76 PROBLEMS

IAN Thomas was Leyland’s state service manager for Victoria and Tasmania during the time of the P76, and has more than a few grey hairs to show for it.

He recalls that the P76’s significant sealing problems were his biggest headache. “There was no ledge along the sill for the door to seat against, so most days I’d arrive at my office at Airport West and there’d be a bunch of owners waiting, sometimes six or more. Sill to sill, the cars’d be full of bloody water! The owners would ask me what I was going to do about it, and I’d tell them that the first thing we’ll do is drill some holes to let the water out.

“The bodies just didn’t fit together well; we’d have heaps of troubles with bonnets, bootlids and things like that,” he continues. “The Poms didn’t help either; they’d build something and we’d be in the field copping all the feedback and they’d come back with: ‘Not a known problem.’ The company would compare the cost of rectifying the issue on the line with having the car come back under warranty. Unfortunately, the latter was invariably the cheaper option, so they’d just keep on building them! They totally ignored the most important thing: buyer satisfaction. That attitude was part of the reason they closed up here.”

Despite Ian’s experiences, he remembers the P76 fondly, retaining a P76 Deluxe as his everyday car for 10 years after he left the company. “I have to say, unless it was the V8, it wasn’t much good. The E6 was gutless and didn’t have the drive it should have; it just felt under strain the whole time,” he admits. “Still, the V8 was great; you could hitch your house to it and tow it over the road.”