You can keep your British crap. 1974 programme about FORIEN cars, contains Renault 16's.

[The Reverend Bluejeans]

 

Yeah. Who would have bought a Mini 850 rather than a Renault 5?

[mercrocker]

The bloke walking behind at 6:11, probably....

[lisbon_road]

Fab.  I could not resist running some of the numbers through the DVLA.  Looks like mostly scrapped mid 80s, except the Datsuns which didn't last long enough to get on the database and are long forgotten. 

 

Thanks Mercrocker that made my day!

[Split_Pin]

Very interesting! I am surprised that they missed an important point with the Datsun though, in that they were much better equipped than other cars for the same price.

[MiniMort]

Well if it’s isnt Tony Bleeding Bastable

[BavarianRetro]

You have to remember that in the 70s a lot of people buying cars could still remember the war and wouldn't buy anything unless it was British.

 

There was definitely anti German and anti Japanese feelings.

 

We'd only just joined the Common Market and Britons were accustomed to buying British, no matter how much better the foreign competition was.

[artdjones]

Very interesting! I am surprised that they missed an important point with the Datsun though, in that they were much better equipped than other cars for the same price.

Yes,as I mentioned on DantheCapriman's thread,Ford were charging £60 for a 2 band AM radio,the equivalent of £690 today.All the Japanese makers threw one in .

[AndyW201]

Two young looking future Top Gear presenters there as well! Im always on the look out on YT for more of these snippets of drive-in coming on. I just wish they'd upload full episodes...

[Timewaster]

Anyone spot the wonky bumper on the Golf?

 

And what a presentation technique that bloke had.

 

Walking away from the camera while obviously reading off a clipboard?!

[lisbon_road]

@ BavarianRetro, I was always amazed that my great uncle who was a Lancaster pilot always bought VW cars.  All his life, and especially later on, they weren't that great: I once had to spend ages on the phone trying to get a Golf exchanged after it had had so much wrong with it.

 

He started out with Beetles, which in fairness probably were much more reliable that contemporary British cars.  Not quieter though.

[Tadhg Tiogar]

Anyone spot the wonky bumper on the Golf?....

Quality control.

[quicksilver]

@ BavarianRetro, I was always amazed that my great uncle who was a Lancaster pilot always bought VW cars.  All his life, and especially later on, they weren't that great: I once had to spend ages on the phone trying to get a Golf exchanged after it had had so much wrong with it.

 

He started out with Beetles, which in fairness probably were much more reliable that contemporary British cars.  Not quieter though.

I'm still astonished that my late grandad had a Beetle. He was a Polish refugee who survived the war in concentration camps and suffered unspeakable horrors, so to go out and buy a car created by the very people responsible for his abuse astounds me. He had Fords before and after the Beetle though - an Anglia and a Fiesta.

[srad34]

 

Yeah. Who would have bought a Mini 850 rather than a Renault 5?

Never mind that, who noticed Orinoco browsing the Datsun Cherry in the background?

[John F]

Back in the 1980s there was NO WAY I'd have bought a standard British car... yes, the Astons and E Types were all very good, but they weren't achievable for a lad on £100 per week. The Austins, Morrises and Hillmans of the era still absolutely reeked of post-war austerity, gloom and failure by comparison with the sharp new lines and lavish equipment of the European and Japanese competition.

 

Our motor industry didn't die, it was put out of its - and our - misery.

 

In fact, if it had a grave I'd piss on it

[Magnificent Rustbucket]

 

Yeah. Who would have bought a Mini 850 rather than a Renault 5?

 

 

Wow - Maserati Khamsin at the start.

 

Is that an AMC Hornet at 34 seconds?

 

I did see Orinoco!