Two silly errors on my side! I said 1986 instead of 1968 when referring to ADO17s MK2 version Used a C Series engine photo in place of the O Series! Nothing I can do I'm afraid but thank you all for spotting.
too late too little - but I liked this video about a car I had not known like many british cars due to all the issues of the past. Still people get hesitant if one asks about metric screws or not and so on . A no go for the average buyer , only die hard fans buy british cars nowadays - except the german ones from Mini, RR or Bentley where it does not matter or the issues have gone.
The only cars I’ve ever seen with complete either front stub axle wish bone or rear wheels totally fall off and over Take there owners cars. Are the TRIUMPH STAG - DOMLITE . And PRINCESS
My dad had an 1800 princess in 1976. It was the best ride of any car he ever owned and covered over 100,000 miles in three years without missing a beat! I recall one drive home on the M6 in a blizzard and we were literally the only car moving in the middle lane (outside lane impassable and inside lane at a snails pace). That front wheel drive traction got us home and that journey and the car are now a fond family memory!
Hello from Germany! I was 26 years old when I bought a low mileage Princess 2200 HLS from a used car dealer in 1985, immaculate inside and out, the price was super cheap. The driving comfort was unique, the car was a real eye-catcher, because there were only a few Princesses on our roads. The car mastered a trip to Turkey without any problems, it was exactly the comfortable vehicle for the long journey and the sometimes bad roads. But just one week after returning from that long haul trip, the devil struck. The tie rod end broke and the car became immobile in the middle of the road. Just one week after the repair, the windscreen wiper motor broke and I had to wait almost two months for the replacement part. Just two weeks after the repair, there was a crack in the differential, the oil leaked and I only just made it home (with terrible noises). The repair was economically unviable and so the car went to the scrapyard after only 4 months of ownership. I was very sad about this, because the Princess was wonderfully comfortable to drive and a real rarity. It was also a shame that all my acquaintances were right when they warned me against buying a British car: complicated, unreliable, poorly assembled and expensive to maintain.
Those problems sound like as though thr car was damged, ie pot hole or similar. I went to a holiday camp and my old montego had 😊a similar prob😊lem, l hit a bad pothole but didn't check for damage.
@Scarecrow1878 had an alfasud It looked gorgeous ❤ 👀 Brought it cheap, started and ran, but non driver, clutch dead, did the clutch, had a minor electrical fault, no worries, tried to trace and fix............. 😄 🤣 😂 ALL the wires were black ⚫ positive negative, the lot! From the Era Alfa hadn't paid the bills and black wires were all the factory had left!!!! Got it started, drove it once, test drive completed, straight in Auto trader for cheap 'New Clutch and M.O.T., good runner, need the space, £750ono' Think I took 500 from the first caller 📞 💬 'done' 👨 💬 'yes, like a kipper'
when I was 17 I had a mk2 Escort as my car, but I really really wanted a spitfire. This was 1983. I knew of a nice spitfire for sale, a 1300, as per my escort, so I sold the escort to buy it. My parents objected to me having a 'sports car' ("too dangerous") and in a fit of childish rage I opened the local paper, turned to cars for sale, "A" Austin.. I bought a Princess. A 2200HL. It looked awful, either rattle can paint work or they forgot the clear lacquer.. but yeah, 350 quid when I'd sold the escort for 650, so I bought new tyres, and thrashed around in an 'old man's car' as the other boy racers used to refer to it. I had the last laugh though, it went like a stabbed rat and handled brilliantly for its bulk. I never lost a street race, and I was often (always) outclassed. It was one of my better rage choices. I never had the wind in my hair but drove the princess as if my hair was on fire
Same here , everyone used to say to me in my early 20s why you driving an "old man's" ? It was top of the range tinted glass luxury interior and a healthy six cylinder engine! And in less restrictive times everyone could pile in the back ! Not so much the "old man's car " then ........😂
There are three cars that were designed by BL that, if they had been Italian or French, would be on permanent display in art galleries, the Range Rover, the SD1, and the Princess.
Don't forget British Leyland's Australian cousins ! The Leyland P76. Most had the 4.4 litre alloy v8, but a 2.6 litre straight 6 was an economy option. Famous for being a sedan car large enough to take a 44 gallon (imperial, 55 US gals or 209 litre) drum, in the boot. It's "urban legend" (and possibly true) here Downunder that the Leyland P76 was so good, that Ford, Holden and Chrysler paid bribes to have production of it shut down, as it was so much better than the products they were offering at the time.
From Sydney, Australia, you are dead correct, I turned 69 3 days ago and when all 3 of these were new we never received Princess's at BMC -Leyland dealers, but you could order one from the UK & wait for it to be shipped out here, same as it was for the big Austin 3 litres of the late 1960's. Ehen I was at ubi as a young guy a mates parents ordered one each they owned them for years and years and years, never had any trouble with either of them. A better car than it was ever given credit for & the 2200cc 6 cyl engines were made here by BMC Australia in their massive factory at Zetland, Sydney near the airport & shipped to the UK for fitting in the HL2200's.
I bought an Ambassador 2.0Ltr HLS from a work colleague for my wife as her first car, it was BRILLIANT! Two young children complete with all their accessories were transported with ease and in comfort, it had all the gizmos and gadgets you needed, it was like a Montego estate I had a little later, it was like driving a CAVE around and the massive hatchback made it Soooooo practical. It’s a real shame that the unions and factory workers were so up themselves that they shot us all in the foot.
My Dad was a BMC owner through and through. From a Morris 1000 to an Austin Cambridge to the Austin 1800 'Land Crab'. These were all great cars with their quirks and drawbacks. But we as a family loved them all. Then came the Princess that broke the spell. Bought brand new with every extra it sat gleaming on the driveway drawing admiring glances from bypasses. Dad drove the car to work and back for a year and clocked up 6,000 miles and had it serviced by the book at the BL dealer that supplied. Soon the troubles became apparent. Firstly the nearside suspension spang a leak leaving it stranded and bleeding all over Dads new driveway. It was dragged away and returned two weeks later. But shock and horror the other side blew the following week. And another two weeks for repairs. Dad finally settled down to some good solid motoring ... except the front engine mount came adrift and the engine dropped onto its front driveshaft and ruined the hub in the ensuing carnage. More time in the garage. Followed by gearbox failure and finally a dropped valve that finished off the sorry saga. After barely 20K miles the car had rust scabs on the wheel arches. A bumper with peeling chrome and a OSR tyre bald to the steel belts - later found to be caused by a bent rear subframe - ad supplied from the factory. Dad so wanted this to be as good as the rest of the BMC cars but it was the terrible build quality that was its demise. And so to the BMC then BL brand that went down the drain. Dad bought a Volvo and fell in love with a robust Swedish brand and started eating meatballs!
I had a white 2200HL princess, loved it, great for cruising on the a roads and motorway, I sold it for a 2600 Rover SD1, I've always loved British cars, I've also had several Triumph Dolomites and a Herald, to this day I still have an original MG F 1996 slated by the press at the time but now recognised as a good car, thank you for the videos, they bring back so many memories
The Princess was, I think, to far ahead of it's time in styling at least. As a kid, when it was launched, I thought it looked ridiculous. And when, in my twenties, I was offered one when I was desperate for reliable daily transport, I turned my nose up at it. Now, in my mid 50's, I'd actually be quite proud to have one sitting on my drive... Not sure If I mellowed with age, the car did, or we mellowed together.
Nah, gotta disagree there bud.. it definitely had features that were ahead of its time (hydrogas suspension etc) but the styling couldnt be any more of its time.. just look at some of its contemporaries.. aston lagonda, bond bug, lotus elite, lancia stratos, reliant scimitar, triumph tr7.. the mid 70s was peak wedge mania..
The perfect buyer for the Princess was exemplified by Terry Scott in Terry and June. It's no coincidence that this was the car chosen for him in the series.
My Dad started a taxi company based on the Morris Oxford then the Austin Morris Princess.The company,at its peak,ran 50 Princess’s.The car put myself and 3 sisters through public school .We owe our education and prosperity to the Wedge.Comfortable,roomy and simple to fix.Countless weddings were happily completed with the identical twin 6 cylinder Vanden Plas Princesses.What a great car❤
I have a New Zealand assembled 1981 Austin Princess 2.0 HL automatic in signal red. Great handling, comfortable supple ride. Earlier in the video, Tom, where you mentioned the O series engine, you show an image of the Austin 3 Litre C series engine. Thanks for a video on the Princess. A car which I think was incorrectly and sadly maligned as a sub-standard vehicle whereas it was advanced for the day.
I would like to suggest that you make a video driving a good example of one of the Princess models. It may not be your style but could be a useful extension to your video series. Yes I enjoyed the video. Cheers John Vevers. @@tomdrives
back in the early 80s I was a teenage apprentice mechanic. our garage owner decided to buy a fleet of 8 taxis with hackney plates. one was a Princess 1800. none of us liked it but the driver loved it and in all fairness the car had highest mileage but required the least maintenance of the fleet. eventually the hackney carriage rules meant the car had to be retired and along with a Victor FE 1800. everything was standardised to the MK4 & MK5 Cortina 1600 more for commonality simplicity and speed of maintenance than reliability and longevity.
I worked for a main BL dealer when the Princess came out. I remember 1st one in workshop, we all came to look at it. Like all BL cars they were reliable if worked on by proper mechanics, like the workshop I worked in.very good mechanics doing job properly.
I was working at a BL dealer too in 1975 doing auto-electrics and this car looked so modern and futuristic at the time. Should have been a hatchback to start with like the Ambassador that came later. That business of Austin/Morris 18/22 series names was just confusing I think, and Wolseley too! Because at that time before all the marques got branded together(Austin/Morris/Rover/Triumph) there were Austin and Morris dealers so some could sell the Allegro and not the Marina and vice-versa etc. Goodness knows what current Auto manufacturer execs. would think of BL's top management today!
