I drove a Marina 1.3 Coupe from London 240 miles to to my home as a learner drive. It went like the clappers and I loved it . Shortly after I worked for a Ford dealership and was sent to collect a brand new Mk3 Cortina 2000E in a vehicle swap with another Ford dealer about 20 miles away. It looked fantastic - red with a black vinyl roof. Driving back, I noticed the temperature gauge was still in the blue. I pulled over and checked the coolant level - none. I pulled into a farm and blagged some water and at that point noticed red overspray on the vinyl roof. British quality control was dreadful back then unlike Datsun (NIssan) who I worked for shortly after. Simple, affordable, reliable transport for the masses. They worked. Sold loads of Cherrys, Sunnys, Violets and Bluebirds. Even sold a Gloria estate, much to the delight of my manager. The writing was certainly on the wall for BL and other UK makers back then.
They dissolved though. I know British cars of the 70’s could rust but Datsun was on another level. I remember 120Ys with big rust holes all too well. Probably why they changed their name to Nissan.
So Datsun/ Nissan have always used odd names for their vehicles? You should have seen GM Australia (Holden) the the 70's were complete rust buckets. My father had one. A very reliable car, BUT, there was no paint inside the doors that the spray gun couldn't reach. Sills, where the inner and outer skins met, the light frames- that held the radiator etc (the car was double wishbone- very strong)... Rust broke out in just several years of ownership - may be it was just in two? I was shocked when I saw inside some panels, like the doors. No paint. I think that was the attitude from Detroit. I think the guy running it didn't give a rats bum. Things have to come down from the top? (I saw Holdens in Fiji (coastal environment) in '74 that had complete panels blown out with rust. (Like under the rear bumper.) Had to be less than two years old, seeing how the model in particular started production late '71 in Australia and about '72 in New Zealand (NZ assembled them as well.) They Should have had a class action brought against them.)
Learned to drive in an Ital, bought a 1.8 Marina and ran it for two years before it died, pros, comfortable, good equipment level, easy to work on. Cons, awful body roll, crappy front suspension that you must grease every week if you don’t want to become a three wheeler, despite grease often became a three wheeler.
My Dad had 4 Marina company cars throughout the 70's. I have nothing against them as they were the transport of my childhood but I really wish he'd had Cortina's instead...
My Dad had Cortina’s and believe me, they weren’t great either. They rusted like mad. I remember him replacing the wings on our Mk3 at only three years old! And that pinto engine was problematic. The B and A series were paragons of reliability in comparison.
I think BMC/BL started losing grip on the car market as far back as the first days of the Mini, as we know, a brillianf car but didn’t make the company much in the way of profit, they lost on every car sold, the designers/builders of the cars weren’t really speaking to each other and more than likely were wearing their night caps instead of their thinking caps. Ford overtook BMC/BL in the 60’s and the latter never kept up. The Marina was a basic no frills car that did the job it was designed to do, I’m a fan of them and the ITAL that came afterwards. Excellent vid Ed, well researched and delivered.
Fascinating and informative video. As a kid my parents had a Marina estate and my main memory is the wipers failing in heavy rain in a mountainous area of France. They subsequently had a Maxi which I remember was very comfortable. That was also the first car I drove - on a beach in Wales.
From memory, when I was a used car dealer, in the late 1970's I had five Marinas pass through my hands from a fleet buyer, and lost money on every one of them. This, in contrast to the 20+ Datsun 120Y from the same source, that all sold for a handsome profit .
120Y was a revelation. I had one and I wondered how fast it would go it was fast for a 1.2 litre engine. It was very reliable but succumbed quickly to rust disease. It was a good car !
These were marketed in Canada as an 'Austin Marina'. A friend of bought one as his first new car. It was a true piece of four wheeled excrement . His previous car, a 12 year-old Chevelle Malibu with 230,000 miles on it was ten times more reliable
Seriously, anything Japanese was a good 30+% cheaper, and better, at the time. (Toyota Corolla/Datsun 510) The dealers would not "deal" and sales were few and far between. I remember buying a new Toyota Corolla cheaper than a new mini.
@@Dirt-Diggler It was a design fault using a screw thread to do the job of a ball joint added to by the suspension arm being attached to the trunnion not the upright and putting the arm to upright trunnion connection under tension.The threads also blocked the supply of grease getting through then most of the thread above the grease points wore away and the assembly pulled itself apart.The design should never have been passed as safe.
My dad had a tan coloured one with a chocolate brown vinyl roof, truly awful car. From memory the bonnet gap on the left hand side was as they came out of the factory.
The Marina was merely a stepping stone to British Leyland's greatest ever car and the absolute pinnacle of the Morris brand the magnificent Ital. That wonderful vehicle was the masterpiece of Sir Michael Edwards and simply took the British car industry to a whole new level of quality and greatness.
I put a Nissan bluebird SSS 2 litre and 5 speed in mine- that fixed everything but the terrible build quality,rattles and vibrations, leaks, boat-like handling.
Another great video Edd, your presentation skills get better each one. I used to have a marina 1.8tc based cobra 289 kit car, was a sheep in wolfs clothing 😂
Bankrobber 1: I told you not to buy a Jag as a getaway car....now the coppers have caught up with us! Bankrobber 2: Shut up and keep pushing, I think we can outrun 'em...
Informative video but it could have been so much better if you’d sat inside and had a proper look round, opened the bonnet and boot and started it up. Even better if someone had driven it. Back in the day I travelled as a kid in both Escorts and Marinas and I have to say the Escorts just seemed more dynamic. The engine note was better, they handled a lot better and they looked better too. The only Marina that stood out was the 1800TC which had a higher level of trim (vinyl roof if I remember correctly) and that lovely throaty exhaust note from those twin carbs. Same engine went into the MGB GT I think.
