So the Allegro is now 40 years old.

It's a car I have a relationship with as I actually used to own one - a gift from my grandmother when she quit driving. I don't miss it, but in many respects it is such a 'nearly' car.

Compared to a Golf from the same period - a very successful car, it was more spacious, more comfortable and had a much better ride.

So what was wrong with it?

Let's deal with the factual things first.

Austin thought only a saloon would be acceptable to a large part of their market, so they designed it to look like a hatchback but not have a hatchback. Like the Mini. One of those sub-optimal catch-22 decisions that alienates both the markets you're trying to reach. This owner was so frustrated he reversed into a wall. Or another Allegro.

Click image to enlarge

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Here's a video on quality control at BL. Notice David Suchet working as a designer before he became Poirot. Loads of other familiar faces also.

Check out Wendy the typist. Definitely do 'er romantic style, even though she typed up the spec wrong.

When my wife started driving, her first car was an allegro. I suppose her dad thought he was being nice getting it for her.
It was an awful car. Clutch, brake, electrical, engine faults, it had them all over time.
I remember driving down a hill in it, pressed the brakes and bang.... BOTH front disks sheared at the hubs! Perfect cracks all the way round. That was scary. Handbrake to stop.
We went to Edinburgh for the day and the clutch packed in. Changed gear all the way home with no clutch. Had to stop at the forth road bridge to pay the toll. Started it in gear to get moving again.
Condenser failed on a camping holiday to north England, on a Sunday as well. We had to wait till a local garage opened on the Monday to get the bits.
It eventually seized and we were happy to see the back of it.
We had good times as students in it, being able to go places, but no happy memories of the car itself.
Rust in peace. Previously..
Vogue SE TD6
Defender 90 2.4
Defender 110 TD5
Vogue 3.5 EFI

Brings back some memories.......... my grandfather had a succession of these, he had a real working man's pub in Bathgate, West Lothian where one of the BL factories was -he always maintained him buying them helped put money in the BL workers pay packet, which in turn ended up in his till...... Used to give my dad a real hard time for buying that german rubbish ie Mk1 Golf. After the last Allegro died (didnt take long!)it was an Ambassador and then two Montego's. Happy days..........!

^^^^^ and i'll bet the mk1 golf outlasted them all, and is now an appreciating classic.......

I distinctly remember the old man having one of these as a courtesy car when he totalled my mums fiat 126 into the back of an artic. At the time i thought it was pretty cool..... There is nothing that can't be fixed with a hammer😜😜
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Jees Fiat 126.......... had forgotten them, when I lived on Islay our Gaelic Teacher had a red one of these, she stayed up the road from my folks and was quite fond of her drams - put if off the road into a ditch one night and it literally couldnt be seen as you drove past - took a few days to be extracted and probably sustained more damage being taken out than it did when it went in. Need to stop this now, that was over 35 years ago...........

For some reason he decided that it was wise to buy both a fiat 126 and 127 at the same time.

Needless to say they were utter rubbish. There is nothing that can't be fixed with a hammer😜😜
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Weirdly just saw an immaculate looking white estate a mile away. Looked really nice given the time thats passed.

Actually I think a very under rated car that did exactly what it was designed to do.

And as for the square steering wheel it was a good idea I think if you give it some thought...

T

KurtVerbose wrote:

The earlier ones had a square steering wheel...

Austin's Marketing Department wrote:

The earlier ones had a Quartic steering wheel...

tomthevet wrote:

And as for the square steering wheel it was a good idea I think if you give it some thought...

I learnt to drive in one and a maxi
At a junction you could slip the clutch with the handbrake on and get it rocking like a boat on the chewing gum suspension.
I always thought the little estate didnt look to bad
but they were s***
Had a fiat 127 sport to
My life has been a collection of cars and now i bought a FF?????
 Mine was a blue one!

Last edited by Andy3681 on 29th May 2013 9:27am. Edited 1 time in total

 2008 MY Supercharged
Rimini Red / Jet
four zone climate
remote park heater
and no ugly kid windows.
magnus satis quod turpis satis

Well the original theory was that if you were going along a straight road with your hands at say 3 and 9 then small movements of your hands wouldnt have a huge effect on the wheel because your hands are closer to the centre point hence smoothing out the drive.
Whereas come to a tight corner and the tendency is to move your hands slightly to the corners where the distance from the centre is greater giving a great mechanical advantage when you turn the wheel.
That and the flat bottom for leg room a la fast audi these days.

T

Apparently, the quartic 'wheel came about just before launch when the BL MD's wife sat in an Allegro and complained there wasn't enough room between her legs and the 'wheel. So they flattened it and that was that.

Many BL managers used to specify the Belgian-built cars as they were far better built as their manufacturing plant achieved much tighter tolerances on the components. As a consequence, they didn't break down nearly as much.

Harris Mann got a lot of stick for the Allegro's design but his proposal was a wedge-shape. When BL said they'd be fitting the tall A and B-series engines, the scuttle height moved upwards and ruined the looks. Harris had no say in the committee outcome but still got slated. Si. <This is my name.

I eat rat poison.

A man ain't truly been insulted until he stands buck naked in front of a woman and she didn't even notice. Or care.

KurtVerbose wrote:

Here's a video on quality control at BL. Notice David Suchet working as a designer before he became Poirot. Loads of other familiar faces also.

Check out Wendy the typist. Definitely do 'er romantic style, even though she typed up the spec wrong.

one big excuse of a video! think of the work Mercedes were doing at the same time with the W123!

A time best forgotten. They screwed up big time. They should have capitalised on the Mini brand, bringing out a raft of similar cars in different sizes. They should have developed the Mini itself more too: a new model was needed by at least 1970, and I discount the hopeless metro, which basically eradicated all of the good points about the mini (nippy handling, compact size, cool image) and retained all of the bad points (asthmatic A series, Rust problems, sloppy hydraulic suspension, sparse interior) creating a truly terrible car.

The Allegro was unfortunate; clearly too much time was spent looking at the Alfasud when a far simpler, more elegant design could have been developed with a proper hatchback and rubber cone suspension saving cost and reducing mechanical complications. Having said all this, they trusted Issigonis for too long, the Landcrab and Maxi were an extension too far of his designs and as a result they failed to sell. N

eed I mention the Marina, which was just a lazy effort; they should have just killed off the Morris brand there and then, rather than tarting up the ancient Minor. And then we come to MG, which should have died by the early 70s, the cars were just an embarrassment by then.

The TR7 should not have been built in Liverpool, and god knows it shouldn't have looked the way it did. All they had to do was build a modern sports car that the Americans would take to. In fact A TR6 with a Rover V8 and updated styling could have worked; the chassis was dated but worked fine. Then we look at Rover; the SD1 was a brave effort, but quality was simply not good enough, so they should have handed the mantle over to Jaguar to develop the XJ, and spent more on development of the Range Rover and the Rover V8 for other cars (Stag).

Oh yes and the Princess; they needn't have bothered. More factories should have been closed to ensure survival, and defunct brands flogged off (Wolseley, Riley etc)

so there.