• 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

Worst car of the 1960's

Mayfield

Mayfield

Burbury Brummie
Interesting reading, I have just read the AOL motoring page on-line and it lists the ten worst cars of the 1960's. I would love to state that I knew each of the makes of car, but unfortunately I can only recall half of them?

Is there anyone that owned one of these problem cars???? :redface:

They are:

1) Simca 1000 (1965)
2) Humber Snipe (1967)
3) Vauhall Ventura (1968)
4) Hino Contessa (1966)
5) Peel Trident (1964)
6) Renault Dauphine (1965)
7) MGA Twin Cam (1960)
8) VW 411 (1968)
9) Saab Sonett II (1966)
10) Ford Tanus 12M (1962)

keith
 
While alongside in Portsmouth a Vauxhall Ventura was on loan from the transport depot, for the Captain of HMS Hampshre, I used to drive it and found no problems, mind you the other Vehicle we had was a Land Rover which stayed with the Hampshire on our travels :)
 
I had a Renualt Dauphine, Lord knows why I bought that. all I can think is it must have been very cheap, know I didnt keep it long, about a week if I remember correctly, right load of rubbish.
 
The person who compiled that list obviously never owned the first version of the Hillman Imp with it's useless automatic choke! :-;)
 
Excuse my ignorance but I am definetely not a car buff. But I remember when a child my dad used to drive a Zodiac and a Zepher. It may have been a Zepher Zodiac. I used to sit up front inbetween mom and dad up front with my two brothers and sister on the back seat. Does anyone remember these cars?
 
The rear engined Simca 1000 was a terrible car, mine just rusted away. You also needed a couple of concrete blocks in the boot to keep the front end on the road, it would swing around in cross winds and was very unstable. It did however have a Porche gear box with syncromesh on first gear, not very common at that time
 
Let's see: The Renault Dauphine ad which I remember to this day, very swish
"She gets full marks where ever she parks The Renault Dauphine" was the jingle in one of their TV ads and a good looking women in the drivers seat. Sorry to hear that you found it to be a pile of rubbish John 70. Looked ok in the ad.

The Zephyr Zodiac was the salesman's dream car. Jazzy Colours, chrome all over the place. There are a few of them at antique car shows here on the West Coast. Didn't they have bench seats?
 
We once owned a Simca Van well Michael was given it for some work he did. It leaked like a sieve. I once took a group of kids from our street to Twycross Zoo in it..........I shudder to think about it now! elf and safety. When we got to the entrance the guy couldn't be bothered to count the kids so we got in cheap!
 
My uncle taught me to drive his Mk1 Consul when I was about 11 or 12 in around 1955 or 6. I actually drove his car on taxi jobs when I was 14! I later bought myself a MK2 Zodiac which was superb with its leather bench seats and column change gearbox, and its powerful 6 cylinder engine (2556 cc, I seem to recall).
Those were the days ......
 
When i was a boy i use to like seeing the old zethyrs consuls & zodiacs . what I notice too was that West Indian men preffered them than we did :rolleyes:
maybe they looked more american`ish .:coolcheesy:

ragga ......:)
 
I think the worst cars,what my wife owend from brand new was ''The Hillman Imp''it was a bag of nails she did not keep it for long:)Mossy
 
The Austin A40 was the worst car I ever had - a rot-box of ever there was one. The tail-gate fell off one night when we'd just got back from hols. Sound engine, rubbish body.

A friend of mine had an Alfa-Sud which I swear rusted away before your very eyes...

But the worst of the lot was the first Vauxhall Victor, circa 1957. What a disaster! My dad was polishing his one day when he just stuck his hand straight through the wing...

Big Gee
 
i had a mk11 zephyr 6 ex girling run about,red plastic seat covering,three speed column
change, bench seat,i can remember taking the in laws down to Weston super mare,
we stopped just the other side of northfield to fill it up, and you can tell how,long ago it was in the 70s i think and i struggled to put a fiver,s worth in and it was over flowing.
it was a nice car, we slept in it on more than one occasion.
happy days. regards dereklcg.
 
