Classic cars forum & vehicle restoration.

[Ronniej]

A very interesting topic and one that got me thinking.
I suspect manufacturers back then were content to allow their customers to identify the weak spots and correct the fault in later production.
Workshop manuals often had the phrase "[Early models were prone to..."
I don't think the Hillman Minx was particularly prone to bearing failure on the M1. Cars of the period had not been designed for the sustained high speed driving the new motorway allowed. Many drivers found out to their cost that, just because their car could attain 80 MPH, it was not necessarily a good idea to drive 80 miles in an hour.

My list of built-in faults include:

Early mini CV joints.

The bearing for the jockey wheel in BMC 1300s which made the gearbox howl like a banshee.(As I recall this problem did not arise too often in the
1100s so I suspect the bearing could not handle the extra power.

The radius arm bushes in the Cortina back axle.

Morris Marina: Noisy gearbox and jumping out of gear.

Incredible rust on V. Victors and Crestas of the late 50s but perhaps this was deliberate "planned obsolescence".

Ronnie Johnston

[petermeachem]

A friend of mine had a Lotus Europa, Apart from being hugely claustrophobic I don't think any of it was well designed. He had constant problems and got changing rear suspension bearings down to a fine art. The water pump failed which obviously meant taking the twin cam engine out to replace it