American Reacts to European Cars NO American Would Ever Be Seen In..
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- čas přidán 28. 05. 2023
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There are two facts you missed about the Daffodil:
- It had a continuous gear box, such that it could drive backward just as fast as forward.
- It is a small car, but has a relatively high roof, so that you could keep your hat on while driving this car.
CVT (Continuously Variable Transmission) use to be in the Formula1, but Formula 1's governing body decided to ban the use of CVTs
@@Meppeler1971 No, it was not. CVT was tried by Williams and it was 2 s a lap quicker, but it never lasted for more than about 150 km before breaking down. CVTs are great if you repair them, as they have a tendency to simply just break down, even when combined with low-power engines.
Wasn't it 135km/h in both directions 🙂
Ultimately, the DAF belt-driven 'Variomatic' became the 'CVT' we have now.
An addition to the Citroën Pluriel: You were already on the right track with the A-C pillar. In fact, the car has a folding fabric roof. And the pillar parts can be removed, turning the car into a convertible. Disadvantage: They are too huge to store them in the car. You have to leave them at home. Good luck with the weather.
Was about to make the same comment. I think the idea was good, but the fact, that you can't store the pillars in the car was it's main fault.
It actually looked better in reality than on pictures.
I'd love to have a Pluriel. Just don't remove the pillars. There's no real need to. Sun comes out, roof goes back, job's a good 'un
The Top Gear episode featuring the three wheeled Reliant Robin was one of the funniest of all.
Also those episodes where Morris Marinas were destroyed .
@@tapio7133 It actually survived the race but they dropped a Piano on it. They got lots of complaints from the Marina owners club for ruining a "good" car. 😂
As an American, let me say I’d be happy to drive many of these, they’d be more interesting than what I drive now.
Clarkson and crew are probably responsible for a good chunk of those missing Marinas, they used drop pianos on them quite a lot to antagonise the Marina owner's club 🤣
The piano was a freak accident.
@@XtreeM_FaiL Ahh yes, sorry, I forgot to add that Hammond did say that for some reason it just happens to rain pianos wherever they park a Marina. Just freaky misfortunes 🙂
Yes wasting tax payers money to bully people
funny thing is that the DAF can drive top speed backwards as fast as forwards
CVT (Continuously Variable Transmission) use to be in the Formula1, but Formula 1's governing body decided to ban the use of CVTs
@@Meppeler1971 it was only tested in F1 it never entered a race
It was tested in a Williams F1 car during the Nigel Mansell era in the '90's.
After the test the CVT was banned in F1 because it was too fast. I'm not kidding.
Lol,
I think they called it "variomatic" ? Not sure. I remember seeing a different DAF in high speed reverse 😂
That DAF has a very unique gearbox, it's called a variomatic and it uses a series of belts. It goes just as fast in reverse, for fun on TV they used to race them backwards, it was a hilarious wreckfest!!!
Used to be a lot of jokes about the DAF and elastic bands
Ter land, ter zee en in de lucht: achteruitrijden. Geweldig gelachen!!
I bought a DAF33 750cc in 1970 in Bermuda. The CVT was excellent with the low 20mph speed limit. On some roads you would want to so fast. Shipped it to the UK in 1973, ideal with the fuel crisis, sold it in 1976. Last I heard it was still running in 1983. It would cruise at 70 mph on the motorway but slowed on hills.
Hillman Imp, I had one of those back in the day. It was probably the car that first got me into rallying. Rear engine, water cooled, aluminium block... almost square wheelbase... it would take a lot of punishment! The Super Imp (also sold as the 'Sunbeam Imp') was definitely the one to go for.
cool
I bought two Hillman Imp failures before I found a bitza that was built from the spares of a stage rally guy who was giving up and going into RC racing! He was an interesting character having no fingers on either hand apart from a stump of a thumb on his left hand, he clearly had been in some sort of fire/explosion etc but man could he drive! The Imp that I bought I Road Rallied until I modified the roof, it was quick and I love the rear engined handling. I subsequently bought a competition Clan shell to fit all the bits in that is now a live project after too many years.
I knew a rural GP who had a Hillman Imp for many years. He was often called out to patients in the middle of the night in all weathers. It never let him down, was very nippy and didn't use a lot of petrol. It's probably worth mentioning that he was also a gifted amateur engineer and inventor so he understood what was well made and what wasn't.
@@hatjodelka There were two main issues with the Imp. 1) They were built in Scotland in a brand new factory building what was a sophisticated car for the time with local engineering expertise based on shipbuilding, not to mention the natural militancy of the Scottish workforce. 2) They were maintained by Rootes Group garages that generally dealt with by mechanics who understood what was pre-war traditional engineering design, not a small lightweight racing specification aluminium engine with an aluminium transaxle gearbox.