I had a Landcrab (as you cal it) and I loved it. Spacious, so easy & comfortable, loved it, I also had a Princess 2200, The rear suspension fell off when the rubber mounting blocks fell in half !!!
My grandad has a Princess and I remember it being very roomy, comfortable and smooth. I always liked the shape which was pretty futuristic in its day and in retrospect I think this shape was the pinnacle of Harris Mann's portfolio and still looks fresh today. As an aside, a lot of the rally boys used to use Princess front brakes on their escorts as they had four piston calipers.
I owned a Princess,it was a very comfortable ride. Long journeys were a breeze, it was effortless to drive with good power steering. Plenty of room for your passengers, I though a good family car. But when it got older I had three small components go wrong, but each time it was repaired the engine had to come out to access the part that had failed which cost quite a bit. So after paying for removing the engine three times I decided to trade it in for a Vauxhall.
Never drove one or rode in one, but fitted the front seats from a top of the range one into my mk4 Cortina estate, just had to swap the metal runner frames over on the bases - which were a perfect fit ! They were huge seats compared to what Ford fitted and the Princess seats had head rests, arm rests and adjusted in all directions. Added a bit of glam to my base model Ford.
I bought a brand new Princess 1800 HL back in November 1975, £2500 back then !!. A lovely Reynard metallic with a black vinyl roof. Alas powered by an old 1800cc single SU carb, no power steering but was a great car to drive. Not many cars at that time had such a smooth suspension (Hydragas) and the cornering and handling were spot on. I kept the car (used for work) until 1982 and replaced it with a new Ford Capri - such a different car !! I will not knock the Princess, quite a looker in it's day, yes it could have been better. Mine was very reliable. Roomiest car I've ever had. Wish I still had one.
I owned a metro,marina,allegro and a montego at various times in the 80s and early 90s never had much of a problem with any of them.I wished I had a princess.I had a go in one and was amazed at the rear leg room
Dad rented one on the Isle of Wight in 1984 and I have to say that whatever it drove like it had the most comfortable rear passenger ride that I've personally experienced.
The first time I saw a Leyland wedge was when I was six years old .I was very into science fiction tv and thought that the wedge looked like a car from ufo or space 1999 ,I love them and that's why I have one today
The fact you call it a Leyland Wedge implies you are influenced by that hater of all things British ,Clarkson. He referred to it as that also . Sneering horrible man hated nationalised industries however took taxpayers money working for the BBC.
Took money from BBC.. The best and highly popular entertaining motor program is what resulted. Top Gear was barely half as popular without him. What planet do you live on? @janschkeuditz6065
A fun fact!! You may not have noticed the 1975 Morris 18/22 centre piece in the grill is the reverse setting to the Wolseley, Morris is wider on the bottom than top, while the Wolseley tappers downward, wider at the top than the bottom.
When the cars were sold as Morris, Austin & Worsley they were known as the 18-22 series, the princess name (stolen from Vanden Plas) came after the individual names were dropped.
I misses British cars as, MG, Austin, Morris, BLMC, Triumps... (I had two of them, a used Austin Allegro 1,5liter, 5- speed in the late 70's, and a Mini Special 1100 (also used) a couple of years later). My farther had two Morris 1800 ("Landcrabs") in the mid 60's to mid 70's, and my mother had a Mini 850 (early model) and later a newer one in the same period. Lovely cars all of them (in hindsight even the Allegro)
I so enjoyed this. Growing up in the UK, at some point either my parents or eventually I owed an examle of every car from the oxford and cambridge to the princess. compared to today they are dinasours, but dinasours are facinateing. Well done.
My dad bought one new when he was in the services overseas. Obviously taking advantage of the tax situation. He had it until it was driven into the scrap yard many years later. It was the car I first drove, passed my test on and learnt to drive on. Very comfortable. Wouldn’t say it was reliable, the skills of my dad kept it going. But it was a memorable car.
I remember cars from this decade. They rotted away in under 10 years, unless you had a heated garage, and never drove the car when it rained or in the winter. And even then. . . None of the designers considered ‘water traps’ in the bodywork, or drain points, so water got trapped, and the only way out was to rust out. Used to know someone who worked at Cowley back in those days, the body shells arrived unpainted, and were stored outside. Then it rained. They were going rusty before they even got built into a car, seams filled with water. 😱
my father was an experimental test driver for Vauxhall in the 60s. sometimes he spoke about how they used to put sponges in key structural points so the cars rotted into an uneconomical state. cars from that decade really did disolve rapidly. 70s cars were patchy and we discovered spray Schutz and Waxoyl in the 80s so some cars got lucky and lasted but most still rotted out. it wasn't until the 90s when people had got so fed up poor build quality and low longevity that some properly decent cars got built. alas, we're back to the 60s again...
Tom, I don’t know if you are aware, but in The Netherlands there are two of the most rare Princesses in existence: A Torcars hatchback conversion and a Woodall Nicholson Kirklees limo. The last one has a TH-cam video by HubNut, so you can watch that. The Torcars is not on the road, its APK ran out in July 2022, but is in the current ownership since April 2020. I have pictures of it which I made on a show in 2017. Stupidly enough not from the back. The car has featured in at least one classic car magazine in Holland. It was purchased new in 1977 by a salesman who wanted a white car. That was not available so he bought a light blue one and had it resprayed by the dealer before collection. Then he went straight to England on holiday, where he already made arrangements with Torcars and dropped the car off. He hired a car for the holidays and on his way back he picked up the converted car. He drove it for years and years and did more than (wait for it…) 250.000 miles (400.000km) in it! When I took pictures in 2017 it was still owned by the same man. But it was on the show to sell it. But priced too expensive for the state it was in. It had quite a lot of rust and around 7000 euros was way too much back then. But it found a new home.
Thanks for uploading, a car I always felt was unfairly maligned. One thing the 6 cylinder engine shown wasn't fitted to the Princess that engine was used in the Austin 3 litre and MGC.
My dad's first management company car was a 1980 2200HLS in metallic blue (best colour by far). As a 6 year old I often stared at it on the driveway, obsessed by it's uniquely oblique yet beautiful styling. It was really comfy in the back, yet I was constantly annoyed by the faulty seatbelt light which kept flashing with the belts on, and the loudest power steering hiss I have ever heard on a car. We were both taken back decades when we saw an identical car at the Great British Car journey in Ambergate 2 years ago. Which is an awesome museum Tom, that would easily warrant a video on if you ever get the chance.
Terrific video Tom. I have always been fascinated by these.....I recall seeing hotel guests on Fawlty Towers driving up to the hotel in a Princess!! We never got them in Australia so I have never actually seen one. We had Austin 1800 Mk 1 & Mk 2 which were replaced by the 6 cylinder Austin Tasman & Kimberley in 71 running through to 73. That's definitely an Australian press photo of the family having a picnic by their 1800 Mk 1.
I thought they were terrific cars - good looking, roomy, refined, nice interior, amazing ride. It lacked a hatchback - BL didn’t want to hurt Maxi sales, and it was (as always) plagued by quality and reliability problems. But as a large, comfortable family car, it was great. I’ve not driven a Princess, but I have driven an Ambassador, and the ride and space was superb.
My dad owned a 1981 Princess 1.7HL from 1985 to 1990. It was quiet, comfortable and pleasant to drive, and I liked the wedge shape. I can't recall it being any less reliable than any of our other cars in the 70s and 80s. Our car's biggest failing was its suspension. One side would gradually sink until we had to have it blown up again - cost £5 at a local garage - and this would be needed about every 6 months. We viewed this as an annoyance, and so long as we had the suspension blown up regularly it caused no issues. My dad's car was bronze with a vinyl roof. If I remember correctly it had a very decent sized boot and took us on many family holidays. To sum up, a very pleasant car to both drive and be a passenger in.
Clay model front resembles pug 504, which had been around for a while, the previous pug was a pinin product very similar to the A60... coincidence? Excellent as ever mate !
I always liked the look of the Princess growing up, It's a shame BL had the mentality that they did - it was perfect for a hatchback, but "we already have a hatchback", the Austin Maxi. That same mentality killed off the Rover P7 (the Jaguar contingent complained that it would compete with their cars) but fortunately we did eventually get the SD1. Of course, the unions didn't help with their strikes...
BLs biggest marketing issue was that they always shied away from directly challenging the opposition. The land crab was too big to replace the Farinas & the Princesses were too small to challenge the Vauxhall’s & Fords.
I think there was quite a lot they could do. Make it a hatchback, give it a 5 speed gearbox and a rev counter. As a six cylinder it was in the luxury sector and needed some luxury features or luxury options. All of this was within BL´s capability.
My dad's first company car was a "land crab" 1800 in 1973, replaced by one of the first Leyland Princesses (rather than an Austin, Morris or Wolseley) on a "P"-plate. The "Wedgie" was light years ahead of the 1800 in terms of style and fittings; 3 further Wedgies followed it (S, V and X plates), each one more unreliable than its predecessor, and all rusted around the rear wheel arches; the final X-reg one was running on only 3 cylinders when collected from the dealer and ended up with a Gold Seal replacement engine after a few weeks. That was replaced by one of the first "A"-reg Montegos; he missed out on an Ambassador. The Wedgie could have been so great if only it had been better built and more reliable; as the Wedgie was leaps and bounds ahead of the Land-crab, so the Montego was another huge improvement over the Wedgie. BL, a sad and sorry tale of the British Motor Industry :-(
I had a 1975 MK3 Morris 1800 Landcrab. I had it for 5 years. Until I wrote it off (long story) it was a brilliant car. I really fancied a Princess, but unfortunately I couldn't afford one. Now I wished, I had pushed the boat out and had one.
