid, reliable use, good MPG and economy for owners from the suspension and CVs simple elegance with a tight turning circle alone. When in doubt about names use letters and numbers instead.
I drove one in the early 80's to test as a potential second hand purchase for the friend of a mate. I remember it as entirely boring, the only distinguishing aspect of the car was it was brown, which summed it up.
The "all aggro" was our family car, I didn't drive it much as I had motorbikes but the main memory is the horrific oil consumption! My dad worked as a draghtsman at BL in Wellingborough, which I think was either an engine or prototype engine plant, probably the former as it was quite large. The car had no radio and was pretty basic but it did always start and get you there. It had a standard sterring wheel [it was a 1979 model], no ABS, traction control, ESC, power steering and a four speed box. It didn't have a lot of power either.
Looks like Madeline Bell worked there between stints at The Benny Hill Show and the guy from Please Sir got an apprenticeship there after leaving Fenn St School
I had 2 of these back in the 80's... CV Joints kept getting replaced! They were shite... But I loved both cars! Worth a small fortune now though!.... Miss them!
I remember reading articles about this car back in the 70's I didn't give it a second glance for one reason it wasn't available here in the US and the style i found mundane. But a Datsun 510 was available and the smart styling caught my eye. It's a shame so many car companies made made corporate mistakes in the in the 70's on both sides of the pond.
Time for a confession - I owned two, a 1300, and a 1500 HL. There was nothing much wrong with them as a general car, other than the suspension. Perhaps it was a good idea in the drawing office, but it didn't really work with sides sagging at times. When polished up, my bronze 1500 HL looked quite smart, and it was a car I bought after my then girlfriend [now wife of 35 years] passed her driving test. Sadly, it was bought to replace my much loved Spitfire 1500, but my wife was just that bit more important.
I passed my driving test in an Austin 1300, in 1973. My Dad had a brand new Allegro a few years later. So I am qualified to comment, I think?. 😀 Both cars were OK, but we sort of expected imperfections in even new cars in those days. The A series engine, for all its praise, had outlived its sell-by date. Only three main bearings and it had a thirst for oil even when new. It was when Ford came out with reliable (but mechanically very simple) cars like the Cortina and Escort that BL's offerings were seen to fall short.
I had an 1100 Allegro from just over a year old. It was totally reliable returned circa 45mpg and good on rough welsh roads with its floaty Hydrolastic susp. Only comments were - strange occasional buzzing from driveshafts and heavy oil consumption for some reason (wasnt leaking and plugs looked normal). Only ever out of the ordinary expense was a new rear exhaust box.
We had one for a few months, couldn't get rid of it fast enough. Every time I turned the wheel to go around a corner I expected the wheels to follow the direction but the body to keep moving ahead. I've never felt that sensation in any other car.
i had a picture on the wall of my room of a Austin Allegro removed from the Swiss 1974 Automobile Revue catalogue. I just love the styling of the Allegro, it is a beautiful car.
Thanks for the video. You do a good job. Would be helpful if British videos would tell how the particular model slotted into the brand by size. I am an American and understand how our brands had full size, intermediate, compact, sub-compact etc. From your video I assume that this was the "full size" auto for the brand. Keep up the good work!
1st car was an Austin 1100. 8 years old when I bought it and needed some welding! Then in March 79 bought a brand new Allegro 1100 while serving with the RAF in Germany. Sold it to my brother when posted to Cyprus in 83. He wrote it off😂 My Allegro was a pretty reliable car though and I loved it. Went on to own a Maestro and MG Montego, all of which were good reliable cars.
Back in the day, I used to vividly read the motoring press. I recall a lot of the reviews from What Car et al. The Allegro did okay, against strong Citroen, VW, and Renault competition. Only a lack of refinement held it back. Indeed, the rust protection was so much better than the rest. Love the videos, some proper TV royalty there.
Would put the Allegro in the same category as the ex demonstration Mini Metro that I bought from the dealership. The damn thing nearly killed me when it suddenly spun round in the road as the glued rubber suspension mounting broke.
I had 3 Allegros with my 1750 Sport being the favourite, although the 1300 handled better. A pity that it wasn’t a hatchback or like Harris Mann’s original design, of which I have a signed print. The cars never let me down and were comfortable, changed in the end for one of the first MG Metros. I don’t think that any 1750 Sports still exist, but it would be fun to drive one again, even though it wouldn’t compare favourably with our current Golf.
My first car was an Allegro. When it ran it was a very smooth ride, but the engine started burning alot of oil and it went to the scrap man. Fond memories and it really wasnt that bad of a car
Way back in the early 80s when my Range Rover caught fire I needed another car urgently and bought a 1500 allegro estate. Was a great car (although different to the Rover) for camping holidays. Loads of space for all the gear and plenty of power to haul it about..
I was born in late 72 so these cars by BL/Austin/Morris and the like where the cars I saw as a kid. You’d see maxis with headlights and wings missing, the Princess looked so weird you’d laugh if you saw one. My dad had a Marina but crashed it. In the end we got a Cortina then a Datsun 100A. Must admit though the old fella next door had a real posh Triumph with a special sounding engine and another up the road had a Vandem Plas Allegro. Both looked quite good. Love your channel Tom.
My father bought an Allegro from new. And it was a complete load of rubbish, with numerous faults. My dad reckoned it was definitely made on a Friday! On one particular occasion, he was driving at night, went over a bump and the headlights went out. Fortunately, he was able to stop safely and get the car recovered. It turned out that there were wires going into the fuse box, and wires going out of the fuse box, but NONE of the connections had actually been soldered! Easy enough to fix, but a fault that could have caused a fatality.
I worked at a BL dealer in the mid 70s. We had so many cars, Princesses, Allegros mainly coming back with warranty claims. It was a real pity because the cars themselves were leagues ahead in tech terms of the Escorts and Cortinas and Vivas and Victors etc. Shame that cost cutting and poor management coupled with the militant unions destroyed some great designs!
When I passed my test my first ever car was a chocolate brown 1.3l Allegro that I paid £70 for. It came taxed and tested and although it was a complete bin to drive I'll always have a soft spot for it
We had the last version of the Allegro estate. It looked a bit like like a mini hearse, but it was one of the best cars we ever had. Comfortable and capable and able to cruise on French motorways at 70 plus for hours on end. Good video but marred by the extremely annoying repetition.
Had an Allegro by neccessity more than anything else - my current car had died a terrible death and I desperately needed transport for work. The Allegro was local and I bought it. I have no idea what model it was but it did have a 1 litre A+ engine in it. The car was like most others inside but where it really shone through was the comfort. That little beauty travelled motorways for hundreds of miles, did punishing commuting through dire winters and not once did it let me down. Like most others, rust eventually won in the end. It was a very sad day when it went off to the scrap yard. Would I buy another? Oh gosh yes. The only thing I'd insist on is a better engine for speed.
