Undesirable specs

[Bianconeri]

Do you remember when it was launched there was a cheapo spec black bumper Rover 600. On a similar theme the tin bumper Rover Metro Quest. Rover knew how to do mean spirited in those days.

 

 

 

Mrs BN had a Metro 1.1C for exactly 6 months back 1991/1992 (whenever the J prefix was). I used it to drive to work a few times. It was the very epitome of baseness even for the time, no rear wash wipe, no intermittent or 'flick' wipe, no central locking, wind your own windows, no radio (not even speakers or an aerial).

 

The saving grace was that Mrs BN won it in a competition and it came with 6 months road tax. I think we got £5k in part-exchange against something or other.

 

Funnily enough I'd rather like a Rover Metro now but I remember I hated the thing at the time.

[Felly Magic]

The Lada Samara in 1100 form could barely pull it's self out of bed, and spec was nothing, all you got was a 5 speed box, and a rear wiper, it wasn't that much cheaper than the 1300 either. The mk2 Fiesta Popular, all you got was a heater, no headrests, no rear wiper, HRW optional, fuck knows why it existed

[AMC Rebel]

I always thought my 1979 Polo L was fairly basic.  It did have intermittent wipe HRW and even rear wash/wipe which was pretty posh by the standards of the day, but you had to go up the range (or presumably pay extra as an option) to get a passenger sun visor. 

[timolloyd]

At the other end of the spectrum, special edition Range Rovers from people like Holland and Holland, are, in my opinion, undesirable. All the boot space lost to a teak gun rack and drinks cabinet, or bodykit that consumes all the ground clearance.

[JimH]

I've been wracking my brain (instead of working) for examples at the right hand side of the table at the back of the brochure. I might be on thin ice with this one around here but...

 

 

Short of stabbing anyone who walked into the showroom it's difficult to know how the Cavalier could be made less desireable.

[Tamworthbay]

Undesirable specs you say.........

[twosmoke300]

My land rover . 90 2.5 petrol with no power steering !

[martc]

... no intermittent or 'flick' wipe...

 

 ...was fairly basic.  It did have intermittent wipe.... 

 

The current Mrs Martc has a base 10 reg Hyundai i10 - it doesn't have an intermittent wiper but it does have air conditioning (broken). Must be the result of a consumer survey.

[Shep Shepherd]

I've been wracking my brain (instead of working) for examples at the right hand side of the table at the back of the brochure. I might be on thin ice with this one around here but...

 

 

Short of stabbing anyone who walked into the showroom it's difficult to know how the Cavalier could be made less desireable.

 

I thought that the Calibre was some sort of dubious dealer 'special edition' based on the SRi 130 when I first saw one, not an official factory job. Not a fan, despite really liking the mark 2 Cavalier. I bet that the bodykit did a great job of hiding the rust for a few years, though.

[AMC Rebel]

The current Mrs Martc has a base 10 reg Hyundai i10 - it doesn't have an intermittent wiper but it does have air conditioning (broken). Must be the result of a consumer survey.

 

In Seoul

[martc]

In Seoul

 

Or Kuwait City.

[Austin-Rover]

The base 820E was the 8 valve which nobody wanted.

 

820 - 8v O-Series carburettor

820e - 16v M-Series single point injection

820i - 16v M-Series multi point injection

[Austin-Rover]

The 820 8v Fastback is an odd one really; It looked pretty much like all the other Fastbacks in the range apart from the Vitesse, so you weren't really marked out as being shit on by the fleet manager at first glance. Most of the obvious differences were on the inside; No wood on the doors, different door cards in the front to incorporate manual adjust wing mirrors, a simpler style of velour on the seats and a basic radio/cassette.

[ChinaTom]

I recall the thrill of knowing I could use a pool car in my first ever proper job, and hearing that the cars were belonging to senior managers who were on holiday or something. Couldn’t wait for the Saab, or Granada, but my heart sank when I was handed the keys to mr Hogg’s car. Bay hall Carlton 1.8l. I have never sat in such a large empty blank-ridden vehicle. I took my Nissan Pulsar instead and claimed petrol money.

