Economy car is a term mostly used in the United States for cars designed for low-cost purchase and operation. Typical economy cars are small ( compact or subcompact ), lightweight, and inexpensive to both produce and purchase. Stringent design constraints generally force economy car manufacturers to be inventive. Many innovations in automobile design were originally developed for economy cars, such as the Ford Model T and the Austin Mini .
248-632: The Morris Minor is an economy car produced by British marque Morris Motors between 1948 and 1971. It made its debut at the Earls Court Motor Show, London, in October 1948. Designed under the leadership of Alec Issigonis , more than 1.6 million were manufactured in three series: the Series MM (1948 to 1953), the Series II (1952 to 1956), and the 1000 series (1956 to 1971). Initially available as
496-566: A sports car , but to make it safe and easy to drive by everyone. Issigonis' design included the same ideas he had proposed for the Ten before the war: independent suspension , rack and pinion steering , and unitary construction . In the case of the Mosquito, Issigonis was inspired by the Citroën Traction Avant , a car he greatly admired, and he proposed using torsion bars on each wheel, as on
744-480: A transversely mounted , water-cooled two-cylinder , two-stroke based on a DKW design, driving the front wheels. It had aircraft derived monocoque construction, with an aerodynamic ( drag coefficient ) value of 0.30 – not bettered until the 1980s. It was later developed into the Saab 93 , Saab 95 , and Saab 96 . It was produced until 1980, switching to a V4 four stroke engine in the 1960s. The mechanicals were used in
992-589: A "scaling-up" of the Mini principle) made ADO16 a worthy successor to the (in its day) forward-looking Minor. However, due to the British Motor Corporation's commitment to both the Morris factory at Cowley , and Austin plant at Longbridge – in addition to a healthy demand for both products – production of the two cars continued in parallel for nearly 10 years. Indeed, production of ADO16 outlasted that of
1240-633: A 600 cc inline two-cylinder two-stroke engine. Also, in the 1920s, Ford (with the Model T in Manchester, England), General Motors (who took over Opel in Germany and Vauxhall in Britain), expanded into Europe. Most Ford and GM European cars, especially economy cars, were technologically conservative and all were rear-wheel-drive to a smaller European size, with improvements focused mainly on styling, (apart from
1488-408: A 70% increase). Ten-inch (254 mm) wheels were specified, so new tyres had to be developed, the initial contract going to Dunlop . Issigonis went to Dunlop stating that he wanted even smaller, 8 in (203 mm) wheels (even though he had already settled on 10-inch). An agreement was made on the 10-inch size, after Dunlop rejected the eight-inch proposition. Many features were designed into
1736-418: A European rather than American scale. These featured a variety of innovative in-house designed engines of less than one litre capacity. They were popular in the 1940s due to their high fuel economy during fuel rationing because of the war. There were a wide variety of two-door body styles; Sedan, Convertible Sedan, Coupe, Convertible Coupe, Covered Wagon, and Station Wagon. Also, there was a successful sports car,
1984-481: A big rush existed for British manufacturers to get new models to market following the end of the war. Austin was known to be working on an all-new but conventional car, the Austin A40 Devon , which would be launched in 1947. The Mosquito was proposed for launch in 1949 and that deadline was appearing increasingly unlikely due to the untried nature of many of the car's features. The Morris board insisted on launching
2232-567: A catalytic converter and produce 45 kW (60 hp; 61 PS) at 5500 rpm. Power crept up to 46 kW (62 hp; 63 PS) at 5700 rpm for the fuel injected model. An internal bonnet release was fitted from 1992. By 1991, the Cooper represented forty percent of Mini sales in the home market; the main export market was Japan. Production ended in August 1996 as the Mark VII replaced it. In
2480-456: A commercial success in any given country depended on local culture. Thus in any given decade, every country has had a rough national consensus on what constituted the minimum necessary requirements for the least expensive car that wasn't undesirable, that is, that had some commercially attractive amount of market demand, making it a mainstream economy car. In many countries at various times, mainstream economy and maximum economy have been one and
2728-465: A common combustion chamber - a doubled-up version of what would later be called the " split-single " engine. The pistons in each pair drove the crankshaft together as they were coupled to it by a V-shaped connecting rod . For this arrangement to work, it is necessary for the connecting rod to flex slightly, which goes completely against normal practice. The claim was that each engine had only seven moving parts, four pistons , two connecting rods and
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#17328513399142976-534: A consultant engineer to Adler in December 1930. In the first months of 1931, Ganz constructed a lightweight economy car or peoples car, prototype at Adler with a tubular chassis, a mid-mounted engine, and swing axle independent rear suspension . After completion in May 1931, Ganz nicknamed his new prototype Maikäfer (German for cockchafer ) which is a species of beetle. In July 1931 he was also consultant engineer to BMW on
3224-403: A crankshaft. This was connected to a two-speed epicyclic gearbox , to simplify gear changing, and a chain to the rear wheels. Solid tyres were used, even though these were antiquated for car use, to prevent punctures and very long springs used to give some comfort. Before production could start war broke out and from 1914 to 1918, the company made tools and gauges for the war effort. In 1914 Ford
3472-508: A design point of view." The history of the automobile after many experimental models dating back at least a hundred years, started with the first production car – the 1886 Benz Tricycle . This began a period that was later known as the Brass era which is considered to be from 1890 to 1918 in the U.S. In the UK this is split into the pre-1905 Veteran era and Edwardian era to 1918. The U.S. Veteran era
3720-403: A design that shared no parts with any existing Morris product. Lord Nuffield himself took a strong dislike to both the Mosquito and Issigonis, famously saying that the prototype resembled a poached egg. Nuffield preferred to continue production of the conventional Morris Eight, which succeeded very well before the war, with some minor styling and engineering improvements. He particularly objected to
3968-457: A four-door, and a convertible four-seat Tourer. The front torsion bar suspension shared its design with the larger Morris Oxford MO , as was the almost- unibody construction. Although the Minor was originally designed to accept a flat-4 engine, late in the development stage it was replaced by a 918 cc (56.0 cu in) side-valve inline-four engine , little changed from that fitted in
4216-449: A front rubber-mounted subframe with single tower bolts and the rear frame had some larger bushings introduced, all intended to improve the car's mechanical refinement and to reduce noise levels. Twin column stalks for indicators and wipers were introduced, as were larger foot pedals. From 1977 onwards, the rear light clusters included reversing lights. In July 1979 the lower end of the Mini range
4464-513: A half hours, to just an hour and thirty-three minutes per car. Black was the only colour available because it was the only paint that would dry in the required production time. The continuous improvement of production methods, and economies of scale from larger and larger scale production, allowed Henry Ford to progressively lower the price of the Model T throughout its production run. It was far less expensive, smaller, and more austere than its hand-built pre-first world war contemporaries. The size of
4712-603: A halt before serious production had started because of World War II. The KdF, was the Nazi state propaganda organisation to promote holiday and leisure activities of the population, approved of, and monitored by, the state. The 'price' of the free or subsidised activities was extensive Nazi ideological indoctrination. When the German car industry was unable to meet Hitler's demand that the Volkswagen be sold at 1,000 ℛ︁ℳ︁ or less,
4960-469: A hatchback. The Metro was therefore in essence, the Mini mechanicals repackaged into a larger hatchback bodyshell. Although the Mini continued to be produced after the Metro's launch, production volumes were reduced as British Leyland and its successor Rover Group concentrated on the Metro as its key supermini. The original Mini's last year in the top ten of the UK's top selling cars was 1981, as it came ninth and
5208-431: A healthy market share in export markets (especially developing countries), where it was very often the lowest priced new car on the market. It went on to achieve over 21 million units before cancellation in 2003. Having said this, in the year of the Minor's cancellation (1971), over 1.3 million Beetles were produced (its peak year of production). This corresponded to over 80% of total Minor production in 23 years, or ten times
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#17328513399145456-459: A huge cost which was partly met by raiding the DAF's accumulated assets and misappropriating the dues paid by DAF members. The Volkswagen was sold to German workers on an installment plan where buyers of the car made payments and posted stamps in a stamp-savings book, which when full, would be redeemed for the car. Due to the shift of wartime production, no consumer ever received a "Kdf-Wagen" (although after
5704-469: A larger mid-sized car capable of volume sales (particularly in the lucrative fleet-buying market) was becoming increasingly key in maintaining healthy sales figures, and was an issue BMC had consistently failed to address hitherto. The Marina was developed under the watchful eye of British Leyland management, and used a modified version of the Minor chassis floorplan, extended to increase the wheelbase by 10 inches. Many other Minor components, including much of
5952-629: A low priced car, and along with the Chevrolet 6, showed how the U.S. was diverging from the rest of the world in its ideas about what constituted a basic economy car. In 1928 Morris launched the first Morris Minor (1928) in Britain to compete with the Austin Seven. Also that year German motorcycle manufacturer DKW launched their first car, the P15, a rear-wheel-drive, wood-and-fabric bodied monocoque car, powered by
6200-512: A marque in its own right. The Morris version was known to all as "the Mini" or the "Morris Mini-Minor". This seems to have been a play on words: the Morris Minor was a larger, well known, and successful car that continued in production, and minor is Latin for "lesser", so an abbreviation of the Latin word for "least" – minimus – was used for the new even smaller car. One name proposed for
6448-404: A mere 150 cc (100 cc for two-strokes) in 1949, dimensions and engine size limitations were gradually increased (in 1950, 1951, and 1955) to tempt more manufacturers to produce kei cars. It wasn't until the 1955 change to 360 cc as the upper limit for two-strokes as well as four-strokes that the class really began taking off, with cars from Suzuki Suzulight (front-wheel drive based on
6696-540: A new model with a similar name and a similar market positioning, the Morris Mini in 1959, the Minor remained in production for more than a decade after that, and in early 2020, its 23-year production run was counted as the twenty-eighth most long-lived single generation car in history by Autocar magazine, who called it: "... a primary way Britain got back on the road after the Second World War ." The Minor
6944-458: A new range of colours from the paint range that had been introduced for 1970, including vibrant shades such as Limeflower ( lime green ) and Aqua ( turquoise ). From 1971 Minors were fitted with a steering-column mounted ignition key and a steering lock rather than the facia-mounted ignition switch used up to that point. During the life of the Minor 1000 model, production declined – as the Mini and 1100/1300 had become BMC's best selling models by
7192-572: A new small family car that would replace the Morris Eight . Although Oak (and Morris's technical director, Sidney Smith) were in overall charge of the project, Issigonis was ultimately responsible for the design, working with only two other draughtsmen : (William)Jack Daniels . Thomas named the project 'Mosquito' and ensured that it remained as secret as possible, both from the Ministry of Supply and from company founder William Morris ( Lord Nuffield ), who
7440-595: A number of innovative features and had been the first four-wheeled car to sell for £100. The new Morris Minor was launched at the British Motor Show at Earls Court in London on 27 October 1948. The original range consisted solely of a two-door saloon or a two-door tourer with a 918-cc engine and a starting price of £358. At the same show, Morris also launched the new Morris Oxford and Morris Six models, plus Wolseley variants of both cars, which were scaled-up versions of
7688-456: A painted section in the centre of the bumpers to cover the widening of the production car from the prototypes. This widening of 4 inches (100 mm) is also visible in the creases in the bonnet . Exports to the United States began in 1949 with the headlamps removed from within the grille surround to be mounted higher on the wings to meet local safety requirements. In 1950 a four-door version