The Allegro definitely showed how fragmented BL was and that meant it could never be the world beater that BL hoped it would be. But that doesn’t mean it’s a bad car, far from it. I’ve had mine 5 months and it’s charming, reliable, easy to work on and practical. I can’t think of many more usable classics for the money
I bought a 1980 Allegro Equipe in 83 .... It was alright, but didn't stay standard for long as I modified the airbox with twin K and N's and got Janspeed of Salisbury to upgrade the exhaust manifold and throughput exhaust .... A good car, but a little off putting on corners as there was no anti sway bar at the rear ....
We had a brand new Austin Maxi 1500 at work as a pool car. I loved driving it super comfy seats! I remember when you engaged first to accelerate away strongly, the engine and transmission would rock backwards and forwards quite violently and the gear knob Jesé to dip down by about two inches ha ha!
I had a ten year old 1100cc one in the ‘80s. It was OK. Great on snow with its low power engine and skinny tyres. It needed a new clutch plate which I fitted in a morning myself at a cost of £6. A new exhaust was £13 fitted by Kwikfit. I repainted it by hand with Dulux gloss so it looked really smart.
i absolutely loved them, over the years I've owned over 50 of them, there was a time before the internet where people used to ring me for specifications, tips and tricks on fixing them, even cross referring all the parts, I even built my own 5 door Estate version, from an estate version and a saloon, saloon been in a rear end crunch and the state with a front end crunch. made one very beautiful car. only problem is I only liked the harvest gold ones. oh and they have to be 1300, didn't care for the vdp front end, but nearly everyone that I personally ran had the vdp interior including the dashboard fitted. lol
I had a '74 Allegro in' 89. Drove it thousands of miles, including a tour of the north of England in the summer. It just kept going, only needing a clutch change by 1992. Sold it, got a Maestro. Another great car.
my sister had an M plate one. It was a well designed car, roomy for its footprint, modern front wheel drive and just enough power. It went wrong a few times, mainly the electrics which was scary when driving in the rain with no wipers. It was very much a could have been
I had a 1980 1.3 series 3 Allegro for nearly four years from 1990 and absolutely loved it. Best ride of any car ive ever owned to date, decent handling, good fuel economy & super comfy seats too. It had it's problems, but certainly no more than any other car of the time.
My father traded in his Austin 1300 for an Allegro. Not a terrible family car for it's time, but it had no power steering and the clutch required an over developed left leg to operate. He must of been reasonably pleased with it, because three years later he traded it in for another. Still had the same issues as before, but both were reliable. His next car was a Triumph Acclaim, basically a Honda rebadged. It was in a totally different league to all his previous cars.
I had a wonderful Austin 1300 in the early 70s and I loved it, it was nippy, very comfortable and smooth. My only complaint was the gear shift. It was like a stick in a pot of glue which made gear selection dreadful. I got used to it but it was a pain. When the Allegro came out it was universally panned as a, "toilet bowl on wheels". It was quite frankly hideous and that stupid "quartic" steering wheel was appalling. Chrysler did that in the 60s on their large cars and eventually had to replace them with conventional steering wheels on demand. People said it was just an ADO16 in a new frock but it wasn't. No hydrolastic suspension it had the dreadful Hydrogas that had to be recharged regularly or the car sunk down and couldn't be driven. It's tragic that someone in BL hierarchy did speak out instead of playing Emperor's new clothes games. Leyland made superb trucks and buses but the management had no knowledge of car making save for a few oddities in the 20s. Lord Stokes brought his incompetence from the once excellent John Black's Standard-Triumph. The LC10 Maestro was a much better car and if they'd only developed it earlier things might have gone differently but of course, BL lost the knack of making cars and succumbed to Union strife. I always laugh at the daft commercial that said (in a French accent) "This Allegro is the best foreign car I have ever owned". The guy must have downing absenthe.
My Grandfathers last car was a 1300 1972 allegro. He owned it from new until his death 10 years later. Never had any problems with it (unlike the Toledo that preceded it) if only it had been a hatchback though.
When you look back at Mann’s original design sketches, for what became the Allegro, it’s an absolute tragedy. If BL had had the guts to stick with the design, forget about the bigger E-Series engines, and made it a hatchback, it might have stood a chance. The original idea wasn’t bad, in fact it had a hint of the gorgeous Alfasud about it. Imagine that original design, with a flat four, and a hatchback, that could have been a car to take on the Alfasud, the VW Golf, and the small family hatchbacks that other manufacturers were developing at that time, but unfortunately BL management couldn’t have seen a good idea if it had hit them in the face. Of course even if they had managed to build Mann’s original design, the permanent strikes at BL would probably have doomed the Allegro in any case.
In my country, the ADO16 was produced locally and its quality was very good, these cars were smoothly running 20 years and beyond. But when the local IMV site was taken over by Renault in 1973, British cars, now imported, became much, much more expensive. Of course, the owners of these new, expensive Allegros were reluctant to talk of its faults, so, having no clue what was going on at Longbridge, the reputation of Allegros and Marinas remained excellent. Personally, I later acquired a used, 1977 Austin Mini. An excellent little car, but let down by being prone to rust and due to its mechanical issues. I sold it after just one year.
Shame that it didn’t do so well. I got one that my Grandad didn’t need any more and it was a great first car. Easy to work on and it drove well. Mine didn’t have one of those square steering wheels, but I gather Audi’s now have a square steering wheel, so it can’t have been that bad an idea.
Compared to Japanese and German cars they were technically inferior, unreliable and expensive to run. After ww2 the interference of Professor Harold Laski economic policies made British industry uncompetitive and we lost our car and ship building industry.
As a teenager in the 70's the joke that was Leyland was always blamed on the unions. They didn't help but the stylists, designers and management deserve equal blame. Allegro Vs Escort? Marina Vs Cortina? A sprawling mess with everyone working against each other
I started work at a BL dealer a month after the launch of the Allegro. I thought it was a great car, easy to work on, no real faults worth talking about which were not easily resolved!
It was a much better car than the old 1100/1300 in my opinion. If only it had been a hatchback, I can't imagine that we'd be having this discussion. Under rated and I loved them!
someone had too !
My dad bought a 1.1 in 1979. It had a face like a Pug but was comfy. Loads of people bought them as well as the Marina. From my recollection they only became unpopular in the 80s as better and more refined cars came along.
Vandan Plas version is beautiful. I saw one in Glasgow last week!
The Allegro was a pretty good car. Much more comfortable than the Ford Escort. The only one I ever had bother with was the 1750 sport. I put that down to the fact it had probably been driven harder by previous owners.
I'd happily drive an Allegro even today. Simple to service & simple to fix if anything goes wrong.
If BL had stuck with the original design the car would have been as popular as it's predecessor
@AmigaA-or2hj there's an interesting video on UA-cam of how these were converted from a basic Allegro at the VDP factory
In 1988 I was in need of a cheep car as a stop gap so I bought a 1979 Allegro with 75,000 miles on the clock, I'd heard all the horror stories but decided to ignore them. I ran that little gem for 2 years and all it needed was a new alternator after about 6 months. I lost a hub cap and got a replacement from a scrap yard for 50 pence. It was the 1300 mark 2 in bright orange with black velour seats, really comfortable. A bit of choke and started whatever the weather, really reliable and did between 40 and 45 miles to the (imp) gallon. When I got married I sold it to my wife's sister who ran it trouble free until some idiot ran into the back of it and wrote it off. I have very fond memories of that car.
