Real Road Test: Morris Marina! Is it actually rubbish?
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- Опубліковано 13 чер 2019
- In this video, I finally achieve a lifelong dream, and drive a Morris Marina! Developed on the cheap by British Leyland, the Marina has become the butt of all jokes. But, what is it really like?
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Good to see you managed to avoid helicopter piano transport companies.
They were busy with other marinas. I'm pretty sure this marina has a piano on its roof by now.
You ruined my piano joke
@@robertschumann9059 Sorry! 🤣🤣
@Bad Lieutenant 😂
The car does visually resemble hubnut as a reviewer, the only car he could afford perhaps?
I was forced to wear shorts as a young kid in the 70's and have painful memories of scorched legs from burning hot vinyl seats. Priceless
Tell me about it.In Australia in summer in the 1970`s and sitting on those hot fucking vinyl seats was a nightmare.
I remember the early summer of 1976 being a nightmare as temperatures started to soar. My dad had a Vauxhall Victor 101 FC series in grey with red vinyl seats. It was like an oven, jeans and long sleeves were the order if you didn't want to peel yourself off the seat each journey. Thankfully he swapped it around that time for a Rover 3.5 P5B Coupe, with leather seats, Sundym glass and much better cool air ventilation.
Not on your own bud lol
Oh hell yeah. Also- vinyl 'leather' sofas jesus christ summers were a nightmare.
I remember that from the Fiat 124 my father had at that time (bought in 1968).
UA-cam is full of snidey, condescending attitudes, but I love the way you give the old Marina a fair trial and appreciate it for what it is.
Subscribed.
Yep, same here - love your style, HubNut!
I all way,s liked them
fodsaks = idiot
@@ant2312 You're nowhere near as funny as Dec.
@@ant2312 Spotted the fake car enthusiast.
I remember as a little girl 'helping' my dad fix the family car. It was an 8 year-old Morris Oxford, but that's not important. Back then a man did his own servicing; cars were simple, easy to work on, and reasonably cheap to repair.
Being able to tinker is what got me interested in engineering, so I have a tremendous amount of affection for uncool vehicles like Maxis and Marinas. I went on to be a rally driver of sorts (only amateur), and that was entirely thanks to my early 'apprenticeship' with the old family car.
Can you imagine kids nowadays having tantrums because they aren't allowed to set the torque wrench or unscrew a sump plug and get their hands really filthy? Heck, no. They're into modding, traction control, race tuning, flappy paddles, drifting, crashing, and Jeremy bl**dy Clarkson.
Lift a bonnet today and touching anything will either void your warranty or fail the MOT. Home servicing is restricted to topping up the screen wash; otherwise it's all about engine mapping, emissions, sensors and electronics. Very clever, but there's nothing under the bonnet that you dare touch or that doesn't require training, diagnostic equipment, and 'Special Tool XYZ' to remove.
And it gets worse. The advent of electric vehicles with tamper-evident seals everywhere and no user-serviceable parts fitted will put another nail in the coffin of kids learning skills by helping dad fix the car on a Sunday morning, so I'm delighted to see videos like this. Happy memories. Thanks, HubNut!
Isn't it refreshing to read Comment sections that are devoid of sneering and full of warm nostalgia and positivity. :-)
I'm 18 years old. I love classic cars from the age of three and I've managed to buy my own classic car with pocket money when I was ten years old. I totally agree with you. My generation sucks. I remember when I bought my 1967 Morris Oxford VI my classmates used to make fun of me saying that I was stupid because I didn't buy a Playstation 4 instead. However I never listened to any of their nonsense. I love my car and I think it's great that I learn how to repair it myself through printed books.
Well said. I'm 63 and remember when cars were mechanical in nature and quite understandable. Wonderful insight on how society and cars went together so wonderfully back then. Cars are over engineered appliances now and not marks of social achievement and satisfaction of the soul's desire, as they used to be.
The younger generation jus doesn't grasp how all this high tech crap is pure fantasy. Stuff that somebody else made and those somebodies were NOT their mates or the product of their own land. High tech toys that emphasize all the wrong things in life.
When Dad did the scheduled maintenance on the car, he was showing his sons how the car's good function depended on HIM. That was reassuring to see. When Millennials and GenZ play around with a car, they are showing utter enslavement to the consumer culture around it. They want to act out their fantasy scenes from Fast and Furious instead of being part of the real life around them.
However, that the old England that was worth living and dying for is long gone so, maybe Gen Z's bad behavior came about because of us.
As a toddler, I once fell out of a Marina, which at the time, was moving. My father hadn't locked the back doors, and out I popped. To this day (now 35), I still have clear memory of bouncing along the road, and the abiding memory of a metro, occupied by an elderly couple, bearing down on me and then a rather sudden stop.
Ah, good times.
I am 60 now and In the 80s as a student nurse I had two friends, a couple and also student nurses, who both had 70s bangers, she had a hockey stick Avenger and he had a Marina coupe so there was a constant rivalry between them about which was best- they were both pretty rough but the Avenger was more pleasant to be driven in. One of them, I forgot which, had a gaping rust hole under the back seat you could see the ground through.
I had a 1972 1.3 automatic which, when I bought it, was 24 years old and the clock was well on its second time around, but was was just £40. I was in need of a really cheap runner at the time and expected something that would just get me out of a hole. Instead I got a car that I would come to love. The only car that I've ever had that I felt confident enough that it would have made it on a drive around the world, It was just so simple & reliable.
Though I initially thought that 1.3ltr was too small to pull around a car of that size via an automatic box, the A series engine ignored me and got on with the job to the point that I never felt the car was sluggish. The Leyland A series was one of the all-time great engines. And I had almost no problem with rust even though the car was over 30yrs old when I parted with it.
Why did I part with it? Well, only because It wouldn't pass the MOT test due to a worn trunnion, and I could not get the parts to replace it. All I really want from a car is something to get me, and my stuff, from A to B reliably and comfortably, with the minimum of cost and hassle, and my Marina offered that in spades even after 30 years of use.
Kimdino1 that made me thinking. Thanks for sharing that story
Nice and fair put down of Top Gear being smug about people’s innocent enjoyment. Bullying was the right word.
indeed, that why I watch car stuff on youtube now and refuse to hear about Tom Gear, or their new stuff on amazon.
**Beta male alert**
I remember the Top-Gear Twats putting down the Rover Streetwise when it came out. Er,. OK so it was a Rover 200 with slightly raised suspension and black plastic bumpers, but they just slagged off the concept more than anything. Then, within a few years many of the car companies were doing exactly the same thing. Think VW Polo Fox, Ford Eco Sport, etc. Sure they're not great, but Rover predated the craze.
Bullying is indeed the right word, my father had two of these while I was at school in the eighties, so I recall well. Good times !
I still enjoy Top Gear a lot and their chemistry makes it fun for much more than car people. However the waty they often treat cars is not in my my liking and Clarkson enjoys angering people.
My mum learnt to drive when I was about 7 years old and her first car was a Marina and it was such a big change to our lives and for that reason I have so much nostalgic love for this car. Yes I have memories of the heater being on in the height of summer, sweating to death while praying it didn't overheat again but still better than the bus and gave us freedom we hadn't had before.
That is very sad.
