Austin Maxi??

Possibly-but the gearbox was like a tin of quality street.

"You don't know which one you'll get"

It wasnt so much the gearbox but the rats nest of gearbox linkage cables designed by a 10 year old and made from old recycled piano wire that spoilt what could have been a good car. "Good" being a relative term for the 70s where tin worm ruled and cars rarely lasted more than six years.

Yes the concept of the thing was good - hatchback/estate type of thing, the one I used to frequently borrow was the works hack, used and abused by all and sundry, it could be rowed along fairly quickly as I recall.

Off topic, but not a patch on the Renault 16! I had one of each back to back in the early/mid 80's. The R16 rode, steered and drove far better. It's worst feature was its pathetic heater which gave out about as much heat as four candles.

The Maxi's rats nest of gearbox linkage cables was soon replaced by a conventional linkage (almost as bad - I passed my driving test first time despite rather than thanks to that awful thing!) Toyota finessed cable linkages not long afterwards, and my father-in-law's cable-geared Safrane (now 18 years old) still slots into gear smoothly.
Not only could the Maxi be rowed along fairly quickly , it actually popped up as the getaway car of choice for a couple of assassins in one episode of The Professionals back in the day! ("Quick, the Kalashnikoff, pass it to me it NOW! What do you mean it's under the rigid one-piece parcel shelf and you can't fold the back seat forwards because it's fouled by the rear door armrests? I told you we should have hotwired that Renault 16 at Watford Gap, idiot!")

Edited by Bilboman on 05/05/2016 at 21:04

Thank you for all suggestions re non fly by wire , chain cam etc have found solution :)

Comfort ....... Deep high cushions and found a 51 plate 11,000 mile full history 1.8 Primera " suits me " but I,m not fussy ......... the complaint on fly by wire accelerator........... was that at 115000 miles on a VW caddy diesel a £350 bill for a Bosch sensor was not in the brochure but seems it happens according to Google .............. Happy trails