If this is a car I that wasn’t aware of, it had to be some sort of turkey with a shelf life less than the Liz Truss lettuce, and yes, indeed it was a car that didn’t last very long and it wasn’t very good and yes it was a story filled with poor decisions. So, it’s a perfect subject for this channel!
Take a look at the furiousdriving review of the Austin 3L: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z1SYnRr4o6U
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Sources:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Austin_Westminster
https://www.aronline.co.uk/cars/austin/3-litre/ado61-development-story/
https://www.aronline.co.uk/concepts-and-prototypes/rolls-roycebentley-collaboration-with-bmc/
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Austin_3-Litre
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hydrolastic
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/BMC_ADO16
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/BMC_ADO17
https://www.aronline.co.uk/cars/bmc/1800-2200/
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/BMC_C-Series_engine
https://www.aronline.co.uk/engines/c-series/
https://www.aronline.co.uk/concepts-and-prototypes/projects-and-prototypes-vanden-plas/
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wolseley_Motors
https://www.aronline.co.uk/concepts-and-prototypes/wolseley-3-litre/
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rover_Company
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Austin-Healey_3000
https://www.aronline.co.uk/cars/jaguar/xj6-xj12/the-cars-jaguar-xj6xj12/
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source
Take a look at the furiousdriving review of the Austin 3L: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z1SYnRr4o6U
Stellantis will go the same way
BMC's dealers were a power unto themselves, hence all the various badge engineered cars so that Morris and Austin dealers could pretend they were separate companies. Austin had produced cars up the Vanden Plas limousines so they probably wanted something to replace the Princess R. And Morris dealers had Wolseley for its larger cars. With almost no new product in the pipeline, was their an alternative?
You lost my attention at 2.08 when you said "reached out" instead of got in touch with or just plain contacted. What's wrong with approached? Cut out the mid Atlantic jargonese, a man of your age should know better,
Now, in the words of the late great Graham Chapman, " get on with it".
I had one of those. Just abandoned it in NW10 when it broke down
Cars were rubbish until the Toyota Corolla was imported from Japan.
Passed my driving test in 1975.
First car an Austin 1800, lovely to be in, but it kept ruining front tyres.
Traded in for an Austin Maxi, which to this day is the best car I've ever owned.
Stupidly ( i was young ), I traded that to get an Austin 3 litre.
It turned out to be a mistake. Loved the car, but the petrol consumption was terrifying.
Aside from all that, what they had in common was a wonderful cabin.
The amount of space and comfort was unrivalled, so irregardless of the many faults they had that was what I loved about them. They were so nice to be in.
The thumbnail brings back a memory ,in the background the old supermarine slipway at woolston southampton and behind it the SITB training centre where i spent a year in 1968 😊😊😊
I feel like in the future, we'll be buying bespoke, handmade cars at much higher prices if we want one at all. Not exactly RR territory, but maybe 2-3x as much as we are paying today.
I worked in E Bay tuning at Cowley BMC works in the late 60s . Worked on many of these beasts while there and they use to give us a little over 30minutes for an engine change. My pay in those days was around £45 a week which was believe it or not a lot in those days . Remember Norman the foreman and big Fred the welder ha ha
Range anxiety, poor heater, non-ergonomic dashboard. You could be describing an EV😂
Another terrific and informative video that kept me focused until the end. Well done.
3 liter and westminsiter before make brillint bangers in the 70 80 s❤️
Well my grandad had one, and as a boy i liked it. Dad had an XJ 4.2 manual though, which was in a different league! I was able to drive that once i was 18
I had a light blue one back in the day and think it is a very underrated car. It was superbly comfortable relaxing car to drive with its self levelling suspension. We used it for camping holidays as it was ideal with a huge boot and plenty of room and it handled well for a large car. I have very fond memories of mine.
I just threw up a bit when you mentioned Liz Truss' lettuce. 🤮
The Austin 3 litre was very heavy compared with the 1800 ….. over 1/3 ton heavier.
If it was an Austin Healey 3 litre, it would be worth a small fortune.
Worked with a man who had one. White, to me a great car comfortable and rooms.
Remember how cars of this vintage, would rust out behind the headlights, then the headlights/sidelights/indicators would fill with water but still work? Well, a friend of mine got a plastic goldfish and put it inside the headlight. Anglia I think.
Good comfortable car
Untrue to say these cars were a disaster, they were priced for working people, they were reliable if taken care of.Just another Brit basher!,,
I Love all your videos but the sound is muffled , always has been on you channel . Is there anything you could do about it . Thanks
Disappointing that you chose to cheapen the video and the channel with that wholly unnecessary political comment.
At 7.45, the reg plate on the car shown was, JOKE.
I have owned both ‘C’ engined cars the 3 litre (ARY680K RIP) as an 18 year old in 79’ and a much tuned (220bhp) MGC (TAX549G now in Malaysia) about a decade ago both quirky and great in areas, Morris designed the ‘C’ 3 litre engine, legend has it, that the engineer thought he was designing a truck engine, hence the massively overweight rotating mass (it has nothing to do with the old Westminster or Healey engine), the 120bhp took a longtime to wind up 🤪 the first place to start tuning one is machining many many Lbs of weight off the flywheel and crankshaft, it’s a very reliable engine, if you know you know,
Looks disproportionate to me especially in side profile. I would have picked a landcrab Wolseley 6 or possibly a Volvo 164 over the 3 Litre.
My late father had one as a replacement for a 'rusty' 1966 Morris Oxford Traveler from 1975-1977. It spent more time in Mann Egerton in North Finchley. It was an interesting car, but it cost my father over £2,000 (back in the '70's). The stupid thing was, that he had also looked at a Rover P5B (which the choir master don't buy it because the engines rubbish) and a Wolsley Six (land crab), both these were in much better condition! What did he trade it in for? A baby diarrhea Morris Marina 1.3 Super. The dullard of BL. His last car was an excellent Austin Allegro, no, don't laugh, it was very reliable!
Typical BMC, blinkered, short sighted and making a car no one wanted.
wasn't joining the common market in 73 on of the reasons BL went bankrupt and their apperent unwillingness to export?
my brother in law had one, lovely car, still had the plastic covers on the seats. lot of car for the money.
Facinating and intelligent commentary on an interesting era in Brtiish motor manufacturing.