My friend's sister has decided to give up driving at the age of eighty two.Her car is a 1977 Morris Marina 1.3 coupe,two door, owned from new by her.The mileage is 45k and is beige/brown (mono colour).He asked me where he could dispose of it,ebay?, and what it would be worth.Any suggestions?.
{Moved from the IHAQ thread as it's motoring related - DD}
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I would suggest one of the Classic magazines such as Practical Classics. You won't get much for it on ebay. Their is quite a following for these old things strangely, especially the Coupe models.
As for exact value, it's impossible to say. It only takes one person. However, there may be other examples for sale in the magazine which will act as a guide. Best to go in a bit high, maybe £1500.
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condition?
I saw some sad git running around in a restored marina 1.8 tc convertable the other day so someone must want them.
It had to be that dog poo brown colour tho.
------------------------------
TourVanMan TM < Ex RF >
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I saw a photograph of it and it looks like new.
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I saw some sad git running around in a restored marina 1.8 tc convertable the other day so someone must want them. It had to be that dog poo brown colour tho.
>>
See my posting. There appear to be only 12 in existance and three are the "wrong" colour.
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Officially known as Bracken, Dad had a Wolseley land crab in the same colour
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Practical Classics say:
Excellent: £950
Usable: £475
Poor: £100
I'd agree with X, Classic car mag is probably the best route.
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Thank you B.Rs.I'll ring him tonight with your advice.
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I was given a drum-braked example by my late father, only 36,000 miles and very economical but horrid to drive. And a ghastly khaki colour. Did someone mention dog poo?
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OP if you google morris marina owners club ,yes one exists, get in touch and you may well have a ready market.
As already suggested a grand sounds a better figure and what a shame it hasnt been converted to the b series 1800.
good luck.........
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Try the Morris Marina Owners Club - yes there is such a thing!
www.cjw-consulting.co.uk/index2.htm
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oooooooooops victorbox wish i could tipe quiker :(
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My dad had an old K or L reg one in Purple - Worst car ever.
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My dad had an old K or L reg one in Purple - Worst car ever.
they never did one in purple you must have been on the mushrooms ;) they did one in burple though and those old swivel joints kept me in tea for a long time.
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Nice one old man i can remember helping my mate when i was on leave any marina due for MOT was garanteed to want ball joints!
We have a mutual friend who worked, in the stores in a local BL dealer. He can still quote part No's for many BL bits one is Marina ball joints. The other is Alegro wheel bearings & some suspension bit also for Alegro's..... Happy days for some!
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My dad had an old K or L reg one in Purple
they never did one in purple you must have been on the mushrooms ;)
homepage.ntlworld.com/c.weedon/featured_cars/featu...m
"This is Cliff Talkingtons' beauty, painted in an unusual purple colour called Aconite, Cliff assures me that it's a standard BL colour from 1975"
"This is a convertible version of the Marina, total believed produced is around 70 cars, of which only around a dozen (approx.) have survived."
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Before Aconite they had Black Tulip, which is what the K/L-reg model mentioned above will probably have been. I had a new Maxi in that colour in '73 - not a bad colour, with plum-coloured interior.
It was a twin-carburettor 1750HL and it would see off an MGB up to about 70 mph. And it didn't go wrong either, so I may be one of the minority with happy memories of a BL product. It was more like Austins of old - reliable and solid with a bit of acceleration when you needed it.
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Everyone to their own. Only drove a Marina once when I picked up a brand new one for a colleague who had ordered it as his company car. I went straight to the transport office and made sure mine was a Ford Escort. However, one day on a corporate event at Oulton Park, I was leaving as a passenger in another colleague's Marina 1300 when we noticed the gate to the circuit was open. As there was nobody to be seen and no cars using it, we did a naughty quick (relative) circuit in a dire handling, squealing thing I wouldn't want to be in again. Perhaps fortunately, the sight of one of the staff waving a fist at us persuaded us one lap was enough.
