A failure you could only get in the UK; a power struggle between the working class and management class, both sides willing to slash their own throats rather than cooperate. This not only killed the British car industry but Britain itself.
The British management approach of those days was terrible: management makes decisions; workers are simply tools that talk, and should get on with the work they have been allocated, and carry it out in the manner instructed. That is an approach guaranteed to raise hackles and cause strikes. The Japanese approach at the time was to involve workers in the process of production, thus giving workers a pride in the end product. I think that the outcome reveals which approach was better.
Plus the sheer incompetence of management, and the attitude of some workers that will work harder to avoid work, than to actually do the work. Also I think there's moral, if workers are proud of where they work, they will work hard, but if they become disgruntled, and see other workers slaking, they will work as slow as they can get away with.
I gotta say those prototypes (IMHO) are absolute mingers. Michelotti or not. When you see the Fiesta shots it shows just how stunningly good that styling was. It looks like a new car from the late noughties. The proportions are spot on, and from every angle. I think if one of those BL prototypes had gone on sale they would have been laughed at. But I do agree with your conclusion though. Missed opportunities.
Utterly hideous. Michelotti might have done the Herald, but had lost his way by now anyhow. Anything that looked remotely like any of these would have been laughed off the forecourt. I mean, even more than the Allegro.
@@caeserromero3013The white one was definitely the best of the bunch, but the front end of it was awful - the upper grille looked like it had been taken off an old heater from a village hall. I’d like to think that would have been tidied up if the green light had been given for production, but we ended up with the Allegro with piggy inset headlights and a bulbous bonnet, so maybe it wouldn’t have been?
The missed opportunities of cars like these wouldn't have changed the issues with industrial action, mismanagement, quality and reliability. Truth is BL was going to die whatever cars they did or did not release.
@@G-ra-ha-m Having researched this extensively, I can tell you - you're more right than you could possibly know. When I was young and foolish, I blamed the unions for the collapse of BL. I now know that whilst they were the ammunition, it was ALWAYS the management that pulled the trigger.
I could do you a 2000 word essay on every problem they had, coming from Preston, when I was a kid everybody's Dad or neighbour worked at Leyland. Half of Leyland was the Truck and bus factory, raw materials in 1 end and complete units at the other, the place is an industrial estate and housing, what's left of the factory is a few units. I worked with a guy that had "worked" there, he put on 3 stones in 18 months after starting. The slightest problem they were out, the shop steward would call a meeting and 2 minutes later they were out. He said they would call for a show of hands and nomatter how many hands went up it was "All out" everytime.
@@tomdrives I can tell you that the British car industry killed an enormous amount of goodwill over here in the US. Until the seventies people over here loved things British--remember the Beatles, Dusty Springfield, the Stones, the Dave Clark Five? It is, as philjameson292 says, a Greek tragedy that we keep disinterring and picking over the bones. I wonder how many of those union strikers back then like the way they killed the industry there, with the help of amazingly incompetent management.
@@tomdrives Also ironically, BL management somehow believed that the Austin Maxi would sell better if only it was allowed to have a hatchback, and not all the other models.
Ford killed the fiesta when they fitted the ecoboost wet belt engine a pile of crap ford's customers got sick of this very bad engine and went to other brands
@powdermoncky tell that. To people that had there car serviced at Ford and still got shafted a rubber belt in oil bad idea so much so the new ecoboost engine 2023 has a timing chain but still has belt in oil drive for the oil pump so half arsed fix as belt on oil pump will go bang and engine will be scrap
I like your videos mate, they are well done and full of facts about how something so promising was bought to it's knees by stupidity. We had Leyland here in Australia and they were a manufacturer competing with Chrysler, Holden and Ford. Toyota and Nissan were just on the horizon and poised to make big waves. Leyland were the first to fold, manufacturing was canned and they became an importer relying on expensive Jaguars, Rover's and Triumph's to get them through. Leyland trucks were very popular at the time though and many of their chassis were used by local councils as buses. That too was soon over. Dodge used Mitsubishi badged trucks and Holden used Trucks from Isuzu. Game over.
Striking workers killed most of Britain's Great Industries! Those industries are now gone forever, along with the skills that can't be taught anymore! So sad, what this Great Nation used to manufacture, gone forever! dx
I loved my Allegro. It was NOT all agro. A grown up mini, it was easy to self service, having loads more space around the engine than the mini. The 1300 was an ideal combination of passenger space, power economy for that era. You can keep your minis.
@@janicewatts5888 it was ugly. I think that many of its initial faults could have been forgiven if hadn’t looked like it had been over inflated. The headlights look wrong. It has no “face” . It looked too busy at the front. It didn’t look cute,it didn’t look butch,it didn’t look sporty,it didn’t look classy,it didn’t look like a workhorse. It just looked “meh”. And for a car that’s death sentence.
I live just down the road from Leyland. A few years ago I was on Malta. Imagine my surprise to see the BL logo on the engine grill of a restored 1950's bus / coach.
There is a few good cars that should have been built by BL. The 3 cylinder car that could do about 100 to the gallon in the early 80's . This Mini replacement car would definitely have been a big seller bringing in the badly needed money BL disparity was after. Look at what happened to the new Mini designed by Rover and snatched by BMW on the way out the door, it would definitely have helped save Rover if it had kept hold of Mini!
now there a clients for overpriced retro-design cars as lifestyle products. but in the 1970ies nobody would have bought a mini-successor that is 80cm longer , twice as heavy and 3 times as expensive. innocent showed quite well in 1974 what a modern version of the mini could be. it just would have need a better modern engine. owning a classic mini, I am happy, that the mini was not replaced by a new Modell in the 1970ies and that is has been produced for 41 years almost unchanged . but I would have appreciated an engine upgrade and decent technical improvement, specially better care against corrosion
Those awkward designs of BL cars/prototypes, good gracious me. If you do the front, Jack will do the rear and I'll take care of the doors. See you next month, we will bolt 'em together then!
The problem was the cost cutting meant they went for an in-house Harris Mann styling instead of getting the Italians to do it. When it came along there was no cash left to for Ladybird and if they had found the cash neither Longbridge or Cowley could have built at viable price.
Very Renault 5 Fiat Panda/Uno door handles, rear side is very Fiat 127, 128 coupe. Front looks like a shrunken Princess, quite AMC Pacer in some places.
The photo of the white ADO70 looks the part imo, A few refinements and that surely would have been a good seller and BL getting a foothold in the emerging hatchback trend, All that time/money on getting that far just for it to be abandoned, The BL board of that time were just criminal.
@caeserromero3013 Does have that look, I guess being in the 70's a lot of small car designs would look similar. Ford absolutely nailed it with the Fiesta, BL sadly were always that few steps behind and when they came up with a great design like the ADO70, The board wouldn't back them.
@FTFLCY The car would have been refined and the final model would slightly different when going on sale, If you look at the Fiesta at the same stage you'd said exactly the same, IMO that white model was one mock up from the final look.
The white AD074 at the end of the video could have worked with a reworked front end. Twin circular headlights would have made it look upmarket. It has a look of Fiesta or even VW Scirocco about it!
Yes, well they needed something, but they needed so many things! Most of those ADO74 prototypes are hideous IMHO!!! But I seem to hate everything that Harris Mann styled anyway. And having a brand new car with a brand new engine and BL's legendary inability to develop cars properly and get the bugs out of them before launch sounds like a recipe for disaster! I used to have a book about how Ford developed the Fiesta - the processes they went through to get it right were extensive, and the number of complete restyles on the way from concept to production model amazing - but BL seemed to design things and stick with them no matter what. Perhaps that was a legacy of the Issigonis years where the designer's word was law!