Morris Minor - Misplaced Pages Continue
7936-492: A rectangular centre from the Innocenti Mini hatchback. The 1100 Special and 850 City models were phased out by 1980, and during the same year the engine was upgraded to the improved A-Plus unit from the new Metro in 998cc form, which was now the only engine available in the Mini. This was then followed by a number of incremental developments. In 1978, the Mini was one of the key cars made available to disabled motorists under
8184-469: A remote selector allowing a shorter gear lever and less ponderous gearchange action. This new engine and gearbox was the product of a broader engine policy at BMC, and had been developed for use in a range of their smaller vehicles, including the Austin A35 , A40 Farina , and Austin-Healey Sprite / MG Midget , to maximise parts sharing and thus reduce production costs, servicing costs and consumer costs across
8432-399: A short time in 1968, the thickness of the steel used in the bonnet and doors was decreased from 1.2 mm to 1.0 mm to act as a form of crumple zone , but as the wings continued to be made of 1.4 mm mild steel, the modification was pointless and ineffectual and was reversed in 1969 as it increased passenger compartment crush in collisions. The 1950 change from the "lowlight" model
8680-416: A single generation, as fastbacks, estates, and convertibles. The original Mini is considered an icon of 1960s British popular culture . Its space-saving transverse engine and front-wheel drive layout – allowing 80% of the area of the car's floorpan to be used for passengers and luggage – influenced a generation of car makers. In 1999, the Mini was voted the second-most influential car of
8928-400: A small car according to his design. The prototype of this new model, which was to be called Standard Superior , was finished in 1932. It featured a tubular chassis, a mid-mounted engine, and independent wheel suspension with swing-axles at the rear. At about the same time from 1931, two years prior to Hitler's accession to power, Ferdinand Porsche founded Dr. Ing. h. c. F. Porsche GmbH -
9176-519: A small car for Peugeot . The 1911 Peugeot Bébé Type 19. It had an 850 cc 4-cylinder engine. The Citroën Type A was the first car produced by Citroën from June 1919 to December 1921 in Paris. Citroën had been established to produce the double bevel gears that its logo resembles, but had ended the First World War with large production facilities, from the production of much needed artillery shells for
9424-419: A spacious cabin, small wheels at each corner, a forward-placed engine, rack and pinion steering, and independent torsion-bar front suspension – remained. While Thomas had been battling for the Mosquito's future, Issigonis had been settling the car's styling. Although in his later career he became known for very functional designs, Issigonis was heavily influenced by the modern styling of American cars, especially
9672-420: A standard model with the same name. However this was the first time a UK-market 'round-nose' (i.e. non-Clubman) Mini had been available with the 1098cc engine, and the UK limited edition was also fitted with unique Exacton alloy wheels – the first time these were fitted to a factory-produced Mini – and plastic wheelarch extensions. Inside was the 1275GT's three-dial instrument cluster and a leather-rimmed wheel with
9920-462: A steady increase in demand for cheap cars to 'motorise the masses'. Emerging technology allowed economy cars to become more sophisticated. Early post-war economy cars like the VW Beetle , Citroën 2CV , Renault 4CV , and Saab 92 looked extremely minimal; however, they were technologically more advanced than most conventional cars of the time. The 4CV was designed covertly by Renault engineers during
10168-463: A strong emphasis on good packaging and roadholding, with independent front suspension and rack and pinion steering, and American influenced styling. It was produced in different body styles including a 2-door and 4-door saloon, a 2-door convertible, a 'woody' estate car / station wagon, a van with a rear box and a pick-up truck. 1.3 million had been built by the end of production in 1971. It was designed by Alec Issigonis . The 1947 FR layout Toyota SA
Morris Minor - Misplaced Pages Continue
10416-471: A total of 55,807 had been built. The Anglia was restyled again in 1948 . Including all production, 108,878 were built. When production as an Anglia ceased in October 1953, it continued as the extremely basic Ford Popular entry-level car until 1959. The Ford Prefect was a differently styled and slightly more upmarket version of the Anglia launched in October 1938 and remained in production until 1941, returning to
10664-498: A two-door saloon and tourer (convertible), the range was expanded to include a four-door saloon from September 1950. An estate car with a wooden frame (the Traveller) was produced from October 1953 and panel van and pick-up truck variants from May 1953. It was the first British car to sell over a million units, and is considered a classic example of automotive design, as well as typifying "Englishness". Although Morris launched
10912-403: A very small economy car. His initial work was on the largest car, designated XC9001, with the smallest car, XC9003, having the lowest priority despite it being Issigonis' greatest personal interest. With Lord's dictum to produce a bubble car competitor and his revised design requirements being laid down in October 1956, work on XC9001 stopped and XC9003 became the priority. In addition to Issigonis,
11160-569: A water-cooled four-cylinder boxer engine driving the rear wheels through a four-speed transmission. It had a similar engine and radiator layout as the Fiat Topolino that was launched at about the same time. To save room and weight a dynastarter was used, which doubled as the axle of the radiator fan. It was regarded as the "Austrian Peoples' Car" and was affectionately referred to as the Steyr "Baby". Professor Porsche had, despite rumors, not been involved in
11408-500: Is considered to be the first true economy car, because the very few previous vehicles at the bottom of the market were 'horseless carriages' rather than practical cars. The major manufacturers at the time had little interest in low-priced models. The first 'real' cars had featured the FR layout first used by the French car maker Panhard and so did the Model T. Henry Ford declared at the launch of
11656-502: Is usually dated pre-1890. In the 1890s and into the first decade of the twentieth century; the motorized vehicle was considered a replacement for the carriages of the rich, or simply a dangerous toy, that annoyed and inconvenienced the general public. For example, the 1908 children's book The Wind in the Willows , pokes fun at early privileged motorists. The automotive industry in France were
11904-460: The Austin A30 , launched in 1952, but still recognisably prewar in size and proportions. The last-minute change to the design required a number of workarounds – bumpers had already been produced, so early cars had ones cut in half with a four-inch plate bolted between the joint. The bonnet had a flat fillet section added to its centreline and the floorpan had two two-inch sections added either side of
12152-599: The Authi company from 1968 onwards, mostly under the Morris name. In 1969, a fibreglass version of the Mini Mark II was developed for British Leyland's Chilean subsidiary (British Leyland Automotores de Chile, S.A., originally the independent assembler EMSSA). The bodyshell mould was created by the Peel Engineering Company . Production began in 1970 and continued for a few years; these fibreglass Minis can be recognised by
12400-467: The British Motor Corporation . As part of a rationalisation programme to reduce the production of duplicate components for similar vehicles, the Minor drivetrain was completely replaced with an Austin-derived engine, gearbox, propshaft, differential, and axle casing. The more modern Austin -designed 803 cc (49.0 cu in) overhead valve A-series engine, which had been designed for
12648-514: The Budd Company , which initially specialized in the manufacture of pressed-steel frames for automobiles. This built on his railroad experience. In 1899 he had taken his knowledge of pressed steel to the railroad industry. He worked with the Pullman Company on a contract for Pennsylvania Railroad , building the first all-steel railcar. In 1913 in the UK, the 1018 cc "Bullnose" Morris Oxford
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#173285133991412896-452: The Formula 1 and McLaren F1 designer, said when designing his new Murray T.25 city car: "I would say that building a car to sell for six thousand pounds and designing that for a high-volume production, where you have all the quality issues under control, is a hundred times more difficult than designing a McLaren F1, or even a racing car. It is certainly the biggest challenge I've ever had from
13144-615: The Highland Park Ford Plant that opened in 1910, after it outgrew the Piquette Avenue Plant . The River Rouge Plant which opened in 1919, was the most technologically advanced in the world, raw materials entered at one end and finished cars emerged from the other. The innovation of the moving assembly line , was inspired by the 'dis-assembly' plants of the Chicago meat packing industry, reduced production time from twelve and
13392-466: The Honda Beat and Suzuki Cappuccino , and even miniaturised MPVs. Mini The Mini (developed as ADO15 ) is a small, two-door, four-seat car produced by the British Motor Corporation (BMC) and its successors, from 1959 until 2000. Minus a brief hiatus, original Minis were built for four decades and sold during five, from the last year of the 1950s into the last year of the 20th century, over
13640-649: The MG factory at Abingdon where the bodies (built in Coventry ) would be mated to the chassis and the final assembly carried out. This was because the main Cowley production lines were no longer fully equipped to deal with body-on-frame vehicles such as the Traveller while the MG lines still handled these sorts of cars and had experience working with wood-framed bodies. Commercial models, marketed as
13888-399: The Mini name . Retrospectively, the car is known as the "Classic Mini" to distinguish it from the modern, BMW-influenced MINI family of vehicles produced since 2000. The Mini came about because of a fuel shortage caused by the 1956 Suez Crisis . Petrol was once again rationed in the UK, sales of large cars slumped, and the market for German bubble cars boomed, even in countries such as
14136-551: The Morris Major and the Austin Lancer . In December 1960 the Morris Minor became the first British car to sell more than 1,000,000 units. To commemorate the achievement, a limited edition of 350 two-door Minor saloons (one for each UK Morris dealership) was produced with distinctive lilac paintwork and a white leather interior with black piping. The badge name on the side of the bonnet was modified to read "Minor 1000000" instead of
14384-570: The Morris Marina , which would succeed the Minor on the Cowley production lines in 1971. In 1969, production of the Traveller variants was moved to the ex- Wolseley plant at Adderley Park , where the van and pick-up models were already made. This freed up production space at Cowley and simplified the production chain as the Traveller's rear bodies were built at the Morris Bodies factory in Coventry . Adderley Park-built Travellers were offered in
14632-578: The Opel Laubfrosch (Opel Treefrog), was a small two-seater car introduced by the then family owned auto maker Opel, early in 1924, which bore an uncanny resemblance to the little Torpedo Citroën 5 CV of 1922. On an even smaller scale, European cars, such as the 747 cc Austin Seven , (which made cyclecars obsolete overnight. ) The Austin 7 was considerably smaller than the Ford Model T. The wheelbase
14880-598: The Packard Clipper and the Buick Super . A new feature was a low-set headlamps, integral with the grille panel (Issigonis had originally sketched hidden lamps concealed behind sections of the grille, but these were never implemented). The original Mosquito prototype, which drew Lord Nuffield's "poached egg" comment, was designed with similar proportions to prewar cars, being relatively narrow for its length. In late 1947, with Cowley already tooling up for production, Issigonis
15128-505: The Porsche company to offer motor vehicle development work and consulting. Together with Zündapp they developed the prototype Porsche Type 12 "Auto für Jedermann" ("car for everyone"), which was the first time the name "Volkswagen" was used. Porsche preferred a 4-cylinder flat engine, but Zündapp used a water-cooled 5-cylinder radial engine . In 1932 three prototypes were running but were not put into production. All three cars were lost during
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#173285133991415376-539: The Saab Sonett sports cars. Also in the immediate postwar period, the monocoque FR layout Morris Minor was launched in 1948. To reduce costs it initially reused the pre-war side-valve 918 cubic centimetres (56.0 cu in) Morris 8 engine instead of an intended flat-four. Later, after the 1952 formation of British Motor Corporation it had the Austin designed 948cc and later 1098cc OHV BMC A-Series engine . It had
15624-551: The World War II German occupation of France , when under strict orders to design and produce only commercial and military vehicles. Between 1941 and 1944, Renault was under the Technical Directorship of a francophile German installed former Daimler Benz engineer called Wilhelm von Urach who turned a blind eye to the small, economy car project suitable for the period of post war austerity. The design team went against
