austin 1100 or morris 1000?

[saucedoctor]

ADO16 for me. I'm with Lord Nuffield on the Minor - "That damned poached egg designed by that damned foreigner."

[Des]

I've done both, I'd say for serious use the 1100 is a far better option, for casual use and tinkering it's the 1000. The bouncy ride of the 1100 is a bit love or hate, the self levelling lacks Citroens refinement. The Moggy is grtwelfty for drifting, you wont want to, but they do it regardless, so when you stuff a dead brass in the boot pick a big fat one.

To boil it down, would you rather open the bonnet or the boot when you have to twat the knackery old electric fuel pump back into life every few days?

[warninglight]

Can't really claim the 1100 to be British designed! Issigonis still did most of the underside, and Pininfarina did the top!

 

I'd have the 1100 any time, having dailied one for 3 of the nearly 7 years I've had it. They're not that delicate, in my experience will comprehensively out-corner and out-run the equivalent Minor in all conditions. And hipsters don't like them...

 

If you must have the simplicity of a Minor, get an A40 Farina!

[oman5]

I like both, but for the parts availability the minor would just get my vote. can you still even get displacers for 1100s? for maxis,princesses and allegros they are getting hard to come by.

Maybe favouring the minor is because of the residual memory I have of countless 1100s being given away free in the '80s due to advanced subframe rot, but then again I can also remember plenty of minors sat at the roadside with collapsed front suspension.

I know, buy one of each. happy days.

[warninglight]

I've never come across an ado16 with a blown displacer, they're tremendously strong. The flexi hose out of them can burst (happened on my dad's Kestrel 1300) and can balloon (noticed and pre-emptively sorted on my 1100mk1) but it's simple enough to get new hydraulic hoses swaged on.

 

Overall you're less likely to have to do suspension work on a 'lastic car (providing the rear radius arm bearings aren't goosed) than on a Minor or similar...

[dollywobbler]

Hillman Minx (or even Super Minx) is a really good shout. I've got quite an urge for one at the moment. Very solid motors, if not exactly speedy.

 

HA Vivas are fun too, but super rot friendly.

[Grundig]

The 1100 gets my vote,  cos I hate that exhaust rasp the minors have on the overrun

[DaveAspley]

Mmm a HA Viva could be very nice, had chevettes in the early noughties which aren't too dissimilar but have "scene tax" silly now. Basically it would be my daily drive covering 200 miles a week which I've done in all sorts of 70's and 80's stuff over the last 14 years, and I long for mechanical simplicity to put the fun back into swinging spanners.

[Squire_Dawson]

The comment about Minor wheels falling off reminds me, there are about a dozen points to grease on the Minor, some needing it every 500 miles. Not every owner of these cars is a tinkerer, so it's something to bear in mind.

 

1100 would only have grease nipples on the front hub swivels (4 in total), every 1000 miles.

 

Going round with the grease-gun has always been my most despised job.

[mrbenn]

Morris Minor. Partly for the simplicity, partly cos I'm biased.

[oman5]

I've never come across an ado16 with a blown displacer, they're tremendously strong. The flexi hose out of them can burst (happened on my dad's Kestrel 1300) and can balloon (noticed and pre-emptively sorted on my 1100mk1) but it's simple enough to get new hydraulic hoses swaged on.

 

Overall you're less likely to have to do suspension work on a 'lastic car (providing the rear radius arm bearings aren't goosed) than on a Minor or similar...

That's good to know. I may well track down an ado16 at some point, they've long been on my bucket list and I've already owned a minor.

[RichardMoss]

ADO16 for me, any day. Most of the ones left on the road will be pretty solid bodywise, I would expect, and mechanically they should be easy to look after

[Tetleysmooth]

I passed my RAF driving test in a Morris 1000Traveller.

 

But then I also owned an 1100. Lovely little motor.

 

Buy one of each.

[AnthonyG]

Another vote for the 1100, but make sure you're happy with the bus like driving position-I didn't mind it at all. I've driven both a 1100 and a mk1 Cortina and the 1100 was definitely better in terms of handling and ride.

Minors will be more expensive, but a lot easier to find and get bits for, I was offered a pretty good Mot'd 1965 2 dr three years ago for a bag of sand, if I'd had storage and a job at the time I would have had it no quibbles.

[mattblack]

I think because Minors are so familiar it's easy to forget it's a late 40's car, and there aren't many 40's cars you can buy in usable condition for a grand...

[Guest Breadvan72]

In 1966 I was taken, aged almost four, to Italy and back in an Austin 1100 that contained four adults, three boys aged almost five, almost four and just over two, with a big tent on the roof and luggage for all seven people.   My uncle was the sole driver as my dad could not drive at that time and neither my mum nor my aunt could drive.  Mental images of that holiday form my earliest clear memories

 

In 1969 my dad, having been taught to drive by the same uncle, bought a Morris Traveller, and on one occasion we went to Burnham on Crouch with two adults and thirteen children in the car.    He also drove it around Eire with no second gear, and on a provisional licence.  It only broke down once. 

 

My brother, a GP, now has a pristine Minor saloon, which is a hoot to drive.    I loves all these cars.

[anonymous user]

Try both and buy the best you can, of each.

 

My earliest memories of a Morris Traveller date from the early 1960s and are those of being stood on the back seat and falling into the luggage space when my aunt (who hadn't driven since the war) did a kangaroo start, I was about four at the time and it made a big impression (on my head).

 

The same aunt did not drive again until the 1970s (when my grandfather gave up driving) and would then only drive a succession of Austin/Morris 1100s (my grandfather's last car was a Morris 1100) so I also remember being driven by her through a pelican crossing on red, I pointed out that she should have stopped, but she said it was alright because she did not believe in those things.

 

I'm planning on a Minor Traveller as my retirement car, with proper care it should outlast me.

 

 

[Guest Breadvan72]

Anglia Auctions has a Minor coming up for bids this Saturday.