@@tomdrives Ford understood an important, simple fundamental that BL and its predecessors just didn't: the need to control profit margins and where money was made and lost. Just put a Cortina mk1 or 2 alongside an ADO16 - you can literally see where the game was lost by BMC.
even Issigonis got it wrong at times. The prototype Morris Minor (Mosquito?) was suddenly viewed as too narrow just before it went into production, So Alex had one cut in 1/2, and some assistants moved the 1/2s in & out until he liked the proportions. This is why the earliest versions had the filler plate in the bumpers, and all models had the bonnet moulding down the centre. "MORRIS MINOR MM , S2 & 1000 1948-71 DESIGN DEVELOPMENT & PRODUCTION HISTORY BOOK" by Paul Skilleter.
Bad Management, unions, workers, marketing, product range, government meddling and poor products and range sunk BL. Not one thing. No one car would save BL, to say so would be ludicrous.
Thanks Tom, very interesting! Lost opportunities, bad management, disruptive unions, and the context of course is the 1970s and everything that was happening. The release of the VW Golf and Passat was important, I had a 1975 Passat and a colleague had a Golf - wonderful family cars. And now we have Stellantis, with so many different models and niches - will they go go the same way as British Leyland? They will need to be very clever not to. Then there is Volkswagen's present situation, just now it looks grim. Not to mention the ever-present Japanese and Korean competition. And of course the Chinese are taking over EV production and battery roduction... What will you be writing in five years?
PS--this Texas guy really enjoys your videos. Looking forward to more. I love automotive history, no matter which nation. What would you have chosen in the mid sixties for a basic car? A Mini? An Imp? I like the cheek of the Austin A40 Farina design. In the fifties I would've gotten the Austin A35 or possibly the Standard.
ADO74 was appalling. Looks alone would have got it ripped to shreds by the UK press. R5, Fiesta, 127 looked chic. It didn't take Citroën long to facelift the pignosed Visa. What came out as Metro was a car that could have had it all but it failed in small ways in too many areas.
One of ADO74 prototypes looked like th Vauxhall Chevette, a strange car, with German origins. The styling was very strange, but then the Ford Fiesta was no oil painting, especially the Mk2 and 4. The last two Fiestas were very attractive cars, but the others were not so. Renault 5 and the later Fiat 127 facelift were cracking car design.
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Constantly striking for more money to make bad cars was crazy. Some of the designs were good but the build quality and management were terrible. Sad story.
I worked for Heron car sales around this period in Old Swan, Liverpool...the Marina, in my opinion was the worst of the worst... although very comfortable in a straight line it did need grab handles for passengers at the slightest hint of a bend. Fortunately they did exist thinly camouflaged as coat hangers just above the door shut...BL were hoping the Marina would be the next generation of repmobile..this didn't happen as Ford led the market... incidentally the Allegro ( all agro) had the capacity to hive four gallons of rainwater in the boot...great channel thank you 😂
ADO 74 lacked anything distinctive and should have been a 5-door hatchback from the start like the Renault 6 became after a similar conundrum faced the French. The mini was too small, the Maxi too big and the answer was probably a fork from the Allegro's engineering but in a different style. The despised Allegro was actually rather a good car in the estate version and BL could have saved millions by using its suspension and steering built on a curious sub-chassis. I was lent one when my Citroen was being mended and it suited my needs as a paramedic training to be be a GP. Indeed, I did a swap with my garage which allowed or the purchase of an old 2CV for for my wife with the change. It HAD to be old for the "character". The ride was better than the Citroen's and a Renault 5 I had tried and the variable suspension at service intervals saved me money, especially as other BL cars using the same CV joints wore them out when the Allegro didn't. Nor did the Allegro rust like other BL efforts including all Triumphs made since the Herald and TR6. The Marina might have been a panic design with BL losing out to the French but it was better made than other BL cars -- maybe because the self-inflicted layoffs made workers more careful. The Metro, however, continued with bad QC from its launch and quite large sales conceal the fact that main dealers gave huge discounts to Metro customers on replacing the damned things after about 3 years. Units driven away are not the same as true sales figures. So, NO, the ADO 74 would not have saved BL and as soon as the UK joined the EEC in 1973, the B sector market passed to France and Italy. That is except for Ford's Fiesta, which was a masterpiece of balanced thinking with just a touch of spice.
The sensible thing to have done would have been to facelift the ADO16 in the early70s, Ford did this with the escort. Spend the money on sorting out the rust problem, while giving the car an hatchback and more contepary styling. The ADO16 was loved by the public and for most of its production run was Britain's best selling car. Doing this would give BL time and money to sort out it's other problems. Also in 1972 BL put a 3 door mini replacement into production in Italy, the Italian designed and developed Mini Innoccenti. Built in Milan, a car that would stay in production in one form or another well into the 90s, yet despite beating the Fiesta by three years, and been cheaper to build than the mini that it was based on it never went into production in the UK.
The Rover SD1 was ground breaking in many ways. In fact it was the first car ever to be fitted with Lane Assist and vehicle deviation warning system...such a shame it wasn't fitted to their cars.
I agree totally with your point of view. I agree that AD074 could have competed with the Renault 5, Renault 4, Fiat 147, Lada (AutoVaz) Samara, Ford Fiesta, Citroën Visa, Peugeot 504. I think the "Ladybug" version of ADO74 would have been a total success. Because it looks cute, just like the Renault 5.
Another sad story of idiotic decision-making. I don't like the styling of some of the models, but that's personal taste. Love the videos, but they do make me think BL was just doomed to fail.
There is a book entitled “Assembly” written about CKD car assembly in New Zealand. Several times it mentions that cars assembled in NZ were better fettled up than those straight off the production line in UK. This from representatives from those UK car companies who came out to help set up new assembly lines here. One of the most popular and successful cars in the sixties was the Hillman Imp. Sadly it didn’t ever do for Rootes what they hoped it would.
Ford spent ages on the fiesta to get the parts count down to reduce costs in manufacture as BL had learned making a small car is not easily profitable and spent years trying to get the mini profitable.
Sorry to criticise, because your reviews are impartial and sincere. But in those days, people DIDN'T automatically expect cars to be hatchbacks. That came later, when so many cars DID have it. Austin DID have proper ESTATE versions with a HATCHBACK, (or "Tailgate if you like") Not many makers of small cars did that!
Critique away, I'd prefer if someone finds something they don't like that isn't superficial to voice their opinion, the market was trending that way, if BL had gotten in early as I said things could have been different.
Maybe that applied to the UK market which had always been way more conservative, but that was definitely not the scenario in the rest of Europe. By the mid 70s, VW had released the Golf, Renault not only had the 5, but also the successful 4, 6 and 16, Simca had the commercial hit 1100, Peugeot had the 104 since 1972 and they only delayed the hatchback version in 4 years because of an informal non-agression agreement with Renault. In the A, B and C segments mostly, BL reacted to the winds change a decade after, especially knowing that there had been multiple projects developed way in advance, but all of these were shelved.
There was another version of the Michelotti prototype featuring a normal Triumph-esque yet Austin-badged front. Project Ant would have been a better bet as a Mini replacement, a competently managed company would have schemed in a larger ADO88-like model from the mechanicals of Project Ant as what the Metro did from the Mini and what Innocenti were looking to do with SWB and LWB versions of the Mini.
