CC Cohort Nathan Williams shot this Marina somewhere on the streets in the UK. It’s one of those cars I’ve pretty much given up ever finding on the streets in the US. Maybe there’s one or two that show up at British car shows, but as far as a genuine CC, forget it.
And it’s not just me; nobody else here at CC has found one either. Our man in the UK Roger Carr did a CC on the Marina, but his examples were all found at car shows.
The Marina’s disappearance in the US was remarkably swift. I don’t know how many were sold during its ill-fated three year run here (1973-1975), but they seemed to all evaporate within a remarkably short time, along with the Plymouth Cricket. The two British Phantoms.
According to Wikipedia, the US accused BL of dumping the Marina in the US (selling it below cost). I’m not sure what exactly that was based on or who initiated that. It certainly wasn’t the Big 3, as they were infinitely more worried about the Japanese invasion at the time. The Marina was not on anyone’s radar, especially the buying public’s. It was an unmitigated flop here. And it, along with the Austin America (Austin 1300), became the butt of endless jokes about BL. The Marina is the poster child of everything that went wrong with BL, especially so in America.
No wonder there’s none left here. But wherever this is in the UK, there’s this Marina. A true survivor, if ever there was one.
Well, there’s one in Sydney….
The last road going example I have seen was all the way back in 2009. It was a true driver with over 280k+ miles on it. He also owned the high mileage Sunbeam featured here as well – https://www.curbsideclassic.com/curbside-classics-european/curbside-classic-1970-sunbeam-arrow-with-stereotype-defying-325000-miles/
I suspect it is long gone now as it was getting a little rusty.
I have seen a handful more recently long term parked outside rural residences as well as a few car show examples.
I will take my camera with me shopping tomorrow in case the CC effect kicks in (though don’t get your hopes up).
I do own a couple of Marinas, but one’s Airfix in 1:32 scale and the other Oxford Diecast in 1:76.
Survivor Marinas are remarkably common in NZ, Ive posted a few to the cohort over the years and the continue to come out of the woodwork vans and utes are getting scarce though collectors tend to swoop on them these days the 262 models are very hard to find though a guy I talked to who had one said he found it hard to sell, nobody wanted it I suspect he wanted too much money I mean a Marina with a factory straight six up front whats not to like other than interesting road manners and iffy Aussie build quality.
Wow! I thought my Canadian ’73 did extraordinarily well to be on the road still in ’88! Mind you it did spend the first 7 years of its life in a no-road-salt province.
That car was dreadful in many ways, but I still don’t hate the appearance.
That reminds me, I saw a Marina Convertible parked on the street in Chichester, West Sussex last September. Unfortunately, I did not have a camera with me. Looked like some sort of custom coach built car….kind of awkward looking like most non-factory converts.
There is a 1976 Morris Marina convertible for sale on carsandclassic website.
Built by Crayfords for the Mumfords motor group in Plymouth Devon in the UK.
I always thought as though the Marina should have been better than it actually was. For the time, it was not bad, but cars such as the Datsun 120Y ate the Pommy’s lunch. It got to the point where even if BL went ahead and built great cars, no one would want anything to do with them out of association. That leaves cars like this Marina equivalent to cold steak-and-kidney pie. Then again, I might actually like that!
I’m sure Jeremy Clarkson and his cohorts have a piano hovering over it, as we speak.
What a waste of a piano that would be ! Marinas don’t belong on this website – they are the antithesis of a classic.
Sadly the last line of their advert. says it all, “Amazing? Not from British Leyland!” Full disclosure, I have a MGA in a thousand pieces sitting in my garage.
Such a shame, it was an attractive little car. But I watched a 69 Cortina fall apart with typical American use, and everyone says they were pretty good. I can only imagine how a Marina would have stood up for my scoutmaster.
There’s at least one drivable Marina in the U.S., and it was featured in Hemmings Sports and Exotics. It was a 1975 Marina GT with (at the time) 192,000 miles on it.
Quite a find. The one I saw in the Uk on the raod was this example https://www.curbsideclassic.com/blog/curbside-outtake-1972-morris-marina-1800-coupe-super-bl-had-deadly-sins-too/.
The last one on the road was in New Zealand 2 years ago. There are around 300 on the road in the UK and 400 or so laid up or off road. There are more entries on Amazon Books for the Morris Minor. Go figure…..
Old parked cars found one
http://www.oldparkedcars.com/2012/05/1975-austin-marina-sedan-18.html
Deathly dull and poorly built. I’d rather hunt for a surviving Austin America, which showed BMC/BL could make a modern, characterful small car. Although their build wasn’t great, either.
They wedged a six in the Marina down here. I hear it was a mess but then again we were shoving sizes in everything, like the Cortina and the Chrysler Centura (180).
William, have you ever stopped by this labor of love website? http://www.austinamericausa.com/ beyond his keeping some of these babies in motion , his posted correspondence with Dr. Alex Moulton regarding the innovative suspension and how to keep it working without much stateside support is worth the price of admission. beyond that, his technical advice section boggles the mind. A US(!!!) enthusiast for an abandoned marque seems to have singlehandedly solved and provided details on correcting many of the vehicle’s engineering shortcomings. organized by category. All, seemingly without owning your own automotive manufacturing factory. Automatic transmission in the sump got you down? here is how to correct the flaws…
Try http://www.aronline.co.uk as well. An excellent place to spend a winter evening, almost better than the pub!
This is one of those cars that if I really wanted one (not at all likely) I would try to find an ultra rare 2 door model.