I had a 1300 Allegro, kept it a couple of years, it was a cracking little family car that served our needs, it was the car i bought my children home in, it was the car that got me to work everyday and the car that gave us independence as a family all for £195, i put a new clutch in and finally sold it for £250, say whatever you like but when we needed a car, the Austin Allegro done more than we could of ever asked for, about time we started appreciating these cars and realise they helped us build what we have today!!
STEVE DYER - top man!
I had a white Allegro circa 1983, a time when I was picking up cars with an mot at auction for less than £50 and scrapping for not much less when the mots expired. My memory is that it was quite warm, could handle a bit of snow, and had a funny shaped steering wheel. It was very uncool though 😅
Same here, drove my 1300 for 2 trouble free years before selling it on for a handsome profit👍🏻👍🏻
Not once did it refuse to start in cold or damp weather (unlike most of the Fords I owned!!) and it just ran and ran.
Loved it and so did the 17 yr old who bought it from me, so much he kept it for at least 4 years!
A very good friend of mine bought a brand new Allegro estate when they first came out. I must admit, I gave him a bit of a gentle ribbing about it at the time, but he wasn't a petrol head and needed a small, but roomy, estate car. The Allegro fitted the bill. Fast forward a year or so, and he's driving into work early one morning. Its a clear, blue sky, and he's driving eastwards, straight into the sun, which was only just above the horizon. He remembers driving into the underpass, but the next thing he remembers is waking up in hospital, with a splitting headache! There was a roadsweeper clearing the underpass, and the lane had not been closed! He never even had chance to brake, and hit it at a considerable speed!
He was only in hospital for a couple of days. He got away with bad concussion, and lots of cuts an bruises, but nothing actually broken. He was off work for a few weeks until the doctors were sure he was OK. The police called it a miracle escape!
When he went to the scrapyard to retrieve his personal possessions, the folk there were reluctant to let him near the remains of his car. They couldn't believe that anyone had got out of it alive, let alone with relatively minor injuries! The car was completely destroyed, yet the front passenger compartment had protected him extremely well.
The car may have been a joke, but it was certainly strong! It saved my friend's life, and I viewed them in a different light after that!
I'm probably the only Yank who was dumb enough to personally import two Allegros to the States, a Sandglow series 2 Estate then much later a denim blue Series 3, both long gone but I'm still in touch with the current owner of the series 3 who himself recently imported a triumph Acclaim Automatic
You deserve a British Empire medal 🥇 for that. 👍
Should have bought a Honda Ballade (Civic sedan in USA), chiselled the badges off and glued some Triumph ones on and saved yourself a fortune 😂.
I hope that the Triumph has beige velour interior?
Hi RRS happy new year buddy! You must tell me the circumstances that led you tell go to the expense of importing such weird cars? ( please) 🤔🇬🇧
The allegro was a fantasticr great ride, great roadholidng very roomy.
Stil own a Princess. Some people talk shite about it and even never sit in it.
I've sat in the back of one. Very roomy and comfortable.
The Princess was one of the best cars made by the BL Group.
I like. At the time my father considered it to replace his Rekord. I remember that it cost a little less than the other competitors. A few hundred were imported into Italy
I’ve had two series 1 Princesses. They were truly excellent for their time if you got a good one.
Shame they never built a Princess GT . That six had some potential. Add a tachometer, and a manual gear change, and you've got an interesting car.
in 1980 i bought a 45k mile one owner 01975 Allegro 1750 sport in Harvest gold. On my way home (3 miles!) the alternator failed. Then the brake pads. Within a week the clutch went. Then i realised the carw as doing about 150 miles before needing a pint of oil. It went back to the garage who said that was normal. So it went to a well renowned local garage to have a recon engine. Two days later the new Austin branded timing chain snapped. Luckily no valve damage. The gear box then failed Over the next few weeks a tie bar pulled through the chassis, and I fitted a number of new drive shafts and CV joints. On week five a ball joint snapped, and the gearbox failed. So, It went in to have a recon gearbox. A week later the flywheel came off the crankshaft wrecking the engine in the process. So another engine. Then a drive shaft failed. I got it running and put it through the local car auction. Losing over half the original investment. But of course I had spent 3 times that repairing it. Just about 6 months after buying the car it had nearly bankrupted me. I bought a Marina. Too days later the grar box failed/i scrapped it and bought an old Cortina. I used that car for three years to recoup my finances. A revelation to drive a car that worked. Decades passed and a variety of Fords, Renaults Fiat, Vauxhalls, Audis and BMW's passed through my hands. Like an idiot in 2004, I decided I had been to hard on BL. I bought a 4 year old Range Rover 4.0 HSE. The whole nightmare started once more...
if you bought a 4y old range rover in '04... that was the bmw improved p38's second phase, so rather far removed from bl woes
Oh shoot! I've just bought a 3 year old Range Rover HSE ! No issues so far after 6 months! Fingers crossed!
@@TheChill001 nah, it's just the bl woes on steroids.
So when they put the recon engine in did they not do up the flywheel bolts? And your gearbox guy needs a chat about the driveshafts. I had an Allegro for 5 years with zero issues.
The Allegro wasn’t that bad - in engineering terms it was rather advanced for the time. As you rightly said, it had big shoes to fill, and just didn’t have the style that buyers demanded. In fact, if anything, it looked too European. But I wouldn’t class it as the worst car ever made. For many owners it offered comfortable, reliable and cost effective motoring. It did it’s job - but would always be tarnished with the ‘flying plug hole’ badge on the front wings.
It wasn't that bad ROTF 😅 it was a massive step back from the 1100/1300.
If it looked too European, what did British looking, look like?
I had several Leyland cars that people love to knock - wedge shaped Princess and Ambassador, two Marina estates, a Maxi and an Allegro. All were cheap to buy used, easy/cheap to service and work on. They carried me around reliably for years when I didn't have much money. I liked them a lot.
could easy get parts from the scrap yard and fit them yourself had one allegro that had every different colour on its doors and bonnet taught the future wife to drive in it
I had a Princess 1.8HL. Engine bolted to the transmission with 3 bolts instead of 6 resulting in the auto box changing down to second gear as I was doing 70 on the motorway. I nearly died and still have the shivvers when I think about it. Cheap styrene plastic door handles and and cheap plastic window winders that fell apart in your hands. Gaps between panels were all over and that awful Hydrogas suspension, I would drive to the office, park my car and by finishing time I'd find the suspension lost gas pressure and it sat on its axles. It was a dreadful car with no saving graces whatsoever. It was a company car so I got them to give me a nice Cortina MK3 which was excellent in every way.