I was brought up with Austins, and that was a blue Austin Cambridge, a green mk1 1800, a beige mk2 1800, a white 1800 wedge and finally a blue 2.0l Princess 2. As you can see, my father liked an Austin. I on the other hand was fully behind the Ford badge and he hated that fact. As a young child I dreamt of owning a mk1 escort or a mk2 cortina. In my life I have owned and driven many cars of varying makes and models, but there are only two cars that I wish I still owned. The first is dads mid pageant blue 2.0 litre Princess 2 because it was the most amazing vehicle I have ever driven! The second is equally missed by myself but is not a Ford nor an Austin, it is the black Renault 30tx automatic that I paid £50.00 for in the mid '90s and restored to M.O.T. test standard and drove for some time. They were both really great cars for size, ability to cope in bad weather. Could carry huge amounts in the boot/back of the car and they were the most comfortable cars to drive, in my opinion. I have some really great memories of my father driving us around in his Austin cars and also driving some of them myself. If I had to pick one of those many Austins to drive today, it would have to be the Austin Princess 2 in mid pageant blue! Thanks for sharing and setting the memories flooding back!
My friend has a P76 Leyland made for Australia conditions and the sales pitch was “you can fit a 44gallon drum in the boot”. It was a aluminium v8 that was real nice. 4.4liter v8 automatic. He’s father bought it new from dealership new and it’s been in family ever since. It’s had some upgrades like good rims and paint job. The princess was brought to Australia but in very small numbers.
My father had 2 Maxis, the 1500 and the 1700 HL. he then bought the infamous 1.8 Land-crab then bought a Princess. By this time I had owned a mini, a Marina and was on an Allegro. All of those cars, whether my father's or mine were reasonable motor vehicles, apart from the Allegro which was forever giving me problems, from gearbox sloppiness and wine to non starting in cold weather, a broken driver's seat, rust and suspension anomalies and I replaced it with a Hillman Hunter 1.7GT. Apart from the Allegro, the rest of BL's cars always did what they were required to do and I loved the Princess. It was comfortable, easy to drive and always was admired.
My dad had a 1980 1700 HL Princess 2 in a very bright orangey-red. It was a fabulous family car for the 5 of us plus dog. Hugely spacious and comfortable and as far as i can recall nothing went wrong in the 4 years we had it.
Jon from work here. My Grandad had an Austin Princess, and as a result it was the first car I ever drove, kangarooing on the clutch 30yds along his private drive at the age of 8. It was well ahead of its time, with seatbelt warning, and ABS braking. Favourite memory was my Grandad driving back from a trip to see the Blackpool illuminations to Sheffield with us kids in the back with no working headlights after both bulbs failed and my Grandad couldn’t work out how/ or looking back perhaps couldn’t afford to change the sealed unit headlamps. That wedge shaped car was a real head turner for the next 10 years that my Grandad drove it, so much better than the compact hatchbacks which started to come into vogue over the same period.
Used to see the Princess on the road into the 90's. By all accounts very comfortable but design wise stuck out like a stubbed toe by then. As for the landcrab they were fairly popular in Australia including a ute. Replaced by the Austin Tasman and Kimberley.
I always liked the Princess and thought the Wolseley was fabulous - a two door 'sport' version would have looked really good. Such a shame all these cars never had a chance.
I was an apprentice @ a Danish BLMC dealership when these came out.. A giant leap forward from the Landcrab... They were actually good cars, especially the 2200.... They were misunderstood when compared to other brands i.e. the Granada... They suffered from build quality and we often joked that had it been built in Germany it would have been much better. As apprentice one of my jobs were to do predelivery checks and put licence plate on with a final test drive. I still remember the smoothness the Princess 2200 went down the road...
Me and my late dad brought a rare sp princess in 1987 it was gold and square headlights nice stripe down the side etc great towing car so comfortable with a 2.0 o series we brought another for spares with a b series lump . Dad's friend had a very rare at the time a wolsley version but I don't know what happened to it . I liked the princess always great to one at a classic car show as you don't see any anymore
My memory of the princess was it was very heavy to push, my m8ts dad had one and giving us a lift to school the thing broke down outside his house, we did get it started but it was very heavy
My dad bought one brand new as an import to Germany tax free in 1978 - he was in the RAF stationed in Germany. Picked it up from the port and drove it home to Gutersloh. the gearbox went on the way ther. Got towed to the nearest BL garage to get fixed. That took a few weeks! Many problems over his ownership but survived 22 years. Lovely car but riddled with problems.
I still think the twin headlamp s2 version is a handsome looking car, the lines are clean and well balanced. The Ambassador lost some of that although it gain the obvious hatchback. Wasn’t there some mad idea that it could be sold in USA and ride height was raised to meet US impact regulations and that in turn messed up the driveshaft angles? I have thought for a long time what a modern take on the Princess could be like. Sad to see another example of a wasted opportunity from the UK at large. Great video as always, thanks 👍
The Renault 16 came out in 1963, a cool hatchback. Meanwhile the Princess, years later, didn’t learn the lesson, - why not the practicality of a hatchback?
The brilliant 16 appeared in 1965, and BMC board papers show that the new Renault terrified them. But once the Maxi emerged in 69, the product planners decided not to allow any other car to have a hatch - so the 1100/1300, Allegro and Princess all had to do without. Ho hum....
My initial thoughts on the Princess was that it was not a good looking car, much preferred the Rover P6 and the Triumph 2000 MK2 but did succumb to buying one and for the most part being happy with it. My 2200HL did scare me a little when I found the carburettors leaking on to the exhaust manifold and the high rear screen line was annoying but it handled rather well and was good to drive even with a 3 speed automatic. In my 70's now but have fond memories of many old British cars.
I had two Princess cars and they were good comfortable reliable cars. If I had to be really picky, they desperately needed a 5 speed gearbox. That would have transformed them.
Interesting to see some of the cars in the ads with TVP-S reg plates. Here in Birmingham we had a number of Leyland Fleetline and Leyland National buses with those marks too.
I can´t speak about the Princess, but the Austin Montego. I basically inherited the car from my mother back in 1991. She had bought it new in 1986, we had a very early oil pump failure which she noticed on the spot, stopped the car and had it fixed instantly. Shortly before I got our Monty other was an issue with a sticky carburettor needle that gave us a bit of trouble but was fixed quickly. I worked a lot for companies in the orbit of Volkswagen over the years. and I have seen the woes their customers were exposed to. Quite honestly: Our Monty had been an example of reliability in comparison! If you bought a Volkswagen between 1985 and 1987 chances were you got a car made from recycled sheet steel that was produced in the GDR and had dreadfully inconsistent metallurgic characteristics that resulted in extreme corrosion issues. There was an owner of a 2002 Polo that handed the car back in after it had its third engine failure after 9000 km on the road. Draining batteries, total failures with electrical systems with the Golf IV… There´s a long list, I could go on for hours. That Austin looked a lot smarter to me than all of these cars! My Monty died in a crash in 1991 in Bonn, in which it showed a really strong and well designed body that protected me from worse, I literally escaped an impact at ~50 kph with a black eye and bruises where the safety belt held me. I had a chat with somebody who crashed his Jetta II at only slightly higher speed. He had driven home sloshed from a bar and mistook a queue of parked cars for traffic. He was one of the few who ended up being lucky not having worn the safety belt as he flew right through the windscreen with bits of the car getting stuck in his legs. That wasn't quite as bad as the alternative would have been, for the engine ended up lying in the front seat. I bet that the public opinion about the comparison in expectations between that VW and the Austin in Britain and elsewhere would have suggested a very different outcome. They would probably have predicted you´d die in that "terrible English car" and the VW would save your life. I guess more than anything else, British made cars suffered from the reputation of British cars. A bad reputation not justified by facts. It´s not like there were no strikes to factories elsewhere in the world either, it´s not like there were no corrosion issues with German or any other cars. I really loved to go on drives in my dad´s Opel Diplomat E. I was at primary school age when the car suddenly started smoking like crazy on a family outing. I don´t remember anything else this scary from my early years! It turned out some bloody gasket had leaked a good gulp of engine oil onto the exhaust. That turned our German quality car into a fog machine of sorts! My mother had a VW 411 that surprised her with a brake failure on her way home from work. She didn´t bother with getting the rust bucket repaired as it was the latest in a long list of troubles. She got herself a VW 412 that was crazy thirsty and never stopped smelling of petrol inside, no matter how many VW mechanics had a go at it. Another awful car! After that, I remember a couple of Opel Kadett and Rekord she owned that were taken from us by TÜV-examinations for corrosion to stressed sections of their bodies. Then she got her Montego, having been fed up with all the troubles with second hand cars.
I unfortunately owned one of these in the late 80s. The petrol gauge didn't work properly, the car started leaning after the hydragas suspension had been refilled, and in the end the alternator went, and BL made a huge mess of replacing it. I sold it, vowing I'd never own another British car, and apart from a Swindon-built Honda, I never have. It did around 20mpg and was a bugger to park. It was very comfortable though.
I got to 10:22 until my blood boiled.... What an absolute joke the British car manufacturing industry was! From a very reliable source when BMW were in control at Longbridge they took a vehicle back to Germany to inspect built quality. The car suffered from a strange aroma, once the door panel was removed someone's half eaten mouldy sandwiches were lying at the bottom of the door. They also removed the carpet & some disgusting artwork was inscribed in the floorpan paintwork! Total joke!!
