Blackjack for sale

[Big Al]

Reliants remain the only affordable car from the "bubblecar" era,and even then prices have doubled from what i used to pay a few years ago,and as such have their own following,unless you have thousands in the bank and like to trailer things everywhere,micro ownership is beyond reach of the majority of those like myself interested in them

The Mini killed off the bubbles,the Reliant catered for those that hadnt got a car licence after they had gone.im quite pleased however that the Reliant outlived the mini by a few months

Sadly this has come to pass in the main save a few odd forgotten areas of machinery. I do like the fact that for years the Mini sold at a loss in real terms. Easy then to effect the competing vehicles in the market. So would it have been so successful at a correctly marketed value? I doubt any of the MIcrocars would have survived but Reliant's story might have been different!

[richard]

yes i remember watching a documentary on the 25 or 30 year celebration of the mini and they had never made money . no-one had ever even costed the mini they just produced a car to sell at a price to finish off the bubbles and it never occurred to them apparently that they were selling below cost for decades ! i wonder why we have no large scale car industry left ?

[Big Al]

Don't get me started on the Mini and its alleged ground breaking design from hero Issigonis, he of Morris Minor fame where it had to be cut in half and have a bit added so it could be sat in by the production engineers and didn't fall over on corners! The Mini had no new ideas but assembled a set of existing ideas in a package. This was then marginalised by costs and production constraints and the designer failed to understand its motor sport potential amongst other crass and obstinate decisions, even insisting on having hydroelastic suspension fitted, which was so crap on such a short car that it was removed by anyone who wanted to get cracking and by the factory after a while. The thing was a manufacturing muck up and outsold in its prime by many and varied other small cars. The 1100/1300 was actually arguably the better car out of the idea and made money! By accident the Mini was really good for Motor Sport but only by dint of going through Special Tuning at Abingdon and links with independents like Arden Engineering where much of the car was altered away from interference from the powers that be. Even the success of the Cooper was not realised as the management begrudged paying him some £2 for the use of his name and they eventually throttled the ST inspired Cooper S by putting crap bits all over it. What a bunch of idiots!
See also Maxi, failed world beater 5 door car before they were everywhere. The first of what is the standard modern car layout now. See Allegro, worse than the car it replaced! etc etc. It all happened just down the road and the entire area was economically tied to Swindon, Cowley and Abingdon at the time. The picked over carcass is Honda, BMW Mini and several trading estates, girt warehouses staffed by 18 people and a computer plus areas of unused land/derelict buildings with 'development potential'. The manufacturing jobs still have not all been replaced.

[Bob Purton]

In the late seventies myself and two other guys started a car breaking concern where we stripped down cars , cleaned the parts and sold them off the shelf in a little shop at North Ockendon. If I can say one thing for the BL cars, they were all driven in for breaking, all the Fords had to be towed in. As a result of Lucas electrics and SU carbs the motors proved to be reliable, most got broken due to rotted subframes.