In addition to those fundamental points the car was rushed to production without ironing out the problems in an effort to compete with the Mini.
Interestingly, the use of Rotoflex couplings on the driveshafts was very innovative and the dealers were instructed to fit new couplings with the metal bands around that were actually quite difficult and if the driveshafts were dismantled putting those couplings back could be problematic. The Competition Department at Rootes figured a method out to fit those couplings quickly, each one taking only 9 minutes to disassemble and reinstall without power tools. Even with a band on the standard new Rotoflex could take 1hr or more to fit. I am proud to say that I matched the Comp Dept in changing a coupling in 9 minutes and when I discuss this with diehard mechanics they look at me in amazement when I tell them I always cut the band off to make the coupling easier to fit.
@@clivewilliams3661 Well, it served him well and he had it for a long time, so perhaps he was just lucky. His 'family car' was a Cresta but he got rid of that because it was troublesome despite the engine being easier to work on.
The Austin Allegro was commonly called 'All-agro' here in the UK, and is famous for 2 things: the steering wheel was square and it was more aerodynamic going backwards than it was going forwards.
Almost all non-electric cars are more aerodynamic going backwards. It’s because the radiator has to catch the air at the front. In electrics they can close that off.
🤣
Wow, I never knew that! 😆 So typical of British Leyland!
DAF's car division was taken over by Volvo in the late '70s
Wasn't the Variomatic transmission available in the 340?
@@RWL2012yes volvo 343 and volvo 66
@@RWL2012 And it is the reason why the 300s with a manual box have it in the back. The car was originally designed for the CVT, which was driven by 2 big belts, and that contraption was quite big.
As many people said, the main issue with Citroen C3 Pluriel was its detachable roof arches (the B and C pillar part). There was a roof, that could slide back and turn it to a convertible and there were also these detachable arches, but their problem was, you couldn't store them anywhere in the car (considering the car was based on regular C3), because the trunk was already too small, so the only option was to leave them at home, but in case bad weather surprised you while driving without them, you'd be fudged. That's also the reason why this car was so short-lived.
The Morris Marina is the car the classic Top Gear crew kept having totally unpredictable hanging piano accidents with.
Zagato has designed some admirable sports cars. In the younger past mostly studies and prototypes for companies like Alfa Romeo and Aston Martin. But in the late 70es or so they actually built some sporty Alfa models.
The Rover 800 was actually sold in the US under the Sterling brand, after the Rover name was damaged there with earlier models. Maybe you find one.
The Citroen Pluriel was a car for people who trusted in the weather forecast. My brother's best friend drove one. It was a cool concept, in that you could take out the roof panels or even the complete pillars from the windscreen frame on to the rear. So it was either a closed car, a targa or a convertible. However, you could not take the roof with you. So if you went off open and it started raining all you could do was escape under a bridge and wait.
The Alfa Romeo Arna was a cooperation between Alfa and Nissan in the 80es. One might think the idea was to combine stylish Italian design with reliable Japanese technology. Unfortunately they got that point wrong. The Arna (short for "Alfa Romeo Nissan Automobiles") is basically a Nissan Pulsar N12 with an Alfa Romeo drivetrain. So basically the worst of both worlds.
I had the Nissan Europa variant.
Bought for peanuts with 3 months tax/MOT on it. The Alfa engine was sort of fun, but neutered. The Nissan suspension should have been suspended from a rope. Rot, rust and corrosion were the main issues. Dodgy electrics fought for the top place though. Anyway, it needed new outer sills. It was taken to a back-street place that had a decent reputation locally. They fitted the sills, parked the car outside, and it burst into flames. It caught fire half an hour -after- the job was finished. Must have had a stray spark smouldering somewhere. I'd had the call to come pick the car up, and arrived as it was being doused. Bugger.
The shop paid me £50 more than I paid for the car in compensation. Mumblemumble insurance mumblemumble don't have any mumble was the gist of it.
Turns out that mine wasn't the only one. There was some foam crap within the inner sill/body on some that was a fire risk when welding. A month or so after mine went up in flames, one went up in Liverpool. Made the local news as it took a couple of others out with it. Same thing. Bit of welding for the MOT, and shortly after, poof!, up in smoke.
Worst clunker I ever owned. I've had a Lada Riva, a Skoda Estelle ( actually good fun and totally reliable ), a MKIII Escort 1.3 and a few Rovers. Being worse than that lot deserves an award, surely.
@@VintageSG Nice collection. My list of junk on wheels begins right after getting the license with an old Opel Kadett E (Vauxhall Astra Mk2 on your island, Pontiac Le Mans for @IWrocker and probably not better under any of these labels). That thing was built twice, once in the factory and once in my garage. Call out a trim piece and I will confirm it fell off and had to be reattached. Highlight was the inner driver door handle breaking off and could not be fitted again because a holding clip broke off. Until I got a replacement part I had for some days to wind down the window and use the outer handle like on one of your old British railway coaches with slam doors.