I remember that so many cars in the 70s would overheat.. The coolant was normally rusty colored tap water. I often wonder now if modern coolants would have prevented the rusting in the coolant and radiators and may have prevented the overheating. It’s seems that modern cars really don’t suffer in the same way.
@@andrewstones2921
Modern coolants and lubricants (and gaskets/sealants) actually make a great difference to historical cars.
Although if you stop the oil leaks in Minis the front subframes rust.
I owned one the gearbox rear seal leaked same colour built in Australia accelerator pedal. Bit awkward.
@@andrewstones2921 I think you have a point. I also think because overheating was such a common problem in the 70s and 80s, car makers started fitting bigger and better radiators etc. Those old radiators and fans were tiny compared to the ones on cars today.
There’s something comfortingly British about the Marina. A childhood memory of slippery vinyl that gave you third degree burns in the summer. It’s like fish & chips, bingo, the seaside, workingmen’s clubs and roll ups. None of these were the best in the world but they’re ours. 🇬🇧
Martin Rule hear hear old boy !!!!!
"There's something comfortingly British about the Marina. It was shit."-Martin Rule
You need professional help. I'm as patriotic as the next man, maybe more being a former soldier. But the Marina was the embodiment of everything wrong with Britain at that time.
Well regardless of what negative comments you get I completely agree with you. People like me growing up in Australia in the '90s and '00s feel that our cultural roots are in British cars, films and music, and that the Marina for it's part connects us to a time when manufactured products did what we wanted them to do... and not vice versa as we tolerate today.
Run for PM!
Q: "Can I have sticker for my Marina? "
A: "OK. Seems like a fair swap"
Poor.
The smell of cars in the 60s and early 70s always got to me as a kid. I would start to feel travel sick if I just walked past one which had a door open. Some kind of melange of vinyl, petrol, oil and ash trays.
Those heady days when your parents smoked in the car 2 feet from your fucking head.
@@MrMottestyles Ah, the good ol' days. Mom's Virgina Slims used to turn me "Morris Marina Green", they did.
Or if you actually owned a car in England, wet carpet and the already mentioned.
O dear me
Brylcreeme, hair lacquer, fag smoke and fumes, all inside my mum and dads landrover 😬
As a former P76 owner in Australia , I'm a firm believer that motoring journalists in the 70s earned half their wage from under the table payments in brown paper bags from the big 3 players of the day . Thanks for reinforcing this again Hubnut . You're a gem
Mate most bad reputations of vehicles from mechanics they worked on them and spoke from a different perspective than going for a drive
Great video. I fully agree that the Marina wasn't a bad car at all. The 1.8TC was a flying machine !
Terry the Aussie assembled Marina six.
Follow the crowd eh, instead of thinking for yourself?
I went from Liverpool to Hastings which is nearly 300 miles away with my first girlfriend on holiday in this model of Marina same colour. We went to London for a day out, one day we went to Harrods, needless to say we didn't buy anything, everything was so pricey even then, Many thanks Hub Nut for allowing me to relive a beautiful time in my life.
11:12 I always hated how Top Gear seemed to get a thrill out of destroying 'uncool' classic cars. Saw them destroy a 2cv and that was it for me.
sitedrm Never liked the show myself. Or them. And to destroy a 2cv is just wrong.
They've destroyed a plethora of nice old (or not so old) cars during the shows... my heart always bled when they did that.
They did it to a Robin Reliant by making sure it would roll, probably added to the demise of the company - unforgivable.
I though it was funny right up until the moment they destroyed a Citroen AX GT....bastards haha
@@BillyBobpeeps on a par with that idiot Nader.
I'm a motorcycle man who doesn't like cars, but this channel is priceless.
I have so much man love for HubHut considering I'm a married man with grandkids, it's unbelievable! What a humble, funny, and bloody good bloke he is! Long live Hubnut, my favourite channel by a military mile!
I'm a great grandmother and always watch him, with my husband. We both love watching him too.
“It was never designed as an exciting car”. Well they definitely nailed it. Another great video
It was designed as a Cheap to run Affordable family car, & for Fleet buyers.
Remember, You were Trading up from a Moggy minor, or HB Viva, Morris Oxford.
My dad had a TC, & liked it even After having a P6 Rover 2000 TC.
The Marina Was Fresh New & Sporty. Then Bought his 1st Jaguar XJ12 .in 1974/5.
In the early 90's one of my brother's had a lime green estate sporting viva it's and Capri V6 running gear and I had a late model very low miles 2.0 hl with velour trim and a vinylroof.The O-series engine was soon replaced by dolomite sprint running gear. It was good fun but with the stone age front end set up handling was seriously lacking.If you attempted to power out of a corner it would just go straight ahead regardless of steering input.not a great car in any respect but at least they were light and a doddle to repair or modify and on reflection despite being poorly developed and built they were not really any more troublesome than their peers.The 1.8 TC coupe wasn't a bad looking car for the era either.
I drove the marina van for many years. Never let me down, MPG was very good, Just kept on going. A great car in its day.
A mate of mine had a Marina van. While driving down a country lane one day a woman backed her 2CV out of her drive into the road and he drove into the side of her car. The front of the van was a bit sick looking, but her 2CV just folded. I remember him driving the van back home and when i want around to look at the damage, we noted that he had paint smudge from her car on the headlight glass. He laughed and said that even the Morris Marina headlight glass was harder than a 2CV!
"Celebrating the average": respect for that!
It got you to work and to the coast at the weekend got to love it.
OK, I broke down and ordered one of your coffee mugs! I'd rather watch your videos about vintage UK cars (and hear your commentary) than the many 911/Lamborghini/Ferrari videos out there today!
Me too, I find old everyday cars that I grew up with a lot more interesting than super cars.
@@RPKGameVids me too I have two chevette saloons and a 92 5 door escort old everyday cars do it for me over lambos everday
As a family man, who also played guitar in a band,my Marina never let me down in 9years. Huge boot , took guitar, amp AND a PA system. All the cases when on holiday, and ,at the time, only £18 for a complete exhaust system at Kwik fit !
Very comfortable ,especially in the back , but vague steering on motorways , but for someone who USED a car as a tool and not a hobby , couldn’t grumble.
PMexPAT I hear that! I had a 1.8 Marina estate back during the 80's. I could fit a drum kit and an amp in the back without putting the seats down. I definitely got a few gigs on the strength of that despite having no discernible musical talent.
You probably had one that was built to engineering specs.
The problem with BL was not so much the design and the engineering of their cars, but constant quality. When you had the bad luck to buy one that was screwed together on a monday morning after a main soccer match the sunday before, 20% staff off sick with a major hangover, and the rest showing up for work in the same condition, having to fulfill a deadline by building a certain amount of cars during the day. Well..... 0_0
Back in 1976, my parents took me on a holiday to Portugal, my dad drove us from Lisbon to Lagos and back in an early Marina, just as this one, in dark green. Fondly remember it to this day. No breakdowns! Now living in Germany, there was a Marina for sale a few years ago round the corner, alas someone else was quicker than old me...
Just received the calendar, rejoice on meeting Betty, the BX and the Duzgo again!
well said about top gear . i hate car snobbery in the classic car scene
Top Gear was three public school boy millionaires taking the piss out of the great unwashed. Sometimes Clarkson is hilarious, but at other times he and his sycophantic side kicks are just a trio of narcisstic arseholes.
@@simonlloyd7557 Agreed.