15872-466: The 10-foot (3.0 m) length; and the engine, for reasons of cost, should be an existing unit. Alec Issigonis , who had been working for Alvis , had been recruited back to BMC in 1955 with a brief from Lord to design a range of technically advanced family cars in the same innovative spirit as his earlier Morris Minor to complement BMC's existing conventional models. Issigonis had set out design projects for three cars – large and small family cars and
16120-470: The 1920s reflected increasing competition from newer designs for the relatively unchanged and increasingly obsolescent Model T. In 1923 Chevrolet developed a new car to compete with the Model T, the Chevrolet Series M 'Copper-Cooled', air-cooled car, designed by General Motors engineer at AC Delco Charles Kettering , (who invented the points/condenser ignition system that was in use until the 1980s). It
16368-443: The 1920s. It spawned a whole industry of 'specials' builders. Swallow Sidecars switched to making cars based on Austin Seven chassis during the 1920s, then made their own complete cars in the 1930s as SS. With the advent of Nazi Germany the company changed its name to Jaguar . The Seven continued to be produced until the late 1930s along with an updated and restyled closed body, known as the "Big Seven" until World War II, but still on
16616-475: The 1930s before this technology was generally applied to economy cars. The cyclecar was an attempt in the period before 1922 in the post-First World War austerity period, as a form of "four-wheeled motorcycle ", with all the benefits of a motorcycle and side-car, in a more stable package. In 1920 Trojan in Britain made its first series of six cars from a works in Croydon and the final revised production version
16864-684: The 1932-34 BMW 3/20 successor to the BMW 3/15 model. It featured transverse leaf independent front and rear suspension and an updated overhead-valve cylinder head version of the Austin 7 based engine. After a demonstration of the Adler Maikäfer by Ganz, the German Standard Fahrzeugfabrik company (unrelated to the British 'Standard' company), then purchased a license from Ganz to develop and build
17112-401: The 1960s, over 100,000 Minors were being produced per year, compared to fewer than 50,000 per year a decade earlier. In 1961 the semaphore -style trafficators were replaced by flashing direction indicators . These were US-style red at the rear (using the same bulb filament as the brake lamp) and white at the front (using a second brighter filament in the parking lamp bulb) which was legal in
17360-525: The 20th century , behind the Ford Model T , and ahead of the Citroën DS and Volkswagen Beetle . The front-wheel-drive, transverse-engine layout were used in many other "supermini" style car designs such as Honda N360 (1967), Nissan Cherry (1970), and Fiat 127 (1971). The layout was also adapted for larger subcompact designs. This distinctive two-door car was designed for BMC by Sir Alec Issigonis . It
17608-542: The 918 cc engine did 0–60 mph in 50+ seconds. A fuel consumption of 42 miles per imperial gallon (6.7 L/100 km; 35 mpg ‑US ) was recorded. The test car cost £382 including taxes. Newmarket, Auckland, New Zealand In 1952, the Minor was substantially re-engineered following the merger of the Nuffield Organization (Morris's parent company) with the Austin Motor Company to form
17856-467: The ADO15's interior to maximise its passenger and luggage space on top of the major savings allowed by the transverse engine and 10-inch wheels. Sliding windows allowed single-skin doors to be fitted, improving elbow room and reducing costs. A bracing bar was fitted across the door frame to brace the single skin and this was later adapted into a large storage bin on each door. Issigonis later said that he had sized
18104-666: The Austin Partner (until 1964) and Morris Mascot (until 1981). It was introduced in Australia as Morris 850 only (not "Austin"), and then later as Morris Cooper and Morris Cooper S versions, as well. The Morris name Mini (Mini-Minor) was first used for Austin's version by BMC in 1961 when the Austin Seven was rebranded as the Austin Mini, somewhat to the surprise of the Sharp's Commercials car company (later known as Bond Cars), who had been using
18352-554: The BMC must have been losing around £30 per car, so decided to produce a larger car – the Cortina , launched in 1962 – as its competitor in the budget market. BMC insisted that the way company overheads were shared out, the Mini always made money. Larger profits came from the popular De Luxe models and from optional extras such as seat belts, door mirrors, a heater, and a radio, which would be considered necessities on modern cars, as well as
18600-518: The Citroën, rather than the usual coil spring system. The French car, launched in 1934, had also been an early example of the use of rack and pinion steering. Nearly every feature of the Minor served the joint aims of good handling and maximum interior space. For example, Issigonis specified 14-inch (360 mm) wheels for the Mosquito, with 5.20-14 Dunlop Crossply tyres, (145R14 is the radial alternative). These were smaller than any other production car of
18848-508: The City was the new 850 SDL (Super Deluxe), which had the same specification as the standard Mini 1000 but with the smaller engine. For August 1979 the Mini's 20th anniversary was marked by the introduction of the first true limited-edition Mini, which was the Mini 1100 Special. This was a 5,000-car run with the 1098cc engine, broadly to the specification already in production for the European market as
19096-516: The Clubman). The most obvious changes were larger doors with concealed hinges. Customer demand led to the sliding windows being replaced with winding windows, although all Australian-manufactured Mark I Minis had adopted this feature in 1965 (with opening quarterlight windows). The suspension reverted from hydrolastic to rubber cones as a cost-saving measure. (The 1275 GT and Clubman retained the hydrolastic system until June 1971, when they, too, switched to
19344-511: The Cowley design team led by Sid Goble undertook this series of design updates. These changes were announced at the London Motor Show in late October 1954. The Motor magazine tested a four-door saloon in 1952. It reported a top speed of 62 mph (100 km/h) and acceleration from 0–50 mph (80 km/h) in 28.6 seconds. A fuel consumption of 39.3 miles per imperial gallon (7.19 L/100 km; 32.7 mpg ‑US )
19592-556: The Crosley Hotshot. The styling of 1951 Crosley Super Sport is very similar to the 1958 Frogeye/Bugeye Austin-Healey Sprite . Production peaked at 24,871 cars in 1948. Sales began to slip in 1949, as the post war American economy took off, and even adding the Crosley Hotshot and a combination farm tractor-Jeep-like vehicle called the Farm-O-Road in 1950, could not stop the decline. In 1952, only 1522 Crosley vehicles were sold. Production
19840-450: The First World War, and by the time Ford made his 10 millionth car, half of all cars in the world were Fords. It was so successful that Ford did not purchase any advertising between 1917 and 1923; more than 15 million Model Ts were manufactured, reaching a rate of 9,000 to 10,000 cars a day in 1925, or 2 million annually, more than any other model of its day, at a price of just $ 240. The need for constant reductions in price through
20088-500: The Ford and a much more modern design than the ageing Austin Seven, which meant it became the UK's bestselling car by 1939. U.S. Industrialist Powel Crosley Jr. with a long track record in diverse car products and other consumer products such as phonograph cabinets, radios, and home appliances with his company Crosley , started production of cars from 1939 (switching to war production in 1942-45) until 1952. They produced small economy cars of
20336-567: The French army. Andre Citroën was a keen adopter of U.S. car manufacturing ideas and technology in the 1920s and 1930s. Andre Citroën re-equipped his factory as a scaled down version of the Ford River Rouge Plant, that he had visited in Detroit Michigan . It was advertised as "Europe's first mass production car." The Type A reached a production number of 24,093 vehicles. The Opel 4 PS, Germany's first 'peoples car', popularly known as
20584-526: The German Lloyd with a DKW type engine) and then Subaru 360 , finally able to fill people's need for basic transportation without being too severely compromised. Early generation keicars on the market were mostly rear-engined, rear drive RR layout cars. From the end of the 1960s Keicars switched to front-engined, front-wheel-drive FF layout . This market has thrived ever since, with the cars increasing in size and engine capacity, including sports cars such as
20832-665: The Gestapo in June 1944, and deported to Buchenwald concentration camp. The Gestapo transferred him to Metz for interrogation, but the city was deserted because of the advancing allied front, the Germans abandoned their prisoner. In November 1945 the French government invited Ferdinand Porsche to France looking to relocate the Volkswagen project as part of war reparations. On 15 December 1945, Porsche
21080-684: The Joneses." Later in 1937, the Art and Color Section was renamed the Styling Section, and a few years afterward became one of the GM technical staff operations as the Styling Staff. It was funded by high-interest/low-regular-payments consumer credit, as was the 1920s boom in other consumer durable products. It marked the beginning of mass market consumerism , that had been enabled by the efficiency of mass production and
21328-535: The Metro was fifth. The arrival of the Metro also had production of the larger Allegro pruned back before it was finally discontinued in 1982. In 1982, BL made 56,297 Minis and over 175,000 Metros. Due to their common powertrain package, the Mini received many mechanical upgrades in the early 1980s which were shared with the Metro, such as the A-Plus engine , 12-inch wheels with front disc brakes, improved soundproofing and quieter, stronger transmissions. This not only modernised
21576-661: The Mini was produced by Innocenti in Milan and it was sold under the "Innocenti Mini" marque. Innocenti was also producing Lambretta scooters at that time. The Mini Mark I had three major UK updates: the Mark II, the Clubman, and the Mark III. Within these was a series of variations, including an estate car , a pick-up , a van, and the Mini Moke , a jeep -like buggy. The performance versions,
21824-565: The Mini Cooper and Cooper "S", were successful as both race and rally cars , winning the Monte Carlo Rally in 1964, 1965, and 1967. In 1966, the first-placed Mini (along with nine other cars) was disqualified after the finish, under a controversial decision that the car's headlights were against the rules. In August 1959, the Mini was marketed under the Austin and Morris names, as the Austin Seven and Morris Mini-Minor. The Austin Seven
22072-423: The Mini but, because many of its major subassemblies were now shared with the Metro, made it very cost-effective to produce despite falling sales volumes. All cars had 8.4-inch (210 mm) brake discs and plastic wheel arches (Mini Special arches), but retained the same Mark IV body shell shape. The Mini's 25th anniversary fell in 1984 and British Leyland produced a 'Mini 25' limited-edition model, both to mark
22320-604: The Mini continually popular as a first car for younger drivers, and Austin-Rover introduced a steady stream of limited editions with bright paint colours, body graphics, and trim to appeal to this market. The Mini was also becoming prized as a characterful and nostalgic car in its own right, and the London Collection of limited-edition models was more upmarket and luxurious and named after affluent or fashionable parts of London. These marketing strategies proved very successful; Mini production actually had modest increases through
22568-523: The Mini platform. Bertone also created a Mini Cooper equivalent, christened the Innocenti De Tomaso , that sported a 1275-cc engine similar to the MG Metro engine, but with an 11-stud head, a special inlet manifold, and used the "A" clutch instead of the "Verto" type. It also used homokinetic shafts instead of rubber couplings. The Mini was still popular in the UK, but appeared increasingly outdated in
22816-511: The Minor by only three years or so, before being replaced by the innovative, export-oriented, yet flawed Austin Allegro in 1973. Despite the four major updates of the Minor in its 23-year production run, very few actively designed "safety features" were ever engineered into the Minor's design. Provisions were made for seat belt fittings in the early '60s, but the rigid structure of the car's monocoque body made it dangerously unabsorbent to impact. For
23064-476: The Minor's main rival, the Austin A30 , was smaller in all dimensions, but nevertheless gave noticeable performance improvements over the pre-war side-valve 918 cc (56.0 cu in) Morris unit it replaced. The 52 second drive to 60 mph (97 km/h) was still calm, but top speed increased to 63 mph (101 km/h). Fuel consumption also rose to 36 miles per imperial gallon (7.8 L/100 km; 30 mpg ‑US ). An estate version
