Business Cars (before everything was a TDi)

[Guest]

Just scanned in my favourite page from the Ford 1985 "CARS" brochure. Bit speckly because it has been printed on really rubbish paper on tiny A5 sheets.

 

 

I like a good "business car". And if I were a high-mileage driver, I would embrace the luxury of velour carpet too. Just think how spoilt people are nowadays. I love the idea of some tight-wad fleet manager specifying a load of base/L-spec Fords for people to run around in.

 

Also note the GRANADA DIESEL TAXI! Lovely. Anyone else got any fleet stuff? I'd love to see the promotional stuff for the Sierra/Cavalier 1.8 "rep specials" in particular.

[Mr H Sceptre]

This sold on E-gay recently for 3 notes.

 

[j-j]

Were these the sort of cars that you got a 'tax break' on if you used it for business? In Scandinavia they have a really specific set of rules for it like the car (nomatter what shape it is) must have no rear passenger seats and the rear doors must be welded shut (or something to that effect)I think they also must wear different number plates with a green background.Ditto on that Granada! that's awesome - actually looks a bit sinister!

[warren t claim]

Do Mercedes still offer a Taxi spec model?

[r.welfare]

My dad's mate had a Sierra estate with the "Business Pack". It meant you got the 2-litre engine with L spec (something you couldn't do otherwise), and heavy-duty rear springs.Company cars in the 80's were GR8 4 FLEET MGRS, my dad would be told every 3 years a new Sierra 1.6L was waiting for him in the works car park - there was a choice of about 20 in either white, red or blue. All bought outright from the local Ford dealer. Then they fell out with the fleet manager, leading to a mass switch to Cavaliers.Later on, in the early 90's, they decided to lease from Swan National - cue a 20-page printout in 6pt type of any car you liked. Bonkers.I'd have loved to have been a fleet manager.Pretty sure M-B still do taxi-spec cars in Deutschland - in that fetching beige.Do Ireland still do the 3-door-car-with-no-rear-windows-or-seats thing? When I went over last in about 2003 there were a load of Citroen Xsara coupes so equipped, looked really odd.

[Guest]

Fatha Wat's company car list gets more and more bizarre every year.Last time he could have the choice of an Audi A6, a BMW 5 something.....or a Honda S2000. Not sure what was happening there.

[Guest]

I would be an exceptionally cruel fleet manager and have the cars de-specced at the dealer to create special "sub-base" models. It'd just be subtle things - get rid of intermittent wipe, blank off a few buttons, that sort of thing.

[RedSparrow]

Found this

 

 

Wish the image was bigger though!

[Mr Lobster]

The '80's Ford 'Cars' brochures were great weren't they. I have a couple kicking about somewhere. Renault built a 'business' variant of some models - Super5s had no rear seats but carpeted rear load area, different dashboard and bare steel wheels. Obviously I'd love one.Will see if I can get our scanner going tomorrow and do a bit.

[seth]

[Guest]

I can feel a BAFTA award winning drama in this one. We could call it 'Hirst On Mars', a - not - entirely decent fusion of 'Ashes To Ashes' and 'The Office'."In 2010, disgruntled office worker Dan Hirst is crushed by a runaway Chrysler 180 and wakes up in the coma world of Wakefield, 1983. With his hindsight and several badly constructed instances of pathetic fallacy, he soon has the whole of Kirklees Borough at his feet. He is guarded day and night by his elite team of Hyundai cab drivers - 'THE SONATA SQUAD'. Dan buys Daihatsu's entire stock of Charmant parts and hoards them in a nuclear bunker powered by the remains of a Rover 620, a strange and mysterious taxi from Hirst's future past. Hirst's plans to form a Yorkshire republic to fight the premium car hoard are then scuttled by the arrival of Vic Smith "Rob" Vic Smith. Are his intentions benign? Can Dan fight to save our Autoshite future?"(118 mins, Metrocolor, not available in Scotland Or Borders).

[warren t claim]

I think the Police spec Granadas were just taxi spec but with a Cologne instead of a dizzler. Ford SVO dept used to make any Ford in any spec for the big fleet buyers. Stripped out sierra estates in yellow for the BT fleet etc.

[Tayne]

.

[Mr H Sceptre]

It will probably be a straight to video release. Betamax, of course...

[Spottedlaurel]

My Grandad (who had very little interest in cars) was a Transport Manager, for Marconi (RIP) in Chelmsford in the early-mid 1980s. I'm not sure if it was a promotion, or just something for him to do in the last few years before his retirement. I remember they had a lot of Avenger estates. He had an Astra Mk1 1600 estate himself.He very kindly used to bring brochures home for a young SL, so I do have a few fleet items in my collection. I'll try and have a dig around soon.

[Father Ted]

Dont knock Betamax, I still use a Sony Beta Hi-Fi SL-HFR70. It rocks for editing camcorder tapes then they transferred to DVD.I think Gene Hunt was driving the Vauxhall that knocked down Sam Tyler in episode one.Do the Irish still get a tax break on vans with seats in the back (ie cars with no rear windows?)

[Guest]

It will probably be a straight to video release. Betamax, of course...

Laserdisc all the way mate.

[Pillock]

I had a Ford SVO brochure.... must have been from about '85 or '86, covered the Transit bodyshapes and all the options you could get, and then had loads of examples of what you could spec up if you ordered in enough bulk. RAC wagons and the like.By the time my ma got a company car in 1988, the standard practise was to just let you choose a car, tell the fleet manager what it was, and they'd buy it for you. Only exclusions were anything they couldn't get insured on, which was mainly cabrios and supercars.Trouble is, if you walk into a dealer and tell them you won't be buying anything yourself, you get FOOK ALL assistance. Test drive? Nope. Brochure? No way. In fact get the hell out of the showroom and make room for actual customers. As such she went through loads of Vauxhall Astras, since the fleet guy at the dealer was fairly friendly and didn't mind that he wouldn't make a penny out of letting her poke around the showroom.

[AnthonyG]

Fleet cars in the 1960s and 1970s were really basic, all rubber mats and cardboard door trims. A friend gave me a brochure for a (new for 72) povvo spec Avenger, with 1250cc of power, cross plys and vinyl everything, it must have been fairly grim.If you had to pay extra for a heater in a Cortina 'Deluxe' in 1963 imagine how basic the 'Fleet' or 'Standard' model was!Going back further, in the 30s thorugh to the 50s, a 'business coupe' (2 dr sedan) from Ford, Chevrolet or Plymouth would have no rear seat, for more space for salesman's samples or whatever.I like police specials - good engine and suspension, fleet special exterior and interior.

[seth]

If you had to pay extra for a heater in a Cortina 'Deluxe' in 1963 imagine how basic the 'Fleet' or 'Standard' model was!

I thought the term "deluxe" was always used on the povo ones to make you feel more special.

[Richard]

I think Deluxe was the povo spec for private buyers but fleet buyers could go lower.

[dollywobbler]

Yup. Fleet was the lowest of the low. Stuff like pre-Farina Cambridges still stuck with the 1200cc engine and vinyl seats. Hillman Minx too, with less brightwork. I always thought Deluxe was a slight step above absolute bottom. Not sure where Hillman's 'Gay Look' fitted in. Surely that should make a comeback as a model designation!

[seth]

Not sure where Hillman's 'Gay Look' fitted in.