It's the talented man from Twincam!! You did a great job here, and I found this really enjoyable. I didn't know anything about this motor car. I'll subscribe here too. Hope that helps,, 😊
I had one back in the 1970’s and I can hoestly say it is the worst car I have ever had. It had fault after fault and both the boot and the windscreen leaked. The front twin leading brakes could never be balanced and the gearbox was shot. It was only two years old. I have no fond memories of it what so ever. Now the Citroen GS I got I loved.
We had three 1.3 Marinas in the family back in the day. My father owned two which were decent cars and gave good service. On the other hand I owned a complete lemon, all kinds of problems, water leaks into the cabin, suspension issues and electrical problems.
nice one Ed. the Marina doesn't deserve the reputation some in the media gave it. a mate got a mint condition 6 year old one owner 1300 Marina as his first car at 17 and continuously thrashed the life out of it over the next 18 months. the car just took it. I had a Morris Ital-Marina 1300 estate as a company car with 105,000 miles on the clock about 4 years later. other than the engine drinking oil like George Best and Oliver Reed out on a bender and the drivers seat having a soggy bottom, the car still drove like something with a quarter of the mileage.
I drove one for 6 months while the Land Rover was in bits. Loved it. It was a one from new, had done very few miles, and had lived in a garage. Couldn't keep it when the Land Rover was finished. It looked fantastic. The interior was a bit orange. But it was more rust than metal below the paint.
What's pnina finina styling? There are dresses, but I don't get it. (I thought the Land Crab was a bit odd looking, but very comfortable in the seating and feeling. The motor was a nightmare to work on, tho?
I had a Marina in the early 80’s and it was an ok car. I recall having to replace the clutch slave cylinder that was on the side of the engine. It was a really bad design because although it was on the outside of the engine you couldn’t change it without first dropping the gearbox back.
I owned one in the 1970s and used commercial versions in my work for a number of years. The vans were ok apart from the problem of persistent clutch judder (cars too) which was never fixed as far as I am aware throughout the production period. The rear doors also suffered rapid hinge wear and often fell off. More roomy than the escort van. The 1300 A series engine also started consuming oil quite early in life, it was an old long stroke so that wasn’t really surprising. Ford adopted over square engines nearly 20 years earlier. The saloons had poor footwell design and any average driver had their knees in their chest when driving. Boot was huge, heater brilliant. Front suspension primitive and needing regular adjustment and greasing. Track rod ends wore rapidly. Paint fell of in sheets and rusted, underside full of mud traps and formed deep seated corrosion. Much of the above applied to other makes at the time, but Ford offerings were infinitely more refined and better value at the time.
I had a brown 1.3 marina when I was 18. I filled the sills with screwed up newspaper and body filled them coat of underseal and it passed the mot. I paid £30 for it and eventually destroyed the diff trying to wheelspin. I loved it and to this day 35 years later it is still the most comfortable car I have ever owned.
You should fondly remember the first car you drove and, in a way, I do but the vast difference between the Marina 1.8 wagon I learnt in and the 73 Fiat 132 1600 I drove next was a revelation. Although far from the best Fiat, Italy's Marina was so much better, with same mechanical template, the comparison was night and day! Sadly, I only remember the Marina for how poor it was, mostly down to vague controls and suspension that seemed barely connected to the device they oversaw!
It speaks volumes of how succesful Fords marketing was as they were actually the ones ... producing cars that fell a bit between segments. But so great that worked out, that they ended up defining new standards for those segments. Because if you put the marina against the Hillman avenger and the Vauxhall viva, they were all within the same category if you look at size and engine capacity (except the rare 2.3 litre-viva/magnum). And if you wanted something a little better and more stylish, there was the Triumph toledo/1500/dolomite which was also sort of within the same boundaries. I can't tell how a marina was to live with as I've rarely ever seen one, let alone have experience with one. But its styling I would say was well executed. Especially in higher trim, it can look quite appealing.
Dad said a production meeting was held on the line to work out rusting problems. The men and women building them thought the square shape was to blame as it held water. Dad thought this destroyed the loyalty base.
I got my license in 1980. A Marina (a 1.8 automatic) was my 8th car(!) at age 19 after two Mk3 Cortinas, an HC Viva (from dealers) and a gaggle of bangers including Minis, an Imp and a Singer. At that time, I knew absolutely nothing about the reputation Marinas have now. Marinas were everywhere, on the road, in car parks, on dealer forecourts. My six year old 1.8 SDL auto really didn’t exhibit any worse characteristics in terms of rust and mechanical maladies than the Fords or Vauxhall I’d owned of a similar age - and it felt a little bit special due to being my first auto and having the biggest capacity engine I’d owned to that point. So for many years after the ‘Top Gear Piano’ fiasco I was a firm defender of Marinas. In 2016 though I bought a super rare low miles Mk2 HL auto at auction to try to relive the good times, and it made me miserable. A whole lot of that was down to bodged maintenance I could not have known about till the car was mine, and I’m sure after 40 years the bushes and dampers were a little looser than they should be, but between the battle to stop it stalling when it wasn’t behaving and the feeling like I was driving a waterbed, I did not enjoy the Mk2 1.8. I believe 1.3 Marinas are reckoned to drive better because of the lighter engine. Mk1 Marinas have the best dashboard though. It was padded! The hard plastic thing it the Mk2, 3 and Ital creaks and rattles… definitely cheapening of the product.
The front torsion bar suspension is kinda like a double wishbone setup, the lack of front balljoints is a much bigger issue for any length of daily driving.
I had 3 1.8s as company cars, my father had a 1.3 as a private owner. They all gave excellent service, very simple cars economical and roomy. They also went well, because they didnt weigh much. I found they handled fine, plenty of torque to balance the understeer. There were quality issues when new, nothing insoluable soon sorted and then no probkems.
