This is British - Austin Allegro voted worst car in Britain

[Dragon]

One example of its poor construction was that it was more aerodynamic when travelling backwards than when it was being driven forwards.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/motoring/main.jhtml?xml=/motoring/2008/07/17/mnallegro117.xml

 

[UnMarked]

Great. 3 of my first cars were the Allegro, Ital and Princess. Speaks volumes that I now drive a Laguna .

I can remember losing control (ahem) of my Allegro on the A697 between Coldstream and Edinburgh in the early 80's; I was trying to negotiate a steady right-hand bend and instead I steadily proceeded into the bollards on my near-side. What fun it was to drive .

I also had a Marina.

 

[sweeney]

looked pretty good in the TV advert... almost a British General Lee !

( with Arthur Fowler as one of the Duke boys, now I see where the yanks nicked the idea from)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=73rKQXCRHeA

 

[verytalldave]

The Allegro was a massive leap backwards from the 1100/1300 it was "developed" from. Its quartic steering wheel was a standing joke at the time, however a few companies have since offered similar wheel designs. Quite recently as well.
Overall, it was a good design poorly - very poorly - constructed. Built with zero pride or care. No wonder few survive.

 

[Dragon]

The Allegro was a massive leap backwards from the 1100/1300 it was "developed" from. Its quartic steering wheel was a standing joke at the time, however a few companies have since offered similar wheel designs. Quite recently as well.
Overall, it was a good design poorly - very poorly - constructed. Built with zero pride or care. No wonder few survive.

Bought a Maestro in 1991, just for the lucky registration plate, dumped it thereafter.

 

[st13phil]

Great. 3 of my first cars were the Allegro, Ital and Princess. Speaks volumes that I now drive a Laguna .

<< snip >>

I also had a Marina.

My, you've owned some sh*te, haven't you?

 

[Ted]

I worked in a British Leyland garage at the time of the Allegro.
Outstanding moments were when one car came in for PDI with sports wheels on one side, and basic steels on the other.
Another came in with either (I cant remember exactly) two fuel gauges, or two temperature guages.

Ahh the allegro in russet brown. What a heap of sh*te.

 

[Shude]

I have attached a pic of my Father's Allegro after an accident a few years ago. I say a "few years" but the accident also involved a Marina and happened not long after watching an episode of Terahawks...

The closing speed of the collision was approx 120mph (almost head-on impact with a Defender) and the Allegro took out a couple of metres of dry-stone wall.

Both my Father and I basically walked away, I was sitting in the back harnessed by retro-fitted seatbelts so wasn't too bad but my Father hit his face on the steering wheel cutting open the area around the eye socket and breaking his nose.

The hardy little thing seemed to do a good job of protecting us but check out the driver's area, I have no idea how my Father survived that!

Please note the popular brown/brown colour scheme

 

[Satch]

Possibly more than you ever wanted to know about the Allaggro

http://www.aronline.co.uk/index.htm?ado67storyf.htm

 

[verytalldave]

The theory behind the use of that colour was that rust didnt show...........

Honest.

 

[Ted]

Sorry, I can't see what's wrong?
I've seen the come out of the factory with bigger panel gaps!

 

[Gollom]

Great. 3 of my first cars were the Allegro, Ital and Princess. Speaks volumes that I now drive a Laguna .

I can remember losing control (ahem) of my Allegro on the A697 between Coldstream and Edinburgh in the early 80's; I was trying to negotiate a steady right-hand bend and instead I steadily proceeded into the bollards on my near-side. What fun it was to drive .

I also had a Marina.

The wheel came off mine whilst driving up Windy Hill on the M62 Those trousers were never the same again

 

[pammy]

Great. 3 of my first cars were the Allegro, Ital and Princess. Speaks volumes that I now drive a Laguna .

I also had a Marina.

My, you've owned some sh*te, haven't you?

lol - yup

And now he's learning the glory that is Mercedes

<sweet soppy creepy tone>I love you babe<end - sweet soppy creepy tone>

( he has also had some decent cars too )

 

[Frank O' Phile]

I ran an Allegro estate (actually looked better than the saloon ) while a student. I bought it on a foggy night in Glasgow. Little did I know that the fog was actually caused by the burning oil. It was horrendous. It burnt through a gallon of oil in 100 miles.

Eventually put a metro 1275 engine into it and sold it a short while later to a bloke at work who then refused to speak to me.

Aah the good old days.

 

[Dragon]

I ran an Allegro estate (actually looked better than the saloon ) while a student. I bought it on a foggy night in Glasgow. Little did I know that the fog was actually caused by the burning oil. It was horrendous. It burnt through a gallon of oil in 100 miles.

Eventually put a metro 1275 engine into it and sold it a short while later to a bloke at work who then refused to speak to me.

Aah the good old days.

Nasty bloke.

 

[MBManInKen]

And now he's learning the glory that is Mercedes

The rust?

 

[pammy]

The rust?

Any similarities between my SLK and an Allegro is purely coincidental - and in your head

 

[Dryce]

Its quartic steering wheel was a standing joke at the time, however a few companies have since offered similar wheel designs.

I think this stands as an example (one of many) where the media jumps on a single aspect that becomes a cliche.

The quartic steering wheel was used in the Rover SD1 with little comment and no fuss from the media.

I doubt the Allegro was quite as bad as people make out. It's become a bit of self-perpetuating myth as to how bad it was supposed to be. I suspect that 'not very good' would be a fair assessment of it and that without the myth it would be as forgotten as the Marina / Ital.

 

[recycled]

)
Please note the popular brown/brown colour scheme

at least it had a perfect crumple zone.

 

[xpc316e]

I used to drive them as Police panda cars; they used to stick to the road very well, so well that you could get the oil warning light to come on when going around roundabouts as all the oil went to the other end of the sump.