I think the real miss was that IF ADO 74 made it in time then the Maestro could have arrived earlier and looked more current than when it eventually arrived. Whether it would be built properly is another question
The fatal mistake was BL chief Donald Stokes rejecting Roy Haynes's idea of five platforms for whole BL range. That would meant for the mini that 9X hatchback mini with resembleld the clubman would been launched in 1969. Which would have shared the majority parts with replacments for all rest of BL range. which in turn would improved relationship with the unions and would been have been half cost to produce.
the michelotti design looks good, but the other ADO74 designs would not have been appealing to customers in the 1970ies. the problem is, that the metro came too late and that it still had the technically outdated A-series engine. when BL-found out that they did not have enough money to build a new engine, they should have purchased some small , efficient Honda-or Suzuki engines ( as did innocenti, by first using the A.series engine and then using Daihatsu.engines) the ADO74 and metro never could have been a replacement for the smaller mini. The mini with its iconic and timeless design and excellent roadholding was not outdated at all at that time, but for sure it should have been upgraded decently: equipped with a hatchback ( Peter sellers had a mini converted to hatchback in the 60ies) and specially it should have received a better modern engine, with better economy, better reliability miles and more power than the original cooperS, to catch up with R5 turbo and golf GTI. But the main issue of BL were not so much the outdated models, but quality issues: bad reliability and corrosion
The Incenti mini was more attractive than the ADO70 and had the practicalities of being a hatchback, why it wasn't produced by UK Leyland was not obvious. Of course, BMC had had the super mini with the Morris 1100, which apparently had the highest volume at the time. But management decided to increase its size into the 1800, with little success.
Whatever version of ADO 74 I just saw, all fronts are quite hideous. The sharp lines of the Fiesta are more convincing The volkswagen and Porsche prototypes of late sixties do resemble the ADO.. only 5 to 7 years in advance If the ADO could have influenced BL future…I think not. Too many BL cars in mid and upper segment competing each other. Arrogant management, strikes, old techniques and sloppy craftsmanship are to blame. Best regards from the Netherlands ( with a soft spot for the British classics) See: VW EA 235 and Porsche EA 266 …. And the stunning 1973 and 1975 Ford Fiesta prototypes
Definitely think the strikes and increasingly budget yet reliable European models would have seen to it's death but it could have bought time! It's true especially in this modern age that there's less margin and profit in smaller cars but can't rely on the upper management types to buy big cars when there was an increase in working class needing cars and upward mobility
The demise was caused by a succession of poor management and asset stripping as much as by unions. There was a complete lack of any direction, morale or competence. The rot began when Willuam Morris retired and Leonard Lord etc took over. Michael Edward's was a nasty little man who didn't seem to understand the British car industry or workers, Stokes was an egotist and then Towers etc tore the company to shreds.
As an American, I was in college and watching the British industrial might collapse back then. No, I believe this car would not have saved either BL or anything else. Why? The unions. I owned a Renault 5 back then; it was a superb little car, a 'mini' in cost but a 'maxi' in comfort and quality. I drove that car 100K hard miles here in the US, and never once did it break and strand me, despite its not being designed for our kind of distance driving. The UK lost the American market in the fifties, when it refused to adopt the commitment to our market that VW did. I can remember, for instance, here in Houston where two VW dealerships in the sixties and seventies had 24/7 service departments! Yes, you could go in at 3am to get your VW services. By the sixties here VW was already dominant with the obsolete, but reliable Beetle. By the seventies here, the Japanese had copied the VW service/dealer model and the British were relegated to the eccentric fringes like the very out-of-date MGB and Midget, and the upscale Jaguar line. And yes, the XJ6 saved Jaguar in this country -- amazing car.
ADO 74, is decades ahead of its time, imo. Look at a 2024 Honda e, described as having 'retro-futuristic' styling. The technology is obviously light years ahead now but the concept was there back in the 1970's.
The ADO74 bears a strong resemblance to the comteporary VW Polo / Audi 50, which suggests, it too could have become a great success, if it would have been as reliable as its competitors from VW, Renault, Peugeot and VW.
Having watched any of your videos cataloguing the tragic downfall of our indiginous motor industry and the overlapping and competing models in the range I would like to offer my view. As I saw it in the day, there were dealers for every marque demanding products to sell so that the solution would have been to produce a range of cars and dispense with Austin, Morris, Wolsey, Riley, MG models which necessitated the badge engineering. Veggieboy.
Those in charge of developing ADO74 did not play a role in the success of both the Mini and 1100/1300, mainly because they usually ex-Ford and/or ex-Triumph people with ADO74 reflecting their own bias and general lack of understanding of what made the BMC FWD duo and supermini class successful. ADO74 was essentially a VW Polo-like car in length with a cramped 4-inch shorter wheelbase and a Peugeot 104-like in-sump gearbox.
It had a look of the Datsun 120Y about it. Whether or not the model would have been successful, depends on how they implemented and quality controlled the end product. We’ll never know.
Have to agree. The problem with Leyland was design or innovation, it was corporate mismanagement and Communist trade unions. Even if BL had brought out the Golf, Fiesta, Escort Cosworth etc etc, they'd have STILL found a way to make them the WORST cars on the road by poor build quality, slow and inefficient production etc etc
OK Tom, as promised, here is the correct name of Glass's Index of Registration Numbers- there are different dates, however the 1962 spring edition is probably for post war identification 1952-1962 is pretty much essential- I've had mine for over 20 years bought from the Great Dorset Steam Fair whilst exhibiting one of my many minor LCV vans- honestly it is a cracking little tome and an argument settler, open the wee book and it almost shouts 'I'll think you'll find...' all on its own... right now to watch your latest video, which doubtless will be excellent- Ladybirds indeed, it's apparently the anniversary of the 'hello kitty' brand this week, so again BL soft power branding was before its time!
I doubt it would have made much of a change to the fate of BL: poor quality, shoddy craftmanship, mismanagement would have remained and would have led to the same outcome. The SD7 can be used as a proof of this: that was a car of great design, aesthetically and engineering-wise, which met market demand perfectly. But poor production quality, poor reliability and mismanagement nevertheless killed off any gain for the company. Pretty sure the same would have happened here...
But it looked pretty horrible - that is a horrible shape and very un-mid '70s, which was trending towards crisp and clean horizontal lines - window frames especially - and not curves.
I don't think so,but the best Models were the P6,and the Truimph,they should have teamed up with Buick to improve and make very powerfull engines,I just wonder if India will re-produce the Rover
I'm. Sorry mate bl were a disaster cars were horrendous I grew up around there's cars spent more time getting garage repairs than on the road.. Datsuns brought modern safe cars to the people in the 70s with loads of equipment
AD074 looks very "Japanese" to me. Slap a Honda badge on it and I'd be convinced . The model at 07.59 looks like someone got drunk and tried to draw an AMC Pacer from memory. 09.54 - isn't the "Arfur" from "On the Buses " ??
It always strikes me. The R5 looked fresh. Any BL proposal looked like a leftover at Tescos at the end of the day. Michelotti got striked out, but whatever Home Depot came up with looked like a shaggy dog left out in the rain. And nobody said it looked like a drenched shagpile carpet? Really?
A much better looking car than the Metro but not sufficiently distinguished from the Fiesta. We have seen what BMW have done with the Mini. The whole saga of BL was one of poor design and poor quality leaving no money to develop winners.