Cannot complain about my Escort (Mk4 though) that followed on the Kadett. Miss that car until today, unfortunately had a severe accident with it when someone cut me in a country road intersection and I hit that other car into the side at close to 80 km/h.
A Mazda 626 I had was probably not bad due to quality but age. Bought it with 140,000 km and drove it another 80,000. Had some long-time wear parts that needed to be replaced and you usually don't have on the list. Brake saddles, wheel bearings, etc. The end came with a worn clutch. Now I avoid cars that might see the 200,000 km mark under my hands.
Other really bad car beside that Opel was a Renault Modus. Brought it to the annual inspection, after having driven Mazda and Honda before I was used to "oil, brake fluid, two brake pads, work time - 250 Euros as agreed this morning." However, I would always get a call telling me "we found something". Be it a broken spring, a leaking water pump, a flooded control unit in a not as watertight as planned box, etc. And I took that thing with 35,000 km from my Grandfather who quit driving aged 91 and sold it into export with 85,000 - having collected repair bills for parts that survived 3 to 4 times that mileage on Japanese cars. Never again a Renault for me...
And my brother had a Fiat Cinquecento (the 90es box model). Someone rear ended him at an intersection and it looked like just some bumper clips came off and needed to be replaced. On closer inspection under the seemingly unharmed body the floorpan in the trunk had split on a weld and you could see the workshop floor through the spare wheel hold.
The Smart ForTwo, especially the convertible, in Germany quickly got nicknamed "Elefantenrollschuh" (elephant's roller skate).There also were theories around that if you attach two handles, you can use it as a shopping cart...
Adoro! That is so funny 😍
Another descriptive phrase is " rescue pod for Mercedes S-class drivers"...since it's small enough to (almost) fit in an S-class' glove box ;)
Smart For Two is the most ingenious car in the world built in the last 50 years, the only reason to hate it is that when you're looking for a parking space and you think you've found a free spot, unfortunately a Smart is parked there
There’s some cars here that I’d never want to own BUT I am always willing to drive ANY car that presents itself to me. Makes for lots of once-in-a-lifetime experiences.
You actually pronounced FSO Polonez almost perfectly
I once rode in a Polonez. The thing is off-road capable like a tank, it drives just everywhere.
When my kids were young , not having much money we decided to take our kids away on a camping trip in the Scottish highlands, my car was an Austin Allegro and though it never let me down day to day , I decided to hire from a local company their 'budget' car. It was a FSO, as it included breakdown cover and was brand new. If there was a car worse than the Allegro it was the FSO, A real lemon.
My dad had a Morris Marina, an absolute wreck even when new. We did have the 1.8 sedan edition but man did that car suck. As a kid, I was familiar in recognising cars by sight but this is the first one I recognised by sound... from 2 blocks away
Mine too, but it was a great car, he had a station wagon and we went on holiday to Italy with it, no problem.
If a car suck, why do they still buy it.
Marina was quite popular in Finlan because it was relatively cheap.
Its name wasn't its biggest sale point. Marina in Finnish is whining. :P
@@automation7295 It was a very cheap car to buy and not bad costwise to run but of poor quality.
I had the van version. It tried to kill me regularly. Soooo tail happy.
So cars you can no longer find and some tiny city cars. These are cars that europeans would also not drive. Pretty useless list 😂
Spot on. What a stupid comparison b
@@TDI-87 yet some, Clarkson would call Them "Morrons" still bought them
@@christianlenik5307 7:15 Yep, there it is.
Clarkson's & crew arch nemesis.
You know, the Smart Fortwo is ideal for people visiting their customer in crowded downtown , especially for doctors doing house consultations, repairmen and such. You won't see them on the autobahn!
in the uk we had a scrappage scheme were you would get £1000 off any trade in and they was sent to the junk yard so a lot of the classic broken down old cars got crushed and destroyed. so there was no parts to fix the good ones to keep them on the road so now they are verry rare
Best thing i've ever seen was a smart with black and yellow contruction tape and the words "S-Class Escape Pod" on it.
Gread video as always! Love your stuff. I would suggest you to check out any onboard of the bergprüfung Presberg. It was such a flowing and scenic hillclimb, but it got unsafe and was discontinued after 2012.
The Morris Marina would be more recognizable with a piano on its roof.
I drove the FSO Polonez many times. It's not a bad car overall, especially if you get one with a more powerful engine from a Rover. One of it's big features was modularity. It was available as a 4-door coupe, a sedan, a pickup, cargo truck, and they were also used as ambulettes.
I drive a Citroen C1. It's just longer than a Smart car and does have two back seats. It has a 95cc engine. I'm in Scotland. I've driven up to Applecross and then Germany and back since the end of lockdown. Today I brought home 16 packs laminate flooring and a flat pack wardrobe in it. Small cars are amazing if you don't need to move people.
