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Worst car of the 1960's

George Wheeler said:
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
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My grandfather sold Simca's at Small Heath (Walkers) all I heard from my father was how well they handled. Perhaps they filled the boot for test drives?
 
In 1976 I worked for "Chrysler", Military sales Division, as a Regional Manager Europe, my company car was a "Simca Matra", a mid engine sports car, this always caused a great interest where ever I parked in UK and Europe. Chrysler had just purchased Simca, Talbot ,and Hillman Cars. I have never seen or heard of any since the 70's, I wonder what they would be worth today. Paul
 
Just goes to show how cars have improved since then in terms of reliability and safety, nevertheless I old like some 1960's cars.
 
I am certainly no motoring expert and members may disagree with me but I have owned assorted cars since 1961 (but all British made) and think the modern car is superior in all departments. No rust (very common years ago), engines will easily exceed 100,000 miles without problems, tyres seem to last much longer, no grease points, they seem to be more reliable, cannot remember when I last had a breakdown or car failed to start, car has one full service a year. Eric
 
I would have to agree Eric. Only once in 20 years have I needed to add oil between services. In the 1960s I used to take a can with me if going on holiday to Cornwall.

Someone I worked with in 1960 claimed his Crests had no rust underneath. Then he said that each month he put it up on jacks and resprayed oil into the box sections and all remote places.

Sent from my LG-D802 using Tapatalk
 
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In my latest car nags me. A women who speaks from behind my dashboard told me the other morning 'You must press the clutch to start'. Sorry Miss I thought ....:unconscious:
 
Talking of cars of the 60's I have a 1966 Singer Vogue, I tell you, when I first had it it brought back memories of my first cars, no power steering, no servo brakes, talk about thinking ahead you have to start standing on the brakes well before you intend to stop !! It spends the the winter tucked away in the garage waiting for warmer times. Will be off to our shows around Cornwall and Devon in the summer.
 
I had a second-hand Singer Vogue estate in the early 70s, it was a lovely looking motor but it had terminal body rot around the headlamps and the engine sounded like a bag of spanners !
 
In the 70`s i bought a Simca for the princely sum of £40 & what a belting little car it was, apart from one little fault which the seller didn`t warn me about. The fuel gauge was stuck on 1/4 full & of course the next day i ran out of petrol. Apart from that, i was well chuffed with the car.
 
maypolebaz said:
I had a second-hand Singer Vogue estate in the early 70s, it was a lovely looking motor but it had terminal body rot around the headlamps and the engine sounded like a bag of spanners !
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Hi maypolebaz, if you had that Vogue Estate now it would fetch big money they are few and far between. My Vogue as only done 32.000 miles it belonged to a doctor who never took it out of Cornwall.
 
I had a secondhand Sunbeam Rapier in the early 1970s. lovely car, but suffered so much rot that I had to scrap. But regret it now. the polished walnut dashboard and very comfortable seats were great, even though the petrol consumption was not.
 
I agree modern cars are superior to the 1960s etc. In those days there were clutch problems , poor brakes, body work that when poked in a rust spot developed into a hidden 6in corrosion calamity, batteries heavy and after 12mths needed regular recharging etc. One only has to go along any motor way nowadays when thousands of cars pass per hour and to see a car immobilised on the hard shoulder is a rarity. Having said all that I will now be driving with apprehension waiting for a bite in the bum!!!!!
 
cregoe kid said:
Hi maypolebaz, if you had that Vogue Estate now it would fetch big money they are few and far between. My Vogue as only done 32.000 miles it belonged to a doctor who never took it out of Cornwall.
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Well I'm not surprised they're few & far between Kid !

Our latest car is a Grand C4 Picasso, (Motability of course, could never afford to BUY one !), I can't get my head around all its gadgetry yet.
Talking to a technician at the Citroen dealers, the car has 34 computers built into it.
The automatic parking is a feature I've yet to try.
 
Hi, borrowed my brothers first car it was a 1937 Humber, lovely old car,'rattling' big ends all the way from Brum to Dover, but white metal fixed them up.. But my first car was an Austin 8 'hand painted' and the pride and joy of an old couple, she cried when I bought it off them, for 25 pounds lasted me for two years. Happy days.
 

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Just looking through the list of "worst cars" on this thread - - it's surprising the prices some of these cars now fetch! Hillman Imps are now now very expensive.
 
That's the same for almost all surviving 50s 60s cars, even the Austin Allegro has asking prices near five thousand pounds on collectors sites.
 