I was a motoring journalist between 1969 and 1975 and was privy to so many of the mistakes made by British Leyland/BMH?BMC. The biggest was without doubt the Allegro, but the Princess was also an immediate bullet in the foot moment. But one of the greatest areas of pulling defeat from the jaws of success was the Triumph Stag. It was best best looking car in its class but the idiotic thinking of marque identity took its toll. At the time, Leyland owned the rights to the best lightweight V8 engine on the world - the 3.5. And it fitted perfectly into The Stag. But Triumph decided they would build their own V8 engine by welding two Dolomite Sprint engines together. This was the cue for the flood of broken down Stags up and down the country with head gasket problems. What could have been a world beater became a laughing stock. Not be to outdone, Triumph decided that as the world (especially the USA) was demanding 2 seater open top sports cars, the TR7 would be a closed coupe. You couldn't make it up. To sum up, I still remember arriving at Longbridge one afternoon pre Allegro launch, and seeing several of them parked in a semi circle. I asked Ivor Greening, the Press Officer, if this was the new car. Yes, he replied, doesn't it look good. I shrugged and said "It will be a disaster." He barely spoke to be again. He did admit later that I 'might' have been correct, but that was after the Austin 1100/1300 outsold its replacement for a couple of months.
I now have a restored Triumph Stag ... ..I agree with what you say but as you must know there was BRAND issues... even though it was ALL marks brought together there was still in built rivalry... Engine was not the best designed but when my beauty was rebuilt... casting sand ... after 45 years ... was still in the block .... E-types rotted like a Stag ... but because it’s a Jaaaag its different... saying this though I’m not anti E-Type but let’s be honest fairs fair .... dare I mention James Mayes Stag on Grand Tour ....the engine note on a Stag ... in my mind ... is on the same level as an Interceptor
Mostly bar room nonsense, your career as a journalist may have started the myth.😮 Rover v8 production could not meet the demands of p5b, p6b and brand new Range Rover. It was never on the table for stag. especially not at the original forecasts of 20k stags/year Also, triumph v8 was well into development before triumph was swallowed up by BL. Triumph nor BL were aware of any issues until year 2 ish year of production.adapting stag for the rover v8 was not an option for the supply issues already mentioned. 2 dolomite engines welded together 😅😂.
@@richardhudson8574 Its so funny when you read these ill informed comments, its not that difficult to trace the origins of the Triumph V8 and then realise that the drivel that the so called experts spout about two engines welded together is total dogs gonads.......
ADO 74 looks like a Ford - none of the prototypes had any family resemblance to other BL products and the British motoring press never had any qualms about slaughtering home made cars if they were only slightly eccentric (in their eyes). The Metro did look like a BL product and quite rightly it sold well.
In NZ they were rubbish. Fatigue cracks everywhere, oil leaks, split upholstery all in the first few years., not to mention famed British reliability. The first horrible Japanese Isuzu Ballett arrived in the late1960s, boring rather than ugly, pushrod engine, drum brakes all round, crossply tyres, Some had live axles some independent rear, these were awful on bad and gravel NZ roads. For all that, they stole a large chunk of the NZ market. Soon followed by the Toyota Corolla and Nissan Bluebird. They were imported and maintained by firms who were not part of the old boy network. The Toyota Landcruiser emptied the Landrover market and Jap cars went on to rule the small car world. I had a business specialising in UK and BMC cars, Many Kiwis had a post WW2 antipathy to the Japanese so kept their Morris, Austin, Wolseley, Riley, MG etc cars going for years more. Taiwanese manufacturers made spares for BMC, Leyland, Jag etc which were better quality than UK parts, especially Lucas (King of Darkness). This enabled my business to operate past the new millennium. The best British small car was the Mk2 1300, it's weakness was the primary gear bush, the drop gear needle races, the oil pump and Lucas electrics. They handled rough roads like a dream, were economical and has great brakes.The later canister oil filter prevented gearbox steel grit from wrecking the engine bearings. I regret selling all the models I owned.
British cars never had a reputation of being reliable and modern. Their styling was somehow always outdated and their quality doubtful, resulting in rock-bottom resale values.
In my opinion , the unions more than anybody killed off British Leyland. Because of strikes and poor quality control , the cars they started to produce were awful. This could all have been a success story and the UK could still have its own car manufacturer but the unions helped to kill off BL and what was the point? No jobs, no future. I remember being a teenager during the 70’s and coming home to see the midlands news, every week BL unions were on strike (so it seemed) talk about cutting off your nose to spite your face. Sure , bad management did not help, but this story can be applied to quite a few businesses during the 70’s. Sad.
A failure you could only get in the UK; a power struggle between the working class and management class, both sides willing to slash their own throats rather than cooperate. This not only killed the British car industry but Britain itself.
I couldn't have put it better myself - our once industrial might killed by sheer hubris.
The British management approach of those days was terrible: management makes decisions; workers are simply tools that talk, and should get on with the work they have been allocated, and carry it out in the manner instructed. That is an approach guaranteed to raise hackles and cause strikes. The Japanese approach at the time was to involve workers in the process of production, thus giving workers a pride in the end product. I think that the outcome reveals which approach was better.
Meanwhile Ford prospered at Dagenham. Also in the UK.
Have you joined up the dots?
Plus the sheer incompetence of management, and the attitude of some workers that will work harder to avoid work, than to actually do the work.
Also I think there's moral, if workers are proud of where they work, they will work hard, but if they become disgruntled, and see other workers slaking, they will work as slow as they can get away with.
A well known phenomenon in the anglo saksian society.
I gotta say those prototypes (IMHO) are absolute mingers. Michelotti or not. When you see the Fiesta shots it shows just how stunningly good that styling was. It looks like a new car from the late noughties. The proportions are spot on, and from every angle. I think if one of those BL prototypes had gone on sale they would have been laughed at. But I do agree with your conclusion though. Missed opportunities.
I totally agree.
I thought the white one looked a lot like the Fiesta, especially the headlights...
Utterly hideous. Michelotti might have done the Herald, but had lost his way by now anyhow. Anything that looked remotely like any of these would have been laughed off the forecourt. I mean, even more than the Allegro.
@@caeserromero3013The white one was definitely the best of the bunch, but the front end of it was awful - the upper grille looked like it had been taken off an old heater from a village hall. I’d like to think that would have been tidied up if the green light had been given for production, but we ended up with the Allegro with piggy inset headlights and a bulbous bonnet, so maybe it wouldn’t have been?
I agree too. Ugly design, looks like some Eastern bloc monstrosity from ten years before. It would've sank without a trace.
The missed opportunities of cars like these wouldn't have changed the issues with industrial action, mismanagement, quality and reliability. Truth is BL was going to die whatever cars they did or did not release.
Exactly.👍
Management never treated the workers as equals - whereas Japan did, and took on board all their suggestions.
@@G-ra-ha-m Having researched this extensively, I can tell you - you're more right than you could possibly know. When I was young and foolish, I blamed the unions for the collapse of BL. I now know that whilst they were the ammunition, it was ALWAYS the management that pulled the trigger.
@@peterbeal2158 Thanks! I think that logically, only one side had any power for positive change, and they failed.
I could do you a 2000 word essay on every problem they had, coming from Preston, when I was a kid everybody's Dad or neighbour worked at Leyland. Half of Leyland was the Truck and bus factory, raw materials in 1 end and complete units at the other, the place is an industrial estate and housing, what's left of the factory is a few units. I worked with a guy that had "worked" there, he put on 3 stones in 18 months after starting. The slightest problem they were out, the shop steward would call a meeting and 2 minutes later they were out. He said they would call for a show of hands and nomatter how many hands went up it was "All out" everytime.