23312-595: The Model T was arrived at, by making its track to the width of the ruts in the unsurfaced rural American roads of the time, ruts made by horse-drawn vehicles. It was specifically designed with a large degree of axle articulation, and a high ground clearance, to deal with these conditions effectively. It had an under stressed 177 cu in (2.9 L) engine. It set the template for American vehicles being larger than comparable vehicles in other countries, which would later on have economy cars scaled to their narrower roads with smaller engines. In 1912 Edward G. Budd founded
23560-468: The Morris Marina, which was being specifically developed for assembly on the Minor production lines at Cowley, thereby precluding the continuance of Minor production in any event. The Minor was officially replaced on the Cowley production lines by the Morris Marina (ADO28), which was developed primarily in response to Ford's top-selling (and in many respects, conservatively engineered) Escort . Building
23808-620: The Morris Minor Owners Club in Derby. The decline and cancellation of Minor production was source of some consternation by industry commentators in the late 1960s, who believed that further development of the car had the potential to challenge the Volkswagen Beetle in export markets. The Volkswagen, which was developed as a small family car with a very similar brief to the Minor, had been upgraded consistently over 25 years, and retained
24056-550: The Morris Quarter Ton Van and Pick-up were added in May 1953. Rear bodies of the van versions were all steel. The four-seat convertible and saloon variants continued as well. In October 1954 the Minor's front end and interior styling was updated, with the addition of a horizontal slat grille, and a new dashboard with a central speedometer. Larger tail lights were also fitted by the end of the year. As Alec Issigonis had left BMC for Alvis in 1952 and wouldn't return until 1955,
24304-408: The Mosquito at the first postwar British Motor Show in October 1948. This meant that several of Issigonis' proposals were reviewed – first the all-independent torsion bar suspension was changed for a torsion-sprung live rear axle and this was then substituted by a conventional leaf-sprung arrangement. All of Miles Thomas' suggestions for spreading the cost of developing the new car and broadening
24552-418: The Mosquito with an 800-cc engine, a mid-sized model (tentatively designated the Minor after a previous small Morris launched in 1928) with an 1100-cc engine, and a new Morris Oxford with a 1500-cc version of the engine, all sharing different-sized variants of the same platform and with sporting MG and luxury Wolseley versions to achieve further economies of scale . There was also the matter of timing –
24800-403: The Mosquito's expensive and unconventional engine design. Whatever Nuffield's personal views, all of the Mosquito's radical features were looking increasingly unlikely to be implemented while maintaining an acceptable final purchase price and without incurring too much setup costs at the Cowley factory. Thomas and Vic Oak drew up a plan to create a three-model range of cars using Issigonis' design –
25048-641: The New York Motor Show in January 1915, William C. Durant the head of Chevrolet (and founder of GM), launched the Chevrolet Four-Ninety , a stripped-down version of the Series-H, to compete with Henry Ford's Model T, and went into production in June. To aim directly at Ford, Durant said the new car would be priced at US$ 490 (the source of its name), the same as the Model T touring. Its introductory price
25296-510: The Panhard type manual gearbox , which in a developed form is still in common use today. The innovations involved in making it a successful design were in its production and materials technology; particularly the use of new vanadium steel alloys. Model T production was a leading example of the Taylorism school of scientific management (also known as Fordism ) and its production techniques evolved at
25544-545: The SA and the later Publica and Corolla . In the post war austerity of the late 1940s, when most of the Japanese population could not afford a car, but could afford a motorcycle , the Japanese codified a legal standard for extremely economical small cars, known as the keicar . The aim was to promote the growth of the car industry, as well as to offer an alternative delivery method to small business and shop owners. Originally limited to
25792-688: The Standard Superior was introduced at the IAMA (Internationale Automobil- und Motorradausstellung). It had a 396 cc 2-cylinder 2-stroke engine. Because of some criticism of the body design, not in the least by Josef Ganz in Motor-Kritik , it was followed in April 1933 by a slightly altered model. In November 1933, the Standard Fahrzeugfabrik introduced yet another new and improved model for 1934, which
26040-632: The Steyr 55 and went on sale in 1940. A total of 13,000 Steyr "Babies" were sold. The production of Steyr cars was discontinued during World War II , after bombing of the factory. After the war, the factory was rebuilt and specialized in Austrian versions of the Fiat 500 and Fiat 1500. Today the Steyr factory produces the BMW X models for Europe. The pre-war European car market was not one market. Trade barriers fragmented it into national markets, apart from luxury cars where
26288-467: The Ten's suspension, Issigonis had also drawn up a rack and pinion steering system for the car. Like his suspension design, this was not adopted, but resurfaced in the postwar years on the MG Y-type. These ideas showed that he was the perfect candidate to lead the design work on a new advanced small car. With virtually all resources required for the war effort, Thomas nonetheless approved the development of
26536-461: The Trojan Utility Car went onto the market at £230, reducing to £125 in 1925, the same as a Model T Ford . Nothing was conventional. Rather than a chassis the car had a punt shaped tray which housed the engine and transmission below the seats. This is a similar idea to the chassis-less design of the contemporary 1922 Italian Lancia Lambda luxury car. The transmission used a chain to drive
26784-507: The U.S. It had two seats, but was less versatile than the vehicle that inspired it. It was produced after a fire at the Oldsmobile plant, when the prototype was saved by a nightwatchman named Stebbins (who later became the Mayor of Detroit ) and was the only product available to the company to produce. Although cars were becoming more affordable before it was launched, the 1908–1927 Ford Model T
27032-571: The U.S., and have gone on to be successful around the world. Since the 1990s, the automotive industry has become extensively globalized , with all major manufacturers being multinational corporations who use globally sourced raw materials and components, with most moving assembly to the lowest labour cost countries. Today, a majority of major manufacturer offers economy cars, including at least one truly small car that may fall into subclassifications such as subcompact car , supermini , B-segment; city car ; microcar ; and others. Gordon Murray ,
27280-618: The UK and many export markets at the time (such as New Zealand). On the two door cars, the rear wings were modified to remove the openings for the trafficators; on the 4-door, the B-pillar pressing was modified to leave a "blank" in place of the trafficator housing. An upmarket car based on the Minor floorpan using the larger BMC B-Series engine was sold as the Riley One-Point-Five /Wolseley 1500 beginning in 1957: versions of this Wolseley/Riley variant were also produced by BMC Australia as
27528-474: The United Kingdom, where imported cars were still a rarity. Leonard Lord , the head of BMC, reportedly detested these cars so much that he vowed to rid the streets of them and design a 'proper miniature car'. He laid down some basic design requirements – the car should be contained within a box that measured 10×4×4 feet (3.0×1.2×1.2 m); and the passenger accommodation should occupy 6 feet (1.8 m) of
27776-510: The Western Allies. In 1948 Hirst recruited Heinrich Nordhoff to run Volkswagen GmbH and in 1949 ownership was handed over to the West German government. The Volkswagen Type 1 'Beetle' was to become the most popular single design in history. Its production surpassed The Ford Model T on February 17, 1972. It was withdrawn from the European market in 1978. The Volkswagen Beetle was an icon of
28024-497: The ability to cruise on the autobahn for long periods reliably. This cruising ability and engine durability was gained by high top gearing, and by restricting the engine breathing and performance to well below its maximum capability. Production was restarted after the war by the British Army Royal Electrical and Mechanical Engineers , under Major Ivan Hirst after it was dismissed as valueless for war reparations by
28272-584: The almost identical Austin version was Austin Newmarket, but it was sold as the Austin Seven (sometimes written as SE7EN in early publicity material – with the '7' using the letter V rotated anticlockwise so it approximated the number 7), which recalled the popular small Austin 7 of the 1920s and 1930s. Until 1962, the cars appeared in North America and France as the Austin 850 and Morris 850, and in Denmark as
28520-472: The anticipated post Second World War U.S. car market recession hadn't materialised. The MacPherson strut , probably the world's most common form of independent suspension, evolved in the GM Cadet project by combining long tubular shock absorbers with external coil springs, and locating them in tall towers that directed the vertical travel of the wheels and also formed the "king pin" or "swivel pin axis" around which
28768-505: The automotive industry, at the instigation of those that he had ferociously criticized. He was eventually released, but his career was systematically destroyed and his life endangered. He fled Germany in June 1934 – the same month Adolf Hitler gave Ferdinand Porsche the brief for designing a mass-producible car for a consumer price of 1,000 ℛ︁ℳ︁. Production of the Standard Superior ended in 1935. The Standard company
29016-419: The bins to carry the ingredients of his favourite drink, a dry martini in the correct proportions (one bottle of vermouth and 2 of Gordon's Gin ). Similar bins were provided outboard of the rear seats, also serving a dual function of bracing the single-skin body panel. Small items could also be stowed under the rear seats, and early Minis were sold with optional wicker baskets specially shaped to slot under
29264-471: The blessing of hours of pleasure in God's great open spaces. The Ford Model T was a large scale mass-produced car; that very innovation, along with the attributes it required a simple inexpensive design, that allowed it to be the first car to exemplify the ideals of the economy car. Although it followed the Panhard mechanical layout, it used an epicyclic gearbox more like later automatic gearboxes , rather than
29512-452: The cabin space, and required no maintenance. The conical shape gave the springs a progressive action, becoming stiffer at greater degrees of compression. This gave the ADO15 a smooth ride over small bumps, but minimised roll and pitch on more uneven surfaces. It also allowed the springs to cope with the huge variance in load between an unladen car (about 600 kg or 1300 lb) and a fully laden one (just over 1000 kg or 2240 lb, or
29760-423: The car competitive into the 1960s. Where previously the Minor had been offered with a broad range of colours and trim options, the 'Minor 1000' (so named for its 948cc engine) shifted emphasis towards rationalisation of components to access improved economies of scale , and thus enabled increased production volumes to help the Minor retain a significant share of the small car market during a period where car ownership
30008-450: The car in the new democratic West Germany , where it would be a success. From 1936 to 1955, Fiat in Italy produced the advanced and very compact FR layout Fiat 500 "Topolino" or "little mouse", the precursor of the 1950s Fiat 500 , it was designed by Dante Giacosa . The inline four cylinder 569 cc 13 + 1 ⁄ 2 hp engine was placed right at the front of the chassis with
30256-425: The car's centre of gravity for improved handling. The engine was to prove a step too far for the Mosquito project. As the car approached completion in 1946, the war was over and secrecy was no longer necessary or possible to maintain, as more and more Morris staff and executives had to be involved to start production. Many were pessimistic about the radical car's prospects and especially the huge cost in tooling up for
30504-536: The cars were in very short supply for the next year or so. On the 4CV's launch, it was nicknamed " La motte de beurre " (the lump of butter); this was due to the combination of its shape and the use of surplus paint from the German Army vehicles of Rommel's Afrika Korps , which were a sand-yellow color. The VW featured a 1.1-litre, rear engined air-cooled 'boxer' flat four with rear-wheel drive, all round fully independent suspension, semi monocoque construction and
30752-467: The conditions prevailing at the time, such as fuel prices, disposable income of buyers, and cultural mores. It typically refers to a car that is designed to be small and lightweight to offer low-cost operation. In any given decade globally, there has generally been some rough consensus on what constituted the minimum necessary requirements for a highway-worthy car, constituting the most economical car possible . However, whether that consensus could be
31000-399: The course of the following years the range of available paint and interior colours was dramatically reduced. Various unique Minor trim items and components (such as light units and heaters) were also gradually replaced with ubiquitous items from the BMC range. This programme of changes succeeded in giving access to improved economies of scale to allow production to be ramped up. By the turn of
