• Welcome to this forum . We are a worldwide group with a common interest in Birmingham and its history. While here, please follow a few simple rules. We ask that you respect other members, thank those who have helped you and please keep your contributions on-topic with the thread.

    We do hope you enjoy your visit. BHF Admin Team

Is This Your Motor?

Between my father, father in law and me, we had two Wolseley 18/85S, an Austin 1800 Mk1, a Morris 1800 Mk 3, and two Austin Maxis. No trouble ever experienced with gearboxes, and with the exception of my f-i-l’s Wolseley, they all towed caravans. My pa’s cars were always looked after with very regular oil (Duckham’s 20/50) and filter changes and cleaning any grot off the magnetic sump plug. My f-i-l’s cars only got looked at when they broke down!

There were so many BMC gearbox in sump cars, from Minis to the 1800s, that I don’t see the design as being flawed. The most unreliable of our cars from that era was my Mum’s Triumph Dolomite 1850, there always seemed to be some minor faults needing fixing.
Wolseley 18/85S loverly engine. i took one out a damaged land crab car.did a few mods and put the lump in my sherpa van.
20/50 oil was £5 gallon then (coma) i changed the oil every month. now we use 5-30w @£25 it gets changed every 6 months
 
My average miles up to ‘08 when I retired were about 25,000 and in the mid 70s about 30,000, but it was then a new car every two years.

My 2 1/2 year old Mercédès has just turned over 8,000!
 
Wow that extraordinary high. Were you doing sales or marketing reprentation? I worked for what was then the largest filter company Producing in US, U.K., Germany, France and India and we tracked miles driven by region fastidiously and never saw normal (whatever that is) mileage that high without the car being used for business!


My average miles up to ‘08 when I retired were about 25,000 and in the mid 70s about 30,000, but it was then a new car every two years.

My 2 1/2 year old Mercédès has just turned over 8,000!
 
50 mile return trip to the office at least, much further if visiting for meetings, my main account was about 260 miles return, would do that in the day leaving home about 5.30am, getting back about 7.00pm.

My last company car was offered to me to buy at just over 4 years old, 103,000 on the clock.
 
50 mile return trip to the office at least, much further if visiting for meetings, my main account was about 260 miles return, would do that in the day leaving home about 5.30am, getting back about 7.00pm.

My last company car was offered to me to buy at just over 4 years old, 103,000 on the clock.
John, sounds like some of the crazy things I did! My old company car is still running (I don’t have it) a Toyota Sequoia V8 Is still running 247,000 miles on the clock a little over 6 years old.
 
Wow that extraordinary high. Were you doing sales or marketing reprentation? I worked for what was then the largest filter company Producing in US, U.K., Germany, France and India and we tracked miles driven by region fastidiously and never saw normal (whatever that is) mileage that high without the car being used for business!
When I worked for the finance company and cars were kept for 2 years, my mileage was about 70,000 miles over the two years, but then I was moved to another arm of the business and in a Fiat Strada, I covered 97500 miles in 18 months and the sort of drives I did were typified by the following two days.
Monday left home in Barnstaple 0530hrs, went to Exeter, Frome, Banbury, just south of Coventry, Wolverhampton and then to Pwllelli. Overnight their, then after running a day long training course, Pwllelli to Hereford via Newtown. The rest of the week was Hereford to Pembrokeshire via Cardiff and Swansea, all over Pembrokeshire and Carmartenshire and home leaving Cardigan at 1530 and arriving in Barnstaple at 2245. Dome week and I did one like that about every four weeks. My cars over 20 years with the company were a Viva HB, Morris 1100, three Hillman Avengers (One badged Chrysler) a Viva E, another Avenger, a Fiat Strada, Morris Marina Coupe, and then Astras.

Bob
 
We had a customer who was the all UK rep for a spectacles company, he ran the mid range Austins, A50/55/60,and changed every year, he was due a new car but as usual there was a strike on.

So he bought a Morris 1000 to carry him on until the Austin became available, brought it in for service every Saturday morning, did 46,000 miles in six and a half months, we asked if he ever slept, he said "yeh, in the car.":)
 
Back to the original idea behind this thread..... Below are my father's pre-war and wartime cars. Obviously I know whose they were at one time - but they all went on to have other owners later and, with one exception, they had had other owners previously.

His first car after lethal motorbikes, a Morris Cowley, OP 585, photographed Croydon Road, Erdington, 1929

Cowley.jpg

Traded in, May 1934, for a black 1932 Morris Major (6-cyl, 13.9 h.p.) , OJ 577, photographed South Devon, ca 1935. The only family memory of this car relates to a persistent smell of bad eggs, probably emanating from the battery.

Major.jpg

That traded in, 1937, for a black 1936 Ford V8, again photographed South Devon 1938. The number plate is obscured by a reluctant two-year-old having his first (and last) riding lesson. But it was COH 619. The horse rider has just one memory of being in the back of this car but not that particular occasion.

V8a.jpg

Disaster at around that time, probably 1937. But car later restored to new after about three weeks and continued to serve. Photographed at Cutler's Garage, Streetly.