It's ironic that BLs predecessor had the Austin A40 Countryman with a hatchback some 15 years earlier
Before the trend even started!
@tomdrives exactly. Your videos are really interesting but the history of BL is like watching some sort of Greek tragedy
Keep up the good work
@@tomdrives I can tell you that the British car industry killed an enormous amount of goodwill over here in the US. Until the seventies people over here loved things British--remember the Beatles, Dusty Springfield, the Stones, the Dave Clark Five? It is, as philjameson292 says, a Greek tragedy that we keep disinterring and picking over the bones. I wonder how many of those union strikers back then like the way they killed the industry there, with the help of amazingly incompetent management.
@@tomdrives Also ironically, BL management somehow believed that the Austin Maxi would sell better if only it was allowed to have a hatchback, and not all the other models.
There was a custom made mini with a hatchback (for some rich gut with golf clubs), shame BL management didn't see the potential.
12:55 Ford killing the Fiesta is worth a feature on itself.
Ford killed the fiesta when they fitted the ecoboost wet belt engine a pile of crap ford's customers got sick of this very bad engine and went to other brands
@@michaelkilbride2927use the correct Ford oil no problem.
@powdermoncky tell that. To people that had there car serviced at Ford and still got shafted a rubber belt in oil bad idea so much so the new ecoboost engine 2023 has a timing chain but still has belt in oil drive for the oil pump so half arsed fix as belt on oil pump will go bang and engine will be scrap
I like your videos mate, they are well done and full of facts about how something so promising was bought to it's knees by stupidity. We had Leyland here in Australia and they were a manufacturer competing with Chrysler, Holden and Ford. Toyota and Nissan were just on the horizon and poised to make big waves. Leyland were the first to fold, manufacturing was canned and they became an importer relying on expensive Jaguars, Rover's and Triumph's to get them through. Leyland trucks were very popular at the time though and many of their chassis were used by local councils as buses. That too was soon over. Dodge used Mitsubishi badged trucks and Holden used Trucks from Isuzu. Game over.
Striking workers killed most of Britain's Great Industries! Those industries are now gone forever, along with the skills that can't be taught anymore! So sad, what this Great Nation used to manufacture, gone forever! dx
I loved my Allegro. It was NOT all agro. A grown up mini, it was easy to self service, having loads more space around the engine than the mini. The 1300 was an ideal combination of passenger space, power economy for that era. You can keep your minis.
Allegro was my first car and it was a piece of absolute crap.
@@pauli2169 What did you expect if you bought £50 car from Arthur Daley?
@@janicewatts5888 it was ugly. I think that many of its initial faults could have been forgiven if hadn’t looked like it had been over inflated. The headlights look wrong. It has no “face” . It looked too busy at the front.
It didn’t look cute,it didn’t look butch,it didn’t look sporty,it didn’t look classy,it didn’t look like a workhorse.
It just looked “meh”. And for a car that’s death sentence.
Is it just me, this car had no golden ratio, bloody ugly.
The TR7 slash doesn't work on any car, the metro was just better stylistically.
@@joejoejoejoejoejoe4391 i actually like the TR7 FHC. I'd like one as a "Sunday" car
Just look at it though 😂
@@timobrien9123 Thank God in reality we don't have to!
Ah BL, you never failed to be disappointing.
Good demonstration of quality control at 11:24 when a door mirror appears to fall off!
I live just down the road from Leyland. A few years ago I was on Malta. Imagine my surprise to see the BL logo on the engine grill of a restored 1950's bus / coach.
Great video tom they needed that car at that time in 1972 metro came along to late in 1980 a missed opportunity big time
There is a few good cars that should have been built by BL. The 3 cylinder car that could do about 100 to the gallon in the early 80's . This Mini replacement car would definitely have been a big seller bringing in the badly needed money BL disparity was after. Look at what happened to the new Mini designed by Rover and snatched by BMW on the way out the door, it would definitely have helped save Rover if it had kept hold of Mini!
now there a clients for overpriced retro-design cars as lifestyle products. but in the 1970ies nobody would have bought a mini-successor that is 80cm longer , twice as heavy and 3 times as expensive.
innocent showed quite well in 1974 what a modern version of the mini could be. it just would have need a better modern engine.
owning a classic mini, I am happy, that the mini was not replaced by a new Modell in the 1970ies and that is has been produced for 41 years almost unchanged .
but I would have appreciated an engine upgrade and decent technical improvement, specially better care against corrosion
Those awkward designs of BL cars/prototypes, good gracious me. If you do the front, Jack will do the rear and I'll take care of the doors. See you next month, we will bolt 'em together then!
The problem was the cost cutting meant they went for an in-house Harris Mann styling instead of getting the Italians to do it. When it came along there was no cash left to for Ladybird and if they had found the cash neither Longbridge or Cowley could have built at viable price.
Very Renault 5 Fiat Panda/Uno door handles, rear side is very Fiat 127, 128 coupe. Front looks like a shrunken Princess, quite AMC Pacer in some places.
The photo of the white ADO70 looks the part imo, A few refinements and that surely would have been a good seller and BL getting a foothold in the emerging hatchback trend, All that time/money on getting that far just for it to be abandoned, The BL board of that time were just criminal.
I thought it actually looked a lot like the Fiesta, especially the headlights
@caeserromero3013 Does have that look, I guess being in the 70's a lot of small car designs would look similar. Ford absolutely nailed it with the Fiesta, BL sadly were always that few steps behind and when they came up with a great design like the ADO70, The board wouldn't back them.
I think it looks terrible.
@FTFLCY The car would have been refined and the final model would slightly different when going on sale, If you look at the Fiesta at the same stage you'd said exactly the same, IMO that white model was one mock up from the final look.
The white AD074 at the end of the video could have worked with a reworked front end. Twin circular headlights would have made it look upmarket. It has a look of Fiesta or even VW Scirocco about it!
Yes, well they needed something, but they needed so many things! Most of those ADO74 prototypes are hideous IMHO!!! But I seem to hate everything that Harris Mann styled anyway. And having a brand new car with a brand new engine and BL's legendary inability to develop cars properly and get the bugs out of them before launch sounds like a recipe for disaster! I used to have a book about how Ford developed the Fiesta - the processes they went through to get it right were extensive, and the number of complete restyles on the way from concept to production model amazing - but BL seemed to design things and stick with them no matter what. Perhaps that was a legacy of the Issigonis years where the designer's word was law!
I hate to say it, Ford did a lot of things right, a model car manufacturer in the 20th century.
@@tomdrives why hate to say it?
@@Deltic55-mw4bo it's a taboo topic in this space it seems
@@tomdrives Ford understood an important, simple fundamental that BL and its predecessors just didn't: the need to control profit margins and where money was made and lost. Just put a Cortina mk1 or 2 alongside an ADO16 - you can literally see where the game was lost by BMC.
even Issigonis got it wrong at times. The prototype Morris Minor (Mosquito?) was suddenly viewed as too narrow just before it went into production, So Alex had one cut in 1/2, and some assistants moved the 1/2s in & out until he liked the proportions. This is why the earliest versions had the filler plate in the bumpers, and all models had the bonnet moulding down the centre.