@@henrygingold6549 Funny they used the same window winders etc on all the other BL cars and they never broke on the BL cars I or my family owned nor on the BL cars we serviced and looked after in the garage I worked in in the 80s/90s. The hydrogas was an excellent system and there was NO problem with that system or pipes until like any other car it was old and things rusted underneath. After driving hydrogas BL cars especially my 1980 Allegro 1750 TC Equipe I have always noticed how "crashy" normal cars are to drive on our roads and wish I still had that Allegro today because it was far superior to normal cars - only Citroens were better although they were far more complicated/troublesome and expensive to repair as they got older.
My dad had one. It scared the living daylights out of him going around roundabouts, if it ever started in the first place, hed have to change bulbs and fuses on a very regular basis. And when repairing it something else would break. He used to leave the keys in and no one would steal it. Very roomy and comfortable though.
At least your dad realised - my old man had one in 75 and suffered the famous 'wheel falling off' incident although I do understand this was due to poor maintenance at the dealer - but nevertheless it was a weak car. And then he gave me an old cheap one at 17 for my first car - maybe he was trying to kill me off 🤣🤣🤣🤣Very generous to get me a cheap old car - don't want to sound ungrateful - but why oh why would you choose an Allegro!!!!
Allegros were actually very reliable cars when looked after and CHEAP parts were not used in them. Never had any problems with the 1978 Allegro 1500 LE that my brother then mother owned or the 1980 Allegro 1750 TC Equipe that I owned not the Allegros that we looked after and serviced in the garage I worked in the the 80s/90s. Some people just continuously bought unlooked after heaps or never looked after their cars in the first place and then blamed the car/manufacturer.
My Dad had a 1750 Sport Austin Allegro. It had the square steering wheel. It was actually a great car and really good on long trips. We had family in Bristol and would drive there from Dover. We also took it to Spain on one holiday. The engine was very powerful and the hydragas suspension smoothed out the roads.
Bought a lime green Allegro 1300 automatic estate with no reverse gear for £10 from Guildford car auction in 1990. It was fine and I only got caught out once because I couldn't reverse. Learnt to park leaving large gaps and used right foot out of door to push it back if I had to. Great fun and makes you think outside the box 😅.
you learnt a lot about cars when being a scrap yard mechanic cheap motoring and lots of fun
I remember sitting in an Allegro at the Motor Show, and thinking the build quality and comfort of this are leagues ahead of an Escort.
Hahahahaha
As an American, I'm absolutely loving your videos about the British cars nobody seems to want to remember or talk about (except me!). I seem to remember reading somewhere that the original door handles on the Lotus Esprit were sourced from the Austin Allegro?
The handles were in the Marina.
The door handles were used across a wide range of vehicles - I'm not sure if the Marina was first to use them, the lotus esprit and TR7 sports cars did, as did the Stonefield 4x4 and 6x4 off-road goods vehicles
Range Rovers, Morris, Austin, they were used across the range ; believe several kit-cars used them too.
2 experiences of Allegros.
I hired one for 2 weeks in 1977 and drove it about 1600 miles around Scotland with no issues at all.
Late 1977 while driving a Ford Escort I passed a broken down Allegro which had a collapsed rear nearside wheel.
Most of the anti British Leyland stories were created by the other car makers, who wanted a bigger share of the market, the cars were no worse than any of the competition, in fact the Leyland Cars were far more modern than much of the competition in many ways.
Yes, Plenty Marinas about for Top Gear to wreck, but where are the Renaults, Citroens, BMW's, VW's and Jap Crap of the same era?
Unfortunately that’s not true, my Father purchased a Rover SD1 in 1977, a stunning car, but on the way home the power steering pump failed, overnight it rained and the door seals were so badly fitted the carpets were soaked..his previous P5 was totally reliable, and I ran a Rover 600T as a company car that was again reliable and quick..but 1975-79 seemed a total horrendous period..
the All-agro, as it was know when I was an apprentice in the early '80s, got its name because so many things used to go wrong with them compared to most other British built cars at the time. and once a name sticks its difficult to shake it off.
the car was a very good all-rounder, well designed with excellent packaging and I for one liked the styling. a good range of engines and trim levels gave it a very broad appeal. I much preferred the Allegro over its predecessor the 1100.
it should have had a hatch-back from the outset like the Maxi. so what if the two cars would have competed against each other with some buyers - a sale is a sale!
It also puzzles me that there was no 5 door estate version of the mark one and mark two Ford Escort. They only did the estate versions of these as 3 door.
I was in charge of our dealer launch of the Allegro in May 1973 in North London .
I got a white 1500 (early 1976 P reg) from my parents as a first car (borrowed, eventually transferred to my name in 1990 when it was all but dead with a vague plan to fix it).
When my parents bought it in 1986/7 it has been stored over winter without antifreeze and needed a replacement cylinder head
Being quite spirited as a new driver may have contributed to the engine overheating and a crack developing the engine block. Copious amounts of block seal cured this, then the water pump went (can't think why). Replaced the water pump with some help and large levers. Then it was a complete surprise that the radiator started leaking ... that was 'repaired' with fibreglass ... then the cracked engine started weeping
(eventually getting to motorway journeys being carried out at 50mph to get more distance between overheat / stop on hard shoulder to add water / occasionally chat to the police about letting the engine cool down before adding water as adding cold water to a hot engine might crack the block / drive until it overheats cycle ... at 70 it overheated in about 5 mins!). I fitted a household 20A switch to the dash to bypass the thermostatic fan switch so I could start cooling early in traffic / leave it on at higher speeds)
All of that could be traced to the treatment by a previous owner (apart perhaps from a tiny bit of blame going to the numpty with the fibreglass ...) ... The fan switch mod (and the coat hanger aerial in the shape of a waving hand were just normal mods for these poor cars then!
The only other issues I had were the clutch slave cylinder failing (just outside a motor parts shop) and the drivers seat springs breaking on a motorway slip road (1001 uses for a bungee clip) ... and the slightly perished rubber fuel pipe that looped over the camshaft cover needing replacing before it started leaking petrol on a hot surface ...
Compared with other cheap first cars in the late 80s, it was roomy, comfortable and fast ... it even had a 5 speed gearbox! And most of the time you could change gears fine (OK, towards the end first was a long way to the left, maybe something had broken at that point)
Fond memories of a reasonably good first car ... much better than legend has it
As to BL, it wasn't the only car company plagued by strikes in the 70s ... not even the only one in the UK ... but perhaps it had worse relations internally than companies that a well meaning government hadn't forced to merge ...
Dad had allegros from before I was born, with the last one passed becoming her first car, a white estate that we got when building our house, carrying bags of cement, etc. He had about 6 in that time I believe. Best car in the snow he has ever driven, a car that would get him up into the tree covered hills in the Forest of Dean when volvos, saab, and everything else could not get up. Only thing he ever had problems with was doing ball joints, a lot! And oil consumption. The 1.5 twin choke was quite lively back then. A lot of people that bought them thought they were good. A lot of people that never had one have heard or watched the Clarkson style slating. By the time the later ones were introduced, they were pretty good. Just as good or better than most of the competitors offerings of the time
Passed over to my sister as her first car
When it was first launched and drivers had to jack the car up to change a wheel, the back window would pop out and smash on the ground. The answer from BL was to keep all the doors closed. So much for testing cars when designing them.