31248-413: The design and production of the Mini. The Mini shape had become so well known that by the 1990s, Rover Group – the heirs to BMC – were able to register its design as a trademark in its own right. The production version of the Mini was demonstrated to the press in April 1959, and by August, several thousand cars had been produced ready for the first sales. The Mini was officially announced to
31496-499: The design of the Renault 4CV, and Porsche cautiously went on record saying that the car would be ready for large scale production in a year. Lefaucheux was a man with contacts, as soon as the 4CV project meetings had taken place, Porsche was arrested in connection with war crimes allegations involving the use of forced labour including French in the Volkswagen plant in Germany. Ferdinand Porsche , despite never facing any sort of trial, spent
31744-403: The design or production of the 50. Moreover, the little Steyr offered better seating and luggage space than Porsche's Volkswagen with shorter overall length, a large sheet metal sliding roof and was available with hydraulic brakes (instead of the early Volkswagens' cable-operated ones). In early 1938, the car was revised. It got a more powerful engine and a longer wheelbase. The new model was called
31992-473: The design's appeal were treated sceptically by the Morris board and vetoed by Lord Nuffield. It became clear that the only way to overcome the personal and financial obstacles to the project was to adopt a lightly revised version of the Morris Eight's obsolete side-valve engine. Thomas resigned his position at Morris Motors over the debacle. Despite the changes the fundamental principles of Issigonis' concept –
32240-407: The disadvantage of feeding the radiator with air that had been heated by passing over the engine. It also exposed the entire ignition system to the direct entry of rainwater through the grille. Early prototypes used the existing 948-cc A-Series unit, but this provided the ADO15 with performance far greater than its price and purpose required – a top speed of about 80 mph (129 km/h). The engine
32488-481: The drawing board, and the Mosquito name seemed inappropriate. Morris's marketing department wanted a reassuring name for what it worried would be an innovative, radical car that would be difficult to sell to a cautious public. So, the Minor name, intended for the midsized model in Thomas' planned trio of new cars, was adopted for what would become the smallest postwar Morris. The original 1928 Morris Minor had itself introduced
32736-471: The drivetrain and suspension for the front and rear. This also simplified production, as both subframes could be built up independently and then mated to the already-completed bodyshell. It also opened up the possibility of easily producing variants on the ADO15 as a body of any shape or design could be used provided it could accommodate the subframes. In 1959, BMC and Alec Issigonis won the Dewar Trophy , for
32984-408: The early 1920s running gear, but with a slightly enlarged chassis and widened track. In the late 1920s, General Motors finally overtook Ford, as the U.S. new car market doubled in size, and fragmented into niches on a wave of prosperity, with GM producing a range of cars to match. This included a Chevrolet economy car that was just an entry-level model for the range of cars. It was only a small part of
33232-415: The early 1930s Morris Minor and Morris 8, with a bore of 57 mm but with the stroke of 90 mm and not 83 mm, and producing 27.5 hp (20.5 kW) and 39 lb⋅ft (53 N⋅m) of torque . The engine pushed the Minor to just 64 mph (103 km/h) but delivered 40 miles per imperial gallon (7.1 L/100 km; 33 mpg ‑US ). Brakes were four-wheel drums. Early cars had
33480-483: The emerging designer, Dante Giacosa . It was powered by a 1,089 cc four cylinder overhead-valve engine . Drive was to the rear wheels through a four-speed gearbox, and for the period, its comfort, handling, and performance were prodigious, making it "the only people's car that was also a driver's car". The Steyr 50 streamlined small car was introduced in 1936 by the Austrian manufacturer Steyr-Puch . The car had
33728-513: The end of 1950 was a water pump (replacing a gravity dependent system), which permitted the manufacturer to offer an interior heater "as optional equipment". When production of the first series ended, just over a quarter of a million had been sold, 30% of them the convertible Tourer model. A 918 cc-engined tourer tested by the British magazine The Motor in 1950 had a top speed of 58.7 mph (94.5 km/h) and could accelerate from 0–50 mph (80 km/h) in 29.2 seconds. However,
33976-486: The engine itself was also radical, being a water-cooled flat-four unit. One of Miles Thomas's few restrictions on the Mosquito project was that it had to have an engine that would not fall afoul of the British horsepower tax , which taxed cars under a formula relating to their engine cylinder bore. At the same time, Thomas wanted the car to appeal to the all-important export markets, which had no such restrictions, and generally favoured larger-engined cars. Issigonis' solution
34224-429: The engine-oil lubricated, four-speed transmission in the sump , and by employing front-wheel drive . Drive was taken down to the transmission via a conventional clutch coupled to a set of primary gears on the end of the crankshaft which gave rise to the characteristic transmission "whine" for which the Mini became famous. Almost all small front-wheel drive cars developed since have used a similar configuration, except with
34472-596: The extra cost of tariffs could actually make cars more exclusive and desirable. The only way for a car maker to enter another national market of a major European car making country, (and their colonial markets of the time), was to open factories there. For example, Citroën and Renault opened factories in England in this period. This situation only changed with the post-war growth of the EEC ( European Community ) and EFTA . The British RAC (Royal Automobile Club) horsepower taxation system had
34720-423: The face of newer and more practical rivals. Since the late 1960s, plans had been in place for a newer and more practical supermini to replace it, though the Mini was still the only car of this size built by British Leyland for the home market. The Mark IV was introduced in 1976, though by this stage British Leyland was working on a new small car which was widely expected to replace the Mini before much longer. It had
34968-422: The first Oxford. The post– First World War Oxford was a deluxe version of that, now made plainer, 1915-1919 Cowley. They were larger cars with 50% bigger engines than the 1913 Oxford. By 1925 Cowleys and Oxfords were 41 per cent of British private car production and limousine and landaulet bodies for 14/28 Oxfords were supplied ex-factory. Morris then added a commercial vehicle operation and bought Wolseley Motors
35216-467: The first steel-bodied four-seater saloon to sell for £100; previously the only four-wheeled car to sell for that price had been the two-seater tourer model of the Morris Minor. The Model Y was reworked into the more streamlined Ford 7Y for 1938-1939. This was restyled again into the 1939 launched Ford Anglia . Initial sales in Britain actually began in early 1940. Production was suspended in early 1942, and resumed in mid-1945. Production ceased in 1948 after
35464-676: The following year. Cecil Kimber, a Morris employee, founded MG (Morris Garages) aiming to sell more Morrises. After the Second World War Morris Motors, having swept in Riley , merged with the Austin Motor Company together forming the British Motor Corporation . In 1913 the British Trojan company had its prototype ready for production. It had a two-stroke engine with four cylinders arranged in pairs, and each pair shared
35712-543: The form of ckd Kit Assembly continued in New Zealand until 1974. The last new Morris Minor, a blue 4-door saloon, was assembled at The Brittans group, Dublin, in 1975 – the same year British Leyland ordered the company to cease assembly of their vehicles for the Irish market. In November 2020, on the 50th anniversary of the last saloon produced, it was announced that the final Morris Minor Saloon ever made had been fully restored by
35960-405: The front of the engine compartment. Most cars of the time had a front beam axle, which forced the engine to be mounted behind the front axle line. While this meant that, with only a driver on board, the weight distribution was fairly even, when laden with passengers, cars often became severely tail-heavy, leading to unstable handling and oversteer . The new Morris's independent suspension meant there
36208-515: The front seat occupants . To further simplify construction, the hinges for the doors and boot lid were mounted externally. This also saved a small amount of cabin space. It also made the ADO15 very easy to assemble from complete knock-down kits in overseas markets with only basic industry. Cars could be assembled with minimal use of jigs as the external seams made the panels largely 'self-aligning'. They also allowed panels to be stacked flat on top of one other for easy shipping. As originally built, all
36456-403: The front wheels could turn. It was elegantly simple, with just three links holding the wheel in place - the strut itself, the single-piece transverse lower arm, and the anti-roll bar that doubled as a drag link for the wheel hub. MacPherson took his ideas to Ford instead. They were first used in the French 1948 Ford Vedette . Next in the 1950 British Ford Consul and Zephyr (British mid-size cars,
36704-542: The indigenous Minor 1000. Closed van and open flat-bed ("pick-up") versions of the Minor were built from 1953 until the end of production. They were designed for commercial use with small businesses, although many were also used by larger corporations. Van versions were popular with the General Post Office , the early versions of these (to around 1956) having rubber front wings to cope with the sometimes unforgiving busy situations in which they were expected to work. Both
36952-527: The introduction of the 1935 monocoque Opel Olympia , and the Macpherson strut by Ford in the 1950s), until the late 1970s and early 1980s. In 1931 the DKW F1 was launched. This was the first successful mass-produced front-wheel drive car in the world. It was priced at 1,700 ℛ︁ℳ︁ . (The British 1928-30 Alvis cars 'FWD' models had handling problems and only 150 were made. The British 1929 BSA
37200-412: The layouts). Together, by July 1957, they had designed and built the original XC9003 prototype, which was affectionately named the "Orange Box" because of its colour. Leonard Lord approved the car for production on 19 July and XC9003 became project ADO15 . The ADO15 used a conventional BMC A-Series four-cylinder, water-cooled engine, but departed from tradition by mounting it transversely , with
37448-466: The market in 1945. The car was face lifted in 1953 from its original perpendicular or sit-up-and-beg style to a more modern three-box structure. It was sold until 1961. The Anglia, Popular and Prefect sold well for a long time despite their old fashioned technology using transverse leaf springs and beam axles for front and rear suspension, side valve engines and only partly synchromeshed three speed gearboxes. They sold on price because of limited car supply on
37696-485: The marketing strategy - "A car for every purse and purpose" of GM head Alfred P. Sloan . Harley Earl was appointed as head of the newly formed GM "Art and Color Section" in 1927. Harley Earl and Alfred P. Sloan implemented planned obsolescence and the annual model change to emphasise design as an engine for the success of the company's products. This moved cars from being utilitarian items to fashionable status symbols - that needed regular replacement "to keep up with
37944-584: The maximum-economy position in their home countries. By the 1970s the hatchback had become the standard body type for new economy car models. From 1960-1994 the Soviet Union sold the economy car Zaporozhets (and in the 80s, its successors, ZAZ-1102 , and VAZ-1111 ) on the world market. In the mid-1980s, the Yugoslavian Zastava Koral (Yugo), was being sold as the cheapest new car on the U.S. market. South Korea's Hyundai models also sold well in
38192-399: The mechanically interconnected Citroën 2CV suspension at that time (according to an interview by Moulton with Car Magazine in the late 1990s), which inspired the design of the hydrolastic suspension system for the Mini and Morris/Austin 1100, to try to keep the benefits of the 2CV system (ride comfort, body levelling, keeping the roadwheel under good control and the tyres in contact with
38440-416: The mid-1960s. The last Convertible/Tourer was manufactured on 18 August 1969, and the final saloon model was built on November 12, 1970. Production of the more practical Traveller and commercial versions ceased in April 1971. According to Newell (1993), 1.6 million Minors were made in total and Wainwright (2008) even claims that 1,619,857 Minors of all variants were ultimately sold. Overseas production in
38688-599: The mid-1980s, from 34,974 Minis in 1984 to 35,280 in 1985 and 39,800 in 1986. In 1990, the Mini Cooper was relaunched - 20 years after the demise of the original model - which saw Mini production pass 40,000. Once again, it featured the long-running 1275-cc engine which had featured on the original Mini Cooper S. In 1988, Austin Rover decided to keep the Mini in production for as long as it was viable to do so, putting an end to reports that it would be discontinued by 1991, by which time
