My very first car was a Morris Marina. A £40 1972 white rusting 1.8L TC saloon that
my dad bought me so I could learn how to repair cars. I never learnt, and the Marina continued to
rust, until in a fit of madness I tried to drive it before I’d even had a driving lesson! It didn’t end well, for the Marina or the wall. Another story that didn’t end well was that
of the Marina itself. What started with hope as a popular Cortina-killer,
ended in the early 80’s after the car really overstayed its welcome! This is the Morris Marina story. (music) British Leyland subsumed the British Motor Corporation or BMC in 1968 to create a British
motoring behemoth containing pretty much the entire British car industry. But it quickly became clear that BMC hadn’t
invested for its future. They had the Austin Mini that despite selling
by the bucket load, wasn’t making money. Then there was the 20-year-old Morris Minor
that needed pensioning off. Their Austin 1100 and 1300 were selling well,
but prospective customers were soon eyeing up the larger and superior Ford Escort. Ford’s larger Cortina was selling by the
boatload, and BMCs similar-sized offering, the Morris Oxford was getting its bottom handed
to it as it was hopelessly out of date. BL did have its own competitor, the Triumph
1300 that was soon to be updated as the Toledo, but Leyland wanted to keep Triumph separate
from BMC’s Austin and Morris brands. They also didn’t see the cost-saving benefit
of sharing platforms between its marques. BL decided the new car should be around the
same size as the mk2 Cortina but being just £20 more than the smaller Ford Escort meant
it could be a big seller. The Fiat 124, Vauxhall Viva, and when they
launched, the Hillman Avenger and Ford Capri were also seen as this new car’s competitors. BL’s management wanted the car released
as soon as possible, so set a deadline of the 1970 Earl’s Court Motor Show for its
release – just two years away. Two years was an aggressive timeline to get
a car released, so corners would have to be cut on the new project, dubbed ADO28. The first was the chassis. The team took the difficult decision to use
the ancient Morris Minor rear wheel drive chassis as a starting point, also using its
front suspension and brakes. It was proven, reliable, and dependable, excellent
traits for foreign markets with tough roads, but it wasn’t exactly the last word in refined
handling. However, as Morris was seen as a more staid,
dependable rear wheel drive brand, this design fit the new car well. And after all, wasn’t the Cortina and Vauxhall
Viva also rear wheel drive? The team didn’t have time to develop new
engines, so leant heavily on the existing A-series engine from the Mini, Austin 1100
and 1300 and the MG Midget, and the B-series engine from the MGB and Morris Oxford. But these engines weren’t exactly spring
chickens. The B-series had first appeared on the 1954
Morris Cowley, and the A-series on the 1951 Austin A30. It was too much work to add synchromesh to
the Morris Minor gearbox, so BL cast around for an alternative. They found it in Triumph’s 1300 and converted
it to work with BMC’s engines. The lights and windscreen wiper mechanism
would also be lifted from Triumph’s. This car was turning into a true parts-bin
special. But there was method to BL’s madness. This car was just a stopgap to get them to
1976 when a true replacement could be produced. Although this car couldn’t be called a pig,
it definitely needed some lipstick to help it sell. Fortunately, BL had just nabbed Roy Haynes,
stylist of the mk2 Ford Cortina. Soon he’d designed the Mini Clubman, making
the tiny car a lot more practical, and BL put him to work on their new Cortina-killer. BMC’s Austin 1800 had come off as old-fashioned,
and the upcoming Maxi was seen as a little uninspiring compared to the competition. ADO28 needed to be forward, progressive – something
to take the British company into the 1970s. But Roy Haynes wasn’t the only person creating
a design. BL bought in Italian design houses Michelotti
and Pininfarina, both of which had worked with BMC or Leyland in the past. After a review of all the proposals in August
1968 BL chose Roy Haynes’ design. And it was a design that was definitely “of
the moment” – a late 1960s American shape shrunk down to fit onto British roads. It was surprisingly similar to the mk1 Escort
that had worked so well for Ford, and it would be highly successful with the Ford Capri and
mk3 Cortina. But Haynes’ two-door design would be a departure. Rather than simply lengthening the front doors
and keeping the same shape, he chose to make the two-door a coupé. The Capri wouldn’t be the only new cool
kid on the block, and BL hoped this new car would attract the young baby boomer market. There was no worry about this design going