My brother owned one an orange 1.3 automatic 4 dr saloon, asked me if I could sell it for him 100k miles and full of rust. To my suprise a guy responded to my ad in newspaper came over had a ride and settled on £200 he loved it!. My brother was amazed he lived in Cornwall best offer he had was £50.
My dad had the estate version as a works car and it was a tough and reliable car. It was basic but with a large CC engine, could tramp up and down the early motorways. We then had the Italian, a Marina with a nose and tail redesign which was a disappointment as it was a true rust bucket, my dads car was a private buy based on his experience with the Marina but this car, after a few months, had rust staining inside the engine bay where water trapped in the wheel arches ran down the sides. The only odd thing about the Marina was it always looked as if the rear suspension wasn’t part of the car as it, viewed from the side, seemed the rear was as if it had gone over a humpback bridge and was in mid air dropping the suspension right to the bottom. You can see what I mean on that police replica in the video. 🏴
The Marina was the only rear wheel drive British Leyland car in the 1970s, except Rover, Triumph and Jaguar, the rest were front wheel drive, Mini, 1100/ 1300, 1800 and Maxi. The Allegro replaced the 1300, the Princess replaced the 1800. The Marina had two engines, 1.3 that replaced the Morris Minor and 1.8 that replaced the Morris Oxford of the Farina range. In competition with Ford, but also Vauxhall with the Viva, and Hillman with the Avenger, and also Hunter that initially had Singer, Sunbeam and Humber variants.
I had a 1.3 Marina. The main problem was the rear suspension and the gearbox. The the sincromesh was appalling to the extent it became a crash box. I had to learn how to double declutch!
Had 2 1.3 Marinas. Each cars identical engines performed hugely differently even though set up and maintained identically ! I gues this was due to the low tolerances of engines of the day. Unremarkable cars that rusted away. The one mechanical gotcha was the gearbox rear oil seal. Let this drip at your peril when the gearbox could explode at motorway speed on all the Hypoid 90 was gone !
You mean simplistic, with outdated suspension especially at the front, with a shite engine, and the coupes were really difficult to get into the backbseats and looked unbalanced because the morris bean counters made the designers use the sedan front door.
I like the Marina had 2 in the past and worked on the Ital back in the day, they were quite a hansom car and did what they said on the tin. Had a larger Next Gen Marina bean launched and not dropped it would have not been wrong footed by the bigger MK3 Cortina. The Marina /Ital were kept on too long and became out classed that was its only sinn and not the cars fault but BLs management.
Always pondered, why the Marina never got "variants" in the other "Nuffield" marques - MG, Wolseley, (Riley deceased by then). Marina also had to compete with the Triumph Toledo as well.
It's no wonder people back then preferred Ford Cortinas, Fiat 124's, Renault 12's, and similar offerings from Citroen, and Peugeot. They were all better cars than the Morris Marina. And as for the Austin Allegro - it just couldn't compete with the VW Golf, Ford Escort, or Vauxhall Chevette.
I had a 1300 coupe one as a chugger in the early ninties and it wasn't up to much but ok for A to B. Strange thing was I knew somebody who had an 1800 one and the 1300 handled better (not that either really handled) and there was nothing in the acceleration if I remember, so what was the point of the bigger engine other than inferior fuel consumption ?
The windscreen wipers are on the wrong way leaving a section of the windscreen unswept which is in the driver's field of vision. How did this pass design approval?
I served my apprenticeship with Lucas in Johannesburg in the seventies. We had Marina vans and a Marina six cylinder saloon in our fleet along with a mixture of Fords and various other marques. The Marinas all performed well and did what they were supposed to do. The reputation that they got was certainly not deserved in my opinion; that was more the fault of a dying British Leyland than anything else.
My memory might be playing tricks, but didn't the 105E first appear with the pre-Crossflow OHV engine? The Marina IS a Moggy with a bigger body, in essence. BL, strapped for cash, couldn't resist taking the easy way out and using that crappy front Moggy 1000 suspension.
I think the dilemma BLMC had with the Marina in terms of its size and features vis-a-vis its competition was similar to what Rover experienced in the BMW years, where the 200 and 400 were a bit smaller and slightly out of date when compared to their rivals. Other than Steph and a few other TH-camrs, the last time I saw a Marina on the road was my last visit to England in 2006 where an old lady was busy enjoying a purple L-reg one near Portsmouth University.
Well done ! I had a summer job and the owner used to journey to and from Birmingham up to times a week. A 350 mile round trip . He owned a 1.3 Marina and swore he could clock a steady 100 mph ! But to be fair the build quality was pretty appalling as was the reliability . I worked on these at a dealership and can vouch for the dismal workmanship .
Obsolete before it was introduced 1800 and late 1700 were fairly reliable, 1275 A series wasn't nearly as reliable as smaller A series or later A Plus. Triumph gear box wasn't really up to the job 1930's era front suspension was a regular MOT failure point. Drum front brakes on entry level cars were another MOT issue. BLMC were producing a car broadly comparable to to the MK1 Cortina which had already been replaced twice when the Marina was launched. Compared to the Hillman Avenger and Hunter and Vauxhall Viva HC😊😊😊😊😊😊😊
I bought an austin marina in the early 90s ' for £40' sold it 4mths later for £250' not bad ' didnt have to spend any money on it either ' only abit of petrol ' it was sold to a collector out of the blue ' to be honest i didnt have any problems with it ' sad to see it go 🇬🇧👍
Without the twincam jewel of an engine, the style, 5 speed gearbox and performance - both did however share the propensity to dissolve in rust overnight 😅
The Marina is much derided, generally from people who have never owned one, I had a 1.8 Super 2dr,which was more of a fastback than coupe, my mate had an orange TC which I thought was superbmy mother had a 1.3 4dr saloon Auto, they were all good cars, they were of their time of course, they were no better or worse than a Hillman Avenger or Cortina, well maybe the Cortina was slightly better. People seem to forget what cars were like in the 70's & 80's mainstream cars were, OK, obviously when the Japanese car floodgates opened, then they couldn't compare, so a Marina was an OK for it's time, in my opinion of course 👍
Marina vans were good - compared to the Escort with their terrible economiser carburetor (closing when you wanted to cross a junction (!) opening wide when you crept forward in traffic (even worse). Never let me down in many, many miles.