My father-in-law had a Consul 375 and it was a lovely car! Its one unfortunate trait was the column-change gear-linkage kept breaking, usually in second. It had a bench front-seat, very comfortable.

As this thread is, however, about the worst cars of the 1960's, did anyone have a DAF? This nasty little thing was belt-driven via a leather belt and cone system. A girl-friend of mine had one, and the belt snapped. Could we get another? Could we ****! She finally got a firm of saddlers in Walsall to make one for her, but then there was the small problem of how to fit it....

Big Gee
 
Big Gee said:
My father-in-law had a Consul 375 and it was a lovely car! Its one unfortunate trait was the column-change gear-linkage kept breaking, usually in second. It had a bench front-seat, very comfortable.

As this thread is, however, about the worst cars of the 1960's, did anyone have a DAF? This nasty little thing was belt-driven via a leather belt and cone system. A girl-friend of mine had one, and the belt snapped. Could we get another? Could we ****! She finally got a firm of saddlers in Walsall to make one for her, but then there was the small problem of how to fit it....

Big Gee
Click to expand...

I think they were called the Daf Variomatic???? Funny little car.

keith
 
In 1962 I bought a 1959 Vauxhall Victor. Looked the rock 'n' roll business inside and out but ended up a rotbox. When I gave it away to donate the perfectly good engine to another Victor the boot when you opened it allowed you to check the tread on the back tyres. The engine went on to do well over 100,000 miles but the bodywork by 1965 - Yuk!
 
But mike, think about the bloke some years ago who had somehow managed to keep his victor in good nick (probably gave it a steam claen every 40 miles) and who got a very good price for it because it was probably the only one that had survived. I never had one but remember our headmaster, who was a bit of a perfectionist, bought one . and within about a year it was almost the worst-looking car in the school yard
Mike
 
The worst car of the sixties was whatever car I was driving at the time. I could only afford rubbish.

Phil
 
My 1959 Victor and me in the Summer of 1963 at Brean. (I was in the passenger seat , it wasn't left hand drive). I bought it for £299 off Cadey's petrol station in Warstock, now a block of flats by MacDonalds where the Bagnall Arms used to be.Cadey's was a Cleveland Petrol Station. The first owner of my Victor was the Cleveland Petrol Co. as a reps car so already had 53000 on the clock but the back seat had never been sat on. With a front bench seat the upholstery was powder blue and the steering wheel had a chromed horn lower half ring. Design - real Rock 'n' Roll 'n' Rust!
 
In or around 1967 I borrowed £100 off my old man and (foolishly) bought a 1960 Mini Saloon. It was blue...ish. I swear that every morning when I opened the garage it had more rust-spots than the night before...

...however, like many cars in those days, it was mechanically sound, and I drove it almost to death (my girl-friend lived in Brighton and most weekends I'd make to 350+ miles round trip to see her).

One fine day, I got into this little swine, and reached behind me to press the starter-button, which was just behind the hand-brake. Surprise, surprise, my thumb just kept going down..and down..and down. The entire housing which held the starter-button had rotted away. I fixed this (slight) defect by means of a few pounds of Holt's Polyester Putty, but a week or so later the rear sub-frame collapsed. Enough for me. I put it back into the garage, and there it sat for 2 years until my uncle took it off my hands, and ran it for another 10 years! He even entered it in some competition to locate the oldest running Austin Mini!

Compare with my (first) Ford Sierra, bought in 1982, on which I did 180000 miles then sold it to my father-in-law who put another 150000 miles on its clock until the gear-box said 'good-bye'.

Two years ago, I took delivery of a (company) VW Passat Estate, which after 38000 miles needed a new engine/gear-box/turbo after the oil-pump disintegrated. With a new engine, etc., I get 54 m.p.g. and I've just done 2000+ miles around France without a hiccup.

You takes your money, you makes your choice...

...cars - I love 'em! (Not)

Big Gee

PS: anyone remember the Wartbug 2-stroke monstrosity?
 
This is a photo of my first car, well a van really, ex George Masons, the grocers, I kept the bottom half dark green as was there colours, and painted the top half light green, and put an old bus seat in the back.I paid £125 in 1958.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top