Classic cars forum & vehicle restoration.

[pigtin]

Just lifted this report from the Independent, do we agree, or do we know differently?

The Austin Allegro has been voted Britain's worst-ever car.
The much-derided British Leyland car - often referred to as the 'All-aggro' - beat the Morris Ital and Talbot Sunbeam to the top spot in a survey carried out by internet magazine iMotormag.
The car was launched in 1973 and, with gimmicks including the square steering wheel, quickly gained a reputation for poor design quality. Despite this, 642,350 Allegros were sold.
It was a popular car with drivers in the 1970s and by the end of the decade was Britain's fifth best-selling car.
4,000 motorists took part in the survey with 24 per cent saying the Allegro was the car they would least like to be seen driving - even though production ended 25 years ago.
The top 10 worst cars
Austin Allegro 24 per cent
Talbot Sunbeam 11.4 per cent
Austin Princess 10.7 per cent
Hillman Imp 10.6 per cent
Rover 200 5.7 per cent
Triumph Acclaim 4.4 per cent
Rover 800 3.8 per cent
Morris 1800 2.6 per cent
Triumph TR7 2 per cent

[ukdave2002]

The trouble with these surveys is they are all very anecdotal, I am no fan of the allegro, but mechanically it’s the same as a Mini, with odd styling, given the styling was the first thing everyone would see why did they buy one?

The Talbot Sunbeam was one of the first cars I owned not the lotus version but a lively 1.6, I loved it, rear wheel drive, 2 door car with a hatch, had a huge following in motor sports winning the RAC rally outright in I think 1980, wonder if they are confusing it with the FWD Talbot Horizon?



Lotus Sunbeam , one of the few 80's cars that I would have.

Dave

[Scotty]

I had a white 4-door Allegro for nearly 2 years and apart from the odd shaped steering wheel (which I changed for a round one) the only thing I had go wrong with it was the rubber blocks (can't remember the technical name for them) holding the rear suspension. Even then it was a case of they were just getting tired and needed new ones, which were fitted in an afternoon by the local garage.

I liked it, it was like a big Mini to me, just a wee bit more bouncier.

Thinking about it now, I've had more trouble with each of my 2 Mercedes Benzs' than I had with the Allegro - makes you wonder!

[peter scott]

The only one I have much experience of is the Imp and whilst I wouldn't say it was the worst car I've ever driven, I did have some trouble with them.

Back in the 70s I had a Ginetta G15 (Imp sport based poor man's Lotus Elan)
and our daughter had outgrown her carry cot and thus no longer fitted in the "back seat". That meant that we had to borrow my mother's Imp to go on holiday. We had rented a very charming cottage in Patrixbourne, a mere 470 miles from Edinburgh. Well my mother never travelled very far nor very fast so as far as she was concerned the car was fine but for us fully loaded up with luggage and baby stuff for a fortnight? Well I think we got about 30 miles before the Imp had boiled enough water to make the heater run cold. At that we decided that we should turn back. We then borrowed Pam's mother's car, also an Imp. It was fine and got us to Kent but on one of our excusions I stopped to photograph a very crooked little cottage. (Just the sort you'd expect to be home to a witch.) Well when attempting to drive off again the gear lever no longer had any connection to the (rear mounted) gearbox.

Very suspicious!

Maybe this story should have been in the bodges thread, well I crawled underneath and selected top gear and we drove off. I think I only had to get out to select a lower ratio on one occasion to get us back to Patrixbourne.

No, Imps were none too reliable in my experience, but they were quite nice to drive when they worked, and I loved the Ginetta.

Peter

[pigtin]

Patrixbourne is just down the road from me. My only experience of the Imp was an ex-works rally car. I used to help the owner sort the electrics before each rally. It really went like s**t off a shovel and saw off many the Escort etc' and I can't remember it not finishing a rally. I think a few early ones had cooling problems, but then, the engine was a compromise having been de-tuned for road use (or so I was told).

[peter scott]

[peppiB]

Can't believe the trusty 1800 landcrab is in that list - mine still is an indestructible workhorse at 40 years of age and I use it for towing. Production was highest for Austin, then Morris then Wolseley, but survival numbers are highest for Wolseley, then Austin and the owners club tell me my Morris is one of only 46 known to still be running.

Recent bad experience with an Allegro - but that had nothing to do with the car itself. Technically I still own it. During a spell of illness when I couldn't do a paint job myself I let a garage do it. They sprayed it the wrong colour making it unsaleable (I used to buy and sell classics) I won't pay them, they won't spray the car the correct colour so it remains rotting away now in their compound.

[Job-Rated]

The Horizon was a much worse car than the Sunbeam & Talbot were also responsible for those ever-so-nasty Alpines & Solaras.

I'm not sure it's fair to pick on just the British-made ones. There have been a hell of a lot of terrible cars available on the British market that weren't home grown.