"MORRIS MINOR MM , S2 & 1000 1948-71 DESIGN DEVELOPMENT & PRODUCTION HISTORY BOOK" by Paul Skilleter.
I saw a Maxi today and it was smaller than every other car around it. By today's standards it would be a small car.
Bad Management, unions, workers, marketing, product range, government meddling and poor products and range sunk BL. Not one thing.
No one car would save BL, to say so would be ludicrous.
Thanks Tom, very interesting!
Lost opportunities, bad management, disruptive unions, and the context of course is the 1970s and everything that was happening.
The release of the VW Golf and Passat was important, I had a 1975 Passat and a colleague had a Golf - wonderful family cars.
And now we have Stellantis, with so many different models and niches - will they go go the same way as British Leyland? They will need to be very clever not to.
Then there is Volkswagen's present situation, just now it looks grim.
Not to mention the ever-present Japanese and Korean competition.
And of course the Chinese are taking over EV production and battery roduction...
What will you be writing in five years?
PS--this Texas guy really enjoys your videos. Looking forward to more. I love automotive history, no matter which nation. What would you have chosen in the mid sixties for a basic car? A Mini? An Imp? I like the cheek of the Austin A40 Farina design. In the fifties I would've gotten the Austin A35 or possibly the Standard.
I have always had a thing about Morris Marinas and Hillman Avengers. Thanks for this. I love it!.
ADO74 was appalling. Looks alone would have got it ripped to shreds by the UK press. R5, Fiesta, 127 looked chic. It didn't take Citroën long to facelift the pignosed Visa.
What came out as Metro was a car that could have had it all but it failed in small ways in too many areas.
One of ADO74 prototypes looked like th Vauxhall Chevette, a strange car, with German origins. The styling was very strange, but then the Ford Fiesta was no oil painting, especially the Mk2 and 4. The last two Fiestas were very attractive cars, but the others were not so. Renault 5 and the later Fiat 127 facelift were cracking car design.
Constantly striking for more money to make bad cars was crazy. Some of the designs were good but the build quality and management were terrible. Sad story.
Ant looked pretty. This is interesting - I've never heard about these prototypes before, thanks
I'm sure you know but many may not know what ADO stands for...Austin Drawing Office
I’ve learnt something!
I worked for Heron car sales around this period in Old Swan, Liverpool...the Marina, in my opinion was the worst of the worst... although very comfortable in a straight line it did need grab handles for passengers at the slightest hint of a bend. Fortunately they did exist thinly camouflaged as coat hangers just above the door shut...BL were hoping the Marina would be the next generation of repmobile..this didn't happen as Ford led the market... incidentally the Allegro ( all agro) had the capacity to hive four gallons of rainwater in the boot...great channel thank you 😂
ADO 74 lacked anything distinctive and should have been a 5-door hatchback from the start like the Renault 6 became after a similar conundrum faced the French.
The mini was too small, the Maxi too big and the answer was probably a fork from the Allegro's engineering but in a different style.
The despised Allegro was actually rather a good car in the estate version and BL could have saved millions by using its suspension and steering built on a curious sub-chassis.
I was lent one when my Citroen was being mended and it suited my needs as a paramedic training to be be a GP. Indeed, I did a swap with my garage which allowed or the purchase of an old 2CV for for my wife with the change. It HAD to be old for the "character".
The ride was better than the Citroen's and a Renault 5 I had tried and the variable suspension at service intervals saved me money, especially as other BL cars using the same CV joints wore them out when the Allegro didn't. Nor did the Allegro rust like other BL efforts including all Triumphs made since the Herald and TR6.
The Marina might have been a panic design with BL losing out to the French but it was better made than other BL cars -- maybe because the self-inflicted layoffs made workers more careful.
The Metro, however, continued with bad QC from its launch and quite large sales conceal the fact that main dealers gave huge discounts to Metro customers on replacing the damned things after about 3 years. Units driven away are not the same as true sales figures.
So, NO, the ADO 74 would not have saved BL and as soon as the UK joined the EEC in 1973, the B sector market passed to France and Italy. That is except for Ford's Fiesta, which was a masterpiece of balanced thinking with just a touch of spice.
The sensible thing to have done would have been to facelift the ADO16 in the early70s, Ford did this with the escort. Spend the money on sorting out the rust problem, while giving the car an hatchback and more contepary styling. The ADO16 was loved by the public and for most of its production run was Britain's best selling car. Doing this would give BL time and money to sort out it's other problems. Also in 1972 BL put a 3 door mini replacement into production in Italy, the Italian designed and developed Mini Innoccenti. Built in Milan, a car that would stay in production in one form or another well into the 90s, yet despite beating the Fiesta by three years, and been cheaper to build than the mini that it was based on it never went into production in the UK.
The Rover SD1 was ground breaking in many ways. In fact it was the first car ever to be fitted with Lane Assist and vehicle deviation warning system...such a shame it wasn't fitted to their cars.
I mean production line cars.
@@nicholasparish1968 I'm interested in finding out more, could you point me in the right direction?
@@tomdrives Wikipedia
I agree totally with your point of view. I agree that AD074 could have competed with the Renault 5, Renault 4, Fiat 147, Lada (AutoVaz) Samara, Ford Fiesta, Citroën Visa, Peugeot 504. I think the "Ladybug" version of ADO74 would have been a total success. Because it looks cute, just like the Renault 5.
Between the unions & miss management & the urge of quantity not Quality, BL never stood a chance .
Another sad story of idiotic decision-making. I don't like the styling of some of the models, but that's personal taste. Love the videos, but they do make me think BL was just doomed to fail.
There is a book entitled “Assembly” written about CKD car assembly in New Zealand. Several times it mentions that cars assembled in NZ were better fettled up than those straight off the production line in UK. This from representatives from those UK car companies who came out to help set up new assembly lines here. One of the most popular and successful cars in the sixties was the Hillman Imp. Sadly it didn’t ever do for Rootes what they hoped it would.
Nothing could’ve saved bl from its management and board 🤷♂️
And the workers. Don't forget the "workers".
@ your definitely not wrong 👍
And the Unions…in fact mostly the unions.
@ again, you can’t argue against that statement
When I think of what the P76 could have been I can't help but wonder just what were the administration of BLMC thinking.
Ford spent ages on the fiesta to get the parts count down to reduce costs in manufacture as BL had learned making a small car is not easily profitable and spent years trying to get the mini profitable.
A hatchback that size should've been successful but every single one of those design proposals is ridiculously ugly
If the build quality would be the same as other BL cars we know the out come. The front of one of the prototypes looks the same as Fiat Ritmo ?
Sorry to criticise, because your reviews are impartial and sincere. But in those days, people DIDN'T automatically expect cars to be hatchbacks. That came later, when so many cars DID have it.
Austin DID have proper ESTATE versions with a HATCHBACK, (or "Tailgate if you like")
Not many makers of small cars did that!
Critique away, I'd prefer if someone finds something they don't like that isn't superficial to voice their opinion, the market was trending that way, if BL had gotten in early as I said things could have been different.
Maybe that applied to the UK market which had always been way more conservative, but that was definitely not the scenario in the rest of Europe. By the mid 70s, VW had released the Golf, Renault not only had the 5, but also the successful 4, 6 and 16, Simca had the commercial hit 1100, Peugeot had the 104 since 1972 and they only delayed the hatchback version in 4 years because of an informal non-agression agreement with Renault.
In the A, B and C segments mostly, BL reacted to the winds change a decade after, especially knowing that there had been multiple projects developed way in advance, but all of these were shelved.