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Try the practical classics website:
www.practicalclassics.co.uk
They have an online classifieds section. Can also put in the mag.
As has been said, there's an owner for most old classics (and an owners' club), even those that were comprehensively unloved when new! Usually linked to what parents/ other adults owned when growin g up. Generally '50 quid bloke' with a bit of disposable income, finding another route to reliving youth, maybe?! I have an itch for a Renault 16... or a maxi...
Cheers,
Alex.
--
Dr Alex Mears
MG BGT 1971
If you are in a hole stop digging...unless
you are a miner.
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I had to put up with a Marina/Ital as a company car for 10 years. The Ital was a lot better to drive, although they set the carburettor so lean on the 1.3 A Series engine, that the car nearly stalled every time I set off from a standstill. For that reason, it was an awful car to do hill starts in, or attempt to navigate busy islands.
The second of my Itals was a definite Friday car, in the worst tradition of BL. The main bearing had to be replaced, eventually the whole engine and, in the end, the water pump failed on me during the last month I had it, all in less than 60K miles. I was glad to see the end of it.
For the next seven years I drove 309s and they were pure bliss compared with those BL cars.
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The Ital - pure class. No wonder BL got into such a mess producing rubbish like this.
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I remember the TV ad about how it "escaped from a well known Italian design house" - like some misguided genetic experiment methinks.
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The Ital was a better car than the Marina (it would be hard to be worse) but by 1980 the world had moved on. The FWD Escort was launched which was a massively better car.
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I drove a W reg Ital for some reason when it was a relatively new car. Horrid and it had rusty wings.....I'm sure it was a hire car now I think back. Mind you the original FWD Escorts were poor as well, rubbish ride quality, a step back in gear change quality and a "distributor" that failed when the rain clouds came out.
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Perhaps this ought to go in the unusual sightings thread, but I saw a spotless Morris Marina (in Yellow) heading into Dorchester last night. Didn't catch the reg unfortunately to find out the yr of manufacturer.
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When we were in our early teens, my mate's older brother had a Marina and he jacked up the rear leaf springs by about 3 inches, which made the handling even worse. He used to drive it like a nutcase and pretty quickly managed to bounce it over onto its roof when he took a roundabout too fast.
A friend of my brother currently has a coupe (resprayed bright orange IIRC) and has just finished fitting a Rover V8 in it, which is quite an easy conversion apparently.
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Rich.
There was a V8 pick up version of the Marina - scary but true.
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Rich. There was a V8 pick up version of the Marina - scary but true.
Blummin heck I didnt know that!? For the UK market? That was a bit racy for BL wasn't it, in my mind BL cars are typified by dull as dishwater 1100's! (but I was only a kid in the '70's).
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It was built by BL Special Vehicles aimed at the Saudi and US Markets, dunno if it ever made it, somehow I doubt it. I remember seeing it in Autocar, in white on the very fetching TC wheels with two pronounced bonnet bulges.
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The 1.8 had an ancient but peppy engine, especially when it had the two SU carbs fitted, and believe it or not a pretty throaty engine noise.
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It was the B-series: I believe it was basically the same engine that went back to the Austin A40 of 1947(1200 cc). My first car was an A50 (1489 cc) - that was a lovely sweet engine with lots of low-down pulling power worthy of a modern diesel.
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1948 was my recollection so we aren't far out between us. Long before cam belt faliure and had a huge amount of coolant capacity so didn't suffer from HGF like many modern engines do.
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I remember my aunt went through a spell of buying hideous cars. One of them (when I was in infant school) was (and I remember it vividly!) a poo brown Marina.
That wasn't the worst car she had though!
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I remember one of the classic car magazines a few years ago restoring one of these, painting it orange and having the General Lee cross on the roof, looked quite smart, Think it got vandalised in the end though :(
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An update, he got £500 for it, and sends his thanks.
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