38936-460: The missing body seams and by larger panel gaps. The Chilean market was never very large and the Arica plant was closed in 1974. The reason for the fibreglass body was to enable Leyland to meet very strict requirements for local sourcing, increasing to 70.22% in 1971. The Mark III Mini had a modified bodyshell with enough alterations to see the factory code change from ADO15 to ADO20 (which it shared with
39184-428: The model range. A series of changes to the body pressings for the roof/scuttle and bonnet panels yielded a large wraparound rear windscreen and one-piece curved front windscreen, which markedly improved visibility and lent a modernised appearance to the car at relatively small outlay. Many of the 'luxury' items, such as leather trim (except for the Tourer), were replaced with more durable and cheaper materials, and over
39432-428: The moving production line. Until this time, manufacturers of consumer goods were concerned, by the possibility that the market would be fulfilled and demand would dry up. The seller's market in new cars in the U.S. was over, as customers wanted choice. The 'one model' policy had nearly bankrupted the Ford Motor Company. By the end of production in 1927 it seemed outdated, and was replaced by the Model A . The Ford Model T
39680-414: The name Minicar for their three-wheeled vehicles since 1949. However, legal action was somehow averted, and BMC used the name "Mini" thereafter. In 1964, the suspension of the cars was replaced by another Moulton design, the hydrolastic system. The new suspension gave a softer ride, but it also increased weight and production cost. In 1971, the original rubber suspension reappeared and was retained for
39928-418: The name Minor 1000 was retained, the changes were sufficient for the new model to be given its own ADO development number . Morris chassis numbering convention refers to these cars as 'Series V', the 'Series IV' designation having been assigned to the Morris Mini Minor . A new, larger version of the existing A-Series engine had been developed in conjunction with cylinder head specialist Harry Weslake for
40176-585: The new Autobahns that were to be built. They had been planned under the Weimar Republic , but he stole the credit for them. Many of the design ideas were plagiarised from the work of Hans Ledwinka , the Tatra T97 and Tatra V570 with the Czechoslovakian Tatra (car) company. It was also suspiciously similar in many ways to the Josef Ganz–designed cars, it even looked very similar to the Mercedes-Benz 120H prototype of 1931. The Nazi Kraft durch Freude (German for Strength through Joy , abbreviated KdF) "KdF-Wagen" or "Strength through Joy - Car" project ground to
40424-443: The new Morris Ten , which was in development during 1936/7. This was the first Morris to use unitary construction and was conceived with independent front suspension . Issigonis designed a coil-sprung wishbone system, which was later dropped on cost grounds. Although the design was later used on the MG Y-type and many other postwar MGs , the Morris Ten entered production with a front beam axle . Despite his brief being to focus on
40672-550: The new Motability scheme. Reports of the Mini's imminent demise surfaced again in 1980 with the launch of the Austin Mini-Metro (badging with the word "mini" in all lowercase). Faced with competition from a new wave of modern superminis like the Ford Fiesta , Renault 5 , and Volkswagen Polo , the Mini was beginning to fall out of favour in many export markets, with the South African, Australian, and New Zealand markets all stopping production around this time. Buyers of small cars now wanted modern and practical designs, usually with
40920-432: The new Minor, incorporating all the same features and designed with Issigonis' input under Oak's supervision. Thus, Issigonis' ideas and design principles underpinned the complete postwar Morris and Wolseley car ranges, although not the same extent that Miles Thomas had initially proposed. The Series MM type Minor was produced from late 1948 until early 1953. It included a pair of four-seat saloons , two-door and (from 1950)
41168-420: The next twenty months in a Dijon jail. The 760 cc rear-mounted four-cylinder engine, three-speed manual transmission 4CV was launched at the 1946 Paris Motor Show and went on sale a year later. Volume production with the help of Marshall Plan aid money, was said to have commenced at the company's Parisian Boulogne-Billancourt plant a few weeks before the Paris Motor Show of October 1947, although
41416-409: The occasion and to publicise the recent upgrades to the model. This marked the start of a turnaround in the Mini's fortunes. Basic models such as the City and the City E (using the economy-tuned drivetrain from the Metro HLE) filled in the bottom of the Austin-Rover range and still found buyers who wanted a compact city car that was easy to park and cheap to run. Low purchase and running costs also made
41664-530: The original Metro would also be replaced. With the larger Metro being redesigned in 1990 to take the new K-Series engine, the Mini became the sole recipient of the classic A-Series engine with transmission-in-sump layout. The engine mounting points were moved forward to take 1275-cc power units, and includes the later Horizontal Integral Float version of the SU carb , and also the single-point fuel-injection version, which came out in November 1991. The 998-cc power units were discontinued. Early, carburetted Coopers had
41912-460: The original shelf, internal bonnet release. Introduction of airbag on driver's side. The basic Mini was the 1.3i, the other model in the range being the Mini Cooper. The end of production in October 2000 not only signalled the end of original Mini production after 41 years, but also brought about the demise of the 1275-cc engine which had powered the Mini and numerous other BL/BMC/ARG cars for more than 35 years. The Metro had ceased production two and
42160-401: The passenger side, and fixed open aperture surround on the driver's side), and finally a two-spoke 'safety' steering wheel (shared with the Morris 1100 ) were added. From 1965, no further major production improvements were made to the Minor, with resource being channelled into improving the ADO16 (the Minor's spiritual successor and Britain's best-selling car in the 1960s), and development of
42408-423: The post-war West German reconstruction known as the Wirtschaftswunder . The 375 cc Citroën 2CV had interconnected all round fully independent suspension, rack and pinion steering, radial tyres and front-wheel drive with an air-cooled flat twin engine and four-speed gearbox. It was some 10 to 15 MPG (Imperial) more fuel efficient than any other economy car of its time – but with restricted performance to match. It
42656-435: The primitive roads in much of the country at the turn of the 20th century. For the same reason, it usually had a wider track than normal automobiles. The first car to be marketed as an 'economy car' was the 1901–1907 Oldsmobile Curved Dash - it was produced by the thousands, with over 19,000 built in all. It was inspired by the buckboard type horse and buggy, (used like a small two-seat pickup truck) popular in rural areas of
42904-421: The production volume of Minors in their peak year (1958) when 113,699 were built. This gulf of production capacity made the Minor's ability to effectively challenge the Beetle, which had a global distributor and servicing network, moot. Some historians also report that the Minor was being sold at a loss during its final years. British Leyland management were pinning hopes for greater market share and profitability on
43152-431: The project was taken over by the German Labour Front (Deutsche Arbeitsfront, DAF). This was the national labour organization of the Nazi Party , which replaced the various independent trade unions in Germany during the process of Gleichschaltung or Nazification. Now working for the DAF, Porsche built a new Volkswagen factory at Fallersleben, called "Stadt des KdF-Wagens bei Fallersleben" ( Wolfsburg after 1945), at
43400-486: The public on 26 August 1959. Some 2,000 cars had already been sent abroad and were displayed that day in almost 100 countries. The key dimensions were: The first example, a Morris Mini-Minor with the registration 621 AOK, is on display at the Heritage Motor Centre in Warwickshire. Another early example from 1959 is on display at the National Motor Museum in Hampshire . The Mini was marketed under BMC's two main brand names, Austin and Morris, until 1969, when it became
43648-449: The radiator behind it. This allowed for a sloping front and good legroom when combined with lowered seating. This also allowed Fiat to lower the roofline. Although nominally a two-seater more were often squeezed in behind the seats. Initially it had quarter elliptic leaf spring rear suspension , but with an axle locating trailing arm , that was upgraded to stronger semi-elliptic to cope with overloading by customers. The front suspension
43896-440: The rear. Both incorporated separate amber flashers for directional indicators. In 1964 the interior received its final update, with a new heater unit (now with fresh air ventilation), and from October of that year, a modified dashboard with toggle switches, white-on-black speedometer unit (incorporating a warning light for a blocked oil filter), textured alloy fascia, new glove-box cover design (a fully enclosing bottom-hinged cover on
44144-442: The remaining life of the Mini. From October 1965, the option of the unique Automotive Products designed four-speed automatic transmission became available. Cars fitted with this became the Mini-Matic. Slow at the outset, Mark I sales strengthened across most of the model lines in the 1960s, and production totalled 1,190,000. Ford purchased a Mini and dismantled it to see if they could offer an alternative. Ford determined that
44392-481: The repetitive and stressful nature of working on the production line, and more radically, to turn his semi-skilled workers into potential customers. The Ford Model T was the first automobile produced in many countries at the same time. It was the first 'World Car', since they were being produced in Canada and in Manchester, England starting in 1911 and were later assembled in Germany , Argentina , France, Spain, Denmark, Norway, Belgium, Brazil, Mexico, and Japan. At
44640-471: The road), but with added roll stiffness that the 2CV lacked. The short development time of the car meant this was not ready in time for the Mini's launch. The system intended for the Mini was further developed and the hydrolastic system was first used on the Morris 1100 , launched in 1962; the Mini gained the system later in 1964. As launched, the Mini had simpler suspension made from conical springs of solid rubber. These were compact, saving on intrusion into
44888-443: The rubber cone suspension of the original Minis. ) In 1969, the simple name Mini completely replaced the separate Austin and Morris brands. In April 1974, a heater became standard equipment on the entry-level Mini 850, as well, having by then already been included in the standard specification of the other models for some time. In the late 1970s, Innocenti introduced the Innocenti 90 and 120 , Bertone -designed hatchbacks based on
45136-404: The rubber cone system gave a raw and bumpy ride accentuated by the woven-webbing seats, but the rigidity of the rubber cones, together with the wheels' positioning at the corners of the car, gave the Mini go kart -like handling. Initially, an interconnected fluid system was planned, similar to the one that Alec Issigonis and Alex Moulton were working on in the mid-1950s at Alvis. They had assessed
45384-406: The same size as the Cadet), which owed more to the Cadet than just the MacPherson strut suspension, and caused a sensation when they were launched. In 1953, a miniaturised economy car version, the Anglia 100E was launched in Britain. These early 1950s British Fords used styling elements from the U.S. 1949 Ford 'Shoebox'. As Europe and Japan rebuilt from the war, their growing economies led to
45632-405: The same size as those who drive large cars and they should not be expected to put up with claustrophobic interiors." Issigonis wanted the car to be as spacious as possible for its size, and comfortable to drive for inexperienced motorists. Just as he would with the Mini 10 years later, he designed the Mosquito with excellent roadholding and accurate, quick steering, not with any pretence of making
45880-411: The same time period, as a Datsun Type 11 that may have been pirated, at the start of their own automobile industry. It was also produced as a BMW Dixi and BMW 3/15 in Germany, Rosengart in France with French styled bodywork, and by American Austin Car Company with American styling, (later American Bantam) in the U.S. It displaced the motorcycle and sidecar combination that was popular in Europe in
46128-571: The same. From its inception into the 1920s, the Ford Model T fulfilled both of these roles simultaneously in the U.S. and in many markets around the world. In Europe and Japan in the 1920s and 1930s, this was achieved by the much smaller Austin 7 and its competitors and derivatives. From the 1940s and into the 1960s, the Volkswagen Beetle played both roles throughout much of the world, particularly in Germany and Latin America – due to high fuel consumption, British, French, Italian, and Japanese models, all with better fuel economy, were able to capture