There was another version of the Michelotti prototype featuring a normal Triumph-esque yet Austin-badged front.
Project Ant would have been a better bet as a Mini replacement, a competently managed company would have schemed in a larger ADO88-like model from the mechanicals of Project Ant as what the Metro did from the Mini and what Innocenti were looking to do with SWB and LWB versions of the Mini.
@9.35, It's Arthur from On the Buses
I think the real miss was that IF ADO 74 made it in time then the Maestro could have arrived earlier and looked more current than when it eventually arrived.
Whether it would be built properly is another question
The fatal mistake was BL chief Donald Stokes rejecting Roy Haynes's idea of five platforms for whole BL range. That would meant for the mini that 9X hatchback mini with resembleld the clubman would been launched in 1969. Which would have shared the majority parts with replacments for all rest of BL range. which in turn would improved relationship with the unions and would been have been half cost to produce.
Was that Michael Robbins at 9.36
sure was
Did he shout… "You stupid great lump!" at George Tumball?
I have two. Metros. A MG and a City... I live near the coast so they are rotting out. It's a struggle getting the panels unfortunately
the michelotti design looks good, but the other ADO74 designs would not have been appealing to customers in the 1970ies.
the problem is, that the metro came too late and that it still had the technically outdated A-series engine.
when BL-found out that they did not have enough money to build a new engine, they should have purchased some small , efficient Honda-or Suzuki engines ( as did innocenti, by first using the A.series engine and then using Daihatsu.engines)
the ADO74 and metro never could have been a replacement for the smaller mini. The mini with its iconic and timeless design and excellent roadholding was not outdated at all at that time, but for sure it should have been upgraded decently: equipped with a hatchback ( Peter sellers had a mini converted to hatchback in the 60ies) and specially it should have received a better modern engine, with better economy, better reliability miles and more power than the original cooperS, to catch up with R5 turbo and golf GTI.
But the main issue of BL were not so much the outdated models, but quality issues: bad reliability and corrosion
The Incenti mini was more attractive than the ADO70 and had the practicalities of being a hatchback, why it wasn't produced by UK Leyland was not obvious. Of course, BMC had had the super mini with the Morris 1100, which apparently had the highest volume at the time. But management decided to increase its size into the 1800, with little success.
Whatever version of ADO 74 I just saw, all fronts are quite hideous.
The sharp lines of the Fiesta are more convincing
The volkswagen and Porsche prototypes of late sixties do resemble the ADO.. only 5 to 7 years in advance
If the ADO could have influenced BL future…I think not. Too many BL cars in mid and upper segment competing each other. Arrogant management, strikes, old techniques and sloppy craftsmanship are to blame.
Best regards from the Netherlands
( with a soft spot for the British classics)
See: VW EA 235 and Porsche EA 266 …. And the stunning 1973 and 1975 Ford Fiesta prototypes
Definitely think the strikes and increasingly budget yet reliable European models would have seen to it's death but it could have bought time! It's true especially in this modern age that there's less margin and profit in smaller cars but can't rely on the upper management types to buy big cars when there was an increase in working class needing cars and upward mobility
The demise was caused by a succession of poor management and asset stripping as much as by unions. There was a complete lack of any direction, morale or competence.
The rot began when Willuam Morris retired and Leonard Lord etc took over.
Michael Edward's was a nasty little man who didn't seem to understand the British car industry or workers, Stokes was an egotist and then Towers etc tore the company to shreds.
As an American, I was in college and watching the British industrial might collapse back then. No, I believe this car would not have saved either BL or anything else. Why? The unions. I owned a Renault 5 back then; it was a superb little car, a 'mini' in cost but a 'maxi' in comfort and quality. I drove that car 100K hard miles here in the US, and never once did it break and strand me, despite its not being designed for our kind of distance driving. The UK lost the American market in the fifties, when it refused to adopt the commitment to our market that VW did. I can remember, for instance, here in Houston where two VW dealerships in the sixties and seventies had 24/7 service departments! Yes, you could go in at 3am to get your VW services. By the sixties here VW was already dominant with the obsolete, but reliable Beetle. By the seventies here, the Japanese had copied the VW service/dealer model and the British were relegated to the eccentric fringes like the very out-of-date MGB and Midget, and the upscale Jaguar line. And yes, the XJ6 saved Jaguar in this country -- amazing car.
Ooh what could have been.. ado74s fiestas shovitts horizons and pug 205s head to head on rally circuits- could have been a contender!
ADO 74, is decades ahead of its time, imo. Look at a 2024 Honda e, described as having 'retro-futuristic' styling.
The technology is obviously light years ahead now but the concept was there back in the 1970's.
It doesn't even look as good as a first gen Honda Civic of the early 70's. What are you smoking
Nothing could change it at the time honda and toyota and datsun came and what was unbelievable was they were reliable
The ADO74 bears a strong resemblance to the comteporary VW Polo / Audi 50, which suggests, it too could have become a great success, if it would have been as reliable as its competitors from VW, Renault, Peugeot and VW.
There’s an ADO73 in the background of one of those B/W stills with a front like a Dodge. Can’t find anything about it. It looks nothing like an Ital.
Interesting. Thank you.
I had 2 BL Metros one of which was the Studio 2 in BR Green, great cars but with flaws.
IMHO unions caused the downfall not sales, or workers.
I might be imagining it but I can see hints of the non Honda 200/25 in it. Only traces but they are there.
Having watched any of your videos cataloguing the tragic downfall of our indiginous motor industry and the overlapping and competing models in the range I would like to offer my view. As I saw it in the day, there were dealers for every marque demanding products to sell so that the solution would have been to produce a range of cars and dispense with Austin, Morris, Wolsey, Riley, MG models which necessitated the badge engineering.
Veggieboy.
the yellow one looks like a cross between a Twingo and a Yougo Zastafa
After every video do you bolt those triple Webber's back on your SD1
😂
Those in charge of developing ADO74 did not play a role in the success of both the Mini and 1100/1300, mainly because they usually ex-Ford and/or ex-Triumph people with ADO74 reflecting their own bias and general lack of understanding of what made the BMC FWD duo and supermini class successful.
ADO74 was essentially a VW Polo-like car in length with a cramped 4-inch shorter wheelbase and a Peugeot 104-like in-sump gearbox.
It had a look of the Datsun 120Y about it. Whether or not the model would have been successful, depends on how they implemented and quality controlled the end product. We’ll never know.
I thought in some of the prototype shots the front had a very Datsun 120y look about it and some from the A post back VW polo.
Have to agree. The problem with Leyland was design or innovation, it was corporate mismanagement and Communist trade unions. Even if BL had brought out the Golf, Fiesta, Escort Cosworth etc etc, they'd have STILL found a way to make them the WORST cars on the road by poor build quality, slow and inefficient production etc etc
6:51 in the background ADO 73. does that look like a marina to you? like the frontal treatment!
British Leyland, was a mistake.
OK Tom, as promised, here is the correct name of Glass's Index of Registration Numbers- there are different dates, however the 1962 spring edition is probably for post war identification 1952-1962 is pretty much essential- I've had mine for over 20 years bought from the Great Dorset Steam Fair whilst exhibiting one of my many minor LCV vans- honestly it is a cracking little tome and an argument settler, open the wee book and it almost shouts 'I'll think you'll find...' all on its own... right now to watch your latest video, which doubtless will be excellent- Ladybirds indeed, it's apparently the anniversary of the 'hello kitty' brand this week, so again BL soft power branding was before its time!