My Father-in-law had a Wolseley in black with a cream cloth interior to replace his dissolving Fiat 125 special. It was a very nice, comfortable and reliable car. The only issue was the boot, which was very large, but largely inaccessible due to the small bootlid a bit like a letterbox. BL's fear of competing with their own (outdated) models by not including the hatchback was the cars greatest problem. While expending their effort downgrading their own product so as not to compete with another of their products they missed the point that they were supposed to be competing with their rivals, not themselves.
My mates dad got a 2nd hand Princess back in 85/86 for towing his caravan 25 miles back 'n' forth to Henley every other weekend. All i remember was it was smooth and a comfortable drive and all he kept banging on about was the number plate was worth a fortune because it had a 1 in it. 🤣😂
British Leyland cars in the mid 1970s Mini 850 ,1000 and 1275GT, Clubman saloon and estate. Austin Allegro 1100, 1300, 1500, saloon and estate, 1750 and Vanden Plas Austin Maxi 1500 and 1750 Morris Marina 1300, 1800 saloon estate and coupe Princess 1800 and 2200 initially Austin Morris and Wolseley Triumph Toledo, 1500, Dolomite, and 2000/2500 saloon and estate Range Rover Rover 2200 and 3500. MG Midget and MGB Triumph Spitfire, TR6, GT6 and Stag, Jaguar XJ6 3.4, 4.2 and XJ12 5.3, Daimler Sovereign 4.2 and Double Six.
@@peterm4475 All versions of the Land Rover is a British Leyland commercial vehicle like the Mini and Marina van and pickup, all models of the Sherpa, EA van, and all versions of lorries.
Our family car history went from Austin Cambridge to 2200 land crab (Harvest Gold colour) but my dad disliked the shape of the Princess so much he moved over to a Granada and later replaced that with another Granada. Fondest memory is of the automatic gear selector on the 2200 breaking off in my mum’s hand.
I had 2 of these , and then a later produced ambassador, very smooth quite running cars , with a smooth carpet ride , cheers shane , also had a maxi and allegro back in the late 80s 🎉
I had a Princess 2200 in the mid/late seventies. I called my “nearly” car. I worked for a company based in Marseilles, I was based out of London and lived in Dublin! The result was that the car spent much of its time blasting up and down motorways. There was a rattle behind the speedo that was never identified, the seat had stepped height adjustment, so inevitably, my comfortable position lay between notches. Every round trip to Marseilles necessitated a visit to BL for new drive shafts/engine mounts!! On the other hand, the boot was enormous, the ride exceptional and she could go from Marseilles to Calais non-stop - no Ther car that I used on this trip could match it for range. The car had such potential and despite its issues, I was sorry to part with her.
My dad had a Wolseley 18/85 Landcrab, which he loved. He replaced it with a Princess 2200 HLS which was so unreliable. But, he always maintained that it was the most comfortable car he ever owned.
Dad had a 2.0 HLS W reg Princess 2 in about 81/82 - he always said it was the most comfortable car he ever owned. Mmmm - I wasn't so convinced. I remember rust from about 3 years old. Still, as a student, I bought one for £100 as a 'joke' in the 90's, ran it for about 4 weeks and flogged it for £200 so my memory of the Princess is the car I doubled my money on 🤣🤣🤣
Hi Tom great interesting video, yes was a underrated car and had the seatbelt alarm the first in The Uk to have one , I own 2 princesses . Regards mark
I owned one for 5 years and my mum had it after me. It was one of the best cars I’d had up to that time. It was quiet, reliable, roomy smooth and soooo comfortable!! I was honk it was an absolute success
I had a princess which needed several suspension units but @£500 secondhand I still loved the ride & space .My next door neighbour also loved it & bought a silver Ambassador but sold it to me for £50 since it needed work to get thru MOT what a bargain , being a new teacher in 1985 the kids must have laughed @ what was really a older persons drive !
My dad used to have a Princess, light brown with the black vinyl roof, looked like a jaffa cake. He'd start on the driveway to warm up, I used to squat down by the exhaust. Sure, my kids all have three eyes, prehensile tails, and webbed hands, but it was worth it for the scent of unfiltered, uncatalyzed, leaded four-star on a cold winter morning!
My father bought a young second hand Princess in November 1977, when I was 7 years old, an 1800HL. Quite a special car in The Netherlands. Unfortunately it completely lived up to its terrible reputation and it broke down frequently. Starting with a broken starter motor the first evening. So in May 1979, after just 1,5 years of trouble, he bought something better. A Princess 2200 HLS! A beautiful dark red car with cream plush interior. And actually it wasn’t a bad car. Probably built when the workforce just achieved some goals after a strike and were a little more motivated to actually build a proper car. I turned out to be reliable and very comfortable. We had it until 1987 when in The Netherlands the APK (Dutch MOT) was introduced. By then it was pretty clapped out and was replaced by a brand new Citroën AX. I always loved the Princess and just quite recently have been looking at a nice Princess 2 2000. It was in very good order, practically rust free and never welded in any place. Just a very very rare surviver. I didn’t buy it, because I have no dry storage and I have no real use for it. And I already have three British cars (Jaguar S-Type, MGF and Rover 200 BRM) and four is a little too much. Mostly because buying a fourth car does not automatically increase my budget. So the rest would suffer from that. But the Princess is still a great car with lots of very good memories in my family.
My mate Trev had a princess 2200 and was an epic car it was huge inside had a massive boot went like stink and though a bit boat like handled well enough to surprise a lot of people the only issue we had with it over the time he had it were the comically undersized drive shafts and cv joints which it chewed through at an alarming rate but I put the attrition rate of those down to our youthful driving techniques. A local driveshaft place made us up some stronger drive shafts and stuck bigger cv joints on them for us which cured the problem such a shame bl didn't get round to it!
I always loved british cars when I was a child in the 70s. But here in germany there were not often to see, but my neighbour had a Sunbeam Rapier from 1976 in darkgreen. Until today I hear the roaring sound of it's engine when he drove fast away. In 1978 he sold it and got an Opel Rekord E (Vauxhall Carlton in Britain).
The Princess was the car my dad was going to upgrade from their much loved Austin 2200. In late 1977 we emigrated to Aus 🦘 & dad made enquires to bring the Austin 2200 over. Leyland Australia said wouldnt pass Australian design rules. The Austin 1800 was made here but not the 2200 six.
I had a metallic blue with a blue vinyl roof with a blue velour interior 6 cylinders and sundym glass! As a car i couldn't fault it for comfort and drive On a holiday to Newquay our inflatable tent let us down and after removing the headrests the interior became the the size of a double bed ! The Princess should have had the hatchback of the later Ambassador, which apart from BLs constant striking would have made this car more memorable. It was very underrated style wise if you consider todays boring cloned cars . I was only in my 20s and more in to comfort than "boy racer " type cars that said that straight six could see off most " hot hatchbacks" 😊
Two years in New Zealand from the end of 1975 to the end of 1977 and the rest of the time from 1975 to now in Australia, I doubt I've seen much more than a handful of these cars on the road. They were a lovely-looking car at the time, in my opinion. They look a bit dated now, but that's not unusual. As a teen at the time, I remember seeing so much in the news about strikes in the UK. A lot of our union delegates and secretaries here seemed to be transplanted Poms and, as much as you want workers to have rights, fair pay, safe working conditions, and so on, you couldn't help yourself when it was "one out, all out".
Had a 2200 Princess which I loved dearly. Was offered a 1700 Ambassador automatic for a zero cost exchange. The Ambassador was more practical with its hatchback and more comfortable seating, but its performance was terrible. If only I could have had the Princess mechanicals in the Ambassador body! Would have been perfect. Neither was unreliable or suffered from tinworm so perhaps I was just lucky. If I could choose a real production model, then it would be an Ambassador 2.0 automatic in a top end trim.
I once had a lift in a brand new one from a friend’s dad. White with a black vinyl roof - I was hooked. Sadly, by the time I passed my driving test, the princess was a car of the past 😢. It’s still a car I’d like to own.
Two silly errors on my side!
I said 1986 instead of 1968 when referring to ADO17s MK2 version
Used a C Series engine photo in place of the O Series!
Nothing I can do I'm afraid but thank you all for spotting.
Time for the Rover 200 BRM story to be told Tom .......
too late too little - but I liked this video about a car I had not known like many british cars due to all the issues of the past. Still people get hesitant if one asks about metric screws or not and so on . A no go for the average buyer , only die hard fans buy british cars nowadays - except the german ones from Mini, RR or Bentley where it does not matter or the issues have gone.
That looked like the version used in the Healey's and MGC. It had extra main bearings and is very tunable.
@@howellstevens9622this comment 😂
The only cars I’ve ever seen with complete either front stub axle wish bone or rear wheels totally fall off and over Take there owners cars. Are the TRIUMPH STAG - DOMLITE . And PRINCESS
My dad had an 1800 princess in 1976. It was the best ride of any car he ever owned and covered over 100,000 miles in three years without missing a beat!
I recall one drive home on the M6 in a blizzard and we were literally the only car moving in the middle lane (outside lane impassable and inside lane at a snails pace).
That front wheel drive traction got us home and that journey and the car are now a fond family memory!
Our neighbour had one. A beauty, I tell you. A beauty!
Obviously he never owned a proper car.
Hello from Germany! I was 26 years old when I bought a low mileage Princess 2200 HLS from a used car dealer in 1985, immaculate inside and out, the price was super cheap. The driving comfort was unique, the car was a real eye-catcher, because there were only a few Princesses on our roads. The car mastered a trip to Turkey without any problems, it was exactly the comfortable vehicle for the long journey and the sometimes bad roads.
But just one week after returning from that long haul trip, the devil struck. The tie rod end broke and the car became immobile in the middle of the road. Just one week after the repair, the windscreen wiper motor broke and I had to wait almost two months for the replacement part. Just two weeks after the repair, there was a crack in the differential, the oil leaked and I only just made it home (with terrible noises). The repair was economically unviable and so the car went to the scrapyard after only 4 months of ownership. I was very sad about this, because the Princess was wonderfully comfortable to drive and a real rarity. It was also a shame that all my acquaintances were right when they warned me against buying a British car: complicated, unreliable, poorly assembled and expensive to maintain.