Drove a Smart For Two back when I was working in pizza delivery. For that the car was fantastic.
pretty quick (for city and around) and actually fun to drive.
Despite the retrospective mud that gets slung at the 70s Austin and Morris cars, they were in fact hugely popular, though they couldn't compete with bigger brands like Ford for sales. One reason so many Marinas haven't survived is mainly because they were sold as fleet cars rather than privately owned. They were actually on par for handling; comfort and equipment with most cars its size.
Allegros were sold for almost 10 years (hardly a failure). Only the first series had the Quartic steering wheel. The styling was an unfortunate compromise on the original design, due to the heating system being from the Marina and too large to fit. Their hydrogas suspension made them very comfortable to drive.
The Rover 100 was a rebadged and updated Austin Metro, which was a very good and successful car.
The City Rover was not really a Rover but a rebadged Tata. It wasn't very good.
The Rover 800 was a best seller for many years in the UK although the US versions were poor quality for some reason.
I'm guessing the writer of the list is just rehashing previous badly researched clickbait articles by " journalists" who trot out the same tired story of all 70s B.L. cars being terrible.
DMC had a assembly line in Northen Ireland , Belfast. Also it is designed by Italian Guigiaro. Also John DeLorean emigrated from Europe to USA when he was 20 years old... Mother Hungarian and father Romanian. I guess those are the reason they listed DMC-12. Love your videos btw.
Hillman imps were sold in Nth America back in the sixties.
One of them is seen for a fleeting couple of seconds in BULLITT towards the start of the film where Frank Bullitt ( Steve McQueen) arrives home and backs his Mustang into a space behind an imp on a steep hill, then walks across the street and pinches a newspaper from a vending machine before stepping into the grocery store.( how tragic am I to notice THAT!😆😆)
They might have been marketed as a Sunbeam in the US as that was one of the badge engineered brands they used and was known (Sunbeam Alpine and Tiger).
Other brands such as Hillman, Singer, Sunbeam and the upmarket make Humber as well as the commercial brand Commer were all part of the ROOTES group.
Dude omg congrats on the 132k subs wtf. Dude that's amazing!
the renault 10 was based on the most popular renault 8 but extended at the front and at the rear, the Dafs were small Dutch cars, often with 2 cylinders with an engine and automatic gearbox with variator, they ended up being bought by Volvo and disappeared in the 70's, they were also popular in France in the 60's 70's 80's, I think you didn't see much of the Citroen SM because of the variable height suspensions which were not compatible with the standards in the USA, for France it was considered a huge coupe, like a big ocean liner, like the idea we have here of American cars! the C3 Pluriel was a failure here because impractical, the C3 sedan was better accepted, it was perhaps considered a modern 2CV but it didn't work, it could be converted into a convertible but the 2 arches removed you don't I had no space in the car to store them (except leaving them at home if you were sure that the rain was not expected otherwise it would become a bathtub)!
Fun detail on the Daf(fodil): It had a pretty unique transmission which was both its strength AND weakness: A Variomatic. The blimers could drive in rear just as fast as they could forward(which in itself wasn't really an impressive speed...) but the weird way you needed to handle it caused it to break too often.
On the upside; due to the speed-thingy we used to have a specific race-event for just these cars. (Reverse-racing)
The Austin Allegro, in a testament to its design quality, was more aerodynamic in reverse(!)
The Zagato Zele (sold in the United States as the Elcar) was an electric microcar with a fiberglass body and was in production 1974-1976. Somewhere around 500 were produced.
I recognised the name - featured in one of Aging Wheels' videos.
czcams.com/video/KgoEEp6tC6o/video.html
I'd LOVE a Morris Marina now. I love how they look, I love how they're basically my MG B in saloon form from a driveline perspective. I know they were built by pure hatred in between strikes but I can't help just liking them. Shame I could probably count the number of survivors here in the Netherlands on one hand.
No you wouldn't.
@@JDWDMC I do. Even test drove one. If it didn't have some poorly repaired accident damage, I'd have bought it.
As a brit I can honestly say that I never thought I would hear someone say " wow" when they saw an Allegro for the first time 😂😂😂. Ah the Allegro, Marina and other models of that era were known for their outstanding build quality, oh wait I meant lack of build quality 😂😂😂
Beware of the Morris marina owners club !
"Dear so called top gear"😂
Alfa Romeo Arna was a Cooperation between Alfa Romeo and Nissan.
That car was a Nissan with Alfa Batches. Nothing on it a typical Alfa Romeo.
The name was acronym for Alfa Romeo Nissan Automobili.