I doubt it would have made much of a change to the fate of BL: poor quality, shoddy craftmanship, mismanagement would have remained and would have led to the same outcome. The SD7 can be used as a proof of this: that was a car of great design, aesthetically and engineering-wise, which met market demand perfectly. But poor production quality, poor reliability and mismanagement nevertheless killed off any gain for the company.
Pretty sure the same would have happened here...
But it looked pretty horrible - that is a horrible shape and very un-mid '70s, which was trending towards crisp and clean horizontal lines - window frames especially - and not curves.
"if implemented correctly" - sadly, BL at the time probably wouldn't have.
Even someone like Billy Bragg in the 80's would tour driving a Swedish Volvo, rather than a British Leyland car.
I don't think so,but the best Models were the P6,and the Truimph,they should have teamed up with Buick to improve and make very powerfull engines,I just wonder if India will re-produce the Rover
I'm. Sorry mate bl were a disaster cars were horrendous I grew up around there's cars spent more time getting garage repairs than on the road.. Datsuns brought modern safe cars to the people in the 70s with loads of equipment
AD074 looks very "Japanese" to me. Slap a Honda badge on it and I'd be convinced . The model at 07.59 looks like someone got drunk and tried to draw an AMC Pacer from memory. 09.54 - isn't the "Arfur" from "On the Buses " ??
It would have broken down every five minutes even if it had gone into production like every other BL product.
The UK ones were lost but the Italian one is a Gaydon I believe.
It always strikes me. The R5 looked fresh. Any BL proposal looked like a leftover at Tescos at the end of the day. Michelotti got striked out, but whatever Home Depot came up with looked like a shaggy dog left out in the rain. And nobody said it looked like a drenched shagpile carpet? Really?
A much better looking car than the Metro but not sufficiently distinguished from the Fiesta. We have seen what BMW have done with the Mini. The whole saga of BL was one of poor design and poor quality leaving no money to develop winners.
7:50 What I want to know is what Adam Chance from 'Crossroads' was doing there? Motel business?
I was a motoring journalist between 1969 and 1975 and was privy to so many of the mistakes made by British Leyland/BMH?BMC. The biggest was without doubt the Allegro, but the Princess was also an immediate bullet in the foot moment. But one of the greatest areas of pulling defeat from the jaws of success was the Triumph Stag. It was best best looking car in its class but the idiotic thinking of marque identity took its toll. At the time, Leyland owned the rights to the best lightweight V8 engine on the world - the 3.5. And it fitted perfectly into The Stag. But Triumph decided they would build their own V8 engine by welding two Dolomite Sprint engines together. This was the cue for the flood of broken down Stags up and down the country with head gasket problems. What could have been a world beater became a laughing stock. Not be to outdone, Triumph decided that as the world (especially the USA) was demanding 2 seater open top sports cars, the TR7 would be a closed coupe. You couldn't make it up. To sum up, I still remember arriving at Longbridge one afternoon pre Allegro launch, and seeing several of them parked in a semi circle. I asked Ivor Greening, the Press Officer, if this was the new car. Yes, he replied, doesn't it look good. I shrugged and said "It will be a disaster." He barely spoke to be again. He did admit later that I 'might' have been correct, but that was after the Austin 1100/1300 outsold its replacement for a couple of months.
I now have a restored Triumph Stag ... ..I agree with what you say but as you must know there was BRAND issues... even though it was ALL marks brought together there was still in built rivalry... Engine was not the best designed but when my beauty was rebuilt... casting sand ... after 45 years ... was still in the block .... E-types rotted like a Stag ... but because it’s a Jaaaag its different... saying this though I’m not anti E-Type but let’s be honest fairs fair .... dare I mention James Mayes Stag on Grand Tour ....the engine note on a Stag ... in my mind ... is on the same level as an Interceptor
Yes that Triumph engine? The Rover V8 was made for the Stag.
Mostly bar room nonsense, your career as a journalist may have started the myth.😮
Rover v8 production could not meet the demands of p5b, p6b and brand new Range Rover. It was never on the table for stag. especially not at the original forecasts of 20k stags/year
Also, triumph v8 was well into development before triumph was swallowed up by BL. Triumph nor BL were aware of any issues until year 2 ish year of production.adapting stag for the rover v8 was not an option for the supply issues already mentioned.
2 dolomite engines welded together 😅😂.
Tr7 fhc and stag with the roll over bar were both developed anticipating a ban on open top sports cars by the USA ..
@@richardhudson8574
Its so funny when you read these ill informed comments, its not that difficult to trace the origins of the Triumph V8 and then realise that the drivel that the so called experts spout about two engines welded together is total dogs gonads.......
ADO 74 looks like a Ford - none of the prototypes had any family resemblance to other BL products and the British motoring press never had any qualms about slaughtering home made cars if they were only slightly eccentric (in their eyes). The Metro did look like a BL product and quite rightly it sold well.
In NZ they were rubbish. Fatigue cracks everywhere, oil leaks, split upholstery all in the first few years., not to mention famed British reliability. The first horrible Japanese Isuzu Ballett arrived in the late1960s, boring rather than ugly, pushrod engine, drum brakes all round, crossply tyres, Some had live axles some independent rear, these were awful on bad and gravel NZ roads. For all that, they stole a large chunk of the NZ market. Soon followed by the Toyota Corolla and Nissan Bluebird. They were imported and maintained by firms who were not part of the old boy network.
The Toyota Landcruiser emptied the Landrover market and Jap cars went on to rule the small car world. I had a business specialising in UK and BMC cars, Many Kiwis had a post WW2 antipathy to the Japanese so kept their Morris, Austin, Wolseley, Riley, MG etc cars going for years more. Taiwanese manufacturers made spares for BMC, Leyland, Jag etc which were better quality than UK parts, especially Lucas (King of Darkness). This enabled my business to operate past the new millennium. The best British small car was the Mk2 1300, it's weakness was the primary gear bush, the drop gear needle races, the oil pump and Lucas electrics. They handled rough roads like a dream, were economical and has great brakes.The later canister oil filter prevented gearbox steel grit from wrecking the engine bearings. I regret selling all the models I owned.
there's enough stock footage that ai can maybe issue a nice biofuel rework
There's some fugly tastes in car design is my opinion. Compared to what the Japanese were doing at the time it still looked way outdated.
What about the sad story of the P76!
You need to do a video of the mini or metro convertible
I've done one on the conversions, do you have any more information?
British cars never had a reputation of being reliable and modern. Their styling was somehow always outdated and their quality doubtful, resulting in rock-bottom resale values.
I bet those managers finished the British universities where their learn how to fill their pockets and run away.
With the exception of the Michelotti version, the front ends of all ADO74-s were fugly.
Well, keeping up with trends is why everyone wants to sell you an SUV now.
The unions and Thatcher, the lack of investment all killed BL
It is a hideous model like almost all English cars that era
In my opinion , the unions more than anybody killed off British Leyland. Because of strikes and poor quality control , the cars they started to produce were awful. This could all have been a success story and the UK could still have its own car manufacturer but the unions helped to kill off BL and what was the point? No jobs, no future. I remember being a teenager during the 70’s and coming home to see the midlands news, every week BL unions were on strike (so it seemed) talk about cutting off your nose to spite your face. Sure , bad management did not help, but this story can be applied to quite a few businesses during the 70’s. Sad.
as ever with bl Tom they threw all chances away