British Leyland

**Motu** · 23rd April 2016, 18:43

In 1980/81 I was working for a Fiat/Mazda agent - there was no comparison. The Mazdas were stodgy rear wheel drive, single overhead cam and boring as hell. There was the rotary, a bit weird, but nothing special. The Fiats were exciting stuff - belt driven overhead cam, some twin cam, weber carbs, some with a couple of side draughts, 4 wheel disc brakes, some were front wheel drive. The Fiats were Italian, they were made to be driven by lunatics, and I slotted into that mindset. We had Mazda 808's, 626's and 929's - who would want to buy that crap?

**dangerous** · 23rd April 2016, 19:00

Originally Posted by Motu

In 1980/81 I was working for a Fiat/Mazda agent - there was no comparison. The Mazdas were stodgy rear wheel drive, single overhead cam and boring as hell. There was the rotary, a bit weird, but nothing special. The Fiats were exciting stuff - belt driven overhead cam, some twin cam, weber carbs, some with a couple of side draughts, 4 wheel disc brakes, some were front wheel drive. The Fiats were Italian, they were made to be driven by lunatics, and I slotted into that mindset. We had Mazda 808's, 626's and 929's - who would want to buy that crap?

dont doubt that for a second... awesome few mates had em back in the day but man were they rust buckets...

**Motu** · 23rd April 2016, 21:50

Then the Jap cars got scab rust. My mother wanted to get out of her Mini, so I was looking for a car for her, I wanted to get her a Fiat 128. Was looking at a 4 year old Corolla DX, put my hand up behind the bumper and it just went right through the rear panel, totally gone, rotten. Got her a nice Starlet that never rusted while she had it. I wrote a 4 year old Subaru off the road for rust, there were no bottoms in all 4 doors, pillars and sills were rotten. People just love to rubbish British cars and say good the Jap cars were, but really, in the real world, they big pieces of shit too.

**yevjenko** · 23rd April 2016, 21:58

You think the japs used to rust here... We salt our roads in the winter in the UK. You could almost watch the early 70's jap stuff dissolve in front of your eyes come winter time

**Grumph** · 24th April 2016, 12:00

Originally Posted by Motu

Then the Jap cars got scab rust. My mother wanted to get out of her Mini, so I was looking for a car for her, I wanted to get her a Fiat 128. Was looking at a 4 year old Corolla DX, put my hand up behind the bumper and it just went right through the rear panel, totally gone, rotten. Got her a nice Starlet that never rusted while she had it. I wrote a 4 year old Subaru off the road for rust, there were no bottoms in all 4 doors, pillars and sills were rotten. People just love to rubbish British cars and say good the Jap cars were, but really, in the real world, they big pieces of shit too.

Wasn't there a whole batch of Toyotas - mainly DX Corollas - that made the news for faulty rustproofing ?

I was working with a DX owner at the time and he copped a lot of stick over that - a fair amount of which i was responsible for....

**Ocean1** · 24th April 2016, 16:19

Originally Posted by Grumph

Wasn't there a whole batch of Toyotas - mainly DX Corollas - that made the news for faulty rustproofing ?

I was working with a DX owner at the time and he copped a lot of stick over that - a fair amount of which i was responsible for....

Aye, the father had one as a work car for a while. Completely unfixable.

Truly appalling fuck up, but to be fair it proved the kick up the arse that made Toyotas bloody good value for the next 30 years.

**scumdog** · 24th April 2016, 17:13

Originally Posted by Motu

In 1980/81 I was working for a Fiat/Mazda agent - there was no comparison. The Mazdas were stodgy rear wheel drive, single overhead cam and boring as hell. There was the rotary, a bit weird, but nothing special. The Fiats were exciting stuff - belt driven overhead cam, some twin cam, weber carbs, some with a couple of side draughts, 4 wheel disc brakes, some were front wheel drive. The Fiats were Italian, they were made to be driven by lunatics, and I slotted into that mindset. We had Mazda 808's, 626's and 929's - who would want to buy that crap?

Our 'newest' car is a '88 626 - a GLX mind, nothing to be sneered at.

Got it last year, only had 72,000km from new.

**Stylo** · 24th April 2016, 18:48

I must have just missed the BL period but my mate has a series 2 XJ6 which , by now of course has had it's build problems etc all sorted ex BL assembled in Nelson? Last English made car I had was a Vauxhall Ventora series 1, 3.3 motor 4 speed manual, no overdrive on that model but I remember doing 100mph with two surf-boards on the roof, 3 of my mates on board and 2 crates of beer in the boot, heading to Mt Maunganui .....

**pete376403** · 24th April 2016, 18:56

Previous employer had a fleet of Datsun 180B company cars. They were always at the panel shop for rust remediation. I recall there was an investigation at the time by a TV current affairs program into why the jap cars (not just 180Bs) were rusting out after such a short time. The response from Japan was that they didn't see it as a problem, as the cars were old (3 -4 years) anyway and due for scrapping anyway.

And this is a long way from British Leyland, sorry.

**Motu** · 24th April 2016, 19:23

Someone posted a Mazda 929 in here - I think we've all agreed they were crap. Let normal transmission resume.

**eldog** · 24th April 2016, 21:42

Originally Posted by scumdog

Our 'newest' car is a '88 626 - a GLX mind, nothing to be sneered at.

Got it last year, only had 72,000km from new.

You got colour TV down your way yet?

or is that Alexandra that doesn't have it?

I have a BL inline 4 cylinder diesel at work, it's an olde girl and I like the way it easily starts and runs not much above idle. At least I think it's a BL.

Saw a similar one but older at the Putaruru Timber Museum the other week, the guy at the front office was surprised I was interested but stated it has just stopped working, yeah right it had just stopped.

**dangerous** · 25th April 2016, 10:10

Again way off BMC topic but heres a classic for ya... kids 6th birthday party yesterday and kids were being droped off... the last one I heard comming from 2km away, sounded like a irikoy chopper, was fair motering hauls the anchors over board swings up the drive... thud thud thud all 10,300cc of it... in one pot, kid jumps off and asks were the party is...

LANZ Bulldog

**Grumph** · 25th April 2016, 12:56

Originally Posted by dangerous

Again way off BMC topic but heres a classic for ya... kids 6th birthday party yesterday and kids were being droped off... the last one I heard comming from 2km away, sounded like a irikoy chopper, was fair motering hauls the anchors over board swings up the drive... thud thud thud all 10,300cc of it... in one pot, kid jumps off and asks were the party is...

LANZ Bulldog

So that's what the moving quake was. I figured if it stopped with a bang I'd go and look...

Used to be a hell of a lot of Nuffield tractors in this area.