The Good Old Days...

[Hooli]

My dad's old kit car was Marina 1.8TC based. It was quite fun & on the tall narrow tyres it had to appear more like a 50s sports car it'd drift every bend & steer on the throttle. Not the modern stupid sideways drifting, you'd just turn it in, hit the power & straighten the wheel, then steer on the throttle with a dab of oppo to stop it turning as you exited the bend. It still had the torsion bar front end so it can't have been that bad in the original car surely?

[LynehamHerc]

My best mate bought one new in the mid 70s.
It wasn't that cheap, certainly not in the Lada, Moskvich Skoda bracket.
He ran it for about 5 years and did probably 70-80 thousand miles.
He had no interest in cars just wanted something that wasn't too expensive to run that his parents could get into fairly easily. It was replaced by an Acclaim in 1982.

[mercrocker]

My dad's old kit car was Marina 1.8TC based. It was quite fun & on the tall narrow tyres it had to appear more like a 50s sports car it'd drift every bend & steer on the throttle. Not the modern stupid sideways drifting, you'd just turn it in, hit the power & straighten the wheel, then steer on the throttle with a dab of oppo to stop it turning as you exited the bend. It still had the torsion bar front end so it can't have been that bad in the original car surely?

Pretty much Minor that front end, I think.....Funny how one car is lauded for its excellent handling and suspension yet the Marina soundly criticised. I know there were 2 or 3 decades between them and things should have improved but why do folk still judge the Marina by its 70s/80 contemporaries whilst forgetting the Minor was still on sale against things like the HB Viva and original Escorts?

[paulplom]

I think it's possibly just an image problem.

[AMCrebel]

The Marina is way before my time, but wasn't it just a cheap affordable car for the time? Thus used old technology to make it cheap to build.

Surely no different than say a Dacia Sandero is today.

Yes - apparently it outsold the Escort as well.

BL had cars with more modern setups - eg Maxi, if that's what you wanted.

Escort was hardly more advanced really.

[Eddie Honda]

We used to laugh loads at Mr Cornwell (head of the Maths Department) and his shit Marina. We laughed loads more when he replaced it...with an ITAL!

[mercrocker]

Image, as Paul says, a lot to do with it......When the Marina came out it was already doomed with faint praise across the motoring media (which was beginning to include Television) and the poor bastard had a struggle from the start.

I remember our headmaster buying one to replace his ADO16 whilst I was in the second year at Comprehensive. I overheard one of the metalwork teachers guffawing about in the staff room corridor...."What is it - ten versions you can get? Bloody laughable they have to make that many to get one right". This from a bloke with the Mk1 Capri 2000 GT XLR - how many option packages did that add up to?!

[LynehamHerc]

My impression is that it was adequate for the average buyer but BL was increasingly seen as a basket case and that reflected on it.
In addition who is going to buy a car from a firm that might be closed down, something that was under serious consideration at times.
Bernard Fishtrousers rant at the Rover 75 launch carried on in the same vein, you'd have to be stupid to buy one whereas Ford would always be around, albeit with foreign imports now.

[AutoshiteBoy]

I'm an absolute BL apologist, I just can't help it. And I've driven Morris Minors. So I went and bought a B-series Marina. And it was fucking awful. I started working in the motor trade as an 18 year old, so I've driven all kinds of shite, and as a rule, I can find pleasure driving anything, because anything is better than nothing. But that Marina was dreadful and I blame the front suspension as the major factor. Yes, it was Minor based, but the Minor never carried a B-series and maybe the Minor had a stiffer shell or the rack was mounted lower or it had better alignment? Anyway, Minors are a pleasure to steer, where as the Marina wasn't. And this Marina was a well cared for example. BL wanted shooting with shite for it. The Ital, when fitted with telescopic dampers and sound proofing was a decent, although rudimentary car. But why did it take 10 years and a factory move to get it to an acceptable standard when, lets face it, the basics had been in production since 1948? Did they really have no pride or motivation?

[mercrocker]

Very subjective things, motor cars! Yes, I do concede the Marina had severe shortcomings and I am only half-apologistic over it, not a glowing enthusiast. The Wolseley 1500/Riley 1.5 carried a B series on Minor underpinnings with considerably more abplomb, I have to say......

However, I still don't know if even half of the target market for the Marina knew, understood or cared about such things. As a final counterpoint I would say that I never drove a Mk3 Cortina (not from brand new I'll admit) that didn't feel like it was fucked and they were no better built - just as an example.

Summary - basic BL crap of the time but not as outstandingly bad as it was made out to be by everybody - including many who knew no better.....