46376-406: The seats. The fixed rear parcel shelf contributed to the rigidity of the body shell, although it did preclude fitting the ADO15 with a hatchback . The boot lid was hinged at the bottom so that the car could be driven with it open to increase luggage space. On early cars, the number plate , together with its light, was hinged at the top so that it could swing down to remain visible when the boot lid
46624-611: The secondary function of excluding foreign vehicles. It was specifically targeted at the Ford Model T, which the then government feared would wipe out the fledgling indigenous motor industry. It crippled car engine design in Britain in the inter-war period, causing British car makers to produce under-square, low revving, long stroke engines. It was abolished after World War II as part of the British export drive for desperately needed, hard foreign currency, because it made British cars uncompetitive internationally. The technologically conservative 1930s Morris Eight , Ford Eight (Ford Model Y which
46872-427: The solid tyre shod wheels. The 1527-cc engine to the ingenious Hounsfield design was started by pulling a lever on the right of the driver. To prove how economical the car was to run, the company ran the slogan "Can you afford to walk?" and calculated that over 200 miles (320 km) it would cost more in shoes and socks than to cover the distance by Trojan car. The astronomical success of the Model T accelerated after
47120-422: The standard "Minor 1000". The millionth Minor was donated to the National Union of Journalists , which planned to use it as a prize in a competition in aid of the union's Widow and Orphan Fund. The company, at the same time, presented a celebratory Minor to London's Great Ormond Street Hospital for Sick Children , but this car was constructed of cake. The final major upgrade to the Minor was made in 1962. Although
47368-421: The structural body panels were welded to the top of the single floor pressing, but this caused major problems with water entering the cabin and was quickly changed in the first months of production. Early prototypes were fully unitary in construction, but the cars broke apart under the high loads from the large lever ratios used with the rubber cone suspension. The design was changed to use steel subframes to carry
47616-406: The summer of 1991, 21 years after the fibreglass Mini built in Chile was produced, another fibreglass bodied Mini again entered production, this time in Venezuela. The producer, Facorca, intended to sell the car in the Caribbean and Central America, and also had plans for Brazilian assembly. This was the final version, twin point injection with front-mounted radiator. Full-width dashboard replaces
47864-537: The suspension, were used in the running gear, which served to streamline production changeover and minimise the financial outlay associated with chassis development and retooling. The spiritual successor to the Morris Minor was arguably the ADO16 Austin/Morris 1100 range, which had been launched in 1962 and aimed at the same small family-car market (and actually replaced the Minor in some export markets such as Australia and New Zealand). The crisp styling, hydrolastic suspension and innovative front-wheel drive system (itself
48112-400: The team that developed the Mini included John Sheppard (who had worked with Issigonis at Alvis), Jack Daniels (who had worked with Issigonis on the Morris Minor), Chris Kingham (also from Alvis), Charles Griffin (from Cowley), Vic Everton (from the body—jig shop), Ron Dovey (who built the bodies), Dick Gallimore (who laid out the experimental bodies), and George Cooper (whose job was to check
48360-401: The then new ADO16 Austin/Morris 1100 range. This new engine used a taller block than the 948 cc unit, with increased bore and stroke bringing total capacity up to 1,098 cc. Although fuel consumption suffered moderately at 38 mpg, the Minor's top speed increased to 77 mph (124 km/h), and a 20% increase in torque gave an altogether more responsive drive. The revised engine
48608-408: The time (the existing Morris Eight had 17-inch (430 mm) wheels). These small wheels reduced intrusion into the cabin space and minimised the car's unsprung mass , giving better ride comfort and stability. For the same reasons, the wheels themselves were placed as far as possible towards each corner of the Mosquito's floorpan. The same went for the placement of the engine, as far as possible towards
48856-408: The transmission separately enclosed rather than using the engine oil and mounted directly onto the end of the crankshaft, but with unequal length driveshafts. The radiator was mounted at the left side of the car so that the engine-mounted fan could be retained, but with reversed pitch so that it blew air into the natural low pressure area under the front wing. This location saved vehicle length, but had
49104-412: The transmission tunnel. The last change made was to the car's name. The Mosquito codename was widely expected to be the name of the production model, but Nuffield disliked it. Also, Issigonis' last-minute size increase and the fitment of the larger-than-planned sidevalve engine needed to be considered; while still a small car, the new Morris was no longer the ultra-compact economy car that it had been on
49352-425: The used car market due to the Second World War, and new car market because of the British government's post war policy of exporting cars. The Morris Eight, introduced in 1935, was a deliberate close copy of the Ford and served as a lower cost, more profitable replacement for the 1928-vintage Morris Minor which had not achieved the hoped-for success. Prices for the Morris started at £112 and it offered more equipment than
49600-443: The usual self-cancelling type, but incorporate[d] a time-basis return mechanism in a switch below the facia, in front of the driver". It was all too easy for a passenger hurriedly emerging from the front passenger seat to collide with and snap off a tardy indicator "flipper" that was still sticking out of the B-pillar, having not yet been safely returned by the time-basis return mechanism to its folded position. Another innovation towards
49848-402: The van and the pickup differed from the monocoque construction of the Saloon and Traveller variants by having a separate chassis. They also differed in details such as telescopic rear dampers, stiffer rear leaf springs and lower-ratio differentials to cope with heavier loads. Economy car The precise definition of what constitutes an economy car has varied with time and place, based on
50096-520: The various Cooper and Cooper S models. The Mini entered into popular culture in the 1960s with well-publicised purchases by film and music stars. The Cooper S version was also used by some British police forces as both a uniform and plainclothes car. The Mark II Mini was launched at the 1967 British Motor Show , and featured a redesigned grille, a larger rear window and numerous cosmetic changes. A total of 429,000 Mk II Minis were produced. A variety of Mini types were made in Pamplona , Spain, by
50344-408: The vehicle: I will build a car for the great multitude. It will be large enough for the family, but small enough for the individual to run and care for. It will be constructed of the best materials, by the best men to be hired, after the simplest designs that modern engineering can devise. But it will be low in price that no man making a good salary will be unable to own one - and enjoy with his family
50592-413: The war years. But unlike other Japanese car firms Toyota did not partner with Western companies after the war, so it was free to use German designs. Many features of the prototype Beetle were subsequently put into the SA, although the Beetle's rear-mounted air-cooled engine feature was not used. Later on, Toyota revisited the economic principles exemplified by the Beetle when designing the 1950s successors to
50840-450: The war, Volkswagen did give some customers a DM 200 discount for their stamp-books). The project was not commercially viable and only government support was able to keep it afloat. The Beetle factory was primarily converted to produce the Kübelwagen (the German equivalent of the jeep ). The few Beetles that were produced went to the diplomatic corps and military officials. After the war, the Volkswagen company would be founded to produce
51088-428: The war, the last in 1945 in Stuttgart during a bombing raid. In 1932 ASAP-Škoda in Mladá Boleslav Bohemia Czechoslovakia, produced a type Škoda 932 prototype of a streamlined 4-seater two-door car with a rear air-cooled flat-four engine designed by Karel Hrdlička and Vsevold Korolkov. This car's bodywork closely resembled the small car designs yet to come. In Berlin in February 1933, the first production model of
51336-532: The wishes of Louis Renault who in 1940 believed that post-war Renault should concentrate on mid-range cars. Only after a row in May 1941 did Louis Renault approve the project. In October 1944 after the liberation, Louis Renault who was imprisoned on charges of collaboration, died in suspicious circumstances. In January 1945, newly nationalised Renault had officially acquired a new boss, the former resistance hero Pierre Lefaucheux , (he had been acting administrator since September 1944). Lefaucheux had been arrested by
51584-408: The world leaders during this period – the Locomotives Act 1865 (the 'Red Flag Act') had obstructed automotive development in the UK until it was mostly repealed by the Locomotives on Highways Act 1896 . The high wheeler was an early car body style virtually unique to the United States. It was typified by large-diameter slender wheels, frequently with solid tires, to provide ample ground clearance on
51832-432: The world. These were fully closed roofed bodies, until this time open tourer bodies were the standard body on the market. Budd envisioned pushing his technology even further, and in 1924 he found another visionary in André Citroën . By 1934, they had developed the Citroën Traction Avant , the first unibody , pressed-steel automobile. Budd also pioneered the use of electric arc welding in automobile manufacturing. It would be
52080-496: Was US$ 550 , however, although it was reduced to US$ 490 later when the electric starter and lights were made a US$ 60 option. Henry Ford responded by reducing the Model T to US$ 440 . In 1916 Edward G. Budd 's first big order for the Budd Company was from the Dodge brothers, who purchased 70,000 bodies, mounting the steel bodies onto conventional chassis frames. During the 1920s Edward G. Budd 's pressed steel bodies were fast replacing traditional coachbuilt bodies all around
52328-407: Was Toyota's first true post war design. Although permission to begin full production of passenger cars in Japan was not granted until 1949, limited numbers of cars were permitted to be built from 1947, and the Toyota SA was one such car. It had a 4-cylinder engine, 4-wheel independent suspension and a smaller, aerodynamic body. The project was driven by Kiichiro Toyoda , but most of the design work
52576-445: Was a rare failure for him, due to uneven cooling of the inline four-cylinder engine. The most development of small economy cars occurred in Europe. There was less emphasis on long-distance automobile travel, a need for vehicles that could navigate narrow streets and alleys in towns and cities (many were unchanged since medieval times), and the narrow and winding roads commonly found in the European countryside. Ettore Bugatti designed
52824-462: Was a three-wheel competitor to Morgan and the motorcycle combination market, the 1931 four-wheeler was very short-lived. The 1929 U.S. Cord L-29 having been seriously flawed, production ended at 4,429. The 1930 U.S. Ruxton made about 500, production lasted for only four months.) The F1 featured a front-engine, front-wheel-drive layout using a water-cooled 494 cc or 584 cc transverse two-cylinder two-stroke engine with chain drive. This
53072-439: Was altered. The basic Mini 850 (which had featured in various forms since the original launch 20 years before) was withdrawn. Its place was taken by two models at slightly lower and slightly higher price points. The new base model was the Mini City, with black-painted bumpers, an untrimmed lower facia rail, part-fabric seats and wing mirror and sun visor only on the driver's side, plus unique 'City' body graphics and boot badge. Above
53320-409: Was available with a slightly reworked Model A engine, marketed until 1933 (in U.S.) as the Model B. In Europe, it remained in the Ford lineup, as the Ford V8 in Britain in the 1930s which was re-styled and relaunched as the post-war Ford Pilot . They were viewed as large cars in Europe. The 1932 Ford V8 (Model 18) coupe became the car of choice for post-war hot rodders . It was the first V8 engine in
53568-443: Was becoming more commonplace. The dawn of the motorway era necessitated the fitting of a new 948cc (57.9 cu in) variant of the BMC A-Series engine , elevating top speed from 63 mph (101 km/h) to 75 mph (121 km/h), and reducing 0-60 mph acceleration from 52.5 secs to 31.3 secs. Driving was further improved by a substantially revised gearbox, which incorporated taller ratios for more relaxed cruising speeds and
53816-404: Was better than many other economy cars of the time. The suspension system, designed by Issigonis's friend Alex Moulton at Moulton Developments Limited , used compact rubber cones instead of conventional springs. This space-saving design also featured rising progressive-rate springing of the cones, and provided some natural damping, in addition to the normal dampers. Built into the subframes,