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[ChinaTom]

For bay hall, read vauxhall and know I am using an American iPhone

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[ProgRocker]

My old 1990 Fiat Tempra 1.4 'standard' or 'base' or 'poverty spec' or whatever... Just as expected from a boggo family saloon I s'pose. Lack of power steering and the 'letter box' rear screen make parking the lumbering thing seem like an olympic event.

 

What got me wondering was the instrument guages. An analogue clock in place of a rev counter. But move up to the 1.6 'standard' with an extra 8 (count 'em!) bhp and you got the rev counter in place of the clock. Was it really worth Fiat making an instrument cluster with the clock? Why not just offer the Tempra with rev counters throughout the range? The 1.6 SX I think was the next one up (in the 1990-92 Tempra range) where it got all sci fi with the digital display (my then estranged - now ex-brother in law had one of those and very nice it was too).

Edited December 6, 2018 by ProgRocker

[Guest Hooli]

 Carlton 1.8l

 

I had a Carlton 2.0i for a while & that was underpowered, the 1.8 must have been horrible & they even offered in the estate!

[bub2006]

Unsure if I've mentioned it but I recall my dad having a burgundy D reg Granada hatch. 1.8 L trim. Windy windows and naff all else. Oh and his Carlton diesel. A plate 2.3 base trim in brown. 60 odd bhp and I'll always remember it having 2 batteries under the bonnet and a bonnet bulge.

[Dead_E23]

My eponymous 7 series has Michelin TRX tyres, which come on metric sized rims.  Were I to completely lose my mind and buy a set, they would cost me £340 a corner.    I'd call that undesirable.  

 

Obviously, were I to return the car to the road I'd treat it to a set of wheels from Ebay with a mixture of Stomil and Nankang ditchfinders.  Period mod! 

[RoadworkUK]

The 820 8v Fastback is an odd one really; It looked pretty much like all the other Fastbacks in the range apart from the Vitesse, so you weren't really marked out as being shit on by the fleet manager at first glance. Most of the obvious differences were on the inside; No wood on the doors, different door cards in the front to incorporate manual adjust wing mirrors, a simpler style of velour on the seats and a basic radio/cassette.

 

Ah, not quite. The 820, 820e and 820i all had the same interior, with the same manual mirrors, non-ribbed velour and wood on the dash only. Also, because there were no window controls in the doors, the door panels were thinner and didn't allow the front speakers to have such substantial magnets.

 

820se and 820si gained leccy windahs at the back (with all the switches in a single door-panel module instead of in the centre console), all-round timber, better velour and separate treble and bass controls instead of a 'tone' control.

 

Externally, the 820 base was the only fastback that didn't have a deeper chin spoiler.

[GeordieInExile]

3 pages in and no mention of this yet?

1983 Ford Sierra 1.6 Base by Adam Floyd, on Flickr

Surely that's as undesirable as they come (except round here) with the grey grille announcing its bASeness to the world.

 

Going back to Rover briefly, wasn't there an 820 with the carb-fed O-series out of the Montego, made to get the 800 under a certain tax threshold or something? That must have been a bit grim.

What I love about that grille is that given it was only produced for base spec it probably cost as much per unit to produce (factoring in design and development costs) as the non base version.

 

Car makers used to do this stuff on purpose though didn't they? Make the povvo spec ones look and feel grim so you would spend an extra £500 to get an extra £100 worth of kit.

[chaseracer]

Ford used to try cheering up base Sierras calling them Laser or Quartz.

 

That worked well*.

[chaseracer]

Chasseur? Bloody funny thing to do, naming a car after a chicken.

 

Austin Marengo...?

[Vince70]

I remember an uncle buying his first new car which was a mingebag spec 1989 Nissan Bluebird called a premium and it was anything but and I think it was the equivalent of the base model Sierra and it came with a 1.6 engine when I think the majority had a 1.8 and seemed to be only available in white.

 

This isn’t his as I just found the picture but I remember it being identical.

 

Also I knew a lad who had a 1.3 base mk5 cortina and that was quite grim and another friend bought a 1.3 Sierra and paid a hefty price for it just because it was red with a white stripe as he was arsenal mad.

[Eddie Honda]

My sister had a 1984 Mini Mayfair with a dire 3-speed auto. It was miserable.