@Haider Khan I'll take a different opinion on that. These cars need to be kept around for a multitude of reasons: a warning to carmakers (mausoleum to BL), for fond memories, and because it was a decent car. Not great but it did what it said on the tin. Also, I want more weird and under appreciated marques to be present. Studebaker, Borgward, Armstrong-Siddeley, GAZ, marques like that. The same old Lambos and Aflas and the like have gotten tiresome.
TG is meant to champion the car enthusiast so to do the opposite just cos they don't like a car is the worst type of snobbery. To buy cars that are rare just to smash them is not funny
Absolutely right, a bunch of elite guys sitting down, talking about Koenigsegg while their audience are standing. So much for respect. I always liked ordinary cars more, as if they are designed more with love and dedication than with money.
Any car that still works properly after leaving the factory nearly 50 years earlier is a good car.
Modern cars are rubbish! No modern Audi, BMW or Mercedes will last 50 years!
@@KRAZEEIZATION No Morris Marina would last this long unless either it was stored in a climate-controlled environment, or got some serious welding.
@@KRAZEEIZATION My honda Jazz and Toyota RAV 4 would beg to differ. Hot dipped galvanized bodies will last pretty much forever if you look after them reasonably well and the engines are bullet proof! My Jazz and and Rav are both 2002 models (17 years old). The Jazz has passed its last 3 MOTs without any fails. The Rav just passed its MOT and only needed a pad change. Both used every day both plus 180,000 mile on the clock... These babies will still be goin in 70 years! So I reckon your statement is either tongue in cheek or total bollox. I'll leave that with you.....
@@ArtyEffem Agreed I think the body work was made from rust! The metallic painted versions seem to rot even quicker!
@@wideyxyz2271 Your Honda Jazz, even with its L12A engine rated at 78 ps, would easily outrun that Morris Marina shown in this video.
Brings back memories of weekends with my school friend. They had a brand new Australian assembled Marina. Strangely it had a Maxi motor in it. The car was good on the hills and actually quite reliable. The last I heard was it got to 300k km without a rebuild. It had wood on the dash and 3 dials with a big clock. Also the first car I saw to have electric washers.
After watching this review, my conclusion is that the Mark I Marina was a 1960's car in the 1970's. Not a 'bad' car as such - just already a bit outdated from the moment the first one rolled off the production line. And from that starting point, later Marinas just couldn't catch up to the opposition - the final ones ending up as 1970's cars in the 1980's.
That makes sense, in my case it WAS true.
I bought a 1975 Coupe in 1983!
Yeah it was basically an old parts bin special.
Takes me back to my childhood days, my dad had a blue one as a company car, I used to wadk n polish it every Saturday for him.. Nice review on an old girl that's still running today
Thank you Hub Nut for bringing up the farce of Top Gear, to be fair I thought you would not mention it . That "show" was completely boycotted in our house after that . I've never had a Marina but my Minor steering wheel sat off at an angle too . Great programme and great channel , I always enjoy your presentations.
"The plughole of despair!
I chuckled.
Yep, good gag that.
See this is why I love Hubnut.
Impartial and always willing to educate people on the experience of the cars you're driving. Your video style is very much that of a magazine writer, you can tell you have used your experiences in that field to create your content.
I will be buying an internal sticker for my car soon and I will wear it with pride. Great work Ian.
I owned the USA version, called Austin Marina. It was a 2-door and had the 1.8 MG engine. I liked it a lot and especially the roominess. I didn't have high expectations for it but it was perfectly satisfactory. I had to give it up.because of the impossibility of finding parts. I did keep the "Austin Marina" badges though. I live in Austin, Texas, USA. About Top Gear: I HATE wanton destruction. Thank you for this, brought back some memories.
We assembled them in Sydney and they were badged the Leyland Marina. The build quality was better than the UK built versions. I believe 50,000 Austin Marinas were sold in the U.S and Canada.
I'm from Italy. It's interesting to see how the bullyism creates a potential victim, exactly like humans. The Marina was an ordinary car, not ugly, not pretty, just a common car. Like a quiet, common guy. I don't remember the Marina as a ridiculized car, albeit it was pretty rare in Italy. Then suddenly the rich bully (Clarkson) came out of the blue and started tormenting the targeted victim. Actually Clarkson destroyed at least 6 Marina, two were in excellent conditions, bought and demolished only to irritate collectors. On 300 Marins left, it's a lot of cars. Thanks to God, HubNut is starting to debunk the "bully" approach to car collecting.
Jeremy Clarkson is an a$$.... I know that's his style, but his consistently being an ignorant, unappreciative, destructive a$$**** does nothing for the classic car industry. His treatment of new cars is little better...unless its fastest on a racecourse any car is a POS, which is a terribly narrow - minded way to evaluate automobiles.
@@hmshyperion If it was for people like Clarkson of Doug De Muro, many good cars would be in the junkyard. He destroyed also a nice Triumph Dolomite 16V. We have similar cases in Italy. During the '80s, Fiat 500 and Autobianchi Bianchina were "bullied" as pieces of junk. Those formerly young A-holes are the same who today buy or sell them at horrific prices. Now the same with 126 - the good ones are rising in price, just ten years ago it was the most ridiculized car in our country. People is very stupid, generally speaking. I understand that an humble car is ridiculized in his mid-age, but the Marina was already 30 years old when Clarkson started to destroy them. That guy should just handle his daily bottle of bad wine.
Lettore Entusiasta He is a big idiot .
@@hmshyperion To be fair to Clarkson, you really need to watch Clarkson's Car Years where he examines why the British car industry was killed off, which presents a pretty sober examination of the Allegro (potentially good but they didn't spend enough on it) and the Marina (supposed to be humdrum and had too much spent on it). It's a contrast to his TG persona.
That doesn't undo their treatment of car and club on Top Gear.
Great video...and under-rated cars, I always think.
Marina fact: Gary Numan's first car was a Morris Marina. He wrote the song 'Cars' about it. There's an interview on the web in which he talks about it...and a photo, too, somewhere...
Years ago, when you could buy Marinas for pennies, a friend of mine had a 1.8 coupe in Harvest Gold (part of BL's extensive 'shades of beige' colour range). It was amazingly fast in a straight line, but you had to keep your wits about you in the corners. The 1.8 Marina was actually faster than the MGB, even though they had the same engine - the Marina was lighter, so had a better power to weight ratio. But a big, chunky engine up front, and a live axle hanging off bouncy leaf springs at the rear was always going to make things interesting in the twisty bits. My friend always said that the Marina taught him how to *really* drive. He developed some old-school skills and could hustle the car through corners in a way that I'm sure BL never intended. He later got into classic rallying, driving RWD Escorts, using his Marina-derived techniques.
My uncle also had a Marina - a 1.8 estate, which he bought because he saw it as an upgrade from his previous car, an Austin Cambridge. I suppose he was BL's target buyer: someone who wanted a no-nonsense car based on familiar mechanicals. That car did stratospheric mileage, hammering up and down the M4 with bags of cement in the back, as a load lugger for my uncle's architect/building business. It wasn't refined, but it never conked out. Once another car rear-ended it and dented the tailgate, and the insurance company wanted to write the Marina off. My uncle had a massive fight with them and they eventually said he could keep the car if he carried out repairs to a good standard. After a quick skim of filler and a blast from a rattle can the insurers backed down!