@@Carrera-gp9od No it worked good and was not at all worse than an Opel Kadett or Fiat 132...most of the hype against the Marina came from Top Gear idiots
@@Schlipperschlopper Cobblers mate , my old man had one in the early 80s , what an absolute bucket of 💩. To be fair they actually completely sorted it with the refresh when they called it the Ital , no my memory has gone , it was a total bucket too 😂
Even your example is full of filler and bulging rust. Every time the camera came near the bodywork it is obviously not a museum grade example. They just rotted out so extremely fast. Even their fuel tanks had a nasty habit of forming holes.
Except ford did simple, stylish and reliable, nice to drive, spacious and good to look at, where as, British Leyland did none of that well, or even their aspirational cars that were meant to be radical didnt cut the mustard, Ford were better at their game, and that Marina in the Video really has more filler than katie price!
So market comparatively advanced, compmex cars without proper costing while duplicating the range with somewhat inappropriate models with dated mechanicals and a staid image? No wonder they went bankrupt and never really recovered. I hate the fact that we've haven't our own car industry, but throw in a militant work force for good measure and it's clear that Britain doesn't really deserve one. One former emoyee I spoke to the other is still resentful at BMW for pinching the 4x4 technology after buying Rover. Whether or not that was simply the case is immaterial, the fault lies in the fact that a foreign competitor was ever in position to aquire thrm.
I was stupid enough to buy one of these awful cars, to my shame. I won’t list all the dreadful things about it and what broke or didn’t work, but I will share a comment that a co-worker made at the time, I bought a Mk2 Coupe, on the Mk1 the Coupe badge had an accent over the ‘e’ on the Mk2 this had been removed. As my colleague said at the time ‘Good, at least that’s one thing that can’t go wrong’. He was 100% correct, a total disaster of a car. Criminal, this shoddy heap of rubbish is a demonstration of why we don’t have a native car industry and rightly so. I’m still quite bitter about this car but I don’t think it shows 😊
Absolute junk! Had 3, constantly replacing the front trunnions, prop shafts out of balance,su carbs leaking oil and water pumps wearing out in 5000 miles😮 now drive a Tesla mod 3 made in china 😊😊😊 60000 miles not even a replaced bulb ! Britain stick to making candles and wooden pegs 😂😂😂
I used to hire Morris Marinas back in the late seventies early eighties as I didn't own a car then. I thought they were a perfectly good car and covered many miles in them. Unfortunately people think it is the clever thing to do to criticise the Marina without ever having driven one, idiots.
I drove a Marina 1.3 Coupe from London 240 miles to to my home as a learner drive. It went like the clappers and I loved it . Shortly after I worked for a Ford dealership and was sent to collect a brand new Mk3 Cortina 2000E in a vehicle swap with another Ford dealer about 20 miles away. It looked fantastic - red with a black vinyl roof. Driving back, I noticed the temperature gauge was still in the blue. I pulled over and checked the coolant level - none. I pulled into a farm and blagged some water and at that point noticed red overspray on the vinyl roof. British quality control was dreadful back then unlike Datsun (NIssan) who I worked for shortly after. Simple, affordable, reliable transport for the masses. They worked. Sold loads of Cherrys, Sunnys, Violets and Bluebirds. Even sold a Gloria estate, much to the delight of my manager. The writing was certainly on the wall for BL and other UK makers back then.
They dissolved though. I know British cars of the 70’s could rust but Datsun was on another level. I remember 120Ys with big rust holes all too well. Probably why they changed their name to Nissan.
So Datsun/ Nissan have always used odd names for their vehicles?
You should have seen GM Australia (Holden) the the 70's were complete rust buckets. My father had one. A very reliable car, BUT, there was no paint inside the doors that the spray gun couldn't reach. Sills, where the inner and outer skins met, the light frames- that held the radiator etc (the car was double wishbone- very strong)... Rust broke out in just several years of ownership - may be it was just in two? I was shocked when I saw inside some panels, like the doors. No paint. I think that was the attitude from Detroit. I think the guy running it didn't give a rats bum. Things have to come down from the top?
(I saw Holdens in Fiji (coastal environment) in '74 that had complete panels blown out with rust. (Like under the rear bumper.) Had to be less than two years old, seeing how the model in particular started production late '71 in Australia and about '72 in New Zealand (NZ assembled them as well.) They Should have had a class action brought against them.)
Total crap.the floors rotted out of Nissan's and the guy from Worthing who imported them ended up in trouble .
They were coke cans on wheels.
Learned to drive in an Ital, bought a 1.8 Marina and ran it for two years before it died, pros, comfortable, good equipment level, easy to work on. Cons, awful body roll, crappy front suspension that you must grease every week if you don’t want to become a three wheeler, despite grease often became a three wheeler.
My Dad had 4 Marina company cars throughout the 70's. I have nothing against them as they were the transport of my childhood but I really wish he'd had Cortina's instead...
My Dad had Cortina’s and believe me, they weren’t great either. They rusted like mad. I remember him replacing the wings on our Mk3 at only three years old! And that pinto engine was problematic. The B and A series were paragons of reliability in comparison.