7:10 - A mate of mine had a Marina coupe. One early morning when driving back home from being out clubbing over Pompey, the bonnet flipped up on the A27 at 70mph. We had no idea what happened as there was a bang and the windscreen went completely black - just as well there's a fair distance between the bonnet hinge and the windscreen as the windscreen was undamaged and it dented the roof just above the windscreen. The metal had torn where the hinges were mounted on the bonnet, but we managed to get it closed and stay closed. There were five of us in the car at that time and as I was sat in the back nearside, I could see the verge and guide him into the layby that was fortunately just ahead of us. His dad had an Ital which was the successor of the Marina, but was pretty much the same car with a facelift.
6:32 - I also knew someone at that same time with an Allegro and the wheel bearings were shot, so every corner she made in it, the entire car would groan and moan loudly and the vibrations could be felt running across from one side of the car to the other through the floor and seats.
9:36 - The stringed instrument repairer where I worked back in the '90s had an FSO Polonez. I had a Citroen CX and then an XM at the time for complete contrast. I drove his car into town once and never again as it was the most traumatic driving experience of my life. The steering was vague and the brakes were spongy to the point of panic inducing. They didn't have front wheel arch linings, so any muck and stuff got flung up into the top of the front wings (fenders) where it remained and rotted them out leaving razor sharp jagged top edges along both sides of the front end.
Here's a Top Gear segment on the FSO factory - look how they fit the doors: czcams.com/video/e05wVDiScMw/video.html
The marina and allegro are 2 totally different cars sharing only the austin name. The marina is a newer minor and allegro is more mini than most people will admit. All sold in hundreds of thousands and very reliable cars in their day. Like all all older cars people don't service them then slate them when they don't do the job of a new car. Marina had A series and B series engines fitted. Great simple engines.
14:30 back in the days Hillman Imps were very popular in Rallysprint in Finland. Still see them competing now and then
I remember the C3 Pluriel from my childhood and I *love* its taillights as much as its split tailgate (lower and upper portion)
I once hitched a ride in a Smart ForTwo for some 400 kilometres and was surprised how comfy it was. It's nice to be able to reach the furthest corner of the trunk while driving as well, the lass I was driving with asked me to fish her lunch out off her bag. No issue whatsoever! 🤗 The funniest quirk when driving this car is that the short wheelbase and high seat position result in the car giving you headbutts with the headrest when you drive down a higher obstacle.
A friend of mine owns a pizza delivery and has only Smarts as delivery vehicles. They get a lot of attention from his garage, but it still is slightly fascinating that the oldest one runs reliably at 350000 Km. First engine.
…and you definitely don't want a Hayabusa engine in it. They struggled to get the ESP right in the first of these cars. From then I remember the horrendous accident rate they had initially. AIn 1998, when the first Smart was launched, a company from Remscheid/Germany ad bought ten Smarts for their staff. At the first snow in the first winter, 9 were in bad accidents. They were made safe subsequently but really rely on their ESP to not be killers. 120kph. No more. Their ESP can't handle higher speeds. You'd risk trouble. That Hayabusa Smart is a nice toy.
I've driven smarts about 4 times, and i found that the car (both the for4 and for2) was designed for someone whose arms and legs are swapped or something. I'm 173cm, and there's nowhere to put your left leg, but you have to reach for the steering wheel, and the seating position is really weird.
And the forfour got the throttle stuck wide open at one point, which gave an interesting feeling. Thankfully, that thing has the power of a pepper grinder, so that didn't have any bad outcome.
What they have going for them are the turning circle, and the sound is quite nice, especially with the robot box (makes for a kinda sporty vibe), if not for the fact that it takes a week to shift.
I own a Smart for2, it is 12 years old now. Never had any problems with so far. Its the best car to find parking on Lisbon. And it was the main reason I bought it. Its also amazing to Ride on the narrow roads of Lisbon and Sintra where I spend most of my time. Its only gets unconfortable on long rides on the highway, because you really feel the wind pushing you to the side, and you have to grab the wheel hard. I don't have swapped arms and legs as you probably can Guess. But I'm small (160) and the hight of the seat is just perfect to me. In most Cars I feel like I'm underneath the tablier and I lose a lot of road perception. Other than a Smart car I only felt ok driving SUVs due to the height of the seat.
The Alfa Romeo was a rebadged Nissan.
The Nissan version was sold as the Pulsar in Australia. It was also rebadged and sold as the Holden Astra in Australia.
It's always funny that citroen has no presence in the USA, it's such a common, cheap brand that had some real good models over the years. I'm still bummed that they stopped making a proper follow-up of the xsara picasso which is such a lovely, practical car for it's size that there's barely anything similar on the market any more.
The follow-up was the C3 Picasso.
@@davebirch1976 much smaller, much more techy garbage i don't want or need :D
@@kharnynb it's called a technical upgrade 😉 and don't they say, less is more 😆
@@kharnynb there was also a C4 Picasso as well.
