Old cars that now look tremendous.

[evilC]

Old cars that now look tremendous.

Personally, I prefer its looks to the Karmann. But hand-formed aluminium? Yeah, that had to cost!

Anyway... I know it's not exactly tremendous - even Donald Trump probably wouldn't think so - but I saw one of these, below, in Aldershot at the weekend. In this colour and in surprisingly good nick, too. Mind you, given that they were praised a bit at the time, I'm almost more surprised that there's so few of them still on the roads.

-

[WOM]

Old cars that now look tremendous.

What is it? Honda Civic sedan?

[hobbes]

Old cars that now look tremendous.

It's a lego car taken from close up.

[Kevin S]

Old cars that now look tremendous.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Triumph_Acclaim

[Kevin S]

Old cars that now look tremendous.

A bit more on the story of that car's manufacture here:
http://classics.honestjohn.co.uk/reviews/triumph/acclaim/?section=history

[WOM]

Old cars that now look tremendous.

Ah. Is that related to that unholy Sterling mess that Honda and somebody did?

[evilC]

Old cars that now look tremendous.

WOM wrote: Ah. Is that related to that unholy Sterling mess that Honda and somebody did?

How very dare you!

http://www.wsc.co.uk/forum-index/28-world/893206-old-cars-that-now-look-tremendous?limit=20&start=120#961943

[Bored Of Education]

Old cars that now look tremendous.

It may be a different thread but the cult of the Honda Civic is something to behold. I know someone who only ever buys Honda Civics, kids nowadays love Honda Civics (albeit modern ones), my band relies on a Honda civic for transport.

[Kevin S]

Old cars that now look tremendous.

The tangent I've just been heading down is what happened to some of the old British marques. BMW and Ford were able to exercise a lot of control in what they kept, what they licensed (those Rovers produced in the 1990s like the 25, 45, 75 were branded by under license, for example) and what they sold to whom.

Mini:
Obviously BMW kept this one for themselves, but they are still developed and mostly built in the UK.

MG (and Austin and Morris):
The MG marque is owned by SAIC of China, and they do sell MG cars here (http://mg.co.uk). I think sales may be in the hundreds, though.

MG Motor operates the historic Longbridge plant. Currently the majority of MG vehicles sold in Europe are principally manufactured in China before being shipped to Longbridge as semi-knock-down kits for final assembly. There is also a major research and development facility at the Longbridge site which employs around 500 people.

Apparently SAIC therefore also owns the Austin marque, if they ever care to make use of it.

Nanjing announced it might use the Austin name on some of the revived MG Rover models, at least in the Chinese market. However, Nanjing is for the moment concentrating on reviving the MG brand. The MG brand is traditionally used for sports cars and Nanjing has no rights to the Rover name, so a revival of the Austin name would seem a logical brand for selling more standard cars. It might also be argued that a British name would be more respected in the European market than a Chinese name. Nanjing Automobile Group itself merged into SAIC Motor.

A new "Austin Motor Company Limited" was incorporated in July 2012 by Steve Morgan of Birmingham who also owns the last Mini to leave Longbridge, but was dissolved in 2014.

In 2015, the "Austin Motor Company" and the 1930s "Flying A" logo name and patents was purchased by John Stubbs in Braintree, Essex. The company intend to start manufacturing an all new Austin car in 2016.

I think that the Chinese company also owns the "Morris" marque.

Rover, Land Rover, Jaguar:
Ford bought the Rover brand off BMW for peanuts (£6 million) in 2006 and reunited it with Land Rover. They sold their three British marques (Land Rover, Jaguar and Rover) to Tata of India. Tata have been doing well out of two of those three, but they haven't taken advantage of owning the Rover marque itself yet. I wonder if they ever will - their operations are still largely UK based.

[Kevin S]

Old cars that now look tremendous.

But I don't know who owns the Triumph brand.

[WOM]

Old cars that now look tremendous.

evilC wrote:

Ah. Is that related to that unholy Sterling mess that Honda and somebody did?