I think BMC/BL started losing grip on the car market as far back as the first days of the Mini, as we know, a brillianf car but didn’t make the company much in the way of profit, they lost on every car sold, the designers/builders of the cars weren’t really speaking to each other and more than likely were wearing their night caps instead of their thinking caps.
Ford overtook BMC/BL in the 60’s and the latter never kept up.
The Marina was a basic no frills car that did the job it was designed to do, I’m a fan of them and the ITAL that came afterwards.
Excellent vid Ed, well researched and delivered.
Fascinating and informative video. As a kid my parents had a Marina estate and my main memory is the wipers failing in heavy rain in a mountainous area of France. They subsequently had a Maxi which I remember was very comfortable. That was also the first car I drove - on a beach in Wales.
From memory, when I was a used car dealer, in the late 1970's I had five Marinas pass through my hands from a fleet buyer, and lost money on every one of them. This, in contrast to the 20+ Datsun 120Y from the same source, that all sold for a handsome profit .
120Y was a revelation. I had one and I wondered how fast it would go it was fast for a 1.2 litre engine. It was very reliable but succumbed quickly to rust disease. It was a good car !
These were marketed in Canada as an 'Austin Marina'. A friend of bought one as his first new car. It was a true piece of four wheeled excrement . His previous car, a 12 year-old Chevelle Malibu with 230,000 miles on it was ten times more reliable
Seriously, anything Japanese was a good 30+% cheaper, and better, at the time. (Toyota Corolla/Datsun 510) The dealers would not "deal" and sales were few and far between. I remember buying a new Toyota Corolla cheaper than a new mini.
Used to suffer these as company hires back in the day, Awful!!!!
My grandpa had one when I was a boy. It seemed to be a bit jumpy at crossroads. Or it was grandpa's driving technique. 1970s.
1.8 Marina was far better than any of the front wheel drive BMC's.The only real issue was the primitive Morris Minor front suspension.
Yeah, I had 3, all suffered from seized trunnions, the cortina was a way better car as was the cavalier.
@@Dirt-Diggler
It was a design fault using a screw thread to do the job of a ball joint added to by the suspension arm being attached to the trunnion not the upright and putting the arm to upright trunnion connection under tension.The threads also blocked the supply of grease getting through then most of the thread above the grease points wore away and the assembly pulled itself apart.The design should never have been passed as safe.
Moggy front suspension wasn't primitive.
@@ethelmini
At best primitive at worse dangerous death trap with the 1.8 Marinas 100 mph potential.I've described the inherent design flaws.
Marina's rear suspension was pretty basic too.
Avenger's was better.
We had Marina vans at work, handled like a shopping trolley and blew up at 50K
That gap on one side of the bonnet is really distracting.
The registration plate looks a bit wonky too.
My dad had a tan coloured one with a chocolate brown vinyl roof, truly awful car.
From memory the bonnet gap on the left hand side was as they came out of the factory.
The boot lid's wonky too. A poor restoration job. Not really pro.
The Marina was merely a stepping stone to British Leyland's greatest ever car and the absolute pinnacle of the Morris brand the magnificent Ital. That wonderful vehicle was the masterpiece of Sir Michael Edwards and simply took the British car industry to a whole new level of quality and greatness.
😂😂😂😂😂
Yeah, right................
😂😂😂😂😂😂😂
You win the Internet
It did????
My brother had a Marina bakkie ( S. African for trick or ute). Over 300,000 km, no troubles. Perhaps S. African built cars were better built?
I put a Nissan bluebird SSS 2 litre and 5 speed in mine- that fixed everything but the terrible build quality,rattles and vibrations, leaks, boat-like handling.
Another great video Edd, your presentation skills get better each one.
I used to have a marina 1.8tc based cobra 289 kit car, was a sheep in wolfs clothing 😂
Bankrobber 1: I told you not to buy a Jag as a getaway car....now the coppers have caught up with us!
Bankrobber 2: Shut up and keep pushing, I think we can outrun 'em...
Informative video but it could have been so much better if you’d sat inside and had a proper look round, opened the bonnet and boot and started it up. Even better if someone had driven it.
Back in the day I travelled as a kid in both Escorts and Marinas and I have to say the Escorts just seemed more dynamic. The engine note was better, they handled a lot better and they looked better too. The only Marina that stood out was the 1800TC which had a higher level of trim (vinyl roof if I remember correctly) and that lovely throaty exhaust note from those twin carbs. Same engine went into the MGB GT I think.
It's the talented man from Twincam!! You did a great job here, and I found this really enjoyable. I didn't know anything about this motor car. I'll subscribe here too. Hope that helps,, 😊
Glad to see him getting the recognition he deserves. 🫡
I like the grill, headlights, sideindicators, rims, door handles, the raised trunk, taillights and everything else. I love it to death.
I had one back in the 1970’s and I can hoestly say it is the worst car I have ever had. It had fault after fault and both the boot and the windscreen leaked. The front twin leading brakes could never be balanced and the gearbox was shot. It was only two years old. I have no fond memories of it what so ever. Now the Citroen GS I got I loved.
Woa there chap, don't let your actual hands on experience get in the way of rose tinted video views.
😁👍
@@Dirt-Diggler If it was todays youth driving it they would need counciling.
@@jameskrell4392 🤣🤣👍
We had three 1.3 Marinas in the family back in the day. My father owned two which were decent cars and gave good service. On the other hand I owned a complete lemon, all kinds of problems, water leaks into the cabin, suspension issues and electrical problems.