V8b.jpg

But then, you should have seen the other bloke! (A coming together at the Queslett Road and Chester Road (Moorcroft) crossroads one night on the way to the flicks - probably the Kingstanding Odeon - my father, sister and brother, thankfully uninjured, as was the inebriated Vauxhall driver. No seat belts in those days. Hence the V8 windscreen).

Vauxhall.jpg

V8 traded in for new black (what else?)10 h.p. Ford Prefect, FOK 535, early 1940, probably one of the last cars to be sold in Brum before they stopped manufacturing. Acquired on the grounds that petrol supply was clearly going to become difficult as and when the war hotted up and a big car was not the thing to have. Photographed here in 1943. Dad had a necessary user's petrol ration and so the car (unlike many others which were laid up for the duration) served him loyally throughout the war and for years afterwards.

Prefecta.jpg

And again, looking a bit battered and corroded (but at least showing its registration number), in around 1947. I have many memories of that car, from its arrival to its departure, including all its long journeys which, in those days, were a somewhat more challenging adventure than today's. The car couldn't be replaced until 1952 because the car trade was a racket until around 1952/53 when supplies started to become available to those not "in the know".

Prefect.jpg

Very doubtful if any of these ever cropped up anywhere else, but you never know....

Chris

(Additional information added 6th August 2020)
 
Last edited:
When I worked for the finance company and cars were kept for 2 years, my mileage was about 70,000 miles over the two years, but then I was moved to another arm of the business and in a Fiat Strada, I covered 97500 miles in 18 months and the sort of drives I did were typified by the following two days.
Monday left home in Barnstaple 0530hrs, went to Exeter, Frome, Banbury, just south of Coventry, Wolverhampton and then to Pwllelli. Overnight their, then after running a day long training course, Pwllelli to Hereford via Newtown. The rest of the week was Hereford to Pembrokeshire via Cardiff and Swansea, all over Pembrokeshire and Carmartenshire and home leaving Cardigan at 1530 and arriving in Barnstaple at 2245. Dome week and I did one like that about every four weeks. My cars over 20 years with the company were a Viva HB, Morris 1100, three Hillman Avengers (One badged Chrysler) a Viva E, another Avenger, a Fiat Strada, Morris Marina Coupe, and then Astras.

Bob
Bless you Bob!
 
We had a customer who was the all UK rep for a spectacles company, he ran the mid range Austins, A50/55/60,and changed every year, he was due a new car but as usual there was a strike on.

So he bought a Morris 1000 to carry him on until the Austin became available, brought it in for service every Saturday morning, did 46,000 miles in six and a half months, we asked if he ever slept, he said "yeh, in the car.":)
Gracious me!
 
I think I may have posted this before, but I had the experience in the late 1960s of the car park in the Bullring losing my car. They insisted then in taking it away and parking it for you and then bringing it back for you when you returned. Trouble is they lost it and had me waiting for ages (half an hour?) till they found it. Then, initially tried to charge me for the half an hour I had been waiting!
Following on from this, today I came across something I had completely forgotten about (or rather forgotten I'd written about) from Birm Post Sept. 1968

Birm post.28.9.1968.jpg
 
oooh mike i never thought i would be reading something you had written in a newspaper snippet :D :D :D lyn
 
I think its a fibreglass special built on a Ford Ten or Prefect chassis, look at the wheels.

See post #189.
 
Last edited:
I think its a fibreglass special built on a Ford Ten or Prefect chassis, look at the wheels.

See post #189.
Looks like my father in laws Ashley laminate, Ford Chassis and engine, how I recognise it is that this is the angle I usually saw it from as we pushed it to start it,

Bob
 
This might be of interest: when Auto Express magazine first came out, around 1987, I bought it almost every week (it was only 40p, back then!). There was one particular article that was so fascinating, I cut it out and stuck it in my scrapbook:
A self-employed delivery driver specialised in transporting small but highly valuable items, across the country at a moment's notice, day or night. These would be things like one-off bespoke gear that was vital for the continued operation of a factory, etc. As he only carried small items, he only needed a small vehicle: a Nissan Sunny (or Cherry), bought new. After nine months of working 12+ hours a day, he had covered 79,000 miles in it. Apart from consumables and tyres, nothing went wrong with the car. He did his own servicing, oil & filters, about once a month. He had no faith in Fords, Austins or Vauxhalls to be able to do the same job, with the same reliability.
 
This might be of interest: when Auto Express magazine first came out, around 1987, I bought it almost every week (it was only 40p, back then!). There was one particular article that was so fascinating, I cut it out and stuck it in my scrapbook:
A self-employed delivery driver specialised in transporting small but highly valuable items, across the country at a moment's notice, day or night. These would be things like one-off bespoke gear that was vital for the continued operation of a factory, etc. As he only carried small items, he only needed a small vehicle: a Nissan Sunny (or Cherry), bought new. After nine months of working 12+ hours a day, he had covered 79,000 miles in it. Apart from consumables and tyres, nothing went wrong with the car. He did his own servicing, oil & filters, about once a month. He had no faith in Fords, Austins or Vauxhalls to be able to do the same job, with the same reliability.
And in your article you accurately sum up the demise of the British car industry
 
Back
Top