"not for canada - australian in disguise" (for-canada)
04/18/2020 at 17:58 • Filed to: None
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"not for canada - australian in disguise" (for-canada)
04/18/2020 at 17:58 • Filed to: None | 5
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Enter the North American-market Austin Marina. Yes, there was a North American market Marina. They called it an Austin instead of a Morris because the Austin brand had more name recognition, probably due to the Austin-Healey sports cars of the sixties, and also their involvement with the Nash Metropolitan.
In the early Seventies, you were quite spoilt for choices when it came to compact family cars. Yet, not many of the options were very good. You had the Vega, Firenza (in Canada), Pinto, Gremlin, and some more quirky off the wall imports like offerings like the Hillman Avenger/Plymouth Cricket. All of these cars, some more deservedly than others, eventually gained a reputation for unreliablity and being symbolic of everything wrong with the British and American automotive industries, and basically handed the market to Japanese cars like the Datsun 610, Toyota Corolla, and Mazda 323. Which makes it all the more baffling why Leyland had to throw their hat in the ring.
The first few models arrived in 1972, arriving 6 months before the US in Canada, and had more conventional bumpers, meaning the car looked basically the same as the British Morris models barring the Austin badging. However, in 1973, the car got a facelift and with it came the hideous new bumpers, making an already pretty shit looking car even shittier looking.
Now, especially in the United States, but also in Canada, Leyland were known for making sports cars. MGs, Triumphs, Jags, those were their bread and butter. So, to sell their new “economy” car, they turned to making comparisons to their aging sports car lineup that were pulling at so many straws you’d think they were trying to destroy the windpipes of every single sea turtle on Earth. “It has the same engine as an MGB” they shouted from the rooftops. “It’s like a Land Rover because it has four wheels and a chassis!” they exclaimed.
Americans weren’t nearly as stupid as Leyland thought they were, and nobody fell for it. The Marina was a pretty large flop. Marketing couldn’t polish this particular turd, and people who wanted a compact import just bought Japanese.
Leyland discontinued the Marina in the US in 1975, but it kept on in Canada, even getting a facelift with the dashboard from the updated UK-market Marina, known as the Mk. II. The Marina lasted until 1978 in Canada, when it was unceremoniously discontinued. The Marina sold slightly better in Canada, mostly due to our quickly waning affinity for British cars. British cars had been the import of choice in Canada up until the 1970s, with Hillmans and Sunbeams and Vauxhalls and Cortinas dotting Canadian driveways for many years, providing a smaller, more sensible alternative to the big cars being made in Ontario.
However, by the early 1970s, British cars had begun to attract an unwanted reputation in Canada. This was not actually mainly driven by British Leyland’s low quality output, but instead was driven by mostly a single car. The Firenza.
There’s a great article about it !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! that’s sadly now only available on the Internet Archive. In a nutshell, the Canadian-market Firenzas had a knack for spontaneous combustion, and were plagued by other reliability and quality control issues. Firenza owners got so mad they drove their cars to Ottawa and demanded Prime Minister Trudeau (the elder) do something about their shitboxes. This led to the creation of class-action lawsuits in Canada, and despite several marketing campaigns to turn around the Firenza story and paint it as a reliable car, Firenza sales plummeted, and British imports went into a decline that they would never recover from.
By the turn of the decade, the only “normal” (i.e. not a luxury, offroad, or sports car) British import really left was the Mini, which had received a rather ungainly rubber bumpered facelift that was only seen in Canada to comply with new safety regulations. In 1980 though, the Mini was officially killed off in Canada, meaning if you wanted a British car you had to shell out for a Jag or a Land Rover, barring the Mini-based Innocentis that were imported to plug the hole the Mini left for a few years.
ClassicDatsunDebate
> not for canada - australian in disguise
04/18/2020 at 19:21 |
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My neighbours growing up had a baby blue Marina. It was almost my first car. I had visions of a Escort MkII in my 16yo brain. Thank god I dodged that bullet.
Jim Spanfeller
> not for canada - australian in disguise
04/18/2020 at 19:24 |
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Is it weird that I now want one? Even if only for the s ake of LS-swapping it?
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not for canada - australian in disguise
> Jim Spanfeller
04/18/2020 at 19:46 |
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Yes.
ranwhenparked
> Jim Spanfeller
04/18/2020 at 19:50 |
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They weren’t really terrible cars to the extent Top Gear made them out to be, just really mediocre and average or slightly below average in every way.
Warmed over 1940s Minor platform with an inoffensive, but blandly derivative early ‘70s body. BL religiously benchmarked it against the MKII Ford Cortina, and on paper, it was a decent match, but by the time the Marina actually went on sale, the MKIII Cortina was out and had moved the game a full generation ahead. BL didn't have the funds to keep up and the Marina just fell further and further behind as it stayed in production way too long.
pip bip - choose Corrour
> not for canada - australian in disguise
04/18/2020 at 20:56 |
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mmmm.........Marina!
needs the Leyland 6-cylinder motor though.
oldmxer
> not for canada - australian in disguise
04/19/2020 at 14:05 |
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my father in law bought a Marina when they first came out in the US, all in all he had better luck with his than some of the other things available back then, better than my 87 Hyundai for sure