Morris Marina History

The Morris Marina arrived in 1971 as British Leyland's deliberately conventional, low-cost family car, conceived to take on the Ford Cortina with simple, cheap-to-build rear-wheel-drive engineering rather than the front-drive complexity of the Mini and 1100. Its front suspension concept (torsion bars with lever-arm dampers) was derived from the much older Morris Minor, and it used established A-Series and B-Series engines.

The formula worked commercially: the Marina was Britain's second-best-selling car in 1973, and around 1.2 million were built, making it British Leyland's biggest seller after the Mini. It was sold as a saloon, coupé, estate and as commercial pick-ups and vans.

Despite its sales, the Marina earned a lasting reputation for crude dynamics and indifferent build quality and is regularly cited on 'worst cars' lists. It was facelifted into the Morris Ital in 1980.