CLASSIC TAILS
TIPS, TRICKS AND NOSTALGIA FROM A LIFETIME IMMERSED IN OLD CARS
THEY DON’T MAKE ’EM LIKE THEY USED TO!
Recently in a fit of lockdown boredom, I bought a load of CAR magazines from 1970-76 as well as some Car Mechanics mags from a similar period, and it reaffirmed one thing – mass produced cars back then could be rubbish compared to what’s around now. Before you angrily compose a strongly worded email, let me explain. I’m not talking about styling, performance or even handling as despite the last two not being able to hold a candle to moderns, a car from 1972 such a 2000 Cortina, XJ6 or even an Austin 1300GT can be quite lively and fun to drive. No, it’s the lousy and variable quality I’m referring to.
‘ Well equipped and built to last’ crowed the Ford advertising blurb for the Mk4 Cortina in 1976. No it wasn’t. It rusted in just the same places as the Mk3, and just as quickly. We can all remember the state some were in at eight years old. It’s not just rust either, but general standards of build for cars like this. A Marina test car from 1974 had the most appalling welding you’ve ever seen on the rear panel-torear wing joint, visible with the bootlid closed with no attempt at grinding it down or lead loading. A door handle casting on a Hillman Imp was so badly finished that someone cut their hand on it, and the esteemed LJK Setright drove a Vauxhall Ventora that at just one year old had so many rattles, creaks and defects he felt duty bound to complain about it.
Of course, manufacturersupplied test cars were very carefully honed because if a copy of 1972 Motoring Which? was to be believed, home grown products of Ford, BL and Vauxhall were generally of pretty parlous quality. AA Drive awarded their Square Wheel award of 1974 to that apparent paragon of quality, a Rover P6 3500 – three new engines and two automatic gearboxes were just the tip of the iceberg. An early Allegro came second with near enough everything failing from the alternator onwards through the alphabet, and third being a
Triumph Stag with a predictable list of disasters. Elsewhere, a Cortina GT was delivered with a fuel gauge that didn’t actually work, wonky headlight beams and tracking a mile off. How would you not spot that during a PDI, let alone at the factory? Because nobody cared.
I’m wondering if this all stems from the post war arrogance of British car manufacturers where, in the 1950s, cars were very hard to get hold of with most going for export. There was certainly a ‘you’ll get what you’re given’ attitude that prevailed well into the late 1970s, by which time many reputations had been destroyed.
But at least cars were cheap back then, weren’t they? Not a bit of it! In 1971, the average annual income was £1500. A Cortina GXL was £1200, a Mini 850 around £680 and a reasonable semi-detached house £5000. Of course, house prices have gone insane since then, but you were still expected to pay 10 months’ salary for a car that was assembled with varying degrees of success and which after five years and 60,000 miles would be looking the worse for wear, using oil and with tell-tale bubbles in the paint that betrayed a complete lack of effective rustproofing. That Cortina would probably have had a new cam by that point too, a few sets of rear axle void bushes, perhaps a diff and almost certainly a ‘small patch’ on a sill or chassis leg. That was the lot of British car buyers.
It was probably when Datsun and Toyota arrived that car buyers started to drift away from strike-prone Leyland. You could wait three months for a Marina allowing for that many months’ worth of various industrial action, or you could have a Datsun 180B early next week. That, like all 180Bs, would be perfectly assembled and would start on the button whilst next door’s Escort churned away in what became known as ‘the Ford Chorus’ on cold damp mornings.
Even the Japanese cars couldn’t really hack the UK market, though. Whilst they were reliable, they generally didn’t drive that well and they could rust faster than most BL products due to the Japanese not understanding that the UK climate is a bit different to theirs and that a buyer might want to keep a car for a decade.
For all that, cars – as badly made as they were – still lasted for about as long as they do now despite advances in rustproofing and standards of assembly that make a new Astra a sound bet for a 15 year life. That’s because there wasn’t a throwaway culture in society like there is now and cars were kept going for as long as possible. By the time a 1963 Austin 1100 landed at Bob’s Breakers in 1976, it was rusted beyond economic repair, using oil and generally knackered. Before then it would have had weekend sessions with Holts Cataloy (remember that?) and DupliColour rattle cans, and a look at a 1972 Glass’s Guide tells you that cars didn’t depreciate like they do now. In other words, it was normal to buy a new car and run it to death, getting 10 to 15 years from it in the process. And you had to look after a car back then because if you didn’t, it simply wouldn’t last the course.