out of fashion – remember this car was going to be completely replaced in the mid-70s. Roy Haynes also pushed the idea of a common
platform for many of British Leyland’s cars, something almost all car companies do today
to save development costs. However, his ideas were rebuffed, and he left
BL the following year. By late 1968 the viability of the whole project
came into question. The car was meant to go up against the Cortina,
but news on the street was the upcoming Cortina was bigger than its predecessor. This meant BLs new car would be fighting against
the cheaper Escort. What’s more, it was clear customers were
looking for a 2.0L engine, and ADO28’s engines only went up to 1.8L. The stopgap solution
was to enlarge the engine bay for future larger engines, and this and other redesigns delayed
the rushed development program. The larger E-series engine that would release
in the Austin Maxi was considered, but as small 6-cylinder engines weren’t in vogue
it wasn’t used. The team would stick with the tried and tested
A and B-series engines for now. This delay in production meant the new MacPherson
strut rear suspension had to be abandoned in favour of using the Morris Minor’s old-fashioned
leaf-spring setup. This time crunch also compromised Roy Haynes’
2-door coupé, with the car having to share the 4-door saloon’s front doors. With the coupé’s shape compromised, BL
dropped any hope of marketing this as a Ford Capri competitor. There were worries that ADO28 development
would rob BLs limited resources from the upcoming Austin Allegro. And at the same time there were concerns over
the suggested retail price of just £575 ($734 USD, €626, $1,031 AUD),
just a little more than the Escort. That price had been thrown out at the start
of the project without detailed costing, but now it was clear it would have to be more
to make a profit. BL’s CEO Lord Stokes’ response was to
get the car into production first and worry about pricing it later, with the hope production
efficiencies could reduce costs. You don’t need an MBA to realise just how
blinkered an idea that was! And given comments he made after the fact,
it’s clear that Stokes didn’t know what was going on in his factories. The final price would rise to £620 ($791
USD, €675, $1,135 AUD) (£8,829 today), but this was a time of high inflation, and
the price was actually cheaper in real terms than the original £575 price. The team needed a catchy name for their new
car. With it being a Morris, the idea of an “M”
name seemed to make sense. Package holidays to exotic European beaches
were becoming popular, and glamorous sounding names were in vogue. Some favoured the Morris Monaco, some the
Morris Machete (believe it or not), and there were various other names, but BL’s management
finally settled on the Morris Marina, even though this was the name of that Austin 1100
and 1300 in Denmark. To put BL back on a solid financial footing,
the marketing men were betting that the Marina would sell well. They wanted a colossal 9% share of the UK
market, rising to 11% in 1973. This meant selling 5,000 Marina’s a week. And why not? The 7-year-old Austin 1100 and 1300 were defying
the odds as the top selling car in the UK in 1970 and 1971. (music) The Marina missed its planned launch date of the 1970 Earls Court Motor Show but was
launched at a swanky press event in the sun-soaked Mediterranean town of Cannes in April 1971. BL marketing men announced it was the first
in a new line of BL cars. Morris dealers were happy, with one exclaiming:
“No one will look at the Marina and turn a somersault in sheer excitement but as a
value for money package it is exactly what we in the trade have been asking Lord Stokes
to provide. If we cannot sell this we might as well pack
it all in.”. The motoring press saw it for what it was
– a parts bin special with a new body and updated interior, but they were kind on it,
giving it lukewarm reviews. Customers deliveries began just under 3 years
from the inception of the project – an amazingly short time for a new car, even if this wasn’t
a new car, but rather bits of several old cars. The Marina was produced at the Cowley plant
in Oxford, a factory that hadn’t changed much since Morris motors built it in the 1920s. BL had spent what money they had to update
it, and now added a night shift to hit their target of 5,000 cars and to bring down the
growing waiting list. Where modern car reviewers would have probably
gone to town on the Marina’s shortcomings, in 1971 they were more restrained. And during their testing they found a serious
problem. Although the larger engined 1.8L model could
get up to 100mph, the heavier engine gave the car a dangerous level of understeer that
