How Rare Is Your Classic Car?

[Quoi]

My 1980 Austin maxi automatic is going back on the road in the next few weeks- fingers crossed.
That will move it from SORN to licenced on the web site www.howmanyleft.co.uk/vehicle/austin_maxi_1750_auto. That makes it one of the last 2 known about.
Have you got something rare?

[EcclesCake]

I was astonished to read recently how rare Maxi's are, doesn't send a screaming endorsement for their build quality!

My father and father-in-law both had them, big comfy car as I recall.

We have an ancient Porsche 912, it's a shed but passes it's MOT every year so can't be too bad!

[aelmpvw]

i remember driving an austin maxi in the 70's and being a bit nonplussed about the 5th gear :-)

[Quoi]

I actually have two of them - the other isnt automatic.
I just liked it because of how 'nippy' it felt compared to my previous car - an asthmatic 1100 ford escort.
I took my first maxi on a trip to France in the 70's - changed the tyres before i set off but found out as I came off the ferry that I hadn't tightened the wheel nuts - oops.

[hc4361]

How ancient is your Porsche, Eccles? Cars registered before 1960 don't need an MOT

[Togo]

Were they not the motor with the gas suspension set up? Plus I remember you needed arms like a lumberjack to steer it when parking.

[Quoi]

Yes its the gas suspension - thats what kills them - the parts are hard to get when they leak.
Thats why the Austin Princess / ambassador has almost disappeared.
Dont remember the steering being that heavy.

[EcclesCake]

It's a 65, HC.

Hate the dog leg gear box, but somehow I cope. Apart from the time I put in reverse at traffic lights with a friend of my Husband behind me who dully reported back :-(

[FrillyPancake]

We have a pretty rare TVR Tuscan MK2 4.3. Was one of the last out of the Blackpool factory. It's in Reflex Charcoal. She's stunning :-)

[Quoi]

Hi Frilly - that is a beautiful car. Not as nice as the maxi though ;0)

[melv16]

The maxi was a very practical car. Massive boot, fold down seats and pretty nippy. However, the build quality was shocking and the gear shift was like a stick in a bucket of poo:-)

[Quoi]

Melv - you must be thinking of the early Maxi with the cable gearstick - It was pretty quickly improved but everybody cites it as a major flaw - it isnt.
The seats fold down into the size of a double bed! Its very comfortable actually.
The biggest problem I have with them is the gas struts that hold up the back door - most people carry a broomstick as a prop for it - including me.

[bhg481]

We had a Maxi automatic in the mid seventies - the most unreliable car we ever owned. Having had Minis and a Morris 1800, I expected the car to go round corners just like them - it didn't.
The classic was when the auto gearbox went wrong on a drive back from Lancs to Berks. It was still under dealer-warranty, so I took it in for repair. When it was ready we drove away and found it had only 2 gears - straight back to the garage. When it was ready again we went to collect it and the service manager said all was well this time as he'd checked it personally. This time only 3 gears, so back we went. "How many gears would you like?" asked the service manager. "All four would be nice".

[melv16]

I used to go camping in mine with my girlfriend. The large boot came in handy;-)

[Quoi]

I had one in the mid seventies as well bhg but it wasnt unreliable at all - just rust measles. The first versions were a pretty bad because of what was going on with leyland at the time but the Maxi 2 and the Allegro 3 were much better than their reputations.

[bhg481]

We swapped ours for a Morris 2200 after about 6 months - same engine, just 2 extra cylinders and a lot more go. Good old Borg-Warner auto box.

[mikey4444]

I am amazed that anything like a Maxi is still alive and kicking in 2017 !

[Khandro]

In a book I'm reading; 'The Island of Second Sight', set on Mallorca in the 1940's, there is a line which made me LOL, I thought I'd pass it on;

"As a marvellous compliment to his eccentric personality he owned a little Fiat in which everything was loose that was supposed to be tight, and everything that was supposed to move was stuck tight..."

:0)

[ToraToraTora]

that is rare, they famously had dodgy boxes, not many made it to 10 years old!

[KARL]

In the past I had two Maxis, both bought second hand - a friend had two successive ones also (someone borrowed one and pranged it). I thought they were phenomenally roomy (I once moved a 200litre chest freezer in mine) and people remarked how sitting in the back seat made it feel like a limo. Alas, both succumbed to rust, a common flaw in (I think) literally all BLMC vehicles of the era, together with for other makes (Fiat Mirafiori comes to mind). I can't recall when I last saw one, decades probably.

[Bazile]

I so like the name 'TVR Tuscan ' - weird I know .

Anyway , Austin Maxi - Weren't they as bad as the Rover Princess ? -:)