@@davebirch1976 Oh, I know, that one is closer, but it is much longer/boxier than the picasso, that car is just so quirky and nice plus easy to get spares for since the xsara platform is so long running and has crossover with peugeot parts as well.
It may not be the most practical car for the States but I should think that a manual smart would be a great anti theft/high-jack car in the States: those things are also built real strong.
In Eindhoven, The Netherlands is the DAF Museum, all vehicles ever made are displayed there ....
We did get in the US the Renault 10, the Morris Marina (badged as the Austin Marina as British Leland felt that Americans knew the Austin brand better) and the Alfa Romeo Arna….kinda, as the Nissan Pulsar. They shared the same bodywork other than trim and were a joint collaboration between Nissan and Alfa Romeo
Australia also had the Morris Marina but we also made a version with a six cylinder motor unlike the four cylinders in the UK.
I remembered them growing up in Adelaide. Datsun 180b, Geminis, Cortinas,escorts, Sigma's,Mazda rotary, minis, etc dime a dozen back in the day. They'd all be worth a bit of money now. If only had hynsight! 👍🤠🇦🇺
The Smart was invented by the founder of Swatch, Nicolas Hayek, and produced first as joint venture with Mercedes-Benz. It was originally designed to be able to be transported transverse to the direction of travel on Swiss motorail trains (so its length was limited to the width of "normal" cars), but that never happened, and after some conceptual conflicts between Hayek and Mercedes-Benz engineers Smart Hayek's shares were fully taken over by Mercedes-Benz. In 2019 Chinese car producer Geely bought 50% of the shares, and the plan is to relocate production from France and Germany to China. But they are fun to drive.
The Morris Marina (first on your list) was sold in the USA from 1973 to 1975. The Zagato Zele was also sold in the USA. Rover 800 was sold in the USA as the Rover Sterling.
Lancia sold a car here in the US called the Zagato. It was a targa top car with a removable roof panel and a fold down rear window. The Renault 10 was sold in the states back in the 60's as well as a Simca 1000 that was very similar. Simca was owned by Chrysler. Austin and Morris were own by BMC, British Motor Corporation, which is why they are similar. Austin did sell the Austin America in the states.
The Rover 800 is a stable mate to the Rover 3500 that was sold in the US. The TR-7, I owned one, loved it.
I have had a Rover 214 and I live in Sweden and they were very rare here. A fantastic nice little car, they looked like a Jaguar inside and you sat extremely comfortably in it, it felt like you were sitting in a much bigger car. In the picture you showed it didn't look good at all but they are quite nice but that angle didn't do it justice. Unfortunately, when they were on sale, spare parts were hard to come by and they cost a lot, so I reluctantly got rid of it.
I've heard that the Relient is one of the most fun bikes you can drive and it should feel like you're going 200 when you go 50 with them.
The Alfa Romeo Arna actually has a Nissan Cherry body. Alpha saved money by using an existing body shell to build a sports saloon. The Cherry itself was under powered and very popular with little old ladies.
My eldest brother had a Hillman Imp which he modified. It was a great little car.
I'm in the UK, I'd never be seen in the Smart roller skate, I can't even bring myself to call it a car.
It's a roller skate!
My daughter had a C3, needed a window fro the drivers door, the car was 9 years old and new parts were nolonger stocked. took her almost a year to get one, it was shipped from Poland.
Zagato, like Pininfarina, Bertone, Karmann, HJ Mulliner, Park Ward, etc, is a coachbuilder. Many of them were founded when car-making and body-making were separate disciplines, the latter built horse-drawn vehicles before the automobile came along, and found it not very difficult to switch to building bodies for cars. With the popularization of unitary construction, most coachbuilders faded away, but those who managed to adapt, became builders of limited-run cars, or became design and engineering firms for the car industry, and perhaps even beyond.
Without a B-pillar, the Citroën C3 is an example of "pillarless" design, or "hard-top" as known in the US. For obvious reasons, seat belt configuration has to be somewhat altered to suit, and a 2/3-door body would ve structurally stronger than one with two doors on each side.
I will educate some of my fellow Americans.
The Rover 800 was sold stateside as the Sterling which was a sister car to the Honda legend. The Morris Marina was sold in US as a Austin Marina. The Renault 10 I think it was sold in the US as a replacement the Renault Dauphine.
The Rover 800 was sold in the USA as the Rover Sterling i believe.
They made a new Marque called Sterling to sell them. Like the Ford Sierra got a new Marque called Merkur.
some of the cars we did have in Australia during the 1970's and 80's
Part of the reason for British Leyland problems seem to have been related to productivity issues apparently management did a visit and discovered a warehouse that had been repurposed as a dormitory for workers
Dad had a Renault 10 had a 16 by the time Icould drive. The Alegro was more areodinamic going backwards. My first car was a Moris Marina, It did 100 mpg (of oil) 3000 to the engine 4000 to the gearbox, 9 months, 4 engines and 3 gearboxes, broken rear spring and other problems later I got rid.
