The Good Old Days...

[The Reverend Bluejeans]

When cars were more reliable. Well, they were if they came from Japan or West Germany. Most cars were just rubbish it seems.12-18 months and 17k in. Ford, BLMC, Rootes Chrysler or Vauxhall stuff was just abysmal. The 1800 was going rusty at under 2 years old. Today’s consumer doesn’t know he was born!

[The Reverend Bluejeans]

[The Reverend Bluejeans]

[Hooli]

Ahh cars with all the traditional values we expect from those companies.

[treehugger]

Exactly. Old cars are only good for the track or car shows.
(Runs and hides)

[mercrocker]

They were shocking, overall.....Inspection seemed to have been non-existent! I was at primary school when one of the teachers from a nearby school was friends with my parents. He bought an HA Viva and being a very savvy, self-aware type he rejected it on quality grounds. Took him a couple of months but he got all his money back and bought a second-hand Mk1 Cortina, reasoning that at least it would have been "shaken down" a bit.

The Viva was rusting along the rear wing top seams - from delivery. The P6 my grandfather bought in 1967 was superbly presented - the 1971 model shat itself twice and presented a litany of niggling problems. It nearly killed him, mentally, and he ran cash-in-hand to the nearest Datsun dealer for a 160B Bluebird. Mind you, even that had lacquer peel starting and a loose piece of interior trim that he never quite stopped vibrating. I can remember his Farina rusting along the tail-fins quite badly before he put the car in for the first P6 - it can only have been 6 years old.

It wasn't just British cars by any means - when I started work and entered the docks every day I was mildly amused to see rafts of Renault 12s,15s and 17s literally rim-deep in saltwater marsh storage pounds yet still wearing their wax "protection" before being literally thrashed around the dock roads to "clear" them before being smashed up transporter ramps almost flat out in first gear. I used to smile thinking of some proud old giffer gently "running in" his shiny 12TL......I won't even go into the tales I got told by my mate who worked in the rectification shop.

[The Reverend Bluejeans]

Datsuns were the cheapest of the Japs but still 100 times better than that sorry BL stuff. You needed a Toyota to get the best quality.

Rover and Triumph quality went down the shitter well before the SD1 and TR7 arrived. Ditto Rootes when Chrysler took over. BMC were never very good.

[mercrocker]

Story goes that when George Harriman was Chairman of BMC he ordered the BMC numberplate to be removed from his company VdP as he apparently kept getting harangued by angry customers about the shit they had bought.....

[The Reverend Bluejeans]

The most reliable car with an average of three faults per car was the Citroen GS. They are a bastard to work on but not much went wrong with them.

[mercrocker]

A GSA was the newest thing I've ever owned. 1981 model bought in 1984, I put it through its first MoT. It passed but during the subsequent 12 months I owned it the tailgate had rotted to the extent that the entire rear handle trim was flexing from the rest of the steel, it split its oil cooler, the passenger door window dropped into the door (a small 10p plastic bracket on the lifter had failed) and the clutch cable failed. Actually, that last bit isn't true - the cable would have lived another 5 years or more but the retaining bracket at the engine bay end had rotted from its mount....

The top of the rear seat had also started to decompose from UV damage as I recall. Not a great deal of faults I suppose but I wasn't overly impressed and went back to GM mediocrity by part-exing it against a Chevette of similar vintage. I have to say, though, that the Citroen was actually one of the best cars I've owned from the point of view of being A Car. Great handling, superb ride, excellent economy (5 speed version), useful (I got a vintage Gent's wardrobe and an oak dining table in it on seperate occasions) and in my opinion good looking too. Shame about the build quality - it just felt tinny.