The worst car in the world? The Allegro (ADO67) was legendarily designed around four 6 foot+ Welsh Guardsmen, (who had, presumably, removed their bearskins for the exercise). It was designed by the acclaimed Sir Alec Issigonis of Mini fame. Does the 'flying pig' really deserve the infamy it was accorded as a new car?
Positives:-
It was a revolutionary design that had dared to be different.
It used existing proven,
reasonably reliable BL engines. The cars were generally fast enough.
In 1973 the car was introduced with
Hydragas suspension, an evolution of the
Hydrolastic system used in the ADO16 which remained in use for nearly 30 years.
This new suspension system provided a comfortable ride and road-holding / handling was also pretty good.
It continued with the Mini & the ADO16's use of front-wheel-drive at a time when most manufacturers still favoured rear-wheel-drive, this imparted positive handling characteristics and provided some additional space in the rear & boot.
For the time it was well equipped, comfortable enough and spacious enough.
Negatives:-
As with most major motor manufacturers during that era, BL was plagued with industrial disputes / strikes & quality control issues.
The s1 introduced the extremely unpopular Quartic steering wheel which was phased out by the s2, (these are now sought after).
The 'SS' model was universally panned for disappointing performance.
The revolutionary styling was the main bone of contention, many disliked the shape and it was compared to 'a bun'.
Cars fitted with the E-series engines had a gear change described at best as 'vague'.
Colours. Well the 70's was the decade that good taste bypassed, BL treated us to delights such as bile vomit green, baby diarrhoea beige, dog turd brown, cyanosed lips purple, etc. with interior colour schemes that were equally hideous. Seats were initially vinyl and, in later cars, velour which was prone to sagging.
Disinformation:-
The s1 cars were the worst and most issues had been addressed by the time the s2 was released. There was a lot of misinformation circulating about the Allegro that was untrue or based upon incidents that had quickly been addressed, e.g.
It wasn't strong. In the early days there were reports of rear screens popping out when the car was jacked up, this was traced to a handful of incidents where cars had been lifted by trolley jack using parts of the bodywork not intended for jacking. The monocoque was actually more rigid than most of its contemporaries, (as proven by structural rigidity scoring).
It was mechanically unreliable. This was the 70's - reliability issues were all part and parcel of owning a car at that time but it was no more unreliable or mechanically frail than its rivals. There were a handful of very early incidents where wheels fell off. Wheels falling off a car really isn't a terribly good thing but this was quickly traced back to over-tightening of wheel bearings on the production line resulting in their premature failure, (they were being incorrectly torqued to AD016 specifications), production changes were quickly introduced to prevent this re-occurring.
It rusted. Again this was the 70's all cars rotted, and generally quite quickly, but the rust-proofing on the Allegro was actually pretty good and gave the bodywork a few more years of life over most of its rivals.
At the end of the day this misinformation all stacked up to cause permanent harm to the reputation of the Allegro and this in turn damaged BL's reputation.
Press influence:-
The motoring press took against the car and a lot of negative material was unfairly and needlessly published about it.
In spite of all the horror stories the sales were very strong for quite a few years, it was 5th best-selling car in the UK for quite a while.
Paul Hughes' concept before design compromises were made;
Reality;
Interior with infamous Quartic steering wheel;
Quartic by
Brian Farrington, on Flickr
Equipe (1 of only 3 left on the road);
1 by
Jon Bennett, on Flickr
Estate (with Vanden Plas 1500 in background);
My Dad had one, it served as family transport for 3 or 4 years, regularly doing long distance holidays with 3 kids and a dog in the back with a bootful of luggage. It never missed a beat. I eventually owned it. I found it quite chuckable, it wasn't high maintenance. The original engine was re-built in tuned form and it was then a very quick car.
The Allegro is a 'Marmite car' you either love it or you hate it which, I feel, is mainly down to the body styling. I think it had 'cute' appeal in much the same way the Morris Minor had, anyway it seems that 642,350 people liked the styling enough to buy a new Allegro. It wasn't an exciting or incredibly technologically advanced car, it was built down to the price that Joe Average wanted to pay, but it was a perfectly competent car for the era. Does it deserve the terrible reputation attached to it? I strongly believe that it does not but it certainly was a big nail in the coffin of an ailing BL at that time.
All-Aggro or All-Win? I think when viewed through the prism of 4 decades of automotive history it cannot be considered the abject failure that many critics have made it out to be. It is undeniably deliciously retro and if you find a decent example of an early car in one of the particularly vile colours I think it could be considered a quintessential 70's motor car. They are now sought after, the rare estate & Equipe versions are cult, as is the once reviled Quartic steering wheel.
Of the 642,350 built, only 251 currently remain on the road in the UK, (not including SORN'd cars), which tranlates as 0.04%.
If it wasn't for that meddling Ford, BL might have gotten away with it !
.jpg)
.jpg)
.
.