And why isn't the Reliant Robin in that selection?
_________________
Don't run your fingers over my truck & I won't run my truck over your fingers!


http://www.loosechange-band.co.uk/

[62rebel]

ah the media... when they have nothing else to say, they start up LISTS.
regularly over here there's a "worst ever" list of someones' making going around, stirring up flies off the $hite.
and just as regularly, they make a worst autos list that for some reason usually include the best selling low priced cars from any particular era; as if the genral population at the time were all drooling idiots who could not wipe themselves correctly.
"look at what the folks in the '70's were buying; what fools!"

i do not trust or like the general media for this particular trait; they all seem to have such excellent hindsight and pretend that they didn't do the exact same thing.........

[Penman]

Hi
Well I have driven 3 of them.

Imp:
Hire car for a week back in '64, nice responsive little car to drive, didn't find the rear engine layout affected handling though I had been told it could be a lot different to the older cars I had driven up till then.
Did have a problem one day when the pneumatic pipe came off the carb and it would only tickover, trouble was I didn't know it was pneumatic and couldn't find the wire, leading to the carb, which I thought must have been broken.

1800 (Morris or Austin badge?)
Hire car, ran a big end about an hour after I picked it up.

Acclaim
One of the cars we used on the water film skid pan I used to instruct on in Blackburn.
Despite using slicks on the rear pumped up to about 80psi, and secondhand fronts with about 60 psi, it was one of the hardest FWD cars to totally lose, it skidded quite well but was quite responsive to corrections.
The easiest to skid were the RWD Escorts but they were easy to correct or let go altogether, but by then most customers were starting to get FWD cars and we wanted to show them just how vicious the secondary skid in a FWD could be.

[pigtin]

I'm sure you're right 62rebel. In the case of the Allegro the bright 'media'
person who put about the "All Aggro" slur struck a chord with the public, few remember the car being that bad, but everyone remembers the name "all Aggro."
It wasn't a very good car, few were in the death-throes of the British Motor Industry, but it seems to get all the stick.
We were once told the Metro signalled the renaissance of the British Motor industry and we were told to 'Buy British' but they seemed to have the same rust traps and shoddy underfunded developement as the Allegro and Marina. At least that's how I seem to remember it, someone closer to the motor industry may see it differently.

Don.

[Geoffp]

Oh dear, oh dear, yet another rubbishy survey with all the usual suspects dragged out. Was there a real choice or did you have to pick from a list? It looks very much like the latter. In any case most of those cars were well-designed and performed their job well, it was just the build quality and reliability that let them down, but surely that is another issue.
Not only that but where are the Fords and Vauxhalls and the earlier cars? BL and Rootes did not have a monoply.The 1956 Vauxhall Cresta may have been reliable but it had the worst seats of all time; the only way you could get round a right-hand corner without ending up in the passengers seat was to have a passenger there And as for small side-valve Fords

How about a new competition - The ten worst car lists of all time I nominate Imotormag for first place

Geoff

[pigtin]

Doesn't this seem to be an 'image' thing? what sort of plonker is obsessed by the image his car projects, one has to have quite low self esteem to be worried by such things. I drive a Kia when I'm not in a classic and feel quite comfortable with my image, but then, perhaps I'm weird!

[clan chieftain]

If the Allegro just shaded the marina as one of the worst cars ever sold then why is the marina not second on the list ??
Jeremy Clarkson had a thing about BL cars. I seem to remember he totally destroyed a nice looking Allegro VDP. Sacrilege if you are into Allegros. We would feel the same if he destroyed one of our favourites.
Hillman Imp,Singer Chamois,Sunbeam Stiletto I have owned them all over the years. The Imp was a great wee car especially in the snow with all the weight at the back. 20 minutes took the engine out.
Personally I dont agree with lists. If we all just went for top of the range and executive cars life would be so dull. There is room for everyones tastes.
_________________
The Clan Chieftain

[poodge]

I'm amazed there's no mention of the VW beetle.I have owned a couple of Kombi's and a beetle,and loved them all.But that doesn't mean I'm blind to their faults.
Handling in a side wind was abysmal.The heater was only so-so at best,and useless if the trunking was a bit tatty.They weren't really all that economical compared to other cars of a similar size either.
Vauxhall EIP broke axles on a regular basis.
Vauxhall PB had an annoying habit of losing bits out of the tortuous gear linkage.I always carried some wire to effect emergency repairs.But what a great engine!
Austin A30/A35.Great little cars(my first one),except for the brakes.
Mind you,this applied to most cars of that era,particularly when well worn.
Hillman Minx mkVII had the endearing habit of losing wheels at inopportune moments,such as when passing the scene of an accident,attended by the constabulary.They were not impressed .
A friend's Sierra went through 2 gearboxes and a radiator in it's first year.
I'd like to think all these sorts of problems built character