I couldn’t help smiling when you said “radical” when I thought of the Alegro! A mobile pudding bowl! 🏴🤣
Dad had a auction one. It was very nice! Metallic brown paint with browny/orange vynaly covered roof.
nice one Ed.
the Marina doesn't deserve the reputation some in the media gave it. a mate got a mint condition 6 year old one owner 1300 Marina as his first car at 17 and continuously thrashed the life out of it over the next 18 months. the car just took it. I had a Morris Ital-Marina 1300 estate as a company car with 105,000 miles on the clock about 4 years later. other than the engine drinking oil like George Best and Oliver Reed out on a bender and the drivers seat having a soggy bottom, the car still drove like something with a quarter of the mileage.
I had a marina tc which was the same engine as the mgb gt in the late 70,s and it was a good car until it started burning more oil than petrol 😅😅😅
I drove one for 6 months while the Land Rover was in bits. Loved it. It was a one from new, had done very few miles, and had lived in a garage. Couldn't keep it when the Land Rover was finished. It looked fantastic. The interior was a bit orange. But it was more rust than metal below the paint.
i served my apprenticeship with BL in the mid 70s. had a 1,8 marina, they were good cars.
Never had any problem with the Marina, but there again I was a kid. I do remember dad driving the Cortina 2000E, in the days before E meant electric.
What's pnina finina styling? There are dresses, but I don't get it.
(I thought the Land Crab was a bit odd looking, but very comfortable in the seating and feeling. The motor was a nightmare to work on, tho?
I had a Marina in the early 80’s and it was an ok car. I recall having to replace the clutch slave cylinder that was on the side of the engine. It was a really bad design because although it was on the outside of the engine you couldn’t change it without first dropping the gearbox back.
My first car was a Morris Marina Coupe, T reg. It had a vinyl roof the lot, velour seats with a ton of space in the back.
but no Twin Cam? lol
@@t.h.o.r.
No, they didn't want to make it scary...
I owned one in the 1970s and used commercial versions in my work for a number of years. The vans were ok apart from the problem of persistent clutch judder (cars too) which was never fixed as far as I am aware throughout the production period. The rear doors also suffered rapid hinge wear and often fell off. More roomy than the escort van. The 1300 A series engine also started consuming oil quite early in life, it was an old long stroke so that wasn’t really surprising. Ford adopted over square engines nearly 20 years earlier.
The saloons had poor footwell design and any average driver had their knees in their chest when driving. Boot was huge, heater brilliant. Front suspension primitive and needing regular adjustment and greasing. Track rod ends wore rapidly. Paint fell of in sheets and rusted, underside full of mud traps and formed deep seated corrosion. Much of the above applied to other makes at the time, but Ford offerings were infinitely more refined and better value at the time.
I had a brown 1.3 marina when I was 18. I filled the sills with screwed up newspaper and body filled them coat of underseal and it passed the mot. I paid £30 for it and eventually destroyed the diff trying to wheelspin. I loved it and to this day 35 years later it is still the most comfortable car I have ever owned.
You should fondly remember the first car you drove and, in a way, I do but the vast difference between the Marina 1.8 wagon I learnt in and the 73 Fiat 132 1600 I drove next was a revelation. Although far from the best Fiat, Italy's Marina was so much better, with same mechanical template, the comparison was night and day! Sadly, I only remember the Marina for how poor it was, mostly down to vague controls and suspension that seemed barely connected to the device they oversaw!
It speaks volumes of how succesful Fords marketing was as they were actually the ones ... producing cars that fell a bit between segments. But so great that worked out, that they ended up defining new standards for those segments. Because if you put the marina against the Hillman avenger and the Vauxhall viva, they were all within the same category if you look at size and engine capacity (except the rare 2.3 litre-viva/magnum). And if you wanted something a little better and more stylish, there was the Triumph toledo/1500/dolomite which was also sort of within the same boundaries.
I can't tell how a marina was to live with as I've rarely ever seen one, let alone have experience with one. But its styling I would say was well executed. Especially in higher trim, it can look quite appealing.
Dad said a production meeting was held on the line to work out rusting problems. The men and women building them thought the square shape was to blame as it held water. Dad thought this destroyed the loyalty base.
I got my license in 1980. A Marina (a 1.8 automatic) was my 8th car(!) at age 19 after two Mk3 Cortinas, an HC Viva (from dealers) and a gaggle of bangers including Minis, an Imp and a Singer. At that time, I knew absolutely nothing about the reputation Marinas have now. Marinas were everywhere, on the road, in car parks, on dealer forecourts. My six year old 1.8 SDL auto really didn’t exhibit any worse characteristics in terms of rust and mechanical maladies than the Fords or Vauxhall I’d owned of a similar age - and it felt a little bit special due to being my first auto and having the biggest capacity engine I’d owned to that point. So for many years after the ‘Top Gear Piano’ fiasco I was a firm defender of Marinas. In 2016 though I bought a super rare low miles Mk2 HL auto at auction to try to relive the good times, and it made me miserable. A whole lot of that was down to bodged maintenance I could not have known about till the car was mine, and I’m sure after 40 years the bushes and dampers were a little looser than they should be, but between the battle to stop it stalling when it wasn’t behaving and the feeling like I was driving a waterbed, I did not enjoy the Mk2 1.8. I believe 1.3 Marinas are reckoned to drive better because of the lighter engine. Mk1 Marinas have the best dashboard though. It was padded! The hard plastic thing it the Mk2, 3 and Ital creaks and rattles… definitely cheapening of the product.
Absolutely brilliant. You really know your stuff.
Great video from ED. Big fan here🎉
The front torsion bar suspension is kinda like a double wishbone setup, the lack of front balljoints is a much bigger issue for any length of daily driving.
Not sure who this police car would be chasing ? Reliant Robins perhaps and mopeds ?
Invacars?
I had two Marinas .
Both worked fine. The second was a 1700 great car.
I had it for five years, and it served me well.
1700 was an ital not a marina 👍
@Dirt-Diggler
No it wasn't the last of the Marinas had a 1700 o series engine.
Mine was a I980 V reg.
