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Worst car of the 1960's

The 1960's saw me with Austin A40 Devon, Standard 10, Austin A35, Simca Aronde, Renault Dauphine, two Ford Anglia vans (four forward geared, not the three gear) and a Hillman Minx 1600. I did not keep the Standard and the A35 long - too small but the least liked was the Renault. Being rear engined it was far too light on the steering for me.
 
Radiorails said:
The 1960's saw me with Austin A40 Devon, Standard 10, Austin A35, Simca Aronde, Renault Dauphine, two Ford Anglia vans (four forward geared, not the three gear) and a Hillman Minx 1600. I did not keep the Standard and the A35 long - too small but the least liked was the Renault. Being rear engined it was far too light on the steering for me.
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i bought a old Austin ruby.scrap which was in a shed i demolished. I renovated it and sold,it and bought a mexico1600 .another load of tat i had was a hillman imp.
 
In the early 80 I was a Lorry driver for a firm in Hartelbury (Worcs) called Marjef .We were the main deliverers of LANCIA cars.We fetched them up from Sandwich in Kent .In our yard we had about 100 LANCIAS all completely rotted.The Company had put the wrong type of paint on them which wasn't good in British Weather
 
Edifi said:
In the early 80 I was a Lorry driver for a firm in Hartelbury (Worcs) called Marjef .We were the main deliverers of LANCIA cars.We fetched them up from Sandwich in Kent .In our yard we had about 100 LANCIAS all completely rotted.The Company had put the wrong type of paint on them which wasn't good in British Weather
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they were junk
 
mw0njm. said:
they were junk
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They were actually very good cars if you cared for them properly, the rust problems were pretty much the same for all makes at the time.

In the 1950s Rootes first produced the mono-constructed (no chassis) Hillman Minx, in under 18 months we were rebuilding (welding and plating) the rear under carriages, spring ends were coming up through the floor.

The Lancia problem was where the rear of the front subframe fastened to the floor they should have made it double skinned, the single skin rusted and allowed the subframe and engine to drop down. I repaired a lot of them and they all gave good service once that was sorted.

I did a tour of the Morris works at Oxford in 1956, there they put all the car bodies on a spit and turned them through three vats of rust treatment before they were painted. Rootes in Coventry had a similar treatment but just dipped the bodies.

We had Hillmans suffering with rust spots on the roof and were told that the factory wasn't keeping the vats topped up so the roofs weren't being treated.
 
I think in the 1960s we generally assumed that cars would rust and breakdown. Looking back at my post#31 when I bought my first brand new car (paid £634 in cash!) I don't remember being angry when it broke down with a faulty carburretor after I had driven it two miles from the dealer. They promptly came out, towed me back (new driving experience for me) fitted a new carburretor and off I went again .... :grinning:
 
My worst car was a Triumph 2000. A really fast car, nice looking but the solenoid kept breaking & after i`d had the car a good while the gear stick would come adrift when i put it in reverse. I think my next car was a Simca, can`t remember the specs but again a very nippy car. It was so light on fuel that i thought the fuel gauge was kaput. I now drive a Seat Ateca 2000 diesel auto. Nice car but can`t get anywhere near the alleged 60mpg.
 
2 litre diesels of any make are only likely to get around 40 mpg at best, some used on long runs without urban use may get more but those bragging that they get 60 mpg plus are kidding themselves.
 
My first car was a green 1960's Austin A35 van, ex Birmingham City Council, bought for 25 Quid in 1972. A great little runaround, especially when I fitted seats in the back. I believe the really worst cars of all time came along in the 1970's. The Morris Marina and Austin Allegro being two that I owned that were absolute clunkers.
 
Smudger said:
My worst car was a Triumph 2000. A really fast car, nice looking but the solenoid kept breaking & after i`d had the car a good while the gear stick would come adrift when i put it in reverse. I think my next car was a Simca, can`t remember the specs but again a very nippy car. It was so light on fuel that i thought the fuel gauge was kaput. I now drive a Seat Ateca 2000 diesel auto. Nice car but can`t get anywhere near the alleged 60mpg.
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i liked the t 2000.with the o/d button on the g/stick. most economical car was my renault 5.i had a renault 4 and cut the roof off to make a convertable..what would the insurance say now.
 
JohnJames said:
My first car was a green 1960's Austin A35 van, ex Birmingham City Council, bought for 25 Quid in 1972. A great little runaround, especially when I fitted seats in the back. I believe the really worst cars of all time came along in the 1970's. The Morris Marina and Austin Allegro being two that I owned that were absolute clunkers.
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austin aggro, sorry i mean allegro equipe 1750,what a load of tat.
 