The phrase 'all show and no go' springs to mind.
Those problems sound like as though thr car was damged, ie pot hole or similar. I went to a holiday camp and my old montego had 😊a similar prob😊lem, l hit a bad pothole but didn't check for damage.
Could've been worse 🤷♂️
You COULD'VE brought an Alfa or a Fiat!😮.....
@@Craig-wp3pz I had the 'joys' of owning an Alfa 159 until last year. Had to take out a second mortgage to service the bastard. 😕
@Scarecrow1878 had an alfasud
It looked gorgeous ❤ 👀
Brought it cheap, started and ran, but non driver, clutch dead, did the clutch, had a minor electrical fault, no worries, tried to trace and fix.............
😄 🤣 😂 ALL the wires were black ⚫ positive negative, the lot!
From the Era Alfa hadn't paid the bills and black wires were all the factory had left!!!!
Got it started, drove it once, test drive completed, straight in Auto trader for cheap 'New Clutch and M.O.T., good runner, need the space, £750ono'
Think I took 500 from the first caller
📞 💬 'done'
👨 💬 'yes, like a kipper'
when I was 17 I had a mk2 Escort as my car, but I really really wanted a spitfire. This was 1983. I knew of a nice spitfire for sale, a 1300, as per my escort, so I sold the escort to buy it. My parents objected to me having a 'sports car' ("too dangerous") and in a fit of childish rage I opened the local paper, turned to cars for sale, "A" Austin.. I bought a Princess. A 2200HL. It looked awful, either rattle can paint work or they forgot the clear lacquer.. but yeah, 350 quid when I'd sold the escort for 650, so I bought new tyres, and thrashed around in an 'old man's car' as the other boy racers used to refer to it. I had the last laugh though, it went like a stabbed rat and handled brilliantly for its bulk. I never lost a street race, and I was often (always) outclassed. It was one of my better rage choices. I never had the wind in my hair but drove the princess as if my hair was on fire
Same here , everyone used to say to me in my early 20s why you driving an "old man's" ? It was top of the range tinted glass luxury interior and a healthy six cylinder engine!
And in less restrictive times everyone could pile in the back !
Not so much the "old man's car " then ........😂
There are three cars that were designed by BL that, if they had been Italian or French, would be on permanent display in art galleries, the Range Rover, the SD1, and the Princess.
Don't forget British Leyland's Australian cousins ! The Leyland P76. Most had the 4.4 litre alloy v8, but a 2.6 litre straight 6 was an economy option. Famous for being a sedan car large enough to take a 44 gallon (imperial, 55 US gals or 209 litre) drum, in the boot. It's "urban legend" (and possibly true) here Downunder that the Leyland P76 was so good, that Ford, Holden and Chrysler paid bribes to have production of it shut down, as it was so much better than the products they were offering at the time.
Was it a victim of circumstance? No.. quite honestly it was a P.O.S
The original range rover was displayed at the louvre
From Sydney, Australia, you are dead correct, I turned 69 3 days ago and when all 3 of these were new we never received Princess's at BMC -Leyland dealers, but you could order one from the UK & wait for it to be shipped out here, same as it was for the big Austin 3 litres of the late 1960's. Ehen I was at ubi as a young guy a mates parents ordered one each they owned them for years and years and years, never had any trouble with either of them. A better car than it was ever given credit for & the 2200cc 6 cyl engines were made here by BMC Australia in their massive factory at Zetland, Sydney near the airport & shipped to the UK for fitting in the HL2200's.
You are kidding, right?
😂
I bought an Ambassador 2.0Ltr HLS from a work colleague for my wife as her first car, it was BRILLIANT! Two young children complete with all their accessories were transported with ease and in comfort, it had all the gizmos and gadgets you needed, it was like a Montego estate I had a little later, it was like driving a CAVE around and the massive hatchback made it Soooooo practical. It’s a real shame that the unions and factory workers were so up themselves that they shot us all in the foot.
My Dad was a BMC owner through and through. From a Morris 1000 to an Austin Cambridge to the Austin 1800 'Land Crab'. These were all great cars with their quirks and drawbacks. But we as a family loved them all. Then came the Princess that broke the spell. Bought brand new with every extra it sat gleaming on the driveway drawing admiring glances from bypasses. Dad drove the car to work and back for a year and clocked up 6,000 miles and had it serviced by the book at the BL dealer that supplied. Soon the troubles became apparent. Firstly the nearside suspension spang a leak leaving it stranded and bleeding all over Dads new driveway. It was dragged away and returned two weeks later. But shock and horror the other side blew the following week. And another two weeks for repairs. Dad finally settled down to some good solid motoring ... except the front engine mount came adrift and the engine dropped onto its front driveshaft and ruined the hub in the ensuing carnage. More time in the garage. Followed by gearbox failure and finally a dropped valve that finished off the sorry saga. After barely 20K miles the car had rust scabs on the wheel arches. A bumper with peeling chrome and a OSR tyre bald to the steel belts - later found to be caused by a bent rear subframe - ad supplied from the factory. Dad so wanted this to be as good as the rest of the BMC cars but it was the terrible build quality that was its demise. And so to the BMC then BL brand that went down the drain. Dad bought a Volvo and fell in love with a robust Swedish brand and started eating meatballs!
I had a white 2200HL princess, loved it, great for cruising on the a roads and motorway, I sold it for a 2600 Rover SD1, I've always loved British cars, I've also had several Triumph Dolomites and a Herald, to this day I still have an original MG F 1996 slated by the press at the time but now recognised as a good car, thank you for the videos, they bring back so many memories
The Princess was, I think, to far ahead of it's time in styling at least. As a kid, when it was launched, I thought it looked ridiculous. And when, in my twenties, I was offered one when I was desperate for reliable daily transport, I turned my nose up at it.
Now, in my mid 50's, I'd actually be quite proud to have one sitting on my drive... Not sure If I mellowed with age, the car did, or we mellowed together.
Nah, gotta disagree there bud.. it definitely had features that were ahead of its time (hydrogas suspension etc) but the styling couldnt be any more of its time.. just look at some of its contemporaries.. aston lagonda, bond bug, lotus elite, lancia stratos, reliant scimitar, triumph tr7.. the mid 70s was peak wedge mania..
@@chrisjones8379 tbf you did say you were desperate for reliable daily transport, so you probably made the right decision.
What about a hatch?
The perfect buyer for the Princess was exemplified by Terry Scott in Terry and June.
It's no coincidence that this was the car chosen for him in the series.
My Dad started a taxi company based on the Morris Oxford then the Austin Morris Princess.The company,at its peak,ran 50 Princess’s.The car put myself and 3 sisters through public school .We owe our education and prosperity to the Wedge.Comfortable,roomy and simple to fix.Countless weddings were happily completed with the identical twin 6 cylinder Vanden Plas Princesses.What a great car❤
Austin.1800.was.a.success.in.australia.your.blind.to.the.fact.
I have a New Zealand assembled 1981 Austin Princess 2.0 HL automatic in signal red. Great handling, comfortable supple ride. Earlier in the video, Tom, where you mentioned the O series engine, you show an image of the Austin 3 Litre C series engine. Thanks for a video on the Princess. A car which I think was incorrectly and sadly maligned as a sub-standard vehicle whereas it was advanced for the day.
Noticed that after! No time to correct sadly. Hope it was good despite the two errors!
I would like to suggest that you make a video driving a good example of one of the Princess models. It may not be your style but could be a useful extension to your video series. Yes I enjoyed the video. Cheers John Vevers. @@tomdrives
My dad taught me how to drive in his Princess 2 1700. A few years later, I had two Austin Ambassadors. I have a soft spot for them in a weird way.
back in the early 80s I was a teenage apprentice mechanic. our garage owner decided to buy a fleet of 8 taxis with hackney plates. one was a Princess 1800. none of us liked it but the driver loved it and in all fairness the car had highest mileage but required the least maintenance of the fleet. eventually the hackney carriage rules meant the car had to be retired and along with a Victor FE 1800. everything was standardised to the MK4 & MK5 Cortina 1600 more for commonality simplicity and speed of maintenance than reliability and longevity.
I worked for a main BL dealer when the Princess came out. I remember 1st one in workshop, we all came to look at it. Like all BL cars they were reliable if worked on by proper mechanics, like the workshop I worked in.very good mechanics doing job properly.
1:28 1:29
@ ?
@ ?
I was working at a BL dealer too in 1975 doing auto-electrics and this car looked so modern and futuristic at the time. Should have been a hatchback to start with like the Ambassador that came later. That business of Austin/Morris 18/22 series names was just confusing I think, and Wolseley too! Because at that time before all the marques got branded together(Austin/Morris/Rover/Triumph) there were Austin and Morris dealers so some could sell the Allegro and not the Marina and vice-versa etc. Goodness knows what current Auto manufacturer execs. would think of BL's top management today!
I had a Landcrab (as you cal it) and I loved it. Spacious, so easy & comfortable, loved it, I also had a Princess 2200, The rear suspension fell off when the rubber mounting blocks fell in half !!!
My grandad has a Princess and I remember it being very roomy, comfortable and smooth.
I always liked the shape which was pretty futuristic in its day and in retrospect I think this shape was the pinnacle of Harris Mann's portfolio and still looks fresh today.
As an aside, a lot of the rally boys used to use Princess front brakes on their escorts as they had four piston calipers.
