Austin Allegros

[Amelioratio]

Weird posting but erm, yeah, I want one. 1500 Automatic VP in blue if i could track one down. I like cars of that era. Can anyone shed any light on good potential classics that could still be used as runarounds? I am concerned as to potential fuel consumption on the Allegro....any facts and figures would be most welcomed!

[teash]

AHHHHHHHHHHHH the old jelly mould and a car that actually suits its name ALL AGRO :). You don`t want much do you but did they do a VP in blue? I thought they where black. Anywho theres a 1977 SDL in gold for sale on ebay, 8000 miles from new and the bidding up to �800

[woodchopper]

I remeber my father had most of the cars of British Leyland ( I'm showing my age here :o) just thank God that he never bought one of those - the shame !

[Littlejohn]

These cars were available in various colours, my memory tells me that there was a blue metallic variant (but memories can play tricks over the years). When these were new cars I was a BL mechanic. I recall that my forman was doing a PDI on VP 1500 (by the way the name "Allegro" did not appear on the VP 1500) and he claims that it "took off" as there was an almighty crash as the car disappeared through the workshop door which at the time was closed. We all knew that in he must have forgotten that it was an auto and revved it up whilst it was in "D" but as he was the foreman he got away with it! It was brand new and the only one we had, we had to search the country for a replacement as the customer was promised delevery at the weekend. This car was Gold metallic, but I am sure there was a blue option.
The 1500 "E" series engines in these cars were not very long lived, they were only good for about 50,000 miles after which they got very smokey. The auto boxes could be troublesome also. If you do go for one it must be a low mileage one to have any chance of being any good.

[Amelioratio]

ooh thanks for the erm, warnings? lol. people say the later ones, the mark 3 were a better lot. any other cars of the era you lot could recommend, I know cars that are 30 years old aren't going to be perfect and all but I'd like to know the best of the bunch hehe!

[woodchopper]

British Leyland cars also had the notoriety of being rust buckets - I remeber the rust breaking out everywhere on them.

[bigboots]

Try asking on
www.popularclassics.org
they are a helpful bunch