OUR PRINCESS MEMORIES
As usual, the April issue of CW had a remarkably varied range of subjects. Sam Skelton’s feature on the Leyland Princess took me back some 47 years to when, after a series of four Landcrabs, my father was given what turned out to be his last company car, a Brooklands Green Princess 2200HL automatic. It was very comfortable for the driver and passengers, with a large, light and airy cabin and a vast boot. It was also very pleasant to drive with the automatic gearbox and power steering, with pretty effortless performance, excellent handling, modest noise levels and very respectable fuel economy.
I was still living with my parents at the time, and the car was insured for all of us to drive. An added bonus was that the firm decided that directors like my father did not have to pay for private mileage, so he was happy to lend the car to me when he did not need it so that, for example, I would sometimes use it to attend Rover club evening meetings 40 miles from home. I particularly remember one Easter weekend when I was to be best man at a friend’s wedding near Blackpool, and dad lent me the Princess for the day trip from Sutton Coldfield. All went well, but when I joined the M6 in the late afternoon to come home, the traffic was virtually stationary, and I took the first available exit. I stopped and had a look at the road atlas (no satellite navigation then) and then had a most enjoyable and brisk journey home via the ordinary roads of the Peak District.
The Princess was totally reliable and only needed routine servicing over some 60,000 miles. We looked after it carefully, so it was in excellent condition when my father had to retire through ill health in the summer of 1980. This was when we made a mistake. The firm offered him the chance to buy the Princess, but they were asking a sum well above ‘top book’. So instead of buying the Princess, he bought a brand new Austin Maxi 1750 automatic which, apart from one electrical problem, provided good and reliable transport.
The snag was that it lacked power steering, and after five years my father found it was too heavy for him and it was changed for a nine year old Princess 2200 HLS automatic in metallic green with only 15,000 miles recorded. However, whereas the first Princess was an example of good quality from British Leyland, the second one had quite a few issues and was never as good. With the benefit of hindsight, buying in the company Princess would have been a far better option, especially as my father’s declining health steadily reduced the annual mileage until his death in 1991. Who knows, if he had still had the first Princess, I might have added it to our collection!