Last car produced with a starting handle

[chris1991]

What was the last production car that you could start by hand cranking? 

 

I'm thinking 2CV or were there any others later than this?

[Richard]

I think it must be the 2CV, as far as cars on general sale in the UK go anyway.

[Mr_Bo11ox]

Is there an aftermarket starting handle kit available for the Renault Laguna?

[RedSparrow]

Wasn't it Ladas or something similar?

[pshome]

My 77 Passat had one and i remember using it in the Sahara.

[Sigmund Fraud]

Early Nivas had a starting handle, not sure if the new ones still have it ?

[dollywobbler]

2CV last produced in July 1990, and came with a starting handle and a wooden chock for the wheels. IIRC, the Citroen GSA was the last car to be introduced that had a starting handle - launched in 1979. Always possible some Eastern Bloc shite had a starting handle though!

[Junkman]

What was the last production car that you could start by hand cranking? 

 

A car being delivered with a crank handle and one actually being able to hand crank it, is often mutually exclusive.

[dollywobbler]

A car being delivered with a crank handle and one actually being able to hand crank it, is often mutually exclusive.

 

A 2CV is easy to handle-start. An H van is much harder work! I have managed it though.

[jonny69]

What about UK cars? I only know my Fords: Ford Pop 103E up to 1959 (I think they made them until) had a handle and corresponding dog mesh on the crank pulley, 100E until 1959 had a hole but never came with a handle and I don't remember it having the dog on the crank pulley, Anglia 105E until 1968 also has a cranking hole but never came with a handle and deinitely has nothing on the crank pulley to mesh onto.

[Craig the Princess]

What about UK cars? I only know my Fords: Ford Pop 103E up to 1959 (I think they made them until) had a handle and corresponding dog mesh on the crank pulley, 100E until 1959 had a hole but never came with a handle and I don't remember it having the dog on the crank pulley, Anglia 105E until 1968 also has a cranking hole but never came with a handle and deinitely has nothing on the crank pulley to mesh onto.

 

My old A40 Farina from 1968 had a starting handle hole in the bumper, can't say I ever tried to use it and I don't think it came with the handle.

[Richard]

I think the Morris Minor had the facility right to the end. I can remember getting a lift from an old geezer with a late Morris Traveller and he wound it up to start it.

 

I'm sure the Hillman Imp had the facility for a starting handle, though they would never have supplied one unless you paid for it. Chrysler could have taught Project Drive a thing or two, I bet they seriously considered deleting the starter motor.

[HillmanImp]

I still have to hand crank every morning.

 

I start the car with a key though.

[KruJoe]

Olga, the 1996 Niva has a hole for the handle in both the bumper and front panel, and the machined bit on the front of the crank to take the sharp end.

Brand new Nivas look identical, so probably have the same. I think the jack handle is dual purpose.

[HillmanImp]

I'm sure the Hillman Imp had the facility for a starting handle

 

This is true. Seen it done at Imp Club National events.

[Richard]

If they had it till the end that must make them the latest British car, unless you count the S3 Land Rover as a car.

[twosmoke300]

Didn't the series 3 land rover have one? Sure they had the hole in the bumper anyway

[tooSavvy]

Didn't the series 3 land rover have one? Sure they had the hole in the bumper anyway

 

 

... newer than an imp?

 

tooSavvy

[Conrad D. Conelrad]

Here's an interesting photo of a Triumph Toledo with retro-fitted starting handle.

 

 

Rather neatly done, with the flip down numberplate and all. That Toledo had a later large crank 1300 engine, so however that's been added it wasn't possible to just rob a few bits from a Herald (they lost their starting handle before they got the large crank engine).

[Micrashed]

Not a Bedford Beagle HA Van. ERN 393E by Micrashed

This had a starting handle and was easy to start with it.

 

Austin 1300 VTC 263H by Micrashed

 

This had a starting handle and the one occasion where I did try it it broke my thumb.

[dollywobbler]

How did the starting handle work on the Austin 1100?!

[fordperv]

What about UK cars? I only know my Fords: Ford Pop 103E up to 1959 (I think they made them until) had a handle and corresponding dog mesh on the crank pulley, 100E until 1959 had a hole but never came with a handle and I don't remember it having the dog on the crank pulley, Anglia 105E until 1968 also has a cranking hole but never came with a handle and deinitely has nothing on the crank pulley to mesh onto.

 

 mk1 escorts until about 73 also had the hole to insert a crank handle on the front panel but iirc the handle was an optional extra

[HMC]

^^ that Toledo. I can imagine many an elderly motorist in the 70s eyeing cars without starting handles very suspiciously.

 

Had a rover p4 with a dodgy voltage regulator a few years back and was definitely the only car in tescos car park that was cranked by hand. Really useful, for a man clueless with auto electrics such as myself!

[Tayne]

Didn't the series 3 land rover have one? Sure they had the hole in the bumper anyway

 

Yes and so did the 90/110/130 range up until some point in the late 80s.

They either had a hole in the bumper or a little bodywork cut-out just above it.

 

Highly irrelevant though as whenever this 'what was the last car to have [insert outdated tech here]" thread comes up I'm usually told that the Land Rover isn't a car.

 

However, I will nominate pre-EFI Range Rovers, up to about 1986 or so.

 

[NorfolkNWeigh]

My old A40 Farina from 1968 had a starting handle hole in the bumper, can't say I ever tried to use it and I don't think it came with the handle.

My 65 A40 Countryman did,in fact for reasons I forget now, it would only start on the handle. This was highly amusing for onlookers when I was teaching my now wife to drive. Even in 1985 most people had only seen starting handles used in anger in old comedy films. But as the only other car I had was a bloody great 67 Impala,she even had to take her test in it,luckily she didn't stall and passed.

[mercrocker]

I had a 1980 R4 van with a handle clipped neatly onto an inner wing.    No bumper hole, no front panel hole and no dog... Maybe it  was just  for  throwing at  "le camion" who had just put Gaston in the ditch.   I wound my Minor for a large  part of the summer after getting hacked off with the third faulty starter  in a row, I tweaked the throttle stop setting just to be sure....

[Station]

Was reading a thing in Car magazine about 'you don't know how lucky you are' about features that were seen as common on cars years ago.

The early ones had knobs on the steering wheel to adjust the ignition timing! Never knew that.

[Asimo]

The early ones had knobs on the steering wheel to adjust the ignition timing! Never knew that.

That control was very important to remember when hand cranking. If you forgot to retard the ignition a backfire may result whipping the handle backwards in your hand and often causing nasty injury. Likewise kickstarting old motorcycles.

[gary_davidson]

when did they change the engine in the hindustan ambassador? I would guess at either that or there will be somebody in china making something that needs one.

[dollywobbler]

Was reading a thing in Car magazine about 'you don't know how lucky you are' about features that were seen as common on cars years ago.

The early ones had knobs on the steering wheel to adjust the ignition timing! Never knew that.

 

That was fairly common right into the 1930s. As if an Austin Seven isn't already difficult enough to drive, you have steering wheel (or hub really as they don't go around with the wheel) controls for the ignition advance and the throttle effectively, as you manually increase revs for cold starting. You really had to know what you were doing back then! These days, just a choke control is enough to baffle folk.