I owned a Princess,it was a very comfortable ride. Long journeys were a breeze, it was effortless to drive with good power steering. Plenty of room for your passengers, I though a good family car. But when it got older I had three small components go wrong, but each time it was repaired the engine had to come out to access the part that had failed which cost quite a bit. So after paying for removing the engine three times I decided to trade it in for a Vauxhall.
Never drove one or rode in one, but fitted the front seats from a top of the range one into my mk4 Cortina estate, just had to swap the metal runner frames over on the bases - which were a perfect fit !
They were huge seats compared to what Ford fitted and the Princess seats had head rests, arm rests and adjusted in all directions. Added a bit of glam to my base model Ford.
I bought a brand new Princess 1800 HL back in November 1975, £2500 back then !!. A lovely Reynard metallic with a black vinyl roof. Alas powered by an old 1800cc single SU carb, no power steering but was a great car to drive. Not many cars at that time had such a smooth suspension (Hydragas) and the cornering and handling were spot on. I kept the car (used for work) until 1982 and replaced it with a new Ford Capri - such a different car !!
I will not knock the Princess, quite a looker in it's day, yes it could have been better. Mine was very reliable. Roomiest car I've ever had. Wish I still had one.
I owned a metro,marina,allegro and a montego at various times in the 80s and early 90s never had much of a problem with any of them.I wished I had a princess.I had a go in one and was amazed at the rear leg room
Dad rented one on the Isle of Wight in 1984 and I have to say that whatever it drove like it had the most comfortable rear passenger ride that I've personally experienced.
My dad still says to this day that his 2 princesses were the best cars he ever had.
@@bombercountyblues doesn't say much for what else your Dad has had, then...
@RichardHarrold1991 yeah, obviously.. I'm northern council estate scum!
The first time I saw a Leyland wedge was when I was six years old .I was very into science fiction tv and thought that the wedge looked like a car from ufo or space 1999 ,I love them and that's why I have one today
The fact you call it a Leyland Wedge implies you are influenced by that hater of all things British ,Clarkson.
He referred to it as that also .
Sneering horrible man hated nationalised industries however took taxpayers money working for the BBC.
Took money from BBC.. The best and highly popular entertaining motor program is what resulted. Top Gear was barely half as popular without him. What planet do you live on? @janschkeuditz6065
A fun fact!! You may not have noticed the 1975 Morris 18/22 centre piece in the grill is the reverse setting to the Wolseley, Morris is wider on the bottom than top, while the Wolseley tappers downward, wider at the top than the bottom.
my father had an old 6 cyllider Worsley Princess - I remember driving it age 18 - now 64
Very rare car then, especially now. Wolseley was available only for 6 months. Lucky guy 🤝
When the cars were sold as Morris, Austin & Worsley they were known as the 18-22 series, the princess name (stolen from Vanden Plas) came after the individual names were dropped.
I misses British cars as, MG, Austin, Morris, BLMC, Triumps... (I had two of them, a used Austin Allegro 1,5liter, 5- speed in the late 70's, and a Mini Special 1100 (also used) a couple of years later).
My farther had two Morris 1800 ("Landcrabs") in the mid 60's to mid 70's, and my mother had a Mini 850 (early model) and later a newer one in the same period.
Lovely cars all of them (in hindsight even the Allegro)
I so enjoyed this. Growing up in the UK, at some point either my parents or eventually I owed an examle of every car from the oxford and cambridge to the princess. compared to today they are dinasours, but dinasours are facinateing. Well done.
My dad's cars growing up , Morris 1800 ,Austin maxi,Austin Princess, Morris ital we had some fantastic holidays in these cars
My dad bought one new when he was in the services overseas. Obviously taking advantage of the tax situation. He had it until it was driven into the scrap yard many years later. It was the car I first drove, passed my test on and learnt to drive on. Very comfortable. Wouldn’t say it was reliable, the skills of my dad kept it going. But it was a memorable car.
My Dad owned one, a 2200. He loved it.
I remember cars from this decade. They rotted away in under 10 years, unless you had a heated garage, and never drove the car when it rained or in the winter. And even then. . .
None of the designers considered ‘water traps’ in the bodywork, or drain points, so water got trapped, and the only way out was to rust out.
Used to know someone who worked at Cowley back in those days, the body shells arrived unpainted, and were stored outside. Then it rained. They were going rusty before they even got built into a car, seams filled with water. 😱
my father was an experimental test driver for Vauxhall in the 60s. sometimes he spoke about how they used to put sponges in key structural points so the cars rotted into an uneconomical state. cars from that decade really did disolve rapidly. 70s cars were patchy and we discovered spray Schutz and Waxoyl in the 80s so some cars got lucky and lasted but most still rotted out. it wasn't until the 90s when people had got so fed up poor build quality and low longevity that some properly decent cars got built.
alas, we're back to the 60s again...
Tom, I don’t know if you are aware, but in The Netherlands there are two of the most rare Princesses in existence: A Torcars hatchback conversion and a Woodall Nicholson Kirklees limo. The last one has a TH-cam video by HubNut, so you can watch that.
The Torcars is not on the road, its APK ran out in July 2022, but is in the current ownership since April 2020. I have pictures of it which I made on a show in 2017. Stupidly enough not from the back.
The car has featured in at least one classic car magazine in Holland.
It was purchased new in 1977 by a salesman who wanted a white car. That was not available so he bought a light blue one and had it resprayed by the dealer before collection. Then he went straight to England on holiday, where he already made arrangements with Torcars and dropped the car off. He hired a car for the holidays and on his way back he picked up the converted car. He drove it for years and years and did more than (wait for it…) 250.000 miles (400.000km) in it!
When I took pictures in 2017 it was still owned by the same man. But it was on the show to sell it. But priced too expensive for the state it was in. It had quite a lot of rust and around 7000 euros was way too much back then. But it found a new home.
There is an extensive article on the AROnline website about the Dutch Torcars Princess from 2019 when it was still up for sale.
I had the new O series 2 litre engine which was really economical on petrol unlike the fords of the time. It had an excellent ride and nice interior
Thanks for uploading, a car I always felt was unfairly maligned. One thing the 6 cylinder engine shown wasn't fitted to the Princess that engine was used in the Austin 3 litre and MGC.
My dad's first management company car was a 1980 2200HLS in metallic blue (best colour by far). As a 6 year old I often stared at it on the driveway, obsessed by it's uniquely oblique yet beautiful styling. It was really comfy in the back, yet I was constantly annoyed by the faulty seatbelt light which kept flashing with the belts on, and the loudest power steering hiss I have ever heard on a car. We were both taken back decades when we saw an identical car at the Great British Car journey in Ambergate 2 years ago. Which is an awesome museum Tom, that would easily warrant a video on if you ever get the chance.
Absolutely love the Wolseley version.
Terrific video Tom. I have always been fascinated by these.....I recall seeing hotel guests on Fawlty Towers driving up to the hotel in a Princess!! We never got them in Australia so I have never actually seen one. We had Austin 1800 Mk 1 & Mk 2 which were replaced by the 6 cylinder Austin Tasman & Kimberley in 71 running through to 73. That's definitely an Australian press photo of the family having a picnic by their 1800 Mk 1.
I thought they were terrific cars - good looking, roomy, refined, nice interior, amazing ride. It lacked a hatchback - BL didn’t want to hurt Maxi sales, and it was (as always) plagued by quality and reliability problems. But as a large, comfortable family car, it was great. I’ve not driven a Princess, but I have driven an Ambassador, and the ride and space was superb.
A great video and commentary. Thanks.
I don't think it, or the ambassador ever got the 5 speed box which was a big error
My dad owned a 1981 Princess 1.7HL from 1985 to 1990. It was quiet, comfortable and pleasant to drive, and I liked the wedge shape. I can't recall it being any less reliable than any of our other cars in the 70s and 80s. Our car's biggest failing was its suspension. One side would gradually sink until we had to have it blown up again - cost £5 at a local garage - and this would be needed about every 6 months. We viewed this as an annoyance, and so long as we had the suspension blown up regularly it caused no issues. My dad's car was bronze with a vinyl roof. If I remember correctly it had a very decent sized boot and took us on many family holidays. To sum up, a very pleasant car to both drive and be a passenger in.
Clay model front resembles pug 504, which had been around for a while, the previous pug was a pinin product very similar to the A60... coincidence? Excellent as ever mate !
I always liked the look of the Princess growing up, It's a shame BL had the mentality that they did - it was perfect for a hatchback, but "we already have a hatchback", the Austin Maxi. That same mentality killed off the Rover P7 (the Jaguar contingent complained that it would compete with their cars) but fortunately we did eventually get the SD1. Of course, the unions didn't help with their strikes...
BLs biggest marketing issue was that they always shied away from directly challenging the opposition. The land crab was too big to replace the Farinas & the Princesses were too small to challenge the Vauxhall’s & Fords.
I think there was quite a lot they could do. Make it a hatchback, give it a 5 speed gearbox and a rev counter. As a six cylinder it was in the luxury sector and needed some luxury features or luxury options. All of this was within BL´s capability.
Completely agree. Also they should have offered the 2600 version of the E-series engine for more power, possibly with fuel injection.
My thoughts exactly this car was crying out to be a hatchback , it was truly a victim of British Leylands destructive workforce.
@@bazzagee Or destructive management? The worksforce did not make that decision.