Love the Allegro my Dad owned 2 as family cars growing up in New Zealand,
a brand new 1979 Austin Allegro LE 1300 4 speed and mid 1980's he brought a Lovely 0ne owner 1976 1300 Super which I learnt to drive in. I have recently brought a New Zealand 1978 Austin Allegro 1500 LE Automatic they are actually a great design roomy and modern feeling for the period being front wheel drive . Great review Tom Loving your videos here in New Zealand 👍🏼.
You bought a good one there Stephen!
I inherited my 1976 1.3L Metallic Bronze Allegro (UK reg KKG429P) from my dad - he replaced it with a 1.6 Vauxhall Cavalier LX Mk2 in the mid 1980s. I already had my motorbike license, but on passing my B test this was my first ever car - the one I’d initially learned to drive in too, though I had 10 hours of lessons and passed my test in a driving school car.
The floor in my Allegro was rotten, despite it having been regularly wax oiled, so I welded an almost entire new floor into it using 10” x 14” steel plates, the biggest size my dad could sneak out in his lunch bag without getting caught.
The rear hydro gas suspension support mounts were easy to swap out if you had two jacks, and I did so without needing to depressurise the system. Changing the rear wheel needle roller bearings required an initial minuscule torque setting, followed by undoing this and returning it to just hand tight - many got this wrong and it led to a bad reputation and wheels coming off as you note in the video, but I’d bought the Haynes workshop manual (I still have it!) and this setting was quite clear if people had been bothered to read the details. I did break the gearbox; revving it to the red line and dropping the clutch to spin the front wheels will do that, but I also rebuilt it with scrapyard salvage parts - lesson (and mechanical sympathy) learned.
It did get through an exhaust and an alternator during the 4 years and ~30,000 miles that I owned it; it sadly was beyond economical repair at its 1989 MOT, so at 113,000 miles and 13 years old it was scrapped.
I have many amazing memories with that car - I left home and moved 300 miles away in it with a job promotion; returning back to my family home every few months - never missed a beat. The back seat was also memorable for reasons that YouTune might not be happy with, so I’ll leave that to your imaginations.
I still love to see restored Allegro’s at classic car meets.
The styling.
It’s just wrong. If it had been a looker I think a lot would have been forgiven. It’s too fat,it’s not a hatchback,the front is too fussy.
This was a time of clean lines and BL served up a suet pudding.
Lol the same thing I pointed out that made this very car a meme in the local trans community, thanks to my insinuations - a.k.a. The Wrong Body Car.
My first car was a white Allegro 1300 (Mk 1), but without the quartic steering wheel. I really loved that car, the ride was so smooth, especially compared to other cars I'd been in up until then. It did let me down on the M1 one day when the water pump failed at 70mph! By the time I got it stopped the engine block had cracked!!!! I had a reconditioned replacement engine that worked fine for the rest of the time I had that car. I still have fond memories of it.
Jonathan.
I had a very tired 1500 Auto Vanden Plas, but I liked how solid & comfortable it was. Remembered fondly.
The Allegro biggest problem was BLs management attitude towards staff in turn causing hostility, BL really could have been a world beater but always so many missed opportunities.
Such a pretty car, but should have been a hatchback!
@ it’d have made an ideal hatchback with its shape, shame BL were too afraid to change anything they decided.
And in turn the unions causing hostility from managment.
It was a disasterous time from any point of view. Sadly the end was inevitable.
@@paulillingworth1242They decided only the Maxi (at the time) could be a hatchback apparently that was it's selling point which to me is odd.
@chrisjones8379 You need to do some research into what a union is, tory boy.
My first car, was a N reg allegro, Many happy memories of that car, it spent more time off the road, than on the road. That’s why it was called the Austin aggro ..
I tend to think of the Allegro as being further upmarket than the BMC 1100/1300.The Allegro used 1500 cc and 1750 cc engines.
Great video 👍 The failure of the design was as explained by retropower engineer "the heater and bulkhead has the biggest impact of any car build". The other reason was the over tall engine's etc.
Amazingly practically every car manufacturer with a performance version of their cars now uses a variant of the quartic steering wheel. Even more oddly is the fact that my 2006 Defender TD5 appears to use the same switchgear for the indicators 34 years after they were shown in the Allegro and possibly even earlier on other models.
Another fantastic example of a great viewing thank you your channel it’s leap ahead of car channels because it’s on facts not up selling like other car channels which I don’t agree, maté keep up on good work
I did an Audi launch event and during our product training much was made of the interconnected suspension control system using gas and fluid and the squared off steering wheel ……. Just like an Allegro I piped up!
It’s incredible how many once laughed at BMC/BLMC/BL/ARG/Rover ideas and designs when looked at intelligently are actually very good.
Austin were true innovators while Ford and GM were plodders. Plodding was a much better idea back then 🤣
I had an Allegro 1300 Super. It was reliable and comfortable, and I loved it.
In 1991 I drove my metallic gold (with brown vinyl roof) Austin Allegro round Eastern Europe, not long after the Berlin Wall had fallen. We travelled through France, Belgium, Holland and Germany, then spent a month touring through Poland, Czechoslovakia, Hungary & East Germany. Throughout the 3,800 mile trip the only thing to go wrong was an indicator bulb that had to be replaced (naturally I carried a set of spares on the trip).
By most measures they weren't brilliant but for a short period in the early 80s my dad hit hard times due to reduced hours.
He had to do without a car for a while and then when he finally got back on the road it was in a nail of a £50 Allegro.
He drove me to my first job in it and he taught me to drive in it. It provided unfashionable but reliable transport for which we were grateful until he got back into his work stride again.
Soft spot for it because of this.
Great video tom and great top by the way .
My dad built the Allegro and was a shop steward at the time i can always remember he was home a lot as they were on strike again i was only about 5 or 6 but i can still remember it lol
My wife can confirm the Allegro was an absolute load of S***E for hours spent OFF the roads
Maybe your wife shouldn't have bought other peoples second hand unlooked after heaps then because Allegros were actually very reliable cars when looked after like the 1978 Allegro 1500 LE that my brother then mother owned and my 1980 Allegro 1750 TC Equipe and all of the Allegros that we looked after in the garage that I worked in in the 80s/90s. My uncle used to buy heaps all the time and then complain about how unreliable and crap the cars were.
In 1985 I bought my mum an orange 1300 Allegro..... And you know what. There was feck all wrong with it. It was perfectly adequate for my wee mum to run to the shops or collect me from the pub. Ok it burnt a little oil and was fond of a set of plugs too often but mum loved it. It had bags of character and plenty of smile's per miles....
Tell me what’s great about fords wet belt engine .. the eco boost fitted to so many cars ? Give me an allegro any day !
My other video I includes that. The fact everyone goes on about the k series yet fails to mention the ecoboom situation.
The 1750 sport was a load of fun. The biggest problem with the allegro was the lack of a hatchback -allegedly due to the idea it would take sales from the maxi....
Good point GM/Chevrolet had some great cars that could have changed a lot of minds but anytime something was too sporty or had too much power the Brass Hat guys would say it would eat into Corvette territory.
