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Thread: O/T Mini Metro Turns 40

  1. #11
    Join Date
    Aug 2016
    Posts
    528
    Oh the memories of trying to be patriotic in the 1970’s and 80’s. I had two Austin 1100’s one after the other. What possessed me?! So called engineers decided to put the gearbox under the engine and both used the same oil.....no wonder the gearboxes only lasted 60k. I was assured after the first one went that they were better now......utter B/S.....same thing happened. No fun trying to drive off the M6 to Liverpool stuck in 3rd gear with the selectors gone. All the models were absolute sh*te. People asked why I went foreign (oh the shame)? My retort was to say that if you bought a cr*p suit would you by from the same manufacturer again?
    Mind you ever Rover today not much better......same old gearboxes pack up about 60k......usually just out of warranty! Ask me how I know?
    Nothing changes!!

  2. #12
    Join Date
    Apr 2013
    Posts
    6,599
    True that Pugmitch ie Rovers, well Range Rovers anyway. My lad is an AA patrolman and he has had no end of call outs with Range rovers failing mainly due to electrical issues. These cars always rate very high on the dissatisfaction surveys.

    I've had 3 Minis and one montego in order to keep the British end up in the 80s. Wheel bearings were a plague on all of em. In one instance a wheel from the Mini came off as I came off the motorway. The Montego heating packed up as i was driving long distance on the coldest day of the year I almost died of hypothermia I had icicles in me hair. I have so many horror stories of the Minis and they were all bought from new. It was actually voted the greatest car of the 20th century, due me a favour!!

  3. #13
    Join Date
    Oct 2012
    Posts
    338
    My dad was a development engineer who worked for BL back in the golden days of the70s. He would be assigned to test engines for economy, performance and durability. Oftentimes he'd carry out the designated tests and then perform his own during his lunch hour. He invariably obtained better results using his own parameters only to be told by the graduates on high that he should do as he was instructed. I remember him coming home head in his hands because his job brought no satisfaction.

    He took early retirement at 50, started his own business and is still going strong at 83.
    The only car BL produced that was any good in that era was the Triumph Acclaim and that was virtually a Honda

  4. #14
    Join Date
    Dec 2003
    Posts
    1,305
    Quote Originally Posted by Albionmad View Post
    My dad was a development engineer who worked for BL back in the golden days of the70s. He would be assigned to test engines for economy, performance and durability. Oftentimes he'd carry out the designated tests and then perform his own during his lunch hour. He invariably obtained better results using his own parameters only to be told by the graduates on high that he should do as he was instructed. I remember him coming home head in his hands because his job brought no satisfaction.

    He took early retirement at 50, started his own business and is still going strong at 83.
    The only car BL produced that was any good in that era was the Triumph Acclaim and that was virtually a Honda
    I know someone, now well retired, who in the early 70’s used to work on random testing of gearboxes on one of the lines at Longbridge.

    He said that when he was failing so many, rather than address the quality issues they downgraded the criteria needed to pass the tests. He said many were cr** prior to being fitted.

  5. #15
    Join Date
    Jul 2007
    Posts
    10,652
    I was present at Longbridge when they launched the Jaguar XJS; yes, a Jaguar launch at Longbridge. Jaguar had also fallen under the control of BL Cars, essentially the Austin Morris management, and the quality, even on Jaguars, was appalling. A week before the launch event, a team of apprentices was allocated to each of the two XJS cars, specially prepared for the launch. Each apprentice was given a A4 notepad and told to go around the cars looking for faults, as if they’d just spent their own money on one. Each apprentice filled at least two A4 sheets with the faults that they found. Neither car was completely rectified before the launch event. I left BL Cars shortly after that.

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