Well it made me laugh

[crickleymal]

I'm in the process of reading a book by Tim Moore called You are Awful But I Like You in which he travels around Britain's worst towns in Britain's worst car. Not being able to find an Allegro that was up to the journey he settles for an Austin Maestro. I thought I'd share part of his description of it with you.

Leaks sprang out everywhere - passengers sat in the back rather than endure the ever waterlogged front seat, and for drivers even the standard under-arse plastic bag sometimes wasn't enough. "In bad weather" recalled one owner, "I had to wear a rain coat." Living with the Maestro meant a permanent oil stain on your drive and a mechanical soundtrack that has been memorably compared to a skeleton wanking in a biscuit tin.

[ron]

That sound like a good old BL product.And we wonder why the British car industry is no more.:whistle:

[taxi]

And I was informed that you could ask your neighbour for their keys to get into your car if you mislaid yours. Carpet under the bonnet in winter. And square steering wheels. The good ? old days.

[philip]

Old cars used to have their own smell inside BL, Ford, Nissan etc I used to like the smell of a triumph Dolomite inside, don't ask why.


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And I was informed that you could ask your neighbour for their keys to get into your car if you mislaid yours. Carpet under the bonnet in winter. And square steering wheels. The good ? old days.

I remember Ford locks were crap.


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[crickleymal]

The square steering wheel was the Allegro - the Quartic steering wheel I believe it was called.

[philip]

The square steering wheel was the Allegro - the Quartic steering wheel I believe it was called.

Austin Allegro interiour

[evdama]

My dad was granted company cars as a tax dodge.
The first was a secondhand Morris 1000 traveller that was actually really good.
The second was a new 1975 Austin Maxi - no problems, just out with the isopon and spraycan every fortnight.
A mk3 cortina followed in 1980 -no problems he missed the hatchback and FWD though.
Then a Mk2 Cavalier in '85 -brand new two new gearboxes within the first year.
Two more cavaliers later he'd had enough and took the redundancy package

[crickleymal]

I had a 1500 Allegro automatic briefly. Interesting is about the best word to describe it. The engine compression was so low that it wouldn't go until it had warmed up because the autobox didn't allow you to rev it up before it move off. The choke wouldn't stay in position so you had to put a peg on it, start the engine, go indoors and have a cup of tea, then it would be warm enough to drive.

[ffrenchie]

The quartic wheel did not last for long before they went back to round ones. I had a 1300 Allegro estate for a while and it was no problem. Apart from a bit of welding I did for it's second MOT and oil changes it was a cheap runabout and I got the same back as I bought it for. The colour was something else though, we called it baby poop brown (polite version).