The Renault 10 was sold in Mexico, it's related to the Renault Dauphine that was sold in the US. You can even see it in an episode of Breaking Bad.
the Hilman Imp was literally produced by scottich fishermed
the Allegro was actually a sedan I don't remember if the Allegro II was a hatchback or a sedan there also was a st wagon/van
Re: the Citroën C3 Pluriel, no you were seeing it correctly the roof was down, the Pluriel had a fold down cloth roof similar to the 2CV, the standard Citroën C3 (aka the non-Pluriel version) had a solid roof.
I have the big brother Citroën C4 from the same era with the 1.6L turbo diesel, it's an awesome car, so much fun to drive, not much power for it's weight but heaps of torque and really sticky in corners, so you don't need much power on a twisty mountain road cause you just steer through the corners and grin, you don't need to break hard until you catch and get stuck behind a lumbering slow V8 (usually a Falcon or Commodore in Australia)
Renault 10 Morris Marina Reliant but earlier model Hillman Imp were available here in Australia .My dad had a Hillman Wagon
Rover 100 diesel used a bulletproof PSA Peugeot / Citroen TUD5 ( 1.5 litre 4 cylinder ) non turbo diesel engine. The earlier version of this car was the Rover Metro which used the TUD3 diesel, these 1.4 diesel engines where not as reliable, PSA fixed all the issues when the new TUD5 engine was launched.
Fun Fact - Diesel Engines are insane popular in Europe for all cars. Suvs, sedans and mostly all very small cars has diesel not a gasoline
Some of these are very old cars, like the Renault, Daf, Morris and Austin.
The Alfa Romeo Arma is basically just a Nissan Bluebird (Datsun) with Alfa running gear
Ian, think Pontiac Aztec or AMC Pacer, the sort of cars your friends would laugh at if you pulled up in one.
The Pacer is ugly/quirky but has at least some comedic charm. The Aztec has to be one of the ugliest cars ever made by anyone!
In Germany, a Smart For Two called "S Klasse Rettungskapsel", "S Class Emergency/Escape Pod"😅🙈
In europe we had all sorts of small card with diesel engines. Example, the ford fiesta wit a 1,6L diesel natural aspirated
I used to drive the first generation Smart (Model 450) with Diesel Engine. 62mpg (3.8Liter/100km) in Summer was my typical consumption. And yes short travels like Cologne to Lisbon, Bordeaux, Paris, Berlin, Dresden, Oostende, ... where fun and no Problem.
The Smart actually is more roomy inside than you would guess at first glance. It has more headroom than most small cars and the trunk has room for up to 6 European standard 20 bottle beer cases. The downside of the Smart is, it's rather heavy and not very aerodynamic for a tiny twoseater. That results in an ok'ish but not great fuel efficiency for a car of its size. You can find fourseaters that don't need more fuel than a twoseater Smart. But to be honest, none of these fourseaters has the headroom of the Smart and none of them can haul 6 beer cases without flattening the rear seats.
DAF was building a variety of cars and military vehicles in the past.
The Reliant Robin is so hilarious that it was used in the Mr. Bean TV series as a mysterious ghost on wheels that sometimes emerged out of nowhere. Rowan Atkinson is a dedicated car guy btw.
The thing here in Australia or at least the places ive been, our parking spots are small. We have a kia carnival ( sedona ) and if you dont get it right, your gonna have the front or rear hanging over the lines. an bigger cars are more common these days. but our parking spaces are still the same size.
There were numerous three-wheel Reliant models, the most produced being the Regal (as driven by Del and Rodney in Only Fools), the Robin and the Rialto - which were hugely popular amongst men of a certain age group. After WWII thousands of ex-army motorbikes were sold off to the public and for thousands of men in England these were their first vehicles (often with an added sidecar). What that has to do with the Reliant is that as a three-wheeler it was classed as a motor tricycle and could be driven on a motorbike licence! Consequently, those men who started out on motorbikes in the post war years could, from 1952, upgrade to a 'car' without having to re-test for a car licence. Most Reliant owners followed this path - my father being one of them. Reliant owners were very proud of their vehicles and there was a nationwide owners club that held annual rallies. They were actually much safer than most people thought. In a collision the fibreglass body might shatter but the presence of a solid chassis prevented the vehicle crumpling like most four-wheelers.
That was the whole point of three wheelers. You could run them on a mototrcicle license. So basicly they were used as a motorcycle with a roof.
That's what my dad, did 60s biker. Getting a family the Robin was a no brainer.
British cars from the Leyland era can be seen as a crime against humanity.
