Morris Oxford Traveller.
Photos of Series V and VI Oxford saloons turn up fairly frequently - there are some on the Oxford page in this gallery. However pictures of the Farina-designed Oxford estates, or Travellers as they were known, turn up far less often. The car on this page was registered in Jersey, probably in the late 1960s. Can anyone positively identify the year of this Oxford's registration based on this number - J32210 ?
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In all I found three virtually identical photos of this Traveller in a Jersey driveway, however a closer look confirmed some subtle differences in the positioning of the wing mirrors. Whereas the car in the photo above looks quite dirty, one of the other photos shows it much cleaner, so perhaps the owner had just purchased it, and photographed it "before" and "after" a jolly good scrub. This example has been fitted with very substantial roof bars, suggesting that it was in for some serious use.
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Traveller or Countryman?
Badge-engineering was in full swing at BMC during the 1960s, primarily to satisfy the buying public who still had strong brand loyalties, going back to the days prior to the BMC mergers. Whereas the Farina saloons were built in many different guises - Austin, Morris, Wolseley and so on - the estates would only be produced in two variants. Morris buyers could opt for the Oxford Traveller estate, as shown above, whereas devotees of Longbridge's finest would no doubt plump for the Austin Cambridge Countryman version. Both cars were virtually identical, bar some interior trim variations, badging and exterior trim, but this was enough to keep both Morris and Austin followers appeased.
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These naming conventions were echoed throughout the rest of the range of Austin and Morris estates. Morris Minor estates (there was no Austin version of the Minor, bar the commercials) were also known as Travellers, Morris-badged Mini estates were badged as Travellers too, same for the fwd 1100s/1300s, while Austins were always badged as Countryman.
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Return to Page 12 in the vintage and classic car gallery.
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