The first time I saw an Opal Monza Coupe I thought why don't we have that in the US. And we did it was called a Toyota Supra.
Wasn't it the same reason why the Princess wasn't a hatchback car? If you reason like that, you need to have monopoly on making cars.
@@markcollins457I Used to work in a Vauxhall /Opel main dealer in the eighties and used to work on and drive the monza coupes and senators. Haven't seen one for years as sadly due to our climate they have long since dissolved 😪. My favourite Monza coupe was the mid eighties facelift model.
When I was growing up in the 1980s / early 90s in north west England, there were still a number of these, along with things like Morris and Triumph (and even one Ambassador!) kicking around my local area. It wasn’t until years later that I learned what a controversial car this really was.
My father owner a vanden plas allegro 1500 automatic in the early 80s. He had it for many years and had no serious issues with it except a bit of surface rust from time to time which he always got repaired. The hydro elastic suspension was so comfortable.
My father bought one in 1978. It was a 4 door, 1.1 lt, brown one. He was a fan of British car manufacturing and a mechanic himself. I have many memories of this car.
Essentially, it is an incredibly reliable car for its time, very easy to maintain, economical to run, and comfortable to drive. No, it's not the kind of car you'd use to chase racing performance, but it wouldn't hesitate to go faster than usual, although only to a certain extent. On long trips, it was very comfortable, and the interior space was quite large for the standards of its time.
Or insurance man used to come around every month collecting the monthly installments. I was just a kid but I remember him buying an allegro when it first appeared, he was so impressed with it showing it off to me. Can't remember how long after but he got a puncture, took it to a tyre garage to get it fixed and they buckled the body and the window popped out.
I can't remember the outcome as BL was blaming the garage for jacking it up in the wrong place the garage was blaming BL for not sending any instructions about jacking points, I do know the replacement wasn't another allegro 😂
Mt grandfather had an Allegro. When it broke down, he literally abandoned it. Left it where it stopped, keys in the ignition and walked away. I sometimes wonder what happened to it.
The company I was driving for acquired a brand new Allegro and I was assigned it on day one. I managed to drive it out of the underground car park and about 100 yards down the road before the gear linkage broke in the middle of a busy junction. The company sent the car back - I wasn’t upset!
My first car was an Allegro 1500 SDL Estate, my mates ridiculed me but it was great, always started on cold, wet mornings and never let me down. My mum had a 1500 Automatic saloon, same applied. My uncle had a 1300SDL, totally abused it for 5 years and it always kept going, although he did rate the (much newer) Mk.5 Cortina 2.0GL that replaced it far better. I think it was just the odd shape that folks didn't like. Like it's predecessor the 1100/1300 (again my parents had one which they loved) they were tidy cars with the bombproof A-Series engine.
How British Leyland managed to be so crap for so long is the real BL story.
To be honest it was a miracle they managed to produce anything in the 70's and 80's. Total St show of a company.
@@gravelDave From the outside looking in it appears that the supporters of Red Robbo didn't have the nowse to realise that they were consigning themselves to oblivion. The striking workers must have cost themselves and their families a brighter future.
BL did not have the $$$ to invest in modern assembly methods. Juts look at the videos. Blokes on cloth caps and cardigans using hand tools to bolt the cars together.
@@ataxpayer723 BL did not have the $$$ to invest simply due irresponsible and incompetent financial management. All the other mainstream vehicle manufacturers of the era 1968 to 1986 not only found the $$$ but actually grew. BL management was a ship of fools captained by Vassal Lords who operated in the same manner as their nobility forefathers treating workers as Surfs. They were so useless the government has to step in like child protection officers. Unsurprisingly Barber, Turnbull, Edwardes, Musgrove, Day all personally did well financially with some of them even being Knighted for incompetence. No surprises then when BMW took over none of the aforementioned were offered roles.
@@ataxpayer723 If only the blokes in cloth caps had actually assembled cars to be sold then monies could have been reinvested into BL. You can't sell cars while the (not) workers are outside on strike. The money lost during strikes could have been the difference. I worked in England for 5 years and was shocked by the class system and the poor attitudes of the incorrectly named 'working class'. They were their own worst enemy.
I bought a new 1500 in 1976. I got rid of the silly steering wheel after 3 months. I lost a front wheel , good job i was only doing 40 mph. The list of breakdowns is so long it would be boring. After 3 years i had it towed to a scrap merchant. Then i bought a second hand volvo 144. That was a real car, and it saved my confidence in car makers.
I've owned them consistently for 30 years, current one for 12 years. I've never had an unreliable one, proper maintenance helps with this. I have driven then all over Europe too. I love them, but realise that I'm in a minority. But yes to my mind it typifies British 70s motoring. Harris Mann was very much a lovely man and was very approachable.
My driving instructor had a new one, he was so proud of it. After two months the engine completely failed, and took months to replace. I had to find a new instructor with a working car.
The Allegro was very popular when I was at college, comfy, spacious and reliable. Many had them and we all either drove or took rides in them.The square steering wheel was actually very sensible to get in and out, indeed my wifes modern Fiat has the same idea.
I had the estate version - I loved it. Yes it developed a list to port and needed the suspension pumping up every few weeks but it was a comfortable ride and home maintenance was quite easy - those were the days.
Fair points made and strikes combined with grossly incompetent management was the slow suicide of the British car industry.
I owned 2 Allegro estate cars at different times, either side of giving German cars a try because my first 2 cars had been Beetles and they were well made. By contrast the early Golf was tinny and expensive and the Passat was an electrical disaster. VW thought that its name would continue the myth of good engineering and the French jumped into the gap. Strange Renaults and Citroens were actually rather brilliant and when the Renault 5 arrived, so did the hatchback as a stylish and likeable performer. The flat bottom and strong upper frame made it good for sports too. It was actually strong despite using light steel.
I never took to the BMCL 1100/1300 simply because the Italian style was a waste of body space and the engine was no longer efficient in MPG or ability to be tweaked (except by Triumph and MG) to have enough quality in build or steel quality for flat panels to make sense. It sold well because there were no other British choices at the price point and was heavily discounted at dealerships. The Fiesta and Corsa were yet to arrive and Rootes was in chaos after the Imp had been insufficiently developed -- with plants being 400 miles apart and a 4-door or hatch would have done well.
The Allegro's design and mechanicals made for a good all round small/medium type car without Italian designers and with comfort, safety and low maintenance baked in. The Hydrogas suspension would have been trumpeted by other car makers and the low air resistance was nothing like the square boxes made by everyone else. The estate actually heralded the far later MPV products from Japan and making a hatch version from the start would have created a winner for Europe and Commonwealth countries.
It needed a range of engines from small for the basic family saloon/hatch to what the Renault 5 series and Peugeot 205 became with different trim levels and either Laycock overdrive or a 5-speed box on a possible 1500 cc as well as a diesel version.
The stupid steering wheel was actually easily replaced with a normal one in dealerships but was actually quite usable as it was -- except in late pregnancy!
Lights and warning lights all round were the right size and proper Smiths/Lucas dials borrowed from Triumph would have avoided internal blandness.