When you read about many of the cars from BL you inevitably hear… and it used X just like in model Z. Which has recently led me to believe that BL didn’t so much design cars as continually rearrange a small group of parts into different configurations.
They weren’t bad, assuming you got one that was put together properly in the first place. They were still a common sight in the U.K. well into the ‘90s, rock bottom value making them not worth fixing is what saw most of them off. Yes, the handling was crap and the gearboxes fragile, but as a basic no nonsense car, they were easy to own. Everything was basic and easily fixable. 1.3s were underpowered but economical, the larger 1.7 and 1.8 were pretty quick. There was even a 2.0 version of the later Ital. Personally I don’t think it was any worse than the Mk1/2 ford escort that everyone seems to rave over these days, another example of bare bones rock bottom motoring.
This one looks like it’s been through the wars, but it’s still going strong. The last one I saw was on a visit to the UK in 2006 in Portsmouth. It was a purple 1973/74 model driven by an old lady in factory fresh condition.
I owned an Ital [ a re named Marina] Estate – wasn’t that bad. Always started, had a good heater…
Haven’t seen one in California for years, perhaps decades. My uncalibrated CC counter tells me that for every ten old Minis I see, there are perhaps three Morris Minors, two Hillman Minx or Huskies, one Austin America and zero Marinas (or Plymouth Crickets, for that matter).
Great photo – looks like it could have been taken when the Marina was 7 years old – if you ignore the “Mercedes” Citan.
Also – LOL at “race proven engine”. I wonder if Jaguar were boasting when the last XK engined car was rolling off the line “We won Le Mans with this in 1956 you know!”.
I’ve never knowingly seen one of these.
Even living in import crazy Los Angeles back then, same here, never noticed one.
According to the article I mentioned in Hemmings Sports and Exotics, 23,000 Marinas were sold here from 1973-75. They also state that it had lever action shocks on the front. The car featured in the article is a white coupe with a gold GT stripe, and is registered in South Carolina.
Anyone here remember the British TV sitcom “Keeping Up Appearances?”
The character Onslow drove a beat-up 1978 Ford Cortina that always backfired whenever it was stopped or getting a rolling stsart. He also owned a derelict, non-running Hillman Avenger (Plymouth Cricket) that sat in the front yard of his house.
I have countless childhood memories of backfiring Cortinas, Avengers and Marinas, often held together with obvious fibreglass and filler, and often failing to proceed on snowy streets.
The guy who played Mr Bucket in “Keeping up Appearances” kicked the bouquet a few days ago.
RIP actor Clive Swift (1936 – 2019)! I used to love watching “Keeping Up Appearances” on the local PBS channel. They’re still hilarious, even if I’ve seen probably all of them.
And yes, Daisy’s and Onslow’s Avenger-on-blocks in the front yard always cracked me up. I always wondered what was the year it last ran, either fictionally or actually.
I’m sending a link to this article to my sister and brother in law. He owned one from new. It got old very quickly.
I didn’t realize these were only sold for three years in the U.S. – sales continued through 1978 in Canada. I suspect they were relatively more popular here. They weren’t uncommon in their day, but they were all gone pretty quickly. The later ones were marketed as “Marina Mark II”, but I’m not sure what warranted the change. I guess it has the distinction of being the last low-priced British saloon on the market, as Ford and Vauhxall were gone after 1973.
One just sold recently on BaT, last lived in Portland, Oregon: https://bringatrailer.com/listing/1975-austin-marina/
It appears some of them are still around. Their owners do appear to appreciate them: https://www.instagram.com/explore/tags/austinmarina/
What a find.
I always thought the frontal styling looked a lot like a that of a Datsun 210 from the mid-’70s. I don’t remember ever having seen a Marina in the U.S., though I do remember seeing a gutted one in mid-’80s Monrovia, Liberia. It struck me at the time to look like too modern a car to be in such condition already.
Modern and Marina in one sentence…..you are a true wordsmith Sir!
For the record, this is 1976 1.3 litre version, officially Marina Mk2
I used to own one. A 74 2door ‘GT’. Transmission failure, so it was replaced by a German Ford 4spd (not it wasn’t exactly a direct swap, took some bell housing machining).
A friend of mine had a Marina, must have been back in the early 1980s. It was the Marina 2 version but, typically for a first car, it was a bit of a heap, but only about 10 or less years’ old at the time (R reg, I think which would be 1976/7). I remember the doors were all rusted just above the lower edges, creating visible slots. I termed them ‘recessed running boards’. He replaced it with a Chrysler Horizon.
Oh, and none turned up today, though I did take the camera. Sorry.
Someone who lived with me one summer in 1978 had one of these, usually parked out in front, though I never learned who it was. What I do remember is that 13 year old me confused “Austin Marina” with “Aston Martin” (!)
It’s rare to see any car from the 70s on the road here (a medium sized town west of London) but I’ve seen an M reg Marina on the road in the town a couple of times this year. It was in everyday condition, not a show queen, and going about ordinary daily duties. Didn’t want to be seen photographing it as the driver was in it both times – out with his wife shopping.
Car and Driver said at the time that the only Marina that was a good buy was the kind with boats.
Strange the Austin Marina is said to be so rare. Here in Ontario Canada in a tiny village 200 klms north of Toronto last year i found 2 cars less than 8 klms apart. One a 1975 4 door almost perfect condition 1800cc. Then a 1974 2door GT 1800cc not perfect but runs beautiful.