I've never owned a Marina myself, but it's definitely on my list. I'd like a Coupe, in red, with a black vinyl roof.
Marinas got more luxurious and mechanically refined as the years went on (metallic paint! Velour upholstery!). Late-model Itals, with O-Series engines, telescopic dampers, and anti-roll bars, were very capable - although in terms of styling they were still very seventies. And, no matter how good the roadholding eventually got, they could never shake off the old reputation for wayward handling. It would be interesting to do a road test on a late Ital, to compare 'n' contrast...
Good comment!
Fantastic bit of history! We here in the US loved Gary's tune...perfect for a stint on the wide open American highways!
The dreaded understeer wasn't all that bad in a 1750 E series Aussie Marina as the torque was sufficient to induce plenty of power on oversteer. ;-)
Wow. Never knew that cool song was about a Marina.
I owned a Marina when I was at College in the late 70's. I loved it...same colour as the one your driving in the vid. At the time the Morris Ital had just come out and a lot of them came in a what I thought was a lovely 'brown' colour with gold coach stripes along their length. I spent a King's ransom getting my mustard yellow Marina sparayed the colour of poo ! I remember the spray painter saying to me, when I told him what colour I wanted, they look great in Blue :-)
I eventually sold the car to my mate. As I looked down from my 3rd floor tenement window to wave goodbye to my wonderful shitey coloured car my mate failed to drive off. Ten minutes went by and I thought what's going on...why isn't he moving ? After 15 mins my mate eventually emerged from the vehicle...with the GEAR STICK in his hand :-) What fun motoring was in the 70's :-)
I’m in my 50’s now. Im disabled, always have been. On flipping chemotherapy at the moment, stuck in bed trying to find the best bits of UA-cam.
I found one: this great channel of yours 😃 👍 .
My first car was a 1979 Marina in Pageant Blue. It was the only car that I could afford to get through the disabled drivers scheme at the time.
That model had a really redesigned curvy dashboard and everything inside was plush velour and carpet.
I put a nice Pioneer cassette player in it. I wasn’t a drinker, so me and my friends had many great nights out in it.
Often just sat in it at night looking out over some countryside view, talking rubbish, eating chips and listening to Echo and the Bunnymen. I wasn’t a good driver and they don’t corner well.
I pranged it a few times in snow with that high back end. As some others have said; it *forced* me to learn how to drive. In the end I could throw it around unused twisty national speed limit country lanes. Cheap insurance too!
It really did the job, was big enough for 5 mates or me and my girlfriend to whizz all over the U.K. in relative comfort. It wasn’t bad on fuel and parts cost next to nothing *because* the parts had been in production forever.
I’ve had so much stick for nearly 40 years about that car, but I think all my mates have happy memories of it.
Cheaper and bigger than an Escort, cheaper parts than Far Eastern cars. I would have had no fun in my teens, as a disabled person, were it not for the good price position of that car.
Looking back, another car that got a lot of stick was the LADA, but they were fantastic value for money too.
Thanks for letting me finally admit that I loved my old Marina. I’ve come out of the closet 🤣🤣👍.
I drive a Volvo 240 now. I’m in Australia. My mates in the UK take the piss out of my Volvo.
It’s a 1985 and going up in value, I use it daily and it is ridiculously reliable.
I guess I’m a boring old fart now.
Thing is; I’ve had MG and Capri and Lexus and Alfa and all sorts.
I collect old cars now, but none of those flashy ones.
I’ve got Volvo 144, 244, SAAB 99s, AUDI 5E, Cortina Mk III, Rover 2000; Simca; all have cost next to nothing. All are good, simple cars.
My wife will go bonkers but you’ve done it HubNut:
I’ve got to hunt down a Marina again. Show it some love.
Curses be to those spoilt bullies on. Top Gear.
The last laugh is on us.
Our British cars were good. Politics ruined our industry. A tea break car was a bad one, but one made on a decent shift? Great cars.
Did the job, bargain price, room to move, not horrible rust buckets and electronics nightmares like e.g. some FIATS of the time.
Subscribed; you made my day HubNut 😊 🚙 💨 🇬🇧 👍
PS; anyone around NSW with a Marina that needs some love, please message me! 🤣🤣👍😍
Thank you! Wish you well in your battle. It can be overcome.
I honestly believe its British Leyland itself that gets their cars their reputation, not the cars themselves. Marinas, Allegros, Maxis, they all suffer. The only car to escape the reputation seems to be the mini, and only because of its motorsport success. That aside, the mini is no better or worse than any other BL car, its just easier to improve because there is a market that caters for it. I grew up with hotted up BL cars (not minis), so I know how good they can be. Great stuff once again Hubnut.
The mini was revolutionary when introduced, there was nothing that could match the interior space provided for such tiny external size and they handled exceptionally well. The Marina was grey, stodgy porridge from day one, effectively a Morris Minor with every trace of the Minors charm surgically removed.
@@ferrumignis I think youre missing my point so I guess we can happily agree to disagree
@@anyscaleclassics6880 I'm disagreeing with your assertion that the mini's success was only due to it's motorsport prowess.
Thanks for the video
Me and my father had a 1.8. Marina 1976 model
It was a proper car
We loved it and looked after it
We eventually took it to classic car shows
And we loved it and looked after it some more
It was Tahiti blue
We fought back the rust and put it through MOT tests every year
It was our connection as father and son
I had an Austin Marina that was sold here in the United States. It looked a good deal better but much the same outside. It had an MGB engine and a Jaguar automatic transmission. It handled quite well at 70 mph on secondary roads.
The problems were so basic. The window handles would fall off into your hand every 20 times or so you rolled them up or down. The choke would pull out of the dash in the same way. After taking it back to the dealer innumerable times in one year...the transmission also stopped shifting automatically. British Leyland was having labor problems at the time. All British cars here and in other countries, according to my old friends from other counties blamed it on bad design and labor problems. They were simply unreliable cars for about 15 years. That was when Zsa Zsa Gabor slapped the policeman on the freeway because her Rolls Royce continuously died on the freeways of Los Angeles. I had a friend who bought a new Jaguar XJ and immediately had the engine and transmission removed and a General Motors 350 engine and transmission installed. That was fairly common practice due to their notorious lack of reliability.
That period killed the ability to sell British cars in so many countries. Used Rolls Royces were lined up at an antique shop near me, but were all under 5 years old, looked great, but it took years for them to sell them even when priced at that of a similarly aged Chevrolet.
I had grown up wanting a British car and this was what I could afford. It was my second year in college and my second car and fast and new. I traded it in after 2 years. Sad times for the British automotive industry!
I have always loved the look of the Marina, it always seemed to be just a notch above cars like the Opel Kadett (which I also love, lived in Holland since 1973). Enjoyed the clip, nice to see that interior, love the dashboard, no clutter, but also everything neatly layed out, no large empty plastic areas which you see in (cheaper) modern cars. I also like the distinctive 'Austin' whine which I remember from way back when I was about 4 years old and we drove through the English countryside in an Austin 1100 (dark green it was). Yes, I know people always like to slag off Marinas, but when it comes to reliability, no 70s car can say really say it is. I have owned a couple of classic cars, the last one being a Mercedes w115, and I can say that cars then were made to last for about 5 to 10 years. With the Merc the protective layer underneath would become a little loose, water would get in and basically turn your beautiful German flagship into a bag of paprika crisps.