The reliability of a specific car depended on how manny unskilled labour, bad managment decissions, bean counting, strikes and sabotage that poor car had to endure during its construction.
f.e unpainted bare shells stood out in the rain during strikes and empty packs of cigarettes, bottles, cans and tools were put deliberatly between panels during construction who gave strange rattel noices.
Thats why so few survived they were just skipped (UK British for thrown away ) on mass.
The Zagato looks like a van,that was cut in half. The DAF looked cool.
Dacia was making cars in the Soviet era based on the Renault 12. Also suprising,that any car from those times could pass a crash test.
I have an mk1 octavia (golf 4 platform) 1.9 tdi 110hp, fun to drive and to throw around and gets 48 mpg in the city, and 58 on the road, so its not just good to drive with lota of torque, its nearly eats up the tank, my personal best was 1274km(791 miles) on a 50 litre(13+- gallon) tank
TR7 was a classic, beautiful car.
And yes they do make lovely bikes too, i own one 😁
Rover 100 is the updated Metro, of which in original form they made the Group B rally car Metro 6R4 out of it.
The Hillman Imp was a great rally car!
Ian, you will have to Google the pluriel to see what it is all about and it's many configurations. Very unique.
Fun fact: Renault 10 had a crank shaft alongside normal starter. My gramps owned 2 of those
i have a smart fortwo 451
zegato are a coach builder mostly on aston martin or alfa romeo
The Mercedes CLA, it wasn't the design... but the engine choices, a 1.5 turbo diesel I4, or a 1.6 turbo gas/petrol I4 engine.
the reliant, 3 wheel car (famous in mr. bean tv series) , because it has 3 wheels (trike) you may drive it with a motor cycle driver licence (if you don't have a car licence) in a lot of eu countries.
The Hillman Imp , but especially its derivatives were actually decent Rally cars
C3 Plurieal was a rather wacky cabriolet/spider/pick-up version of first gen C3 ( hence Pluriel, from "plural"), that had a canvas retractable roof which could, together with the glass rear window, fold completely into the floor its boot to create "spider".... its roof arches were detachable too, if you wanted even "more of cabriolet" feel, but since you had to leave the arches in your garage, you couldn't raise the roof back if you were caught by rain 😂.... it was heavily ridiculed because of that 😁.... and, since its tail gate could carry some load (100 kg I think), with flat folded rear seats that together with its roof folded under the trunk floor, created a 1.75 meter long flat surface, that could serve as a a trunk of a small pick-up....
You think you have heard of Morris before? You should - Morris Mini. Or Morris Mascot. One of the true icons of the automotive history, almost a big an icon as the VW Beetle. When I say big, I don't mean the car's proportions - I mean the name.
Yes, some car brands in Europe produced crappy cars. As it happened everywhere. Old and outdated engineers, low budgets, rush to introduce a new model, etc.
I own a C3 Pluriel. It's one of the most funny cars to drive. When the weather is right you can strip off the entire top of the car and drive in a "barchetta" style type of car, or you can opt for a simple convertible. And to top it all it is the spiritual heir of the 2 CV.
A mate in high school in Toowoomba, Queensland, Australia, in 1987 had a purple Morris Marina. What a piece of junk! Yet every time I think of us putting 85 cents of fuel in it at the servo, or the number of times we had to push it after it broke down, I can't help but smile at how much we all loved that car.
old cars do have more character or personality, than newer cars.
Morris Marinas were scrapped at a very high rate yes. But one of the reasons for its almost total demise was the fact that it's drive train was sought after! Many kit cars of the 1980s were based on the Marinas drive line and the parts were also sought after to upgrade Britain's favourite classic car: the Morris Minor.
The Morris Marina got built for a little while in Australia as the Leyland Marina and was a 4 like the UK, but Leyland Aust out the 2.6 6cyl from the P76 (Kimberley/Tasman earlier and smaller) to compete with the Torana and Cortina 6s. It wasn’t well regarded but would be a nice, if odd, thing to see now.
The V8 version of the P76 has become quite collectible these days , the 6 cyl too but less so . There was a parts and accessories warehouse just outside Liverpool NSW years ago and new cars were also stored there , I remember rows and rows of them , they were meant to compete with the Holdens and Fords of the time .
@@Gordon_L yes, I remember when they came out, and a few local families bought them, later on my uncle bought a V8 one
I still drive a Citroen Saxo (2003) with >230k on the counter. It's an easy fix up when something breaks. Got the whole drive train including gears replaced last year so it should run till it rusts apart or something. But then my garage guy says it's a 'hard bakkie' meaning it shows none to little rust or brittle spots. I wonder if I could get to half a million. It's an ideal small city vehicle that gets me anywhwre and with fairly good gass mileage I'm very please with it, still
Fun fact: The 2005 Ford Thunderbird was based on the Jaguar S-Type. And the Alfa Romeo Arna was just a rebadged Nissan Pulsar/Sunny.