Is this our future?

When you look at the numbers produced, compared to those left on the road

I learned to drive on a 1.3 Morris Ital.
It was faeces brown (showroom description) - bet there's none left in that colour.

Personally I think that the only thing that will put our car in this position are future fuel costs, future emissions regs etc. rendering it extremely expensive to maintain in a roadworthy condition.

Hmmm - 15,000 sierras and probably most of those will be an Essex or cosworth.....

Could be our future, but coupe's were never common place when they were in production and most people wouldn't notice if they never saw one again - untill one screamed past them!

I'm not going to mourn the passing of the trash that passed for cars of the BL/Red Robbo era...

The Morris Ital was such and embarrassment to Giorgetto Giugiaro's ITAL design studio that they erased it from all their records or work... and rightly so.

Personally o miss the quartic steering wheel on the all agro.

Amen. I don't think I'd shed a tear if I learned that all of the pigs in that article had gone forever.

Except maybe the Mk3 Cortina - I still see one of those, in bright yellow, a couple of times a month and it's aged well, and looks properly classic now.

Chrysler/Talbot Sunbeam anybody? Not even on the list....
Haven't seen one for years - I learnt to drive in my dad's nearly 30 years ago and enjoyed the rear wheel drive and the fact you could thrash it everywhere flat out without drawing attention to yourself
The Lotus Sunbeam is at least a classic, so it obviously had some potential!

The Sunbeam was a great car - really a hatchbacked Avenger.

I remember that many of the cars I had of that era - Fiat 127, Sunbeam, Alpine, etc. that I'd get bits from at the breakers yard were in better condition than mine. I guess the first big garage bill that was more than the value of the car would be the last.

But really we're talking about undesirable cars. The Coupe is desirable in many respects, but doesn't appeal to a wider audience that has been brainwashed about reliability and rust.

My first car was an Allegro 1750 "sport" - it was epic in its ability to to do nothng well apart from rust at an alarming rate......and a square steering wheel? wtf???

Good riddance to bad rubbish, no redeeming feature whatsoever

It wasn't square Steve...It was Quartic !!
Look at this nonsense (if the link works)

Quartic nonsense

When I was a young grease monkey we were under instructions never to lift allegros on the two post ramps as they bent out of shape when lifted !!

I have a Round Britain Challenge feature that I should scan and post from Jalopy. The Agg Owners club decided to redo a promotional run that had happened at the car's launch. It was beset with mechanical issues and people retiring with backache etc. but I believe at least 2 of the cars completed it.

OMG That so called steering wheel is enormous! You could pilot an artic with that! What was the rack ratio to need one that big

Presumably a sales & marketing man's idea of a USP!
No wonder our main stream car industry disappeared

Jeremy Clarkson did a programme a few years ago called, "Who killed the British car industry" which is a generally light-hearted, but informative look at where it all went wrong.

Looks like it's available on YouTube, and I recommend watching it.

Yes watched that too, a spectacular own goal by the workforce. It's what goes wrong when mergers are not managed properly and descends into utter madness, crazy in-fighting and obstruction.

At BA retirement dinners there are still ex BOAC and BEA staff that will not even acknowledge each others presence

Dont fancy a nice Austin Princess, fat sister to the Allagro

We had a 1974 Mk3 Cortina in pale blue with a vinyl roof when i was little. 1300cc and it was the weakest engine i can ever remember. Can still remember the reg. My lasting memory is of the mushrooms that grew out of the carpet when we went on holiday and left it sitting on the drive for 2 weeks....
What about Fiat Mirafioris. We had one of those too, it rotted away as fast as it went - i loved the orange ones with the black trim

When I was a kid my dad drove me around in a brown Austin Allegro with the most vile interior that still haunts me today. He used it as runner for nearly three year and laughed at the fact that its colour masked the ever growing rust and shouldn't ever wash it because the main beam wouldn't disconnect!
Could of been worse I know but take into consideration he was selling cars off the driveway like triumph stags, Jags, mg's, lotus and BMW's etc. Real kick in the nuts looking at those motors walking out the house and then having to step in that shed.

Anyway I'm a newbie to coupe ownership and well happy with it so far. I have to confess I'm not and never was a true coupe convert busting to get my hands on one or had been hanging in there for the right model/colour to pop up for sale. I have to admit that I did see one at a set of lights a year before buying mine and remember making the comment to my friend that I thought it had stood the test of time in the looks department.
I always liked the car from day one but find it continues to grow on me as I spend more time with it. I always knew the coupe was a good looking car but its been the character and feel that gives me a smile.

These coupes do have an unknown future but it was a no brainer for me to buy one. You might find it hard to believe but from swapping a Ford diesel doing over 40 mpg and cheaper road tax my car expenses are actually very unexpected. I was spending roughly £300 per year for service/replacement parts on my Ford and only £100 per month on fuel. Now If I'm going anywhere under 3 mile I get on my push iron because I keep my coupe in the garage and its not worth the time getting it out. All those little trips on my bike drop my coupes fuel bill to same as my last car (except my 1st month when I couldn't stop myself from going for a spin). Its also worth mentioning that even though I'm paying £50 a year more road tax I'm paying £150 a year less for insurance. Then of course I have to talk depreciation which lets be honest isn't ever going to happen for someone who has purchased this year. So even though I spend much of my driving staring at somebody's eco badge slapped on all those new boots and bumpers I know I'm driving a no brainer. What's the average £25k euro box going to gain in value over the next ten years?

Some fond Agg memories. I never owned one but a friend had an Orange 1750 "S" with a black vinyl roof. In terms of raw power it put ours to shame, falling back an inch on the style stakes.
Anyway here's the Allegro Jalopy Round Britain Marathon to recapture what motoring is really all about.

I was an apprentice grease monkey when the 'All- agro' was launched.In addition to the constant stream of mechanical warranty claims, BL issued a couple of recall bulletins in the first year to overcome the chronic water leaks into the rear seat footwell and boot area.......

These consisted of a plan of the said areas, with the position and size of the holes to be drilled in the floor to let the water out....I kid you not

The first minis had a similar problem, quite apart from dying in the rain as the distributor got soaked.

Mine had a rubber glove over it with the leads coming out of the fingers.

That was a Cooper race special fix then Peter!

mini's you name it i did it with them .... battery box replacement ... scuttle .... same as the MOT.....front floor pan every other MOT same as the wrap round sill's .... heater cable ... every 6 month's ..... choke cable .... every 6 weeks .... not the cable but the clamp on the end..... top engine mount .... every time you opened the bonnet ..... the old front head lights ... the sealed units not the halogen ones bright as as super nova ..... its a plus ... ball joints.... not to bad same as the sills....... fun to drive ...... every day