The Marina was meant for a different segment, a mid-range car that is not too expensive. I can however see it would have trouble competing with the Fords of the time. It is not as slick, not as gutsy American as the Cortina/Taunus of '71 was. But not everyone had the desire to be flash and for them the Marina was the right choice. And yes, I also did not care for the brutal and unfair way the Morris Marina was treated in Top Gear. A number of very well looked after cars (on first glance) got completely destroyed because of those massive egos. A shame, and undeserved. The problems the Marina had, were not the fault of the car but had to do with the politics of the day. Nevertheless it still looks beautiful and should be considered a British classic.
When I just turned 17 my dad ( who owned a lot of companies) bought home an ex company car - a 1.3 Marina estate in that horrible light brown cat shit diarehaa colour - whilst taking my driving lessons my parents had new wilton carpets - I used the big off cut to completely re- carpet the interior - whilst waiting to pass my test fitted a nice stereo, graphic equalizer & speakers everywhere.
On the plus side, it never let me down, could carry 11 lads with the back seats folded down , did lots of shagging in the back - god ! that tartan rug could tell some stories !
On the minus side, my mates all had Mk1 escorts & Opel Mantas - It was definately not a fanny magnet
@@davidcurrie6955 I'll bet it wasn't 'tartan' when you first put it in :).
Ha Ha Ha, stop it I've gone all dewy-eyed, I had the coupe model same colour as in this vid, and just enough room for rumpy pumpy in the back, I was more agile in those days lol, even lost my virginity there. I was in the forces so used a lot to get back and forth to West Germany. It only let me down twice, once the head gasket blew and had to be replaced when I was in Germany, and the second time the lights failed at night in fog driving through Belgium, how I wasn't hit was a miracle but had to make the dead line for the ferry crossing. And those were the days when you could actually get access to the engine etc.
I grew up in the era when they were common on the roads. My school mates dads had them. It was venerable, charmless motoring for the masses. When I think how badly BL performed in just about every department - it is a miracle it became the second best selling car in Britain by the early 70's and generated a lot of volume sales for BL over it's 9 year life. Like your videos btw - gentle humour is a dying art - as is acknowledging the dedicated work of others - so keep up the good work.
Drab and functional might best describe it,,,, but here in NZ,,,, I'd never buy anything except Japanese or Korean, and not new either---2nd hand with 50 000Km is perfect,, good for another 15 years ...before oil change :-)
@@neville132bbk Have fun with boring functionality. The Japanese have rarely created an exciting and/or interesting car and the Koreans never have.
My first car. It was my late Grandfathers, it was registered Sept 1971 - an early example he had it from new & ordered it with everything except a radio. Four door 1.8 super had the Tripple pack instruments front disc brakes with a servo & a factory heated rear window, it should have had an alternator but BL had run out so had a dynamo! It was always garaged & he avoided going out in the rain & if he got caught out would wipe it down inc the shuts behind the bumpers etc so she was an immaculate example in 1985 when I was 17 .
Great memories having known this Marina all through my childhood & being taken out in it during my school holidays & then being able to use it after it had been stood up for 3 years after he passed away. Drove it for 4 years & frankly loved the old girl.
Nice to see an original one in the vid with a full set of caps & trims
My dad had a 1974 1.3 litre saloon. He punished himself further by replacing it with an Ital.
The Marina did break down quite a bit. We went camping in Wales and the alternator went. Easy to fix though.
You're right. Probably no worse than most other European cars of the day and we kept ours for about 8 years.
Thank you for that. I agree with your comments about the Clarkson Top Gear. We should indeed make more of an effort to appreciate the everyday items of any period.
The Marina brings back good old memories
Thank you. This is a well informed and realistic appraisal of a forgotten car. Here in the USA the Marina was seldom seen after the initial advertisements. But some of us imagined that with all the go-fast accessories available for the MGB it would be easy to make a Marina into a "Q-ship" that could go quicker than insurance companies ever calculated. Alas, anyone who tried to make that happen probably watched his car dissolve into oxide dust before it was paid off. It would be interesting to know what percentage of Marinas built survive today.
My father was made redundant at the end of '80 and so we used his work car , a marina 1300 on a K plate and we went all over the country as he went to different job interviews, then about 6 months later once we had moved we had a 1978 1800 super estate, that went on till 1989, till rust killed it but it took us everywhere and was part of the family....simple to repair and thats why i have such a love for these cars....thank you Hubnut for your honest appraisal of this unfairly maligned car....
I had two friends who both owned Marinas in the eighties. We spent many an afternoon putting more filler in the rusty holes! One had fitted a switch in the dash board to turn on the reversing lights as he couldn't be bothered to replace the switch on the gear box. We were being tailgated by a tit in a Capri and he flipped on the reversing lights. You've never seen someone brake so quickly! Oh how we laughed!
I made exactly the same modification to my dad's Morris Ital, and he used to do exactly the same thing with it!
My dad did the same thing with his '67 Beetle but with a twist. We towed a small boat with the Beetle and dad replaced the stock lights with landing lights from a small Cessna so we could see to hook up the boat trailer at night. Tailgaters who became irritating soon regretted the error of their ways....
Laugh? We almost did 🙄
I might make that modification myself. My reverse light switch went out a couple of years ago and I haven't been bothered to replace it.
@@williamwoods8022 They certainly were if they weren't looked after. My brother in law's MK1 Capri, my sister's Hillman Imp, Mini & MK2 Escort. My Mini and Hillman Minx. My brother's Wolsley Hornet, Mazda, Rover SD1 V8. All now viewed as classics even though they were everyday cars. We may look nostalgically at today's cars in the future or at least our children may do. I just wish we could at least get away from everything looking the same! Of a day you could tell make, model and sometimes spec just from a glance or even the engine sound. Cover the badges on a lot of modern cars and you'd be hard pressed to guess them all.
Australia had the right idea...a six cylinder powered Marina. My brother had one,which always seemed to drive strangely. The day he sold it,the new owner hit a curb and the front suspension came away...it was a bit rusty underneath.
But talk about a flashback to the 70's in a nice nostalgic way.. "..A hippy seen driving an ancient morris,talking to himself..."
I had a TC Marina back in the 70's, nice car no problems till the engine blew (probably because i used it at full throttle whenever possible)
Perhaps it could have done with an oil cooler like the MGB for very `enthusiastic' driving (assuming that they didn't come with one).
I had a 'K' reg Marina and fondly remember me and 3 mates went to Norfolk Broads for a boating holiday with cases on a makeshift roofrack ( beer in boot !! ). I remember the tyres would touch wings over every bump ! God knows what weight we had on board. But the car never missed a beat. So sod off Top Gear, Marina rules.
I don't think the Marina was a bad car. I quite like the chunky styling, high waistline, square front and high tail. My Dad had a late model estate when I was four or five and what memories I have of it are fond ones. I remember him parking it up behind our house to do welding on it but then as you say, that was par for the course in those days - he had to do the same with my Mum's little MK1 Fiesta because the front wings had gone around the lights, and also the sills and rear arches, at about 7 or 8 years old! There were still quite a lot of Marinas around until the mid-late 80s - several of our neighbours ran them. Decent little cars that were more than adequate for the time period.