How very dare you!

http://www.wsc.co.uk/forum-index/28-world/893206-old-cars-that-now-look-tremendous?limit=20&start=120#961943

Not terrible looking, for sure. But a quality-control nightmare, IIRC.

[Sits]

Old cars that now look tremendous.

Wolseley, Riley, Vanden Plas? There were a lot of old brands rolled into BLMC and its descendants.

[WOM]

Old cars that now look tremendous.

Bordeaux Education wrote: It may be a different thread but the cult of the Honda Civic is something to behold. I know someone who only ever buys Honda Civics, kids nowadays love Honda Civics (albeit modern ones), my band relies on a Honda civic for transport.

Heading into year 14 with our Honda, I totally get it. By and large, they're bulletproof. The dealership experience has been second to none. The resale (should you go that route) is high. And they're a joy to drive.

If someone told me I had to drive my next car for 20 years, I'd buy the new 2-door Civic Coupe with a manual transmission and have it rustproofed annually (this being Canada).

[Kevin S]

Old cars that now look tremendous.

Sits wrote: Wolseley, Riley, Vanden Plas? There were a lot of old brands rolled into BLMC and its descendants.

Leyland themselves seem to be doing ok these days, though all of their trucks carry the "DAF" branding.

Wiki reckons:

BMW have Riley and the Triumph marque for cars (Triumph motorcycles split off decades before BLMC, in 1939).

SAIC have Wolseley and Vanden Plas.

[Bored Of Education]

Old cars that now look tremendous.

WOM wrote:

It may be a different thread but the cult of the Honda Civic is something to behold. I know someone who only ever buys Honda Civics, kids nowadays love Honda Civics (albeit modern ones), my band relies on a Honda civic for transport.

Heading into year 14 with our Honda, I totally get it. By and large, they're bulletproof. The dealership experience has been second to none. The resale (should you go that route) is high. And they're a joy to drive.

If someone told me I had to drive my next car for 20 years, I'd buy the new 2-door Civic Coupe with a manual transmission and have it rustproofed annually (this being Canada).

Interesting. I might have a look if we decide to get a second car/car for the boy*

For a similar reason, I mentioned to the band guitarist that, if he wanted to get rid of his, I would make him an offer. He looked at me bemused as if he had never considered getting rid of it before.

*we won't.

[evilC]

Old cars that now look tremendous.

Kevchenko wrote: But I don't know who owns the Triumph brand.

Judging from the tagline in the fourth story down, it's BMW:

http://www.thenewtriumph.com/tag/rumors/

[evilC]

Old cars that now look tremendous.

I know these don't really belong here, as they're mostly prototypes, rather than production cars, but this page is so full of beautiful cars it just makes my heart sing:

A whole load of classic old prototypes I found while looking for pictures of the Vauxhall XVR.

[Bored Of Education]

Old cars that now look tremendous.

When did women stop being draped across cars to sell them?

[Sits]

Old cars that now look tremendous.

I've always said Toyotas go on forever. This gorgeous Crown was parked outside Dan Murphy's Liquor Superstore last night. Not sure the exact model year but it's at least fifty years old.

[WOM]

Old cars that now look tremendous.

Given the historical plate, I'd go with a '67. Perhaps even a Corona.

[Sits]

Old cars that now look tremendous.

OK, 49 years old then. But CRWN surely is Crown.

[Third rate Leszno]

Old cars that now look tremendous.

A bit of wiki'ing suggests it's a Crown MS40 - which from 1967 were assembled in Port Melbourne.

[WOM]

Old cars that now look tremendous.

Huh. Didn't know they had an actual Crown model. That rough shape would have been the Corona over here, which somehow morphed into Corolla.

[caja-dglh]

Old cars that now look tremendous.

There was a hint when he said it was a Crown.

[ursus arctos]

Old cars that now look tremendous.

The Crown is now Toyota's luxury flagship for the Japanese market.

You sometimes see them used as taxis in Tokyo.

They were exported to the US from the late 50s to the early 70s, but were never common in the East and only somewhat moreso in California.