Morris Marina had one in 84 when I moved to Kent.What a drifter ontheMotorway up and down the M1-M6 to Brum.Every time you overtook a Lorry it moved to the right.o_Oo_O
 
Compared to modern cars most 'classics' were poor but that was the way it was then. Breakdowns and rust were regarded as normal. I was in the motor trade for years and the worst cars for me were the Alfa Sud, Reliant three wheelers, Fiats, Volkswagen Beetles. The best, I'm sorry to say,even in the 1970s, were Toyotas !!! the quality was superb.
 
vicfarlowe said:
Compared to modern cars most 'classics' were poor but that was the way it was then. Breakdowns and rust were regarded as normal. I was in the motor trade for years and the worst cars for me were the Alfa Sud, Reliant three wheelers, Fiats, Volkswagen Beetles. The best, I'm sorry to say,even in the 1970s, were Toyotas !!! the quality was superb.
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I was also in the motor trade and by far the biggest rot boxes in the early sixties were the late fifties Vauxhalls. As far as foreign cars went the early Datsuns were almost as bad. I can remember going around the Triumph factory in Coventry and seeing all the rusting body shells waiting outside ready for assembling after they were acid dipped, no wonder they rotted away.
 
I think one of these was the worst car of the period. I made the mistake of buying one to resell, cost a pile to get fit, steering box, brakes etc.
The body was sound enough until about three weeks after it was sold when the buyer, showing off to his lady friend, turned it upside down.
ŠkodaOctavia(1959-1971)inVM9.6.2007.jpg
 
Eric, if that's a Skoda Octavia, a friend of mine had one in the late 1960's and it was great! Well, great-ish. It was noisy, heavy on fuel, not very comfortable, but built like a tank. Mechanically he never had a problem with it. In fact, it was so good it was nicked and he never got it back!

G
 
This one had steering that you could turn the steering wheel more than a quarter turn before it touched anything, a new steering box was required which wasn't available unless I waited six months and paid more than the value of the car for it.
I found a passable used one but had to travel over a hundred miles to collect it.

It also needed a complete brake overhaul and tyres.

The car had only done 28 thousand miles.
 
In1974 bought an Hillman Avenger Estate .Served me well except every year it went in for an MOT the nearside bottom ball joint wanted replacing.Rootes had stopped putting grease nipples in the casting that caused the ball to wear.The 3rd balljoint I bought I drilled and tapped it and put one in.Never had no more trouble.
 
We did a lot of those Edi, Watsons where I worked at the time were Rootes dealers so we modified quite a few with the grease nipples.

They changed the Minx steering box a few times in that period, one worm and peg box was so heavy to turn they had a lot of complaints, they replaced it with a recirculating ball box, that too had a problem, they messed up the tolerance on the top bush under the steering wheel and when the car was left out in the summer sun it got so tight it locked up the steering.
 
vicfarlowe said:
Compared to modern cars most 'classics' were poor but that was the way it was then. Breakdowns and rust were regarded as normal. I was in the motor trade for years and the worst cars for me were the Alfa Sud, Reliant three wheelers, Fiats, Volkswagen Beetles. The best, I'm sorry to say,even in the 1970s, were Toyotas !!! the quality was superb.
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I agree.
Toyota's were good cars from what I can remember.
Beetles were so bad, Smithfield garage used to keep a stock of Beetles wings ready sprayed.
 
mw0njm. said:
a NSU Prinz. with dynastart.: unamused:
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Oh yes. I remember those. Blooming awful system. The Bond Minicar had a similar system called the Siba Dynastart. Strangely, modern Hybrid vehicles have version similar to the Dynastart for starting the engine and then charging the battery (s).
 
Speaking of the NSU Prinz, round about 1967 or 68 a girl-friend had a red NSU Prinz, I think the 4. It was actually quite a good car....considering. We were invited to a wedding in Brighton, and as my knackered split-screen Moggie Minor wasn't up to it, we went in her Prinz. No problems on the way down, but on the return trip for some reason it lost 3rd gear. My girl-friend decided she couldn't cope, so I took over somewhere the other side of London. To get from 1st to 3rd required revving the guts out of the engine, but nevertheless it made it home. I was quite impressed, to be honest, but being 6' 4" tall it wasn't really designed for people like me........

G
 
nickcc101 said:
I was also in the motor trade and by far the biggest rot boxes in the early sixties were the late fifties Vauxhalls. As far as foreign cars went the early Datsuns were almost as bad. I can remember going around the Triumph factory in Coventry and seeing all the rusting body shells waiting outside ready for assembling after they were acid dipped, no wonder they rotted away.
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On the subject of rotting body shells at the factory I saw the same thing at Rootes in Coventry where Hillman Hunter bodyshells were outside covered in snow.
 
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