1978 Morris Marina

Ah, the Morris Marina, the woeful shame that sent the British car industry 20 years back, the poorly designed waste that failed to achieve any of the most basic goals set by car builders, a machine that has become a by-word for failure and a symbol for terrible workmanship and everything that was wrong with British industry in the 1970's, and nowadays known better for being cannon-fodder for an onslaught of spontaneous piano drops...

But much like the Austin Allegro, is it really as bad as all that?

The Morris Marina was launched in 1971 by British Leyland to replace the 23 year old Morris Minor. Designed by Roy Haynes, the Marina, despite being considered repugnant by many, doesn't actually look that bad, in some cases it's better than the Allegro. It was very much a design staple of its time, with the Hillman Avenger, the Vauxhall Viva and the Ford Escort sharing very similar bodyshapes.

But the problems came with its other developments. The car may have had a new body, but underneath it was just another Morris Minor, sharing a majority of parts including the suspension, with some models being powered by the BMC A-Series engine from the Mini.

Nevertheless, the car was launched in 1971 after only 18 months of development, and was made available across the Commonwealth under a variety of badges, including the Leyland Marina in Australia, the Austin Marina in North America, and the Morris 1700 in New Zealand. It was also available in a selection of trim tabs, including a 4-door saloon, a 2-door coupé, a camper variant and as a pickup truck.

Much like the Allegro, the Marina did sell well initially, being the 2nd highest selling car in the UK behind the Ford Cortina in 1973, but was not without major public issues to begin with.

During initial reviews the poorly put together press cars suffered from terrible suspension trouble which resulted in the cars finding it near impossible to take corners. Although this problem was later rectified, 39,000 cars still went out with this original poor suspension without recall to fix these issues.

But after the initial design faults came to light, the production quality faults were the next issue. Much like the Allegro, during strike periods, strike cars left the factories with major components missing, or pieces of trim not in place or not functioning properly, or suffered heavily from malfunctions, be they mechanically or electronically. At the same time the sheer lack of rustproofing on these cars meant that showing them a damp cloth would result in the bare metal brown of death appearing in more places than one.

Even so, the car did continue to sell, and achieve the goal of being basic, simple motoring for the masses despite all its faults, and remained in production for 9 years until it was replaced by a facelifted version known as the Ital in 1980. Although the Ital also sold well for its 4 year production life, the legacy of its forebears was still enough to tarnish its reputation, mixed with a less than stellar body design.

Today both Marina's and Ital's are near impossible to come by. Of the 809,000 Marina's built, only 670 remain on the roads, whilst of the 175,000 Ital's sold, only 174 continue to exist.

This is not helped by the running gag on the BBC car show Top Gear, where whenever a Marina appears on the show it is destroyed by a randomly falling piano dropped by the helicopter piano haulage company 'Careless Airways'.

But either way, despite all its criticism, I personally don't think the Marina is as bad a car as the world gives it credit for. Sure it's basic, not well equipped, slow, unreliable and prone to rusting, but as a small family car that ambles about the countryside, it's not as bad as some obscure Eastern Block models, and even today holds a place in the hearts of many as either a happy-go-lucky little runabout, or a cautionary tale of how not to build a car.