My dad's first company car was a "land crab" 1800 in 1973, replaced by one of the first Leyland Princesses (rather than an Austin, Morris or Wolseley) on a "P"-plate. The "Wedgie" was light years ahead of the 1800 in terms of style and fittings; 3 further Wedgies followed it (S, V and X plates), each one more unreliable than its predecessor, and all rusted around the rear wheel arches; the final X-reg one was running on only 3 cylinders when collected from the dealer and ended up with a Gold Seal replacement engine after a few weeks. That was replaced by one of the first "A"-reg Montegos; he missed out on an Ambassador. The Wedgie could have been so great if only it had been better built and more reliable; as the Wedgie was leaps and bounds ahead of the Land-crab, so the Montego was another huge improvement over the Wedgie. BL, a sad and sorry tale of the British Motor Industry :-(
I had a 1975 MK3 Morris 1800 Landcrab. I had it for 5 years. Until I wrote it off (long story) it was a brilliant car. I really fancied a Princess, but unfortunately I couldn't afford one. Now I wished, I had pushed the boat out and had one.
I had the 1800 version, never let me down, loads of room, very comfortable... Just rotted away before my eyes.. but brilliant memories of the car .
I was brought up with Austins, and that was a blue Austin Cambridge, a green mk1 1800, a beige mk2 1800, a white 1800 wedge and finally a blue 2.0l Princess 2.
As you can see, my father liked an Austin. I on the other hand was fully behind the Ford badge and he hated that fact.
As a young child I dreamt of owning a mk1 escort or a mk2 cortina. In my life I have owned and driven many cars of varying makes and models, but there are only two cars that I wish I still owned. The first is dads mid pageant blue 2.0 litre Princess 2 because it was the most amazing vehicle I have ever driven! The second is equally missed by myself but is not a Ford nor an Austin, it is the black Renault 30tx automatic that I paid £50.00 for in the mid '90s and restored to M.O.T. test standard and drove for some time.
They were both really great cars for size, ability to cope in bad weather. Could carry huge amounts in the boot/back of the car and they were the most comfortable cars to drive, in my opinion. I have some really great memories of my father driving us around in his Austin cars and also driving some of them myself.
If I had to pick one of those many Austins to drive today, it would have to be the Austin Princess 2 in mid pageant blue!
Thanks for sharing and setting the memories flooding back!
I owned one in the 80's and it was a fantastic motor. Really comfy and very quiet.
My friend has a P76 Leyland made for Australia conditions and the sales pitch was “you can fit a 44gallon drum in the boot”. It was a aluminium v8 that was real nice. 4.4liter v8 automatic. He’s father bought it new from dealership new and it’s been in family ever since. It’s had some upgrades like good rims and paint job. The princess was brought to Australia but in very small numbers.
My father had 2 Maxis, the 1500 and the 1700 HL. he then bought the infamous 1.8 Land-crab then bought a Princess. By this time I had owned a mini, a Marina and was on an Allegro. All of those cars, whether my father's or mine were reasonable motor vehicles, apart from the Allegro which was forever giving me problems, from gearbox sloppiness and wine to non starting in cold weather, a broken driver's seat, rust and suspension anomalies and I replaced it with a Hillman Hunter 1.7GT. Apart from the Allegro, the rest of BL's cars always did what they were required to do and I loved the Princess. It was comfortable, easy to drive and always was admired.
Very good. I enjoyed that.
It's great with your Chanel,had a few BL motors mate, have fun with the projects,👊✊👍
My dad had a 1980 1700 HL Princess 2 in a very bright orangey-red. It was a fabulous family car for the 5 of us plus dog. Hugely spacious and comfortable and as far as i can recall nothing went wrong in the 4 years we had it.
Jon from work here. My Grandad had an Austin Princess, and as a result it was the first car I ever drove, kangarooing on the clutch 30yds along his private drive at the age of 8. It was well ahead of its time, with seatbelt warning, and ABS braking. Favourite memory was my Grandad driving back from a trip to see the Blackpool illuminations to Sheffield with us kids in the back with no working headlights after both bulbs failed and my Grandad couldn’t work out how/ or looking back perhaps couldn’t afford to change the sealed unit headlamps. That wedge shaped car was a real head turner for the next 10 years that my Grandad drove it, so much better than the compact hatchbacks which started to come into vogue over the same period.
Used to see the Princess on the road into the 90's. By all accounts very comfortable but design wise stuck out like a stubbed toe by then. As for the landcrab they were fairly popular in Australia including a ute. Replaced by the Austin Tasman and Kimberley.
I always liked the Princess and thought the Wolseley was fabulous - a two door 'sport' version would have looked really good. Such a shame all these cars never had a chance.
I was an apprentice @ a Danish BLMC dealership when these came out..
A giant leap forward from the Landcrab...
They were actually good cars, especially the 2200....
They were misunderstood when compared to other brands i.e. the Granada...
They suffered from build quality and we often joked that had it been built in Germany it would have been much better.
As apprentice one of my jobs were to do predelivery checks and put licence plate on with a final test drive.
I still remember the smoothness the Princess 2200 went down the road...
The first car I remember my dad having was a brown Austin princess. Great memories of days out and holidays! It was later replaced by an SD1 Vitesse!
Me and my late dad brought a rare sp princess in 1987 it was gold and square headlights nice stripe down the side etc great towing car so comfortable with a 2.0 o series we brought another for spares with a b series lump .
Dad's friend had a very rare at the time a wolsley version but I don't know what happened to it .
I liked the princess always great to one at a classic car show as you don't see any anymore
With a hatchback design, and a happy crew att the assembly line this would have been a great seller back then🙂
My memory of the princess was it was very heavy to push, my m8ts dad had one and giving us a lift to school the thing broke down outside his house, we did get it started but it was very heavy
My dad bought one brand new as an import to Germany tax free in 1978 - he was in the RAF stationed in Germany. Picked it up from the port and drove it home to Gutersloh. the gearbox went on the way ther. Got towed to the nearest BL garage to get fixed. That took a few weeks! Many problems over his ownership but survived 22 years. Lovely car but riddled with problems.
I still think the twin headlamp s2 version is a handsome looking car, the lines are clean and well balanced. The Ambassador lost some of that although it gain the obvious hatchback. Wasn’t there some mad idea that it could be sold in USA and ride height was raised to meet US impact regulations and that in turn messed up the driveshaft angles?
I have thought for a long time what a modern take on the Princess could be like. Sad to see another example of a wasted opportunity from the UK at large. Great video as always, thanks 👍
The Renault 16 came out in 1963, a cool hatchback. Meanwhile the Princess, years later, didn’t learn the lesson, - why not the practicality of a hatchback?
The brilliant 16 appeared in 1965, and BMC board papers show that the new Renault terrified them. But once the Maxi emerged in 69, the product planners decided not to allow any other car to have a hatch - so the 1100/1300, Allegro and Princess all had to do without. Ho hum....
Aren't you forgetting the Austin A 40 Farina ?
That was the first BMC hatchback.
My initial thoughts on the Princess was that it was not a good looking car, much preferred the Rover P6 and the Triumph 2000 MK2 but did succumb to buying one and for the most part being happy with it. My 2200HL did scare me a little when I found the carburettors leaking on to the exhaust manifold and the high rear screen line was annoying but it handled rather well and was good to drive even with a 3 speed automatic. In my 70's now but have fond memories of many old British cars.
I had two Princess cars and they were good comfortable reliable cars.
If I had to be really picky, they desperately needed a 5 speed gearbox.
That would have transformed them.
My friends dad had a princess.
I remember being in the back and being very comfortable.
Interesting to see some of the cars in the ads with TVP-S reg plates. Here in Birmingham we had a number of Leyland Fleetline and Leyland National buses with those marks too.
Dad had a Princess, drove well, plenty of space and nice fabric. Went onto be a taxi for many years
I can´t speak about the Princess, but the Austin Montego. I basically inherited the car from my mother back in 1991. She had bought it new in 1986, we had a very early oil pump failure which she noticed on the spot, stopped the car and had it fixed instantly. Shortly before I got our Monty other was an issue with a sticky carburettor needle that gave us a bit of trouble but was fixed quickly.
I worked a lot for companies in the orbit of Volkswagen over the years. and I have seen the woes their customers were exposed to. Quite honestly: Our Monty had been an example of reliability in comparison! If you bought a Volkswagen between 1985 and 1987 chances were you got a car made from recycled sheet steel that was produced in the GDR and had dreadfully inconsistent metallurgic characteristics that resulted in extreme corrosion issues. There was an owner of a 2002 Polo that handed the car back in after it had its third engine failure after 9000 km on the road. Draining batteries, total failures with electrical systems with the Golf IV… There´s a long list, I could go on for hours.
That Austin looked a lot smarter to me than all of these cars!
My Monty died in a crash in 1991 in Bonn, in which it showed a really strong and well designed body that protected me from worse, I literally escaped an impact at ~50 kph with a black eye and bruises where the safety belt held me. I had a chat with somebody who crashed his Jetta II at only slightly higher speed. He had driven home sloshed from a bar and mistook a queue of parked cars for traffic. He was one of the few who ended up being lucky not having worn the safety belt as he flew right through the windscreen with bits of the car getting stuck in his legs. That wasn't quite as bad as the alternative would have been, for the engine ended up lying in the front seat.
I bet that the public opinion about the comparison in expectations between that VW and the Austin in Britain and elsewhere would have suggested a very different outcome. They would probably have predicted you´d die in that "terrible English car" and the VW would save your life.
I guess more than anything else, British made cars suffered from the reputation of British cars. A bad reputation not justified by facts.
It´s not like there were no strikes to factories elsewhere in the world either, it´s not like there were no corrosion issues with German or any other cars.
I really loved to go on drives in my dad´s Opel Diplomat E. I was at primary school age when the car suddenly started smoking like crazy on a family outing. I don´t remember anything else this scary from my early years! It turned out some bloody gasket had leaked a good gulp of engine oil onto the exhaust. That turned our German quality car into a fog machine of sorts!