However, the UK media interested in BL strife settled on the Allegro for spitefulness and so did motoring TV programmes.
Calling it the Allegro was a bad decision when it was not designed for chucking around so much as daily, solid, reliable use, good MPG and economy for owners from the suspension and CVs simple elegance with a tight turning circle alone.
When in doubt about names use letters and numbers instead.
I drove one in the early 80's to test as a potential second hand purchase for the friend of a mate.
I remember it as entirely boring, the only distinguishing aspect of the car was it was brown, which summed it up.
The "all aggro" was our family car, I didn't drive it much as I had motorbikes but the main memory is the horrific oil consumption! My dad worked as a draghtsman at BL in Wellingborough, which I think was either an engine or prototype engine plant, probably the former as it was quite large.
The car had no radio and was pretty basic but it did always start and get you there. It had a standard sterring wheel [it was a 1979 model], no ABS, traction control, ESC, power steering and a four speed box. It didn't have a lot of power either.
Is that Adam Chance from crossroads working at BL?
Yes, many famous people did. It fit well around their other occupation, since they were barely in work ;)
@@tomdrivesyes, Adam Chance, and David Suchet designed the quartic steering wheel……….
Looks like Madeline Bell worked there between stints at The Benny Hill Show and the guy from Please Sir got an apprenticeship there after leaving Fenn St School
@@swordscot Madeleine Smith. Gorgeous!
@@swordscot Madeleine Smith - gorgeous!
Madeleine Bell was (I think) lead singer with Blue Mink.
I had 2 of these back in the 80's... CV Joints kept getting replaced! They were shite... But I loved both cars! Worth a small fortune now though!.... Miss them!
I remember reading articles about this car back in the 70's I didn't give it a second glance for one reason it wasn't available here in the US and the style i found mundane.
But a Datsun 510 was available and the smart styling caught my eye. It's a shame so many car companies made made corporate mistakes in the in the 70's on both sides of the pond.
Time for a confession - I owned two, a 1300, and a 1500 HL. There was nothing much wrong with them as a general car, other than the suspension. Perhaps it was a good idea in the drawing office, but it didn't really work with sides sagging at times.
When polished up, my bronze 1500 HL looked quite smart, and it was a car I bought after my then girlfriend [now wife of 35 years] passed her driving test. Sadly, it was bought to replace my much loved Spitfire 1500, but my wife was just that bit more important.
I passed my driving test in an Austin 1300, in 1973. My Dad had a brand new Allegro a few years later. So I am qualified to comment, I think?. 😀
Both cars were OK, but we sort of expected imperfections in even new cars in those days.
The A series engine, for all its praise, had outlived its sell-by date. Only three main bearings and it had a thirst for oil even when new.
It was when Ford came out with reliable (but mechanically very simple) cars like the Cortina and Escort that BL's offerings were seen to fall short.
I had an 1100 Allegro from just over a year old. It was totally reliable returned circa 45mpg and good on rough welsh roads with its floaty Hydrolastic susp. Only comments were - strange occasional buzzing from driveshafts and heavy oil consumption for some reason (wasnt leaking and plugs looked normal). Only ever out of the ordinary expense was a new rear exhaust box.
We had one for a few months, couldn't get rid of it fast enough. Every time I turned the wheel to go around a corner I expected the wheels to follow the direction but the body to keep moving ahead. I've never felt that sensation in any other car.
knockknees 1950: This sounds like a bum steer to me!
i had a picture on the wall of my room of a Austin Allegro removed from the Swiss 1974 Automobile Revue catalogue. I just love the styling of the Allegro, it is a beautiful car.
Thanks for the video. You do a good job. Would be helpful if British videos would tell how the particular model slotted into the brand by size. I am an American and understand how our brands had full size, intermediate, compact, sub-compact etc. From your video I assume that this was the "full size" auto for the brand. Keep up the good work!
I'm thinking about doing a model strategy video that will explain in detail
1st car was an Austin 1100. 8 years old when I bought it and needed some welding!
Then in March 79 bought a brand new Allegro 1100 while serving with the RAF in Germany. Sold it to my brother when posted to Cyprus in 83. He wrote it off😂
My Allegro was a pretty reliable car though and I loved it.
Went on to own a Maestro and MG Montego, all of which were good reliable cars.
Back in the day, I used to vividly read the motoring press. I recall a lot of the reviews from What Car et al. The Allegro did okay, against strong Citroen, VW, and Renault competition. Only a lack of refinement held it back. Indeed, the rust protection was so much better than the rest. Love the videos, some proper TV royalty there.
Thank you!
Would put the Allegro in the same category as the ex demonstration Mini Metro that I bought from the dealership.
The damn thing nearly killed me when it suddenly spun round in the road as the glued rubber suspension mounting broke.
I had 3 Allegros with my 1750 Sport being the favourite, although the 1300 handled better. A pity that it wasn’t a hatchback or like Harris Mann’s original design, of which I have a signed print. The cars never let me down and were comfortable, changed in the end for one of the first MG Metros. I don’t think that any 1750 Sports still exist, but it would be fun to drive one again, even though it wouldn’t compare favourably with our current Golf.
My first car was an Allegro. When it ran it was a very smooth ride, but the engine started burning alot of oil and it went to the scrap man. Fond memories and it really wasnt that bad of a car
Way back in the early 80s when my Range Rover caught fire I needed another car urgently and bought a 1500 allegro estate. Was a great car (although different to the Rover) for camping holidays. Loads of space for all the gear and plenty of power to haul it about..
I was born in late 72 so these cars by BL/Austin/Morris and the like where the cars I saw as a kid. You’d see maxis with headlights and wings missing, the Princess looked so weird you’d laugh if you saw one. My dad had a Marina but crashed it. In the end we got a Cortina then a Datsun 100A. Must admit though the old fella next door had a real posh Triumph with a special sounding engine and another up the road had a Vandem Plas Allegro. Both looked quite good. Love your channel Tom.
The Allegro looked much more in proportion as an estate.
My father bought an Allegro from new. And it was a complete load of rubbish, with numerous faults. My dad reckoned it was definitely made on a Friday! On one particular occasion, he was driving at night, went over a bump and the headlights went out. Fortunately, he was able to stop safely and get the car recovered. It turned out that there were wires going into the fuse box, and wires going out of the fuse box, but NONE of the connections had actually been soldered! Easy enough to fix, but a fault that could have caused a fatality.
I worked at a BL dealer in the mid 70s. We had so many cars, Princesses, Allegros mainly coming back with warranty claims. It was a real pity because the cars themselves were leagues ahead in tech terms of the Escorts and Cortinas and Vivas and Victors etc. Shame that cost cutting and poor management coupled with the militant unions destroyed some great designs!
When I passed my test my first ever car was a chocolate brown 1.3l Allegro that I paid £70 for. It came taxed and tested and although it was a complete bin to drive I'll always have a soft spot for it
We had the last version of the Allegro estate. It looked a bit like like a mini hearse, but it was one of the best cars we ever had. Comfortable and capable and able to cruise on French motorways at 70 plus for hours on end. Good video but marred by the extremely annoying repetition.
