Morris Marina
Morris Marina Coupe (1971-1975)
The Morris Marina ( ADO28/ADO73 ) is a passenger car model that was produced from April 1971 to October 1980 by British Leyland Motor Corporation ( BLMC ).
After a facelift in autumn 1980, the vehicles were sold by the end of 1984 as the Morris Ital. Technical basis was until recently the Morris Minor of 1948.
Model history
Following the merger of British Motor Holdings ( BMH ), Rover and Leyland Motors to BLMC those responsible faced with declining sales. In the middle class, especially the Ford Cortina reached enormous sales figures, and BLMC could resist no own model. In order to develop an appropriate vehicle to accelerate, reference should be made to existing components. Therefore, formed the technical basis of the Morris Minor of 1948, the transmission came from the Triumph Dolomite. The Marina was intended only as an interim solution and should be replaced from 1977 by a complete new development. After 18 months of development, the car was presented.
Although his appearance was timely, but the car was already technically obsolete in its launch. Some components came from the Morris Minor, were overwhelmed with the larger cars and insufficiently coordinated with each other. The Marina came in addition mainly because of its strong understeering self-steering behavior under fire. This problem was alleviated with facelift. Due to the planned new development, the model was initially built further visually unchanged. From the end of 1975 was the slightly modified cars Marina II
The use of parts from various older models also had an unfavorable impact on existing production capacities and drove the production costs up. If you wanted to seriously compete with the Ford Cortina, the marina could be more expensive in any case. On the other hand, did the production conditions also no price reduction.
The development of the successor codenamed ADO77 began in 1974. Yet had to file for bankruptcy as BLMC year later, the work was stopped on ADO77. Instead, the Marina was first fitted in light of limited financial resources only with new engines.
Morris Marina Limousine (1971-1975)
Morris Marina Pickup ( 1975)
Morris Marina II (1975-1980)
Morris Marina II Estate (1975-1980)
Model development
In October 1980 he received a comprehensive facelift, which is wrongly attributed to Giorgetto Giugiaro, and a new name: Morris Ital. But the Ital had given the outdated technology neither the Cortina IV / V of 1976/79 nor the Vauxhall Cavalier from 1981 to oppose something. The end of 1984, finally, the production ended after over 807,000 units sold (Marina and Ital ) in the UK alone.
Like no other vehicle was the Morris Marina adjacent to the Austin Allegro in the UK ( and not only there, major export had long recorded sales dips) a synonym for bad or strongly scattering build quality, outdated technology, over long production periods and short-sighted management decisions. All this was responsible for the big image problem of the British automobile industry. The Marina ( and Ital ) was the last model under the name Morris - the silent end of the once esteemed brand name was sealed.
Launched in early 1984 Austin Montego can be regarded as the successor to the Marina or Ital.
Mumford Marina Convertible
The British coachbuilders Crayford Engineering produced in 1974 on behalf of residents in Plymouth BLMC dealer W. Mumford Ltd. a two-door convertible Marina, which was sold on the hatchback - based and as Mumford Marina Marina Convertible. The vehicle had four full-size seats because the back seat of the standard Marina was unchanged. In advertising, it was referred to as "Family Convertible " (Family Cabriolet ). In order to stabilize the structure installed Crayford a broad roll bar, in the - similar to simultaneously presented Bristol 412 - small side windows were integrated. Behind the rollbar there were more side windows that were manually retractable. The lateral line altogether seemed uneasy by this strong breakdown of the window. The top was hand-operable; the operation of the roof opening was described in a test in 1974 as straightforward. When closed, the soft top of the roof line of the two-door coupe followed.
Trivia
In the production of the British television show Top Gear, four copies were previously allegedly accidentally destroyed (three of them by " falling from heaven " pianos ), which each time drew protests from the Marina Owners Club by itself.