Hi
It had to be a vauxall body work it was only a werak kind of tin
When in volved wkth another car, it was always the vauxall that got written off
The good old volvo,s are the best in strengh and survives
My money is on the Honda,s great motors never a problem
I think the land rover days are over even farmers do not used them now
Astonian,,,,,
 
Brian60 said:
Just looking through the list of "worst cars" on this thread - - it's surprising the prices some of these cars now fetch! Hillman Imps are now now very expensive.
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Regarding the brand new Hillman Imp (post#31) I bought in 1964 for £634, an inflation price calculator says this would apparently be equivalent to £11,590 today ... :)
 
I saw a prog. on Ch5 last night " cars that made britain great" and some of the cars seemed to be real clunkers. Next Friday the prog. features, amongst others, the Hillman Imp.
 
I have fond memories of my 1960's Hillman Imp and one of them was of a Tuesday evening 26 July 1966. I had been to Borth and was driving back towards Shrewsbury when I nearly drove it into a hedge. I was listening to the England v. Portugal World Cup Semi Final when Bobby Charlton scored his second goal ... I was so excited I punched the air with both hands off the steering wheel ... :)
 
One of my brothers in law (a motor mechanic) was given a Hillman Imp which he brought up to his brother's holiday home in an old ghost mining town of Eldorado here in Australia. Most of the kids in the family learnt to drive in it on the old un-surfaced roads, a bit like the conditions you see in extreme car rallies.
One long weekend holiday it was decided that it's days were numbered and it was driven to the local tip (recycling facility) where it was lovingly pushed over a 30 cliff into the big hole.
Knowing it is now a collectors item we may have to think about a re visit to our old haunts.
Cheers Tim
 
Ha ha! Tim, that's like the recycling facilities here on Crete. One of my Greek neighbours is in charge of refuse disposal and when they brought out all these different coloured bins for different types of waste, I asked him what they did with the recycled stuff. "Oh it all goes in together - the coloured bins are just to keep the EU happy!". Sorry to the mods for going off topic.

Maurice
 
Big Gee said:
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
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Old post I know, the Victor comment priceless.
But I do remember the front cross member rusting out on the Alfa being a real problem as in TV coverage problem.
 
What about a 3 wheel Reliant, (i could write a book )some times it was even fun when i wasn't repairing it .
 
Ogri said:
What about a 3 wheel Reliant, (i could write a book )some times it was even fun when i wasn't repairing it .
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nothing wrong with them.my dad had from 1966.up untill 1998.i rebuilt the engine in a regal. like dels.the gearbox was a robin box. the thing was quick. it did a wheelie if you give it too much. i had 85mph the front was off the road.
no one took the p..out of them untill fools and horses. was made.
 
The worst car I’ve had was a new Vauxhall Viva HC I owned for 10 month which most of the time it spent in the Vauxhall dealers in Walsall.
Fault was slack pistons I had 3 new engines 2 new clutches 1 new gear box the dealer forgot to put any oil gear box after an engine change.
The window screen wipers didn’t work when I picked up new the heater stop working on the way home.
Got rid of it and bought a Dagenham dustbin Cortina mark 3 this was when the Ford went on a 10 week strike this car went in for 3 days of modifications at Meteor Motors Wake Green Rd. after strike

My fist journey was up to West Burton Power Station near Gainsborough, on my way a hear clanging sound got out to investigate the nuts hold my wheels on hadn‘t been tightenEd

I‘ve had 26 six cars in my life time the best little car I had was Vauxhall Viva HBI new every nut and bolt on that car you could do all your my own repairs with help from Haynes manual even change jets in carb. them was the days.

How cars have advance I‘ve just bought the new Nissan Duke what a super car this is, I exchange it from a Nissan Qashqai with me and the wife in it like driving a half empty bus.
 
Ray Griffiths said:
The worst car I’ve had was a new Vauxhall Viva HC I owned for 10 month which most of the time it spent in the Vauxhall dealers in Walsall.
Fault was slack pistons I had 3 new engines 2 new clutches 1 new gear box the dealer forgot to put any oil gear box after an engine change.
The window screen wipers didn’t work when I picked up new the heater stop working on the way home.
Got rid of it and bought a Dagenham dustbin Cortina mark 3 this was when the Ford went on a 10 week strike this car went in for 3 days of modifications at Meteor Motors Wake Green Rd. after strike

My fist journey was up to West Burton Power Station near Gainsborough, on my way a hear clanging sound got out to investigate the nuts hold my wheels on hadn‘t been tightenEd

I‘ve had 26 six cars in my life time the best little car I had was Vauxhall Viva HBI new every nut and bolt on that car you could do all your my own repairs with help from Haynes manual even change jets in carb. them was the days.

How cars have advance I‘ve just bought the new Nissan Duke what a super car this is, I exchange it from a Nissan Qashqai with me and the wife in it like driving a half empty bus.
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well done ray i love nissans. i have a old micra.the parts reasonable too.i had a ex telecom ha van that done millions of miles before giving up the ghost. The worst was the allegro, while driving along one day the rear subframe come off
 
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