And I absolutely agree 100% about Top Gear. The fact that they used license payers money to basically bully car enthusiasts disgusted me. By that point TG had ceased to be a car show and basically become a bunch of public school knobs being, well, knobs. Clarkson obviously being the worst with his whole 'the Tories are too left-wing for me' thing, his explosive rage on set culminating in the incident that (not before time) led to him being booted from the BBC. If the Daily Mail was a person, it would be JC.I still think he should have been charged for that, same as any other person who punched a colleague would have been. That TG, and it's homophobic, racist, destructive brand of bullying 'humour' was this country's most popular TV show for more than a decade frankly days a lot about the mentality of a lot of people, none of it complimentary.
By the way, from one hat wearer to another, that Trilby really suits you 😊 I wish more people appreciated proper hats, but then I guess those of us who do wouldn't look anywhere near as interesting in them :)
1.8 TC Coupe , breathed on with parts from a scrap MGB GT. Fun car and fun times, long time ago in the 80s 😂
Had a 1973 TC Saloon version...(wanted a ‘71 TR6 but couldn’t afford the insurance). Engine was good, plenty of poke but the suspension and brakes........woeful! I was 17 and nailed it. Back leaf springs broke, brake faded if you drove fast, petrol tank rusted through......twice. Reliable and modern though compared to the previous ‘family’ models (Oxford) and a decent’ish car at the time. Needed replacing as soon as the Mk4 Cortina emerged.
@@SteveInskip Perhaps the brake fade and suspension problems were as much to do with you being 17 years old than the car being crap? 😉 Let's face it, the average teenage male isn't the most talented or mechanically sympathetic driver, despite what their ego tells them. Brakes fade on any car with heavy use, a coil spring broke on my previous car at 7 years old, and two went on my brother's SEAT Leon in 8 years. That's down to the state of our local roads... potholes you could get lost in and never be found again.
A Nother the springs failed accelerating from a set of traffic lights in Derby! And I’d been grass tracking, scrambling, doing motorbike trails and had a Yamaha TD2B road racer by that time...and worked in a garage for 3 years, so road sense I may not have had much of , but mechanical skills were slightly above average I’d assume. I owned a TR6 subsequently for 20 years on the original coil springs and they never failed despite having 65 more bhp, a shed load more torque and being 35 years old when I sold it so nice try but no cigar. 😉😉
As a post-note....it was well known that the original 2-leaf springs weren’t up to the job and so every one that broke (and there were a few at the garage) were replaced with the estate versions 4-leaf spring....only trouble was that it jacked up the back end by an inch or so and affected the handling slightly. Steered better but the rear end was a bit ‘wavy’.
And the bakes never faded on the TR6!
I owned the Marina on and off for 11 years!
Steve Inskip I know the feeling! We'd all learnt to drive by 16 as our families and friends were into banger racing at the time so we drove those. Can remember chaining the back axle on a jag xks as the live axle would shift if the torsion arms snapped. We all drove modified cars in the days when insurance was cheap. The marina was actually my mum's car and we'd modified it because she complained it was slow, we got it to about 110mph by the time we'd finished , that made her happy.😂😂
jeremy toms haha...yes, I lived in a small village and me and a mate took the body off an old VW Beetle and raced that round his dads fields. Also I’d been driving in one of the local estates on their closed roads from the age of 11. Glad your mum was impressed with your work! 👍
I had a Marina many years ago. Had some bodywork done to it. Then shortly afterwards the internal wiring started smoking. Disconnecting the battery stopped it smoking. So after a visit to the scrapyard I purchased a wiring loom, replaced the burnt out one and got it functioning again. Taught me a lot about wiring vehicles and it's not something to be afraid of.
I rarely subscribe on a channel's first vid, but I really like what you do and how you do it. Even when you talk about something that really pushes your button (top gear's down-the-nose treatment), you stay composed. Thank you!
Your love for the Marina grew making this vid, as far as I can tell. And it's your enthousiasm that really appeals to me. Please do more 'middle-of-the-road' and therefore underappreciated British cars - there are quite a few, all through the years. I especially love the Imp ;-)
No better and no worse than what was being churned out from Vauxhall and ford from the era
Dean Stanley
Nah the Cortina was far superior .
paul austin
Well I reckon the works Tea Trolley was 100% reliable 😝
I had a 1977 one in flame red MWM115S 1.8 HL twin carb beautiful Car never let me down once
GWLAD.... And still not dead according to my dvla app.
MP3 Rider wish I knew where it was
THANK YOU FOR DOING THIS VIDEO! I loved the Marina partly as it was my first car.... and a different Marina also happened to be my last car... I don't get the hate directed at Marinas, surely it's among the least shitty BLMC cars of the 70s - it didn't even have that crappy suspension that broke down and it was even fairly airodynamic (though not waterproof). And even though the drivers side window kept breaking, the good thing was that it was completely theft proof, because nobody wanted to steal it! It was great though, I really miss mine and they're definitely in my own personal "room of lost things"
My grandfather had a K-reg Marina 1.8, he was a Morris Oxford man, it served him well for over ten years, including continental holidays towing a caravan. He was a meticulous owner, doing his own servicing, which is the reason he preferred simple front engine and rear wheel drive cars
Great video 👍I worked for an Austin Rover dealer in the early 80s so got to see all the Marina's. We had a van and pick up for work..They were brilliant fun and reliable. The GTs were lovely with a really nice interior. Another good one was the last of the line with the 2.0 O series and fully loaded. They had their problems but no more than any other motor. 👍
Unless you had reliable statistics that would be hard to prove.My impression working in garages that fixed a range of everyday cars was that they DID have more and specific, persistent problems, weaknesses/ defects than some imported brands and maybe about the same amount but in different areas than competing Fords.
What a lovely little unbiased film of a survivor from the sad demise of the British car industry in the controversial 1970’s, I look forward to your down to earth snap shots of the automotive past, like little Ladybird books of social history. Brilliant
Seconded
Thirded :)
richard halliday What an perfect and complimentary comment. Good for you mate.
Jurassic Coast Comics Thank you
Mark McCluney Thank you
Thank you Ian for taking me down memory lane. I learned to drive in a Morris Marina in the late 70s, it was even possible for me to fix things Hubnut style, I remember replacing a headlamp and part of the rear suspension when working at a garage, and there was some liberal use of filler in the bodywork, good times!
I'm a retired mechanic, had three Marina's two 1300's and an 1800 that I converted from auto to manual. The only one that let me down just stopped at a pedestrian crossing. Had it towed back to work and found that all compressions were just above zero. Took the head off, nothing to see, piston tops ok, run a bit of emery cloth around the somewhat polished bores and put it back together, started first go, and went just as well as ever.
Memories of my 1.3L Red Marina as an apprentice at BL dealership in the late 70's, I converted it to 1.8 TC with van suspension and TR7 wheels, I very nearly added white stripes to make it a Starsky and Hutch wannabe! Great video many thanks Hub Nut.
Interesting. What van provided the front end bits ?
Thumbs up for the Marina. I had a 1.8SDL estate back in the day. It was fairly worn at only 5 years old but to be fair it had done a quite high mileage, but I got it cheap so it was good news. With a bit of fixing up and the fitment of a telescopic shock conversion kit on the front suspension and a set of Grayston leaf spring assisters to the rear, it was a dependable, pretty quick workhorse. After the fitment of Alfa Romeo front seats, it was pretty comfortable too. The plentiful supply of generic BL parts in scrapyards also made it cheap to fix when it did go wrong. Sadly corrosion got the better of it in the end, but the engine lived on in another one.
