Leyland P76 - I coulda been a Contender

[old man emu]

 

Good idea. Bad Management.

 

 

[spacesailor]

I thought they were great, but out of my price range at the time, & ho so tiny inside.

AND 30 MPG for a light-foot.

spacesailor

[red750]

I heard them referred to as P38's - half a car. But I also heard they could fit a 44gal drum in the boot.

[onetrack]

Even when they were new, we laughed at the people silly enough to buy them. Not surprisingly, the majority of the buyers seemed to be ex-pat Poms.

[spacesailor]

People have changed their tune, now worth Big money, like the Ford hemi.

spacesailor

[Jerry_Atrick]

They seem to be going for around the $9K mark: https://usedcars.mitula.com.au/leyland-p76

 

Although there is a higher spec Targa Florio (even the name sucks - sounds like some form of foreign toothpaste) for sale at around $12K: https://car-from-uk.com/sale.php?id=293027

 

There was a coupe apparently which looks not bad: https://www.whichcar.com.au/features/leyland-force-7v-flashback

 

Only 8 survived, with 60 odd going to the curesher apparently. I would guess they are worth more than $12K; one went to Auction in 2019, but I can't find any pricing: https://classiccarcuration.co.uk/rare-leyland-force-7v-coupe-goes-under-the-hammer/

 

I liked to the look of the P76s. We knew someone who owned one...  He ended up moving to Canada. I was too young to know too much about cars, but I hope it wasn;t because of the P76.

 

$9K may seem a lot - hard to tell what condition they are in though.

 

You can get some ratty XB Falcons or HQ Kingswoods for about the same price, but a decent example will set you back twice as much, and a real good one will set you back a whole lot more: https://www.carsales.com.au/cars/ford/falcon/xb-series/ There is also a ute which is only 18K, but looks in average condition.

 

Ho idea how much Valiants go for.

 

 

 

[nomadpete]

The force 7 was a more interesting car. When Leyland Australia closed its doors ( at least the P 76 and Force7 were an Australian cars), the Force 7's sold for peanuts. At the time I wanted one, but didn't know what to do with it because they had not yet been crash tested, and therefore could not be registered to drive on N.S.W. roads. The body design was thought to have been copied for the last real Rover. Remember that large four door hatch back cars were not the fashion back then so the Force7 was considered radical. If only Leyland had got their QC under control, we'd still have an Australian car maker.

[Bruce Tuncks]

I had one and it was the best car I ever had. 600,000 k in total with no serious problems, although it got a new engine at 300,000 just because I got a good deal on a new engine, and not because the old engine was giving trouble. It got a new radiator about the same time, and I learned not to use just water in a car radiator.

Mine was the small 6 and it had leather bucket seats in the front and was very spacious. It cost $2400 brand new.

But alas it became unfashionable and the wife made me sell it. I got $900 for it and last year Romano, who runs a car restoration shop, nearly wept at my foolishness for selling a P76. It was better by far than  the Audi and the Volvo that workmates I knew well drove.

[Jerry_Atrick]

 

45 minutes ago, nomadpete said:

If only Leyland had got their QC under control, we'd still have an Australian car maker.

Yes.. it is sad, but not limited to Leyland. In the 70s and 80s, it appears UK manufacturing went through this negative renaissance or something where they kept on making mistakes. The local aerospace industry here is still fuming at the government for meddling with it, virtually giving away its secrets or makeing decisions to the detriment of its performance, etc. Apparently, there was a degree of government ownership in the aerospace and the car industry.

 

From all of those prestigious car British card brands, few are still in British ownership.

 

There is no significant general consumer car brand that is British owned. MG was the last, but John Townsend, the VC who bought it,virtually pillaged it. It is now owned by SAIC - a Chinese company. Mini is BMW.. as is Bentley I think. Jaguar is owned by Tata, after being taken over by Ford. Vaxhall was GM but is now Peugot-Citroen.

 

The UK does retain - or bought back ownership of its high-end cars...

 

Aston-Martin - hardly a general consumer brand - was brought back into British ownership through a provate buyout by some Billionaire.

 

McLaren - held by mainly UK shareholders...

 

Noble has, however, been taken over by the Chinese. As does appear to have Lotus...

 

Many of the above had poor QA for a long time, or simply failed to keep up with the market through under investment - something that appears to have ast the P76 to its fate before the production line even started rolling.

 

@Bruce Tuncks - Glad to hear you got great service out of your P76...  I can sympathise re the wife - the amount of money that my partner (and previous finacee) cost me with cars or lost opportunities with cars would have purchased me a tidy PA28 or similar...

 

 

 

[red750]

Interesting you mention Aston Martin. Just saw a news item on Sunrise sport that Aston Martin are returning to Formula 1.

[old man emu]

Will British manufacturing arise phoenix-like from the cauldron of Brexit? 

[Bruce Tuncks]

I reckon british manufacturing was ruined by their class-ridden society. For example, the plight of the poor mechanic was not considered. Apparently you can change the engine in a ME109 in about a quarter of the time of the same job in a spitfire. The Sigma glider is another example...  there was too big a gulf between the designer and the workers.

The australian company which went broke with the Wembly stadium contract did so because the tendered amount  did not allow for class divisions which make the workers hate the toffs.

My son-on-law once worked on a project in england and he slowed down a lot when he realized that his hard work might get him the sack.

[Yenn]

The Aston Martin is definitely a car to aspire to. When I was in the army our barracks backed on to the Aston Martin factory. We used to see them running around their small test track. Then a Roller would drive in. The big boss had arrived.

Aston Martin took over Lagonda which was another good pommie car.

Back in the fifties I reckon you could drive a different make of British car every week for a year.

Who owns Morgan now? The last british car I drove there was a hire car, a Vauxhall and it was so bad that I tell the hire companies nowadays that i will not accept a Vauxhall, but one of the best was a Skoda I hired and everyone used to like to rubbish Skoda.

[red750]

About 10 years ago I hired a Skoda from the airport at Coolangatta, for a week's holiday on the Gold Coast. Loved it.

 

[spacesailor]

Does it still have the " umbrella " gearshift coming out of the dash ?.

My mother loved them !.

spacesailor

 

[onetrack]

Skodas are only a glorified Volkswagen today and they are most common taxi in Europe. But every Skoda taxi you get into in Europe, has parts falling off the interior, everywhere.

A woman friend bought a new petrol Skoda, the engine blew up at 30,000kms, and she would be the easiest owner of vehicles you could get.

She reckoned there was always something wrong with it when it went in for servicing, and it was costing her a fortune - so she sold it, and bought a Hyundai i30, and is happy as a pig in mud, now.

Edited January 3, 2021 by onetrack

[red750]

On another trip to the Gold Coast (my wife's sister lives at Mermaid Beach), we hired an I30. Wasn't bad, but I thought the road noise sounded like it was running on off-road tyres.