54064-654: Was conceived in 1941. Although the Nuffield Organization was heavily involved in war work and a governmental ban existed on civilian car production, Morris Motors' vice chairman, Miles Thomas , wanted to prepare the ground for new products to be launched as soon as the war was over. Vic Oak, the company's chief engineer, had already brought to Thomas' attention a promising junior engineer, Alec Issigonis , who had been employed at Morris since 1935 and specialised in suspension design, but he had frequently impressed Oak with his advanced ideas about car design in general. Issigonis had come to Oak's particular attention with his work on
54312-430: Was designed to motorise rural communities where speed was not a requirement. The original design brief had been issued before the Second World War in the mid-1930s. It had been completely redesigned three times, as its market and materials costs had changed drastically during its development period. Engine size increased over time; from 1970 it was a still tiny 602 cc. It was in production until 1990. The Saab 92 had
54560-495: Was developed through the 1930s into the 1938 F8 model and the F9 that was not put into production because World War II started, 250,000 were made. By this time DKW had become the largest manufacturer of motorcycles in the world. Their two-stroke engine technology was to appear in the postwar products of Harley-Davidson , BSA , Trabant , Wartburg , Saab , Subaru , Piaggio , Puch , Kawasaki , Mitsubishi , Mazda , Daihatsu , Honda , and Suzuki . The DKW type of two stroke engine
54808-620: Was done by Kazuo Kumabe . The two-door body was aerodynamic in a style similar to the Volkswagen Beetle . The doors were hinged at the rear (often called suicide doors ). The front window was a single pane of flat glass with a single wiper mounted above the driver. Only right hand drive was offered. Toyota engineers (including Dr Kumabe) had visited Germany before World War II and had studied Porsche and Volkswagen designs (independent suspension, aerodynamic bodies, backbone chassis, rear-mounted air-cooled engines, economical production cost). Many Japanese companies had ties with Germany during
55056-420: Was facelifted with American influenced 'full width styling' of the frontal panels after the war, with headlights integrated into the wings/fenders. The Fiat 1100 was first introduced in 1937 as an updated version of the 508 "Balilla" (its real name was the 508C) with a look similar to the 1936 Fiat 500 "Topolino" and the larger 1500 , with the typical late-thirties heart-shaped front grille, with styling by
55304-407: Was forbidden by the Nazis from using the term 'Volkswagen'. The Volkswagen Beetle would be the longest-lasting icon of this 1930s era. Adolf Hitler admired the ideals exemplified by the Ford Model T , (even though he didn't drive himself), and sought the help of Ferdinand Porsche to create a 'peoples-car' ("volkswagen"), with the same ideals for the people of Germany. This car was to complement
55552-412: Was in charge of development. It had a unibody structure, an over-square over head valve engine, a strut-type front suspension, small-diameter road wheels, a three-speed gearbox, brake and clutch pedals suspended from the bulkhead rather than floor-mounted, and integrated fender/body styling. It was light and technically advanced, but GM's management cancelled it, stating that it was not economically viable -
55800-431: Was independent and was used as the basis of the suspension of the first English Cooper racing cars in the 1940s that became successful in the 1950s. It had a four speed gearbox (when three was common) and all hydraulic brakes. It was a similar size to the Austin Seven but much more advanced. It was exported all over the world and produced at the NSU factory in Germany, Steyr-Puch in Austria and Simca in France. It
56048-454: Was introduced in 1952, known as the Traveller (a Morris naming tradition for estates, also seen on the Mini ). The Traveller featured an external structural ash (wood) frame for the rear bodywork, with two side-hinged rear doors. The frame was varnished rather than painted and a highly visible feature of the body style. Travellers were built alongside the saloon model at Cowley minus their rear bodies. The half-completed cars were then shipped to
56296-441: Was invited to consult with Renault about the Renault 4CV. Lefaucheux was enraged that anyone should think the almost production-ready Renault 4CV was in any way inspired by the German Volkswagen , and that the politicians should presume to send Porsche to advise on it. The government insisted on nine meetings with Porsche which took place in rapid succession. Lefaucheux insisted that the meetings would have absolutely no influence on
56544-429: Was made to comply with Canadian lighting standards, with higher and brighter headlights to increase visibility in fog and during dark Canadian winters. Australian models, and tourer models made in Britain and exported to Australia, featured safety glass windscreens and safety glass windows, to comply with local regulations. Australian models also had blinking indicator lights in addition to the standard trafficator arms on
56792-436: Was manufactured at the Longbridge plant in Birmingham, England located next to BMC's headquarters and at the former Morris Motors plant at Cowley near Oxford, in the Victoria Park/Zetland British Motor Corporation (Australia) factory in Sydney , Australia, and later also in Spain ( Authi ), Belgium, Italy ( Innocenti ), Chile, Malta, Portugal, South Africa, Uruguay, Venezuela, and Yugoslavia ( IMV ). The Italian version of
57040-436: Was no front axle, allowing the engine to be placed low down and far forward. Putting the Mosquito's engine in the nose meant that the car was nose-heavy when lightly laden, leading to superior directional stability, and when fully laden it achieved nearly equal weight balance, so handling and grip remained good regardless of the load carried. Placing the engine further forward also maximised cabin space. As proposed by Issigonis,
57288-442: Was only 1,905 millimetres (6 ft 3 in), and the track only 1,016 millimetres (40 in). Equally it was lighter - less than half the Ford's weight at 360 kilograms (794 lb). The engine required for adequate performance was therefore equally reduced and the 747 cubic centimetres (45.6 cu in) sidevalve was quite capable with a modest 7 kilowatts (10 bhp) output. It would also start to catch on in Japan during
57536-456: Was open. This feature was later discontinued after it was discovered that exhaust gases could leak into the cockpit when the boot was open. The Mini was designed as a monocoque shell with welded seams visible on the outside of the car running down the A and C pillars , and between the body and the floor pan. Those that ran from the base of the A-pillar to the wheel well were described as 'everted' (lit., 'turned outward') to provide more room for
57784-460: Was producing half a million Model Ts a year, with a sale price of less than US$ 500 . This was more than the rest of the U.S. auto industry combined and ten times the total national car production of 1908, the year of the cars launch. Also in that year Ford made headlines by increasing the minimum wage of his workers from $ 2.83 for a nine-hour day to $ 5.00 for an eight-hour day , to combat low workforce morale, and employee turnover problems because of
58032-439: Was recorded. The test car cost £631 including taxes. The 803 cc A-Series inline-four engine used in the Series II produced 30 hp (22 kW) at 4,800 rpm and 40 ft⋅lb (54 N⋅m) of torque at 2,400 rpm 269,838 examples of the Series II had been built when production ended in 1956. Newmarket, Auckland, New Zealand (until 1963) In 1956, the Minor received a major programme of updates intended to keep
58280-437: Was reduced to a new 848-cc capacity with a shorter stroke . This reduced power from 37 to 33 bhp and caused a significant drop in torque , so provided more realistic performance, especially when the ADO15 body was widened by 2 inches (5.08 cm) over the XC9003 prototype, which blunted the car's top speed while improving its stability and roadholding. Even so, the ADO15 had a top speed of 75 mph (121 km/h), which
58528-443: Was related to the German Ford Köln ), and Standard Eight (Standard, later became Triumph) were named after their RAC horsepower car tax rating. The Ford Model Y had replaced the Model A in Europe in 1932 and ran until 1937. It was a much smaller and lighter car, weighing one third less, with an engine two thirds smaller in capacity than the Model A. The basic Model Y 'Popular' was an important milestone in British economy cars, being
58776-451: Was released, initially available only for export, and featuring from the start the headlamps faired into the wings rather than set lower down on either side of the grille. The raised headlight position became standard on all Minors in time for 1951. From the start, the Minor had semaphore-type turn indicators, and subsequent Minor versions persisted with these until 1961. An Autocar magazine road test in 1950 reported that these were "not of
59024-400: Was renamed Austin Mini in January 1962 and Mini became a marque in its own right in 1969. In 1980, it once again became the Austin Mini, and in 1988, just "Mini" (although the "Rover" badge was applied on some models exported to Japan). BMW acquired the Rover Group (formerly British Leyland ) in 1994, and sold the greater part of it in 2000, but retained the rights to build cars using
59272-409: Was replaced with four strokes in western economy cars by the 1960s, but lived on in stagnating and cash strapped Communist East Germany's Trabant and Wartburg and Communist Poland's FSO Syrena until the 1980s. In the late 1920s in Germany , Josef Ganz independent car engineer/inventor and editor of Motor-Kritik magazine had been a fierce opponent of the status quo of car design. He became
59520-423: Was shown at the 1922 London Motor Show . An agreement was reached with Leyland Motors to produce the cars at their Kingston upon Thames factory where work on reconditioning ex RAF wartime trucks was running down. This arrangement would continue until 1928 when Leyland wanted factory space for truck production. During the nearly seven years of the agreement 11,000 cars and 6700 vans were made. The car known as
59768-403: Was shut down and the plant was sold to the General Tire and Rubber Company . In anticipation of a repeat of the post First World War economic recession, GM started the "Chevrolet Cadet" project (a compact car intended to sell for less than US$ 1,000 ), that ran from 1945 to 1947, to extend the Chevrolet range downwards in the U.S. new car market. Chevrolet head of engineering Earle S. MacPherson
60016-427: Was slightly longer with one additional window on each side and had a small seat for children or as luggage space in the back. This car was advertised as the German Volkswagen. During the early 1930s German car manufacturers one by one adopted the progressive ideas published in Motor-Kritik since the 1920s. In the meantime in May 1933, the Jewish Josef Ganz was arrested by the Gestapo on trumped up charges of blackmail of
60264-571: Was still chairman of Morris Motors, and as widely expected, would not look favourably on Issigonis' radical ideas. Issigonis' overall concept was to produce a practical, economical, and affordable car for the general public that would equal, or even surpass, the convenience and design quality of a more expensive car. In later years he summed up his approach to the Minor; that he wanted to design an economy car that "the average man would take pleasure in owning, rather than feeling of it as something he'd been sentenced to" and "people who drive small cars are
60512-424: Was teamed to a stronger gearbox fitted with baulk ring synchromesh replacing the previous cone-clutch type. Drum brakes were retained on each corner, but the front units were increased from 7 to 8 inches (18 to 20 cm) in diameter. From October 1963, larger combined front side/indicator light units, common to many BMC vehicles of the time, were fitted to the front wings, and larger tail lamp units were fitted at
60760-422: Was the first model launched by Morris Motors . Only 1302 were made. The Oxford was available as a two-seater, or van but the chassis was too short to allow four-seat bodies to be fitted. It made extensive use of bought in components, including many from the U.S. to reduce costs. The 1915-1919 Morris Cowley (about 1400 produced) powered by a new US Continental engine was a bigger stronger better finished version of
61008-437: Was the flat-four engine, which could easily be produced in two versions – a narrow-bore 800-cc version for the British market and a wide-bore 1100-cc version for export. Both versions would use identical parts, except for the actual cylinder blocks (which could still be produced on the same machinery) and the pistons. The flat-four layout reduced the overall length of the engine, further increasing potential cabin space, and reduced
61256-404: Was unhappy with the appearance of the car. He had the prototype cut lengthways and the two halves moved apart until it looked "right". The production model was thus 4 inches (10 cm) wider than the prototype, and in keeping with Issigonis' design principles, this further improved interior space and roadholding. It also gave the car distinctive (and recognisably modern) proportions – contrast with
61504-427: Was voted Car of the Century on December 18, 1999 in Las Vegas, Nevada. In 1929 Chevrolet replaced the 171 cu in (2.8 L) straight-4 engine that dated from 1913, with the 194 cu in (3.2 L) Stovebolt Six engine that was to last until the 1960s as Chevrolet's base engine. A few years later Ford developed the Model 18 with the 221 cu in (3.6 L) flathead V8 . The same car
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