Owned two of these, an early one in orange and a brown Ital. They were, as you say, perfectly acceptable. We had mk2 escorts afterwards. If it came to it I’d choose an escort over a marina. But wouldn’t say no.
The company my Dad worked for used Marinas for the sales reps. In winter they used to put a paving slab in the boot to try and get some grip on the wintertime roads. The cars were so light they’d not bite the roads at all. Making them both fun and lethal at the same time. Often at exactly the same time!
that A series engine is very reliable the Morris minor is famous for it. good on fuel too and great to work on at home ,cheap for parts , plenty of go faster add -ons great cars .
Funny enough there are people who adore all of Top Gear and like Marinas at the same time, like me.
Great road test once again, Ian!
Great to hear some positive comments about the Marina. In my youth I drove an early 1971 1.3 saloon all the way to the Arctic Circle in Norway and back - it didn't miss a beat. A real workhorse.
This video brings back interesting memories. Back in 1976, I was the second owner of a 1972 K-reg Marina 1.3 4-door saloon in blue. It had what my friends and work colleagues humorously referred to as 'detachable door handles', owing to the fact that the awful square-shaped ultra-cheap alloy things which allowed me to sometimes open the doors from the outside often snapped off and had to be replaced. But, for it's foibles, I lovingly owned that car for over a year. Back in those days, rust was a constant reminder to me to change my cars quite often and usually before the MOT was due, something that doesn't appear to be a problem with modern cars. I'm guessing my Marina evenually ended up on top of a pile of other cars at a scrap dealers, after probably changing owners several more times into the 1980s.
First time stumbling across your channel. My Nan had a Morris Marina and drove it well into the early 1990s before she quit driving. I have very fond memories of the car. It was not flash but then we were a family with little money anyway so to have a car that yes, got you from A to B, reliably I might add, was a blessing. I really enjoyed the video, your approach to the car and the review as a whole. You have earned yourself a new subscriber!
Hi, I had a mk2 cortina 1600 Gt 2 door and my mate got a Marina.
Lads did we have fun, we both threw a couple of pioneer radio- cassettes in and we drove everywhere, no problems and with servicing you allways had Uniparts in town to get your stuff.
No shit ecu's or computers to piss you off, basic tools.
We didnt want high tec we just wanted a set of wheels, pick up a bird and go to the coast, Ahh happy days.😂
My front wheel fell off with that useless seized front suspension nonsense . also it was a near death trap in an accident. But I did live in the van version as it was a tad longer than the escort.
@@williamwoods8022In my accident the brake pedal ended up on the front of the drivers seat and the steering wheel broke every rib , the marina was half its original length. The volvo estate I hit had a cracked windscreen is all I am saying . Great car and super cheep to keep fixed.
I love your intelligent approach. Your review of under-investment and the model becoming increasingly outclassed was spot on. There was also a mind-set doing the rounds then that everything produced in the UK was automatically rubbish, whether it was a car, a washing machine or a TV. Somehow we were laying the foundations for a decade of de-industrialisation. Regarding the cars, my grand father bought a 1978 1.3 coupe to replace his Morris Oxford in 1980. As a nine year-old I was delighted by it's bright and airy interior and was fascinated by the long rear window. My dad bought a 1982 1.7 HLS Ital in 1985 as a cheap family car and I loved that too. the Marina was very basic but actually better built than the Ital. In 1988 I learnt to drive on the Marina and after I passed drove myself to school in it. Endured a hell of a lot of ribbing for the Marina which had faded to orange by this time and, as you observe, ran out of breath at 60. I definitely learnt respect in that car. It could easily be pushed beyond its limits, but was fun and reliable in its own way. Horribly hot and sticky in the summer but easy to get temperature right in winter and the 'A' series was incredibly easy to maintain. I inherited the Ital in 1989 and it was much more refined, faster and handled much better. I never got into a skid in the Ital. The trim had been poorly installed but was comfortable and cosy despite this. I did a lot of long runs in the Ital, Scottish Highlands and all over England. It was a very reliable car and the 'O' series engine was absolutely lovely (although tricky on a cold start). I had to scrap it in 1994 when the tin worm had got the better of the subframes. I was very sad to see it go. I've got pics of each of them. The Ital would have been a genuine car for the 80s with a fifth gear. To my eye the styling was contemporary, although of course the underpinnings were obsolete. The trunnions were always noisy. Maestros and Montegos (I owned both) were a big step forward but the design/styling of the Marina was simple and appealing. Keep on with the vids - great work.
I think the construction type is known as mono-coque ( a single shell) so whatever the load-bearing sections for engine and suspension mounts were called they weren't 'sub-frames'.
Mini,1100, Maxi and so on did have separate front and rear sub-frames which could be removed from the body-shell when damaged or corroded and renewed.
I had Marinas & Itals in every form from the 1970's through to the 1990's.They're reliable, economical and easy to fix at home. So it was nice to watch an honest appraisal and go for a ride down Memory Lane in a Marina. I too turned away from Top Gear when they destroyed Marinas with glee, darn tossers. To sum up, an excellent very enjoyable honest video, thanks!
Thank you so much for this. Honest opinions, well presented and in decent English. Bravo. And whilst the Marina or the Ital were never going to set the world alight, they moved people around. Job done. i had a seemingly indestructible Ital that served me very well. It replaced a Renault 14, which really was dreadful in so many ways!!
Great little engine, the A-series. "I'm all about the brakes, 'bout the brakes, no servo."
There's always the handbrake...
I've had two Marinas, a 1.8 TC with the MGB engine which I changed the front suspension to telescopic, it saw of my mates 1.8 Datsun Sunny. The second was the 1.7 HL which didn't have the low down torque of the TC. Nothing wrong with either
I was an apprentice in a Leyland dealer when this car was new. Merseyside Police ran some 1.8TCs, which went like stink. They soon had to get rid of them as the power was just too much for the Chassis. Cars where running straight on in corners, and turning over. The principle problem was the front torsion bar suspension, and the ineffective Armstrong lever type shock absorbers which constantly leaked fluid. The 1.3 around town was a good comfy car.
Nice to see that my views on Top Gear are shared by yourself & so many others Ian. I always enjoy your reviews & choice of cars, please keep 'em coming.
"Plughole of doom". Love it.
Yes I laughed at that.
also known as 'Flying Plughole' :)
Marina, viva .Datsun 100a all bring a smile to my face, cheap and cheerful.
100a with a 1.3 Nissan Cherry engine does bring a smile to your face.
Agreed! When I was a kid (single figures, primary school) there were two abandoned cars dumped in a car park near me. I'd see them each day on the way to school and at weekends go and visit them usually Saturday nights. One was MK2 blue (sort of colbalt blue) Viva with Rostyle wheels and chrome bumpers and wipers. It had the original radio inside. The other was a Skoda Estelle (Rapid? Possibly, with the longer saloon boot) on a C plate.
I'd kill any number of people to get my hands on those cars again, especially the Viva. I owe so much to them for sparking my interest in older cars and all things 'Hubnut' as Ian would say. They were there for what felt like years then one day they were gone. I got some badges and bits off them but it was my dream to garage and learn to get them working and then one day have a licence to drive them.