made it difficult to control in fast bends. Both Autocar and Motor magazine found the
issue, and to their credit they compared notes before approaching BL about it. They said that if BL didn’t fix the issue
immediately, they would have to publish articles telling the motoring public the 1.8 model
was dangerous. BL agreed to rectify it of course, and both
magazines published without the warning. However, with the rush to fulfil orders, maybe
30,000 cars went to the public without the fix, although some had the fix installed by
dealers. The worrying thing was BL was aware of the
issue, but as the car only had a short shelf life, and under intense time pressure to release
the car they’d decided it wasn’t important enough to fix. Britain in the 70s was a country beset with
strike action. A rising inflation rate, and a failing economy
caused many workers to strike to ensure their pay stayed in line with inflation. So, it’s probably not surprising that the
Marina’s Cowley factory, that had seen 347 disputes just in 1970, was hit with strike
action just after the car was launched. With BL needing to hit 5,000 cars a week to
break even their production rate slowed. Despite high demand from customers BLs marketing
men had the bizarre problem of trying to slow down Marina sales. In truth BL was still ramping up production
at Cowley’s old facilities. When workers weren’t striking, production
in 1971 was only 2,000 cars per week. Output had risen to 4,000 cars a week by spring
1972, but output was still being hit by strikes. By 1973 the Marina managed to hit that magical
5,000 goal. But it’s not like BL was the only car company
suffering from strikes. In 1971 the British motoring industry lost
over 3M days of work to strike action. Output would increase further with Australian
production coming online in 1972. The car, originally called the Morris Marina,
then the Leyland Marina, was proudly touted as “Made in Australia for Australians”,
and it would use the Maxi’s more powerful E-Series engine. BL would also launch the car in South Africa,
New Zealand and even North America where it was known as the Austin Marina. Back in the UK BL would launch the more practical
estate version, allowing it to compete with Ford’s Cortina estate. And pickup and van versions would also soon
arrive. By 1972 the Marina was the 3rd highest selling
UK car, with over 100,000 cars sold. It would rise to number 2 in the charts the
following year, just behind the Cortina. As the 1970s dawned, it was a possibility
the British car industry would be crushed by the triple American threat of Ford, General
Motors, and Chrysler, but the Marina had seen off at least two of these threats. But 1972 would be the Marina’s peak in sales. That year the Government had put money into
consumers hands to stave off a recession, and in 1973 the economy was coming down from
its sugar rush. The surge in demand had been soaked up with
foreign car imports, and with the UK’s entry into the Common Market in 1973 UK car buyers
were finding that foreign cars were a better deal than what BL was sporadically producing
thanks to strike action. With Britain on a three-day work week and
oil prices quadrupling, production was down to 4,250 cars a week, and the Marina slipped
in the charts as customers looked for more fuel-efficient cars like the Escort and the
Mini. BL started work on a Marina facelift, codenamed ADO73
that would eventually become the 1976 Marina II. But they also worked on the new clean sheet
Marina update they’d promised, codenamed ADO77. The chassis would be used on the MGB and Midget
replacements as well, echoing Roy Haynes failed attempt to persuade BL to use just a few chassis
for all its cars. It would be larger, and the new 2.0L O-series
engine would allow it to finally go toe to toe with the Cortina. But even before BL’s bankruptcy in 1975
there wasn’t money in the coffers to fund it. With BL funding the almost identical SD2 over
at Triumph, ADO77 was cancelled, and we got the 1976 Marina II facelift instead. The seats and grille were updated, the suspension
tweaked, and the car got a strange new dashboard that sloped away from the driver. But despite slapping a “Special” badge
on the back, it wasn’t much to write home about. To make matters worse, Leyland’s Australia
plant that produced the Marina closed after the failure of the homegrown P76. BL would update the engine line-up in 1978
with the long overdue O-Series engine, but by now the shape, penned ten years earlier,
was looking seriously out of date compared to its rivals. This had always been a stopgap car for BL,
and it was starting to outlive its welcome. The Government bought in Sir Michael Edwardes
to turn the company around, and the result of this shake-up was a decision to restyle