Well summed up! The Allegro initially was popular but long delivery dates sent traditional Austin customers to the Japanese and the rest is history.
Had an Allegro by neccessity more than anything else - my current car had died a terrible death and I desperately needed transport for work. The Allegro was local and I bought it.
I have no idea what model it was but it did have a 1 litre A+ engine in it. The car was like most others inside but where it really shone through was the comfort. That little beauty travelled motorways for hundreds of miles, did punishing commuting through dire winters and not once did it let me down.
Like most others, rust eventually won in the end. It was a very sad day when it went off to the scrap yard.
Would I buy another? Oh gosh yes. The only thing I'd insist on is a better engine for speed.
The Allegro definitely showed how fragmented BL was and that meant it could never be the world beater that BL hoped it would be. But that doesn’t mean it’s a bad car, far from it. I’ve had mine 5 months and it’s charming, reliable, easy to work on and practical. I can’t think of many more usable classics for the money
I bought a 1980 Allegro Equipe in 83 .... It was alright, but didn't stay standard for long as I modified the airbox with twin K and N's and got Janspeed of Salisbury to upgrade the exhaust manifold and throughput exhaust .... A good car, but a little off putting on corners as there was no anti sway bar at the rear ....
We had a brand new Austin Maxi 1500 at work as a pool car. I loved driving it super comfy seats! I remember when you engaged first to accelerate away strongly, the engine and transmission would rock backwards and forwards quite violently and the gear knob Jesé to dip down by about two inches ha ha!
( Actually upon reflection it might have been a 1750 HL)
I had a ten year old 1100cc one in the ‘80s. It was OK. Great on snow with its low power engine and skinny tyres. It needed a new clutch plate which I fitted in a morning myself at a cost of £6. A new exhaust was £13 fitted by Kwikfit. I repainted it by hand with Dulux gloss so it looked really smart.
i absolutely loved them, over the years I've owned over 50 of them, there was a time before the internet where people used to ring me for specifications, tips and tricks on fixing them, even cross referring all the parts, I even built my own 5 door Estate version, from an estate version and a saloon, saloon been in a rear end crunch and the state with a front end crunch. made one very beautiful car. only problem is I only liked the harvest gold ones. oh and they have to be 1300, didn't care for the vdp front end, but nearly everyone that I personally ran had the vdp interior including the dashboard fitted. lol
As an mot tester in the old days the only car I ever filled out 2 VT30's for was an Allegro
I had a '74 Allegro in' 89. Drove it thousands of miles, including a tour of the north of England in the summer. It just kept going, only needing a clutch change by 1992. Sold it, got a Maestro. Another great car.
my sister had an M plate one. It was a well designed car, roomy for its footprint, modern front wheel drive and just enough power. It went wrong a few times, mainly the electrics which was scary when driving in the rain with no wipers. It was very much a could have been
I had a 1980 1.3 series 3 Allegro for nearly four years from 1990 and absolutely loved it. Best ride of any car ive ever owned to date, decent handling, good fuel economy & super comfy seats too. It had it's problems, but certainly no more than any other car of the time.
My father traded in his Austin 1300 for an Allegro. Not a terrible family car for it's time, but it had no power steering and the clutch required an over developed left leg to operate. He must of been reasonably pleased with it, because three years later he traded it in for another. Still had the same issues as before, but both were reliable. His next car was a Triumph Acclaim, basically a Honda rebadged. It was in a totally different league to all his previous cars.
I had a wonderful Austin 1300 in the early 70s and I loved it, it was nippy, very comfortable and smooth. My only complaint was the gear shift. It was like a stick in a pot of glue which made gear selection dreadful. I got used to it but it was a pain. When the Allegro came out it was universally panned as a, "toilet bowl on wheels". It was quite frankly hideous and that stupid "quartic" steering wheel was appalling. Chrysler did that in the 60s on their large cars and eventually had to replace them with conventional steering wheels on demand. People said it was just an ADO16 in a new frock but it wasn't. No hydrolastic suspension it had the dreadful Hydrogas that had to be recharged regularly or the car sunk down and couldn't be driven. It's tragic that someone in BL hierarchy did speak out instead of playing Emperor's new clothes games. Leyland made superb trucks and buses but the management had no knowledge of car making save for a few oddities in the 20s. Lord Stokes brought his incompetence from the once excellent John Black's Standard-Triumph. The LC10 Maestro was a much better car and if they'd only developed it earlier things might have gone differently but of course, BL lost the knack of making cars and succumbed to Union strife. I always laugh at the daft commercial that said (in a French accent) "This Allegro is the best foreign car I have ever owned". The guy must have downing absenthe.
My Grandfathers last car was a 1300 1972 allegro. He owned it from new until his death 10 years later. Never had any problems with it (unlike the Toledo that preceded it) if only it had been a hatchback though.
Had an allegro 1.3 l from 1989 to 1993, practical an roomy , it was tapping on in years by then so probably not reliable but i loved it (:
Thanks Tom, very interesting, but what a sad tale!
All the best for 2025 from Stockholm, I look forward to more fascinating stories.
When you look back at Mann’s original design sketches, for what became the Allegro, it’s an absolute tragedy. If BL had had the guts to stick with the design, forget about the bigger E-Series engines, and made it a hatchback, it might have stood a chance. The original idea wasn’t bad, in fact it had a hint of the gorgeous Alfasud about it. Imagine that original design, with a flat four, and a hatchback, that could have been a car to take on the Alfasud, the VW Golf, and the small family hatchbacks that other manufacturers were developing at that time, but unfortunately BL management couldn’t have seen a good idea if it had hit them in the face. Of course even if they had managed to build Mann’s original design, the permanent strikes at BL would probably have doomed the Allegro in any case.
In the 70' years, my brother had an Austin Allegro. It was a comfortable car, 8hp, and without mechanic problems.
In my country, the ADO16 was produced locally and its quality was very good, these cars were smoothly running 20 years and beyond. But when the local IMV site was taken over by Renault in 1973, British cars, now imported, became much, much more expensive. Of course, the owners of these new, expensive Allegros were reluctant to talk of its faults, so, having no clue what was going on at Longbridge, the reputation of Allegros and Marinas remained excellent. Personally, I later acquired a used, 1977 Austin Mini. An excellent little car, but let down by being prone to rust and due to its mechanical issues. I sold it after just one year.
Shame that it didn’t do so well. I got one that my Grandad didn’t need any more and it was a great first car. Easy to work on and it drove well. Mine didn’t have one of those square steering wheels, but I gather Audi’s now have a square steering wheel, so it can’t have been that bad an idea.
Compared to Japanese and German cars they were technically inferior, unreliable and expensive to run. After ww2 the interference of Professor Harold Laski economic policies made British industry uncompetitive and we lost our car and ship building industry.
As a teenager in the 70's the joke that was Leyland was always blamed on the unions. They didn't help but the stylists, designers and management deserve equal blame. Allegro Vs Escort? Marina Vs Cortina? A sprawling mess with everyone working against each other