My mother had a VW 411 that surprised her with a brake failure on her way home from work. She didn´t bother with getting the rust bucket repaired as it was the latest in a long list of troubles. She got herself a VW 412 that was crazy thirsty and never stopped smelling of petrol inside, no matter how many VW mechanics had a go at it. Another awful car! After that, I remember a couple of Opel Kadett and Rekord she owned that were taken from us by TÜV-examinations for corrosion to stressed sections of their bodies.
Then she got her Montego, having been fed up with all the troubles with second hand cars.
I unfortunately owned one of these in the late 80s. The petrol gauge didn't work properly, the car started leaning after the hydragas suspension had been refilled, and in the end the alternator went, and BL made a huge mess of replacing it. I sold it, vowing I'd never own another British car, and apart from a Swindon-built Honda, I never have. It did around 20mpg and was a bugger to park. It was very comfortable though.
I got to 10:22 until my blood boiled.... What an absolute joke the British car manufacturing industry was! From a very reliable source when BMW were in control at Longbridge they took a vehicle back to Germany to inspect built quality. The car suffered from a strange aroma, once the door panel was removed someone's half eaten mouldy sandwiches were lying at the bottom of the door. They also removed the carpet & some disgusting artwork was inscribed in the floorpan paintwork! Total joke!!
What was the artwork?
My Father-in-law had a Wolseley in black with a cream cloth interior to replace his dissolving Fiat 125 special. It was a very nice, comfortable and reliable car. The only issue was the boot, which was very large, but largely inaccessible due to the small bootlid a bit like a letterbox. BL's fear of competing with their own (outdated) models by not including the hatchback was the cars greatest problem. While expending their effort downgrading their own product so as not to compete with another of their products they missed the point that they were supposed to be competing with their rivals, not themselves.
My mates dad got a 2nd hand Princess back in 85/86 for towing his caravan 25 miles back 'n' forth to Henley every other weekend. All i remember was it was smooth and a comfortable drive and all he kept banging on about was the number plate was worth a fortune because it had a 1 in it. 🤣😂
British Leyland cars in the mid 1970s
Mini 850 ,1000 and 1275GT, Clubman saloon and estate.
Austin Allegro 1100, 1300, 1500, saloon and estate, 1750 and Vanden Plas
Austin Maxi 1500 and 1750
Morris Marina 1300, 1800 saloon estate and coupe
Princess 1800 and 2200 initially Austin Morris and Wolseley
Triumph Toledo, 1500, Dolomite, and 2000/2500 saloon and estate
Range Rover
Rover 2200 and 3500.
MG Midget and MGB
Triumph Spitfire, TR6, GT6 and Stag,
Jaguar XJ6 3.4, 4.2 and XJ12 5.3, Daimler Sovereign 4.2 and Double Six.
Quite the list but you omitted the Jaguar XJS, MGBGT and Landrover.
@@peterm4475 All versions of the Land Rover is a British Leyland commercial vehicle like the Mini and Marina van and pickup, all models of the Sherpa, EA van, and all versions of lorries.
Our family car history went from Austin Cambridge to 2200 land crab (Harvest Gold colour) but my dad disliked the shape of the Princess so much he moved over to a Granada and later replaced that with another Granada. Fondest memory is of the automatic gear selector on the 2200 breaking off in my mum’s hand.
I had 2 of these , and then a later produced ambassador, very smooth quite running cars , with a smooth carpet ride , cheers shane , also had a maxi and allegro back in the late 80s 🎉
I had a Princess 2200 in the mid/late seventies. I called my “nearly” car. I worked for a company based in Marseilles, I was based out of London and lived in Dublin! The result was that the car spent much of its time blasting up and down motorways. There was a rattle behind the speedo that was never identified, the seat had stepped height adjustment, so inevitably, my comfortable position lay between notches. Every round trip to Marseilles necessitated a visit to BL for new drive shafts/engine mounts!! On the other hand, the boot was enormous, the ride exceptional and she could go from Marseilles to Calais non-stop - no Ther car that I used on this trip could match it for range. The car had such potential and despite its issues, I was sorry to part with her.
My dad had a Wolseley 18/85 Landcrab, which he loved. He replaced it with a Princess 2200 HLS which was so unreliable. But, he always maintained that it was the most comfortable car he ever owned.
Really enjoyed the video. Can I suggest something? Less passive tense. Swap would be for was... but otherwise a great history thanks.
super smooth straight six
Dad had a 2.0 HLS W reg Princess 2 in about 81/82 - he always said it was the most comfortable car he ever owned. Mmmm - I wasn't so convinced. I remember rust from about 3 years old. Still, as a student, I bought one for £100 as a 'joke' in the 90's, ran it for about 4 weeks and flogged it for £200 so my memory of the Princess is the car I doubled my money on 🤣🤣🤣
Hi Tom great interesting video, yes was a underrated car and had the seatbelt alarm the first in
The Uk to have one , I own 2 princesses . Regards mark
I do enjoy my "terrible mistake" every single day. The good ones did survive.
i had the wolseley 6 the princess and the ambassador loved em all ,just wish the 6 had the hatch though
I owned one for 5 years and my mum had it after me. It was one of the best cars I’d had up to that time. It was quiet, reliable, roomy smooth and soooo comfortable!! I was honk it was an absolute success
I had a princess which needed several suspension units but @£500 secondhand I still loved the ride & space .My next door neighbour also loved it & bought a silver Ambassador but sold it to me for £50 since it needed work to get thru MOT what a bargain , being a new teacher in 1985 the kids must have laughed @ what was really a older persons drive !
Had a 2litre Princess in the 80s loved it such a smooth ride.
My dad used to have a Princess, light brown with the black vinyl roof, looked like a jaffa cake. He'd start on the driveway to warm up, I used to squat down by the exhaust. Sure, my kids all have three eyes, prehensile tails, and webbed hands, but it was worth it for the scent of unfiltered, uncatalyzed, leaded four-star on a cold winter morning!
My father bought a young second hand Princess in November 1977, when I was 7 years old, an 1800HL. Quite a special car in The Netherlands. Unfortunately it completely lived up to its terrible reputation and it broke down frequently. Starting with a broken starter motor the first evening. So in May 1979, after just 1,5 years of trouble, he bought something better. A Princess 2200 HLS! A beautiful dark red car with cream plush interior.
And actually it wasn’t a bad car. Probably built when the workforce just achieved some goals after a strike and were a little more motivated to actually build a proper car. I turned out to be reliable and very comfortable.
We had it until 1987 when in The Netherlands the APK (Dutch MOT) was introduced. By then it was pretty clapped out and was replaced by a brand new Citroën AX.
I always loved the Princess and just quite recently have been looking at a nice Princess 2 2000. It was in very good order, practically rust free and never welded in any place. Just a very very rare surviver. I didn’t buy it, because I have no dry storage and I have no real use for it. And I already have three British cars (Jaguar S-Type, MGF and Rover 200 BRM) and four is a little too much. Mostly because buying a fourth car does not automatically increase my budget. So the rest would suffer from that.
But the Princess is still a great car with lots of very good memories in my family.
Bollox. What so they make in your country???
My mate Trev had a princess 2200 and was an epic car it was huge inside had a massive boot went like stink and though a bit boat like handled well enough to surprise a lot of people the only issue we had with it over the time he had it were the comically undersized drive shafts and cv joints which it chewed through at an alarming rate but I put the attrition rate of those down to our youthful driving techniques. A local driveshaft place made us up some stronger drive shafts and stuck bigger cv joints on them for us which cured the problem such a shame bl didn't get round to it!
I always thought them an attractive car.
Excellent video.
I always loved british cars when I was a child in the 70s. But here in germany there were not often to see, but my neighbour had a Sunbeam Rapier from 1976 in darkgreen. Until today I hear the roaring sound of it's engine when he drove fast away. In 1978 he sold it and got an Opel Rekord E (Vauxhall Carlton in Britain).
The Princess was the car my dad was going to upgrade from their much loved Austin 2200. In late 1977 we emigrated to Aus 🦘 & dad made enquires to bring the Austin 2200 over. Leyland Australia said wouldnt pass Australian design rules. The Austin 1800 was made here but not the 2200 six.
I had a princess and an Ambassador, both were excellent cars
I had a metallic blue with a blue vinyl roof with a blue velour interior 6 cylinders and sundym glass!
As a car i couldn't fault it for comfort and drive
On a holiday to Newquay our inflatable tent let us down and after removing the headrests the interior became the the size of a double bed !
The Princess should have had the hatchback of the later Ambassador, which apart from BLs constant striking would have made this car more memorable.
It was very underrated style wise if you consider todays boring cloned cars .
I was only in my 20s and more in to comfort than "boy racer " type cars that said that straight six could see off most " hot hatchbacks" 😊
Two years in New Zealand from the end of 1975 to the end of 1977 and the rest of the time from 1975 to now in Australia, I doubt I've seen much more than a handful of these cars on the road. They were a lovely-looking car at the time, in my opinion. They look a bit dated now, but that's not unusual.
As a teen at the time, I remember seeing so much in the news about strikes in the UK. A lot of our union delegates and secretaries here seemed to be transplanted Poms and, as much as you want workers to have rights, fair pay, safe working conditions, and so on, you couldn't help yourself when it was "one out, all out".
Had a 2200 Princess which I loved dearly. Was offered a 1700 Ambassador automatic for a zero cost exchange. The Ambassador was more practical with its hatchback and more comfortable seating, but its performance was terrible. If only I could have had the Princess mechanicals in the Ambassador body! Would have been perfect. Neither was unreliable or suffered from tinworm so perhaps I was just lucky. If I could choose a real production model, then it would be an Ambassador 2.0 automatic in a top end trim.
I once had a lift in a brand new one from a friend’s dad. White with a black vinyl roof - I was hooked. Sadly, by the time I passed my driving test, the princess was a car of the past 😢. It’s still a car I’d like to own.