 

Considering the AP autobox on these is meant to be 4-speed (and ever since 1965 when the A-series auto was introduced), I would suggest it was fucked if it only had 3.

[PhilA]

What got me wondering was the instrument guages. An analogue clock in place of a rev counter. But move up to the 1.6 'standard' with an extra 8 (count 'em!) bhp and you got the rev counter in place of the clock. Was it really worth Fiat making an instrument cluster with the clock? Why not just offer the Tempra with rev counters throughout the range? The 1.6 SX I think was the next one up (in the 1990-92 Tempra range) where it got all sci fi with the digital display (my then estranged - now ex-brother in law had one of those and very nice it was too).

That's always struck me as a strange thing- if you delete the clock, technically a tacho is a considerably simpler and cheaper to produce instrument than a clock...

 

Phil

[Sir Snipes]

I've been wracking my brain (instead of working) for examples at the right hand side of the table at the back of the brochure. I might be on thin ice with this one around here but...

 

 

Short of stabbing anyone who walked into the showroom it's difficult to know how the Cavalier could be made less desireable.

Great looking car, but only if it's the real thing. I don't want to see Calibre kits on rag-tops etc.

[sierraman]

Those fake cosworth kits used to look Ok on 5 door Sierras.

[JimH]

That's always struck me as a strange thing- if you delete the clock, technically a tacho is a considerably simpler and cheaper to produce instrument than a clock...

 

Things have got even sillier these days. Because so many bits and bobs are hard wired into a car's control systems they are difficult or impossible to delete so you end up with the poverty spec version with cruise control, ABS and air con. At the same time you have to do something to differentiate the models so they still treat the front fog lamp and some paint on the door handles as a luxury item.

 

Many years ago Jack Dee asked

 

 

Why do hotel owners still think fruit juice is a luxury?

 

Car manuafacturers seem to be in a similar position.

[Formula Autos]

A good few years ago I experienced first hand how difficult base spec can make selling a car. Especially a "premium" one, as this one was.

 

A neighbour in the cul-de-sac where I lived was trying to sell his F reg black 2 door E30 BMW 316i. His half-arsed attempts st selling it extended no further than telling anyone he met that he was selling it, and putting a for sale sign in the rear side window (on the drivers' side, so rarely seen by pedestrians either). Which meant the sign was only really seen outside his house, in the works car park, and at the petrol station. He didn't go anywhere else much. I thought this was why he'd struggled to sell it. So I low balled him, and got it for a good price. He was happy to let it go as it was an on-cost taxing and insuring it, and he preferred his short commute to work on the motorbike he'd bought to replace it. He did tell me though that anyone who came to look at it commented on how basic it was.

 

It had no front headrests, an ancient Pye radio robbed out of his previous Cavalier, keep fit windows, and was a bit grubby. There were daft (but easily fixable) issues like number plates that needed renewed as well. Plus (and perhaps most crucial of all?) it had the 316i badge on the boot lid.

 

A quick spruce up job from the scrappy, where I got a set of bottle top alloys, a pair of matching headrests, and a Blaupunkt radio cassette from a 5 series they had in made it look instantly better. Though I forgot to buy the plastic bits with holes in that also had to replace the blanking plugs currently in the top of the seats. So I had to go back to that scrappy again, and they stung me for these bits. Plus a bit of scrapyard raiding when I took it on holiday to Scotland yielded another black boot lid (a de-badged one at that) with a small colour coded spoiler, some front fogs, and a couple of genuine OEM speakers for the rear.

 

I also got lucky in that scrappy and found an M Sport gearknob in a crashed 6 series, that screwed right on in seconds.

 

With all that on it, a good clean up, some plush carpet mats, and a decent advert in Autotrader it sold no bother for a tidy profit.

 

It drove exactly the same as it ever did, but now it looked like it could have been a 325i or something. I mentioned all the extras I'd fitted in the advert, and got plenty of interest.

 

The neighbour I bought it off even considered buying it back off me, given how smart it looked. Though he knew what I'd paid him, so offered me less than others did.

 

So from base spec in looks to top spec, and no bother selling it once that was done.

 

Mind you, this was in '99. Those looking to impress their neighbours now would just go and get a brand new 325i on PCP or something.