Definitely a Marina .
@@Igg-j7i fair play, my apologies 👍
I had 3 1.8s as company cars, my father had a 1.3 as a private owner. They all gave excellent service, very simple cars economical and roomy. They also went well, because they didnt weigh much. I found they handled fine, plenty of torque to balance the understeer. There were quality issues when new, nothing insoluable soon sorted and then no probkems.
The itals that followed were despised by reps I knew .
My brother owned one an orange 1.3 automatic 4 dr saloon, asked me if I could sell it for him 100k miles and full of rust.
To my suprise a guy responded to my ad in newspaper came over had a ride and settled on £200 he loved it!. My brother was amazed he lived in Cornwall best offer he had was £50.
Cracking video with superb info and a take on BL that I wasn't aware of.
My dad had the estate version as a works car and it was a tough and reliable car. It was basic but with a large CC engine, could tramp up and down the early motorways.
We then had the Italian, a Marina with a nose and tail redesign which was a disappointment as it was a true rust bucket, my dads car was a private buy based on his experience with the Marina but this car, after a few months, had rust staining inside the engine bay where water trapped in the wheel arches ran down the sides.
The only odd thing about the Marina was it always looked as if the rear suspension wasn’t part of the car as it, viewed from the side, seemed the rear was as if it had gone over a humpback bridge and was in mid air dropping the suspension right to the bottom.
You can see what I mean on that police replica in the video. 🏴
The Marina was the only rear wheel drive British Leyland car in the 1970s, except Rover, Triumph and Jaguar, the rest were front wheel drive, Mini, 1100/ 1300, 1800 and Maxi. The Allegro replaced the 1300, the Princess replaced the 1800. The Marina had two engines, 1.3 that replaced the Morris Minor and 1.8 that replaced the Morris Oxford of the Farina range. In competition with Ford, but also Vauxhall with the Viva, and Hillman with the Avenger, and also Hunter that initially had Singer, Sunbeam and Humber variants.
??
I had a 1.3 Marina. The main problem was the rear suspension and the gearbox. The the sincromesh was appalling to the extent it became a crash box. I had to learn how to double declutch!
Rear engined? Really?
and then Vauxhall launched the Chevette in 1973 and Cavalier MKI in 1975
The mini is a bit of a conundrum. A success that nearly bankrupted it makers as it never made a profit, being quite a complex “cheap” car.
Had 2 1.3 Marinas. Each cars identical engines performed hugely differently even though set up and maintained identically ! I gues this was due to the low tolerances of engines of the day. Unremarkable cars that rusted away. The one mechanical gotcha was the gearbox rear oil seal. Let this drip at your peril when the gearbox could explode at motorway speed on all the Hypoid 90 was gone !
You mean simplistic, with outdated suspension especially at the front, with a shite engine, and the coupes were really difficult to get into the backbseats and looked unbalanced because the morris bean counters made the designers use the sedan front door.
I like the Marina had 2 in the past and worked on the Ital back in the day, they were quite a hansom car and did what they said on the tin. Had a larger Next Gen Marina bean launched and not dropped it would have not been wrong footed by the bigger MK3 Cortina. The Marina /Ital were kept on too long and became out classed that was its only sinn and not the cars fault but BLs management.
Twin Cam???? closest they got was twin windscreen wipers and twin SU's
Always pondered, why the Marina never got "variants" in the other "Nuffield" marques - MG, Wolseley, (Riley deceased by then). Marina also had to compete with the Triumph Toledo as well.
It's no wonder people back then preferred Ford Cortinas, Fiat 124's, Renault 12's, and similar offerings from Citroen, and Peugeot. They were all better cars than the Morris Marina. And as for the Austin Allegro - it just couldn't compete with the VW Golf, Ford Escort, or Vauxhall Chevette.
I had a 1300 coupe one as a chugger in the early ninties and it wasn't up to much but ok for A to B. Strange thing was I knew somebody who had an 1800 one and the 1300 handled better (not that either really handled) and there was nothing in the acceleration if I remember, so what was the point of the bigger engine other than inferior fuel consumption ?
The windscreen wipers are on the wrong way leaving a section of the windscreen unswept which is in the driver's field of vision. How did this pass design approval?
I served my apprenticeship with Lucas in Johannesburg in the seventies. We had Marina vans and a Marina six cylinder saloon in our fleet along with a mixture of Fords and various other marques. The Marinas all performed well and did what they were supposed to do. The reputation that they got was certainly not deserved in my opinion; that was more the fault of a dying British Leyland than anything else.
My memory might be playing tricks, but didn't the 105E first appear with the pre-Crossflow OHV engine?
The Marina IS a Moggy with a bigger body, in essence. BL, strapped for cash, couldn't resist taking the easy way out and using that crappy front Moggy 1000 suspension.
The shareholders destroyed BMC
I think the dilemma BLMC had with the Marina in terms of its size and features vis-a-vis its competition was similar to what Rover experienced in the BMW years, where the 200 and 400 were a bit smaller and slightly out of date when compared to their rivals. Other than Steph and a few other TH-camrs, the last time I saw a Marina on the road was my last visit to England in 2006 where an old lady was busy enjoying a purple L-reg one near Portsmouth University.
Twin cam ?????
Well done ! I had a summer job and the owner used to journey to and from Birmingham up to times a week. A 350 mile round trip . He owned a 1.3 Marina and swore he could clock a steady 100 mph ! But to be fair the build quality was pretty appalling as was the reliability . I worked on these at a dealership and can vouch for the dismal workmanship .
Top Gear should be ashamed for their maligning of a good British product that kept people mobile
No wonder Japanese cars became so popular when this was the best British Leyland could do.
Love this, thanks for doing a video on it :)
Err hum Citroën 2cv?