the body as yet another stopgap before its replacement, the Austin Montego arrived in
the mid-1980s. With the Morris Ital name, and BL playing
up its Italian ItalDesign connection, it’s easy to think that this car was designed by
ItalDesign. But in reality it was designed by BLs in-house
designer Harris Mann, he of the ill-fated Allegro and TR7. With BL busy on getting the Metro out the
door, ItalDesign took Harris Mann’s shape and created the tooling for BL to produce
it. However, insiders at BL claimed that ItalDesign
didn’t do a great job, and it was left to junior BL members to finish up the job for
them. Regardless, giving the car a little Italian
flavour helped sell a few more cars. It’s amazing the job was completed for just
£5M, that’s £22M today ($28M USD, €24M, $39M AUD). The car lost its iconic door handles, that
continued to be used by several other cars. The coupé was dropped, but the entry level
version got the updated A-series engine that was used in the new Metro. Of course, the car got crucified in the press. Its underpinnings and interior were far too
outdated to compete with the competition. And fleet managers were of a similar mind. As one said, “We would lose half our reps
if we bought this car”. BL could be forgiven for doing nothing more
to update the car before it was finally put out of its misery in 1984, but they did one
final update in 1982 with improved suspension. Maybe it was an intern project that got out
of hand. We’ll never know… With the exception of the van variant of the
Metro, the Ital was the last car to use the Morris badge. It was just one more famous British marque
to bite the dust as BL continued to contract. The Morris Minor was released the same year
as the book “Nineteen Eighty-Four” was completed, in 1948. And it could be said the Morris Minor lived
on through the Marina and Ital until 1984, when the factories were retooled for the Ital’s
replacement, the Austin Montego that you can hear all about through this link. The Ital’s tooling was purchased by Chengdu
Auto Works in China. After a long gestation the catchily-named
Huandu CAC6430 appeared on Chinese roads in 1998. Sales were short-lived with the factory believed
to have been closed down the following year. Today the Marina and Ital have a poor reputation
as a car that was hopelessly outclassed, and it’s on many lists of the worst cars every
built. It’s easy to think this was always the case. But there were only 3 cars in the UK the sold
more in the 1970s, and that can’t have been by accident. It definitely wasn’t the last word in performance
and handling, but it got you from A to B, on most days at least, and the interior was
updated to keep it looking fresh. But with fashionable looks that quickly went
out of fashion, despite a desperate styling update in 1980, it was about as cool as flares
and the Bee Gees in the 80s and 90s. It was a car that was never meant to last
more than 6 years, and by overstaying its welcome it became the butt of many jokes. With over 1.1M sold in 1970s, why are there
only 371 Marina’s in the UK today with an MOT? Well, as I mentioned it wasn’t exactly the
coolest of cars, and its propensity to rust just by looking at a puddle didn’t help, but it being
a parts bin special was its ultimate downfall. Want a bit for your classic Morris Minor? You’ll find one on an old Marina. Need a Triumph 1300 gearbox or an MGB engine? Find an old rusty Marina and cannibalise it. The Marina lived on through another more unlikely
source. Austin Morris’s managing director George
Turnbull had been let go as BL stumbled towards bankruptcy in 1973. He took some of the British car industry’s
talent and a couple of Marina’s to Hyundai, who’d decided that rather than making other
people’s cars, they wanted to try their hand at making their own. The result was the 1975 Hyundai Pony. It used a Mitsubishi engine and was styled
by Italdesign, but its design leant heavily on the Marina to allow it to be shown at the
October 1974 Turin Motor Show. The final car launched at the end of 1975
and the Pony would kickstart the Korean company’s ascent as a dominant world car manufacturer. So, in a convoluted way the Marina, and I
suppose the Morris Minor, lives on through the Pony’s successor, the Hyundai Elantra. When I was young a friend’s dad had a Marina
and told me that if the car was driven at high speeds, my brain remembers something
like 90mph (145 km/h), that the doors deformed and you couldn’t get out of it. My dad also remembers this story. But I can’t find a source that mentions
it. Please let me know in the comments if this
was true and cite a source if you can! A big thank you to all my Patrons for supporting
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