Channels like this are the closest thing to making that childhood dream a reality, until I can one day get my hand on actual examples at a good price (not sure if that'll ever happen).
I also like Cheap & cheerful cars. They have real Character.
100a - legend
Viva with Rostyle wheels - tasty. but I reckon anything wearing rostyle wheels gonna look good. my fave wheels of all time
I barrel rolled my mum's one - happy memories! Then later I bought a marina ute with a Datsun 180b SSS motor in it.
Couldn't agree more with your view on Top Gear.
I used to love Top Gear when it was presented by Jeremy, hamster and may, but it wasn’t a car review programme it was all about the banter.
Top gear loved all the exotic cars that the average person couldn’t afford, and the Marina was a simplistic BL car and wasn’t all that bad.
Totally agree about Top Gear destroying a few Marina's. I was a teenager at the time and thought it was funny the first time, once they had destroyed a few over about 10 years it got boring quite quick and it was upsetting that some tidy old cars were ruined for no reason
I would be ok with it if they destroyed only barely running Marinas that aren't worth fixing - let's be honest, not the most expensive, collectable, desired classic car around - nobody should invest thousands of pounds in it. But tidy and clean examples... They should have left alone. Also there are thousands - literally thousands of cars that same point and same comedic effect could be achieved with - why not destroy some Renault 9/11s , Vauxhall/Opel Astras, Fiat Tempras, Volvo 440s, Corollas, Camrys, Accords, Corsas, Escorts....
@stray dog7 I could say the same about my 1985 Vauxhall nova. It used to like to cough and roll me gently out into traffic before refusing to go any further.
simpleminded1uk Lovely! Still, I had the throttle stick wide open on mine - plus, occasionally all the lights would go out when the indicators cancelled!
@@stanojevicnatasa2514 The Renault 9 is probably just as rare as a Marina.
Arun Parkin it wasn’t when top gear started destroying marinas over a decade ago
Thanks Ian, this is the first time I have viewed one of your videos. It is so refreshing to listen to someone being positive. My dad had a Marina and I can remember next to nothing about it so rather reinforces your point about it being a normal car. My mate had one and at the first sign of frost it decided to dump itself into a ditch. He knew there was a problem when the towing company asked him if it was a Marina straight away.
Please keep up the pleasantries and don't worry about Clarkson he will disappear one day, already lost to everyone who doesn't have Amazon Prime (must cancel my subscription).
My gramps had a 1.8 1971 BAX 209K. I used to love traveling in the back seat on day trips to tintern and penscynor. He had it for donkeys year's and never had a problem with it. Brings back great memories. The colour was Bedouin (creamy coloured). Keep up the good work with these videos!
I was given one of these Marinas for $150 from a mate who bought it for his daughter, she was horrified & refused to be seen in it? it was exactly the same year and colour.
That little beauty Marina gave me 6 years of trouble free motoring, I swapped it for a kayak and bottle of rum the new owner drove it for another three years without any problems
unfortunately it was hit by a load of timber fulling off a truck, they chopped the squashed roof off and used as a beach buggy until it finally clapped out, so yeah dam great little car it was.
I owned a 1.3 coupe marina 1977 , it did not stay a 1.3 for long, it acquired an mgb 1.8 b series mgb gear box high lift cam single 45 weber and it was used for road rally’s, very cheap motorsport and a lot of fun , never let me down, it started every time , went to France many times and was very reliable, towards the end before all parts were donated to another project it look like a patchwork quilt after repairing constant rust, a patch here and there, to be honest patches every where, but the old girl lives on in my memories as an average car but a lot of very cheap fun
In 1987 when i was 17 my first car was a 1978 1700HL in orange with a black vinyl roof, fantastic car, happy days. Still got the Haynes manual!
Top gear are only a shower of toffs for know all’s , good honest review , well done
My girlfriend in 1988 had an S reg Marina and I have to say I secretly enjoyed driving it whenever my B reg Scirocco GTX was in the garage. I got to drive it quite a lot.
Hi, your video is fantastic, I enjoying watching it thankyou, brought back a lot of memories.
We had one of these in Limeflower same colour as this one. Ours replaced a Morris Minor back in 1972. Our Marina was a 1.3 Super 2 door Coupé. We had it 9 years till 1981 where we upgraded to a Morris Ital which had a lot of rust problems early on in it's life. Our Marina was not a bad car at all, very basic but did the job. Our wipers were the other way around to this Marina in the video. Our seats were Limeflower vynil and the dashboard was dark brown, I grew up with it so I was used to it, I was 4 years old when my Mum and Dad got this brand new on a K plate in January 1972. The A series engines were easy to work on not like today's cars unfortunately with engine management systems and not much room to work around them as they are compacted in etc. It was despicable and bad behaviour of Top Gear to do what they did to the Marina, they smashed a Perodua Kelisa up too which I found to be very childish of them so poor show from them they should be ashamed but they're probably not, just silly idiots. Jeremy Clarkson is a good entertainer but some of the things in his programmes are uncalled for 🙄😐
I stopped watching when they dropped a Renault Twingo sport in the dock.
They were okay. I remember lifting the stick for reverse. I liked the look of the Princess and Allegro.
First car for a mate of ours who was the first to pass his driving test, A 1.8 automatic in white! He took us everywhere in it back in the early 80s, Never let us down..Great memories..So a car I will always have a soft spot for.
Great review..keep em coming.
Love it, thank you @HubNut ! One of my best mates had a Marina, my first car was a Land Crab (bought from a former international rugby player in 1981)... great to see a blast from my youth not disappointing you too much!
Coming back again on my own comment as I must say that (to be fair to British Leyland) despite the challenges of the governments of those days my old '75 Leyland Triumph Spitfire 1500 was also a fantastic old thing that, though supposedly a "sports car", was actually a great workhorse that I took from 60 odd thousand miles to 105,000 miles and was still doing 50 mpg by the time I sold her (ofter only a recon gearbox at about 90,000 miles).
I bought a one year old two door Marina coupe in 1978 straight after serving a 12 month ban. A week later I landed a job in Germany so I drove it to Munich and used it there for the next 15 months. I brought it back packed to the gills at Xmas 1979. It was never serviced in that period and I never had a moment's problem with it.
Really enjoyable vid mate. Thanks for not being a teenage-boy-in-his-middle-age; really appreciated your remarks about Top Gear. Thanks again.
I've had 3 of them, excellent cars, huge boot, very comfortable and very reliable. I had one identical to the one in the video. Also had a 1.8TC which had tinted glass, rostyle wheels, and vinyl roof. the 1.8 twin carb engine was superb and I loved it. The RAF even had a couple of V8 versions as rally cars! Can't fault them.
I had a Marina for 7 years. Paid $1,200, sold it $1,200. Carried 4 guys 4 surfboards. Not a classic but never let me down.
What country are you in please?
@@Martindyna - A mad-keen surfer with a name like Bruceintas? 🏄
Hmm. Bruce in Tas? He gives the price in dollars, too, so... I'm guessing he's in Tasmania, the big island off the south coast of Australia. ;-)
@@EleanorPeterson Thanks, sorry for being dumb that day 😄😄
They also sell marinas in the USA as well