Obsolete before it was introduced 1800 and late 1700 were fairly reliable, 1275 A series wasn't nearly as reliable as smaller A series or later A Plus. Triumph gear box wasn't really up to the job
1930's era front suspension was a regular MOT failure point.
Drum front brakes on entry level cars were another MOT issue. BLMC were producing a car broadly comparable to to the MK1 Cortina which had already been replaced twice when the Marina was launched.
Compared to the Hillman Avenger and Hunter and Vauxhall Viva HC😊😊😊😊😊😊😊
The Oz assembled ones were dreadful.
Slow, noisy and drove like a rowing boat and then there's the rust.
I bought an austin marina in the early 90s ' for £40' sold it 4mths later for £250' not bad ' didnt have to spend any money on it either ' only abit of petrol ' it was sold to a collector out of the blue ' to be honest i didnt have any problems with it ' sad to see it go 🇬🇧👍
"What's a Marina?"
"Something tie a boat to."
"Oh , an anchor."
My boss had a bronze one with vinyl roof
Its like a british Fiat 132
Without the twincam jewel of an engine, the style, 5 speed gearbox and performance - both did however share the propensity to dissolve in rust overnight 😅
The Marina is much derided, generally from people who have never owned one, I had a 1.8 Super 2dr,which was more of a fastback than coupe, my mate had an orange TC which I thought was superbmy mother had a 1.3 4dr saloon Auto, they were all good cars, they were of their time of course, they were no better or worse than a Hillman Avenger or Cortina, well maybe the Cortina was slightly better.
People seem to forget what cars were like in the 70's & 80's mainstream cars were, OK, obviously when the Japanese car floodgates opened, then they couldn't compare, so a Marina was an OK for it's time, in my opinion of course 👍
Let Clarkson use it for one day😅
Marina vans were good - compared to the Escort with their terrible economiser carburetor (closing when you wanted to cross a junction (!) opening wide when you crept forward in traffic (even worse). Never let me down in many, many miles.
Great dialogue but too much talking in one place. Need to see more of car please.
I understand it was terrible , there is no misunderstanding on my part.
Is was not worse than a Fiat 132
@@Haffschlappe
It is one of the worst of all time , up there with the Allegro!
@@Carrera-gp9od No it worked good and was not at all worse than an Opel Kadett or Fiat 132...most of the hype against the Marina came from Top Gear idiots
@@Schlipperschlopper
Cobblers mate , my old man had one in the early 80s , what an absolute bucket of 💩.
To be fair they actually completely sorted it with the refresh when they called it the Ital , no my memory has gone , it was a total bucket too 😂
Even your example is full of filler and bulging rust. Every time the camera came near the bodywork it is obviously
not a museum grade example.
They just rotted out so extremely fast. Even their fuel tanks had a nasty habit of forming holes.
That car looks like it is held together by chewing gum.
It had a great horn , it went pig pig pig pig pig pig
Except ford did simple, stylish and reliable, nice to drive, spacious and good to look at, where as, British Leyland did none of that well, or even their aspirational cars that were meant to be radical didnt cut the mustard, Ford were better at their game, and that Marina in the Video really has more filler than katie price!
Ford aren’t exactly big sellers these days either. They went to VW for an EV platform and they’re some distance behind the Koreans and Chinese.
Loved the marina
Funereal? Did you mean frugal?
It was an awful car to drive, especially as a police car compared to Chrysler Avengers and Ford Escorts.
Mk2 with mk1 wheel trims
Finnish importer put a 1.5 litre B-series diesels in these 1978-79.
Bet they were amazing to drive.......😂
I remember seeing diesel Marinas in Malta
Based on a Morris Minor underpinnings.
and the bumpers
What part of "grand piano" don't you understand?
So market comparatively advanced, compmex cars without proper costing while duplicating the range with somewhat inappropriate models with dated mechanicals and a staid image? No wonder they went bankrupt and never really recovered. I hate the fact that we've haven't our own car industry, but throw in a militant work force for good measure and it's clear that Britain doesn't really deserve one. One former emoyee I spoke to the other is still resentful at BMW for pinching the 4x4 technology after buying Rover. Whether or not that was simply the case is immaterial, the fault lies in the fact that a foreign competitor was ever in position to aquire thrm.
I was stupid enough to buy one of these awful cars, to my shame. I won’t list all the dreadful things about it and what broke or didn’t work, but I will share a comment that a co-worker made at the time, I bought a Mk2 Coupe, on the Mk1 the Coupe badge had an accent over the ‘e’ on the Mk2 this had been removed. As my colleague said at the time ‘Good, at least that’s one thing that can’t go wrong’. He was 100% correct, a total disaster of a car. Criminal, this shoddy heap of rubbish is a demonstration of why we don’t have a native car industry and rightly so. I’m still quite bitter about this car but I don’t think it shows 😊
They were great cars, they suited our roads and our demands. Marinas wee used for everything, mini cabs, reps cars family and fleet .
Absolute junk! Had 3, constantly replacing the front trunnions, prop shafts out of balance,su carbs leaking oil and water pumps wearing out in 5000 miles😮 now drive a Tesla mod 3 made in china 😊😊😊 60000 miles not even a replaced bulb ! Britain stick to making candles and wooden pegs 😂😂😂
I used to hire Morris Marinas back in the late seventies early eighties as I didn't own a car then. I thought they were a perfectly good car and covered many miles in them. Unfortunately people think it is the clever thing to do to criticise the Marina without ever having driven one, idiots.
You obviously never owned one of these heaps of poo, bloody awful things. Marginally better than walking.
I think Olivier Panis summed it up in Top Gear! 😀
"This is..." what? Don't leave the internet to finish that sentence! 😶
Too much history; not enough about the subject matter.
The cars were shit compared to the cheaper Japanese cars at the time in North America.