Fast Marina Magazine

I get fed up with the amount of time i hear of how bad a car the Marina was,most of the time from people who never owned or have even been in one.I know the Marina,had it's faults (plenty of them) but so did many other cars from the 70's did as well,in fact the marina was better than lots of is competition,i would go as far to say there were very few stand-out cars from this time,and most certainly not in the Marina sector of the market,70's cars on the whole were poor.Let's have a brief run-down,Anything Italian(rust,reliabilety build quality) French(same) German(better than the other two but still not great,always cost more too) Swedish just so over rated, Eastern block,worse reputation than the Marina,Japanese the ultimate "rot-boxes "not convinced how reliable these were,but you got lot of tat for your money,Vauxhall (see Italian/French cars) Ford,you got the lot, and £200 cheaper than it's rivals,"funny the "A" series in a Morris 1000 or a Mini great, "B"series in a MGB fantastic,in a Marina,the same engines became,sudenly unreliable..strange!

they are the cars people love to hate! Although at the NEC most of the people had good things to say so maybe attitudes are changing! We can but hope

Spot on Russ...i`ve been having this argument with people for years, usually with idiots that don`t have a clue what they are on about! :roll: , and usually with people that have never actually owned one either, funny how some folks can have such strong opinions about things they know absolutely nothing about, in my job over the years i have driven 1000`s of different cars...some fantastic supercars, some boring old rotboxes and this has given me the experience to say with an open mind that the Marina was not as bad as they would have you believe, sure they have their faults, but so does any car especially from the 70`s, take for instance the Marinas` biggest rivals Fords Cortina and Escort, i have driven various examples of both...the Escort handles really well in sport and mexico guise, but try throwing a 1300 deluxe around a bend at speed on a wet road without sh*tting your pants!!!, as for the cortina mk3...well they just float along like a jelly on a plate!, and the build quality on Fords is no better than BL`s for sure...they suffered their fair share of strikes in the 70`s too, but as that was an American company it didn`t worry the british public as much as BL did, as they wouldn`t have to bail it out when it collapsed!!

This is'nt just limited to 70's cars as a friend of mine bought a brand new vauxhall corsa a couple of years ago and within a few weeks had to have a new steering rack !! Also when we bought our first vectra (which was 2 years old) it had a knocking suspension and juddering clutch which had to be rectified before we took it home !! These are all common faults to vauxhall cars of that age group, so i've been informed by a vauxhall mechanic so i wonder if they'll be slammed for poor build quality in 30 years time !!? I agree with Frank that our cars drive pretty well against contemporary cars of that age , it was just unfortunate that the press at that time was fond of slating anything British !! No wonder this country is in such a state !!

can i just point out that many of our new cars won't be around in 30 years time there not built to last that long and thats the way people want it now. when you were 17 jim could you afford to go and get a new car on hp no we had to put up with things like knackered minis and fords but all that changed when you talked me into buying my first saloon and iv never looked back oh what joy :roll:

Jim likes talking people into buyinmg saloons....

And yeah my fiesta is looking a bit sad at 10 i dunno if shes gonna make another 20!

Like i really twisted both of your arms !! :roll:

Talking of knackered Fords Trev , saw your old mk1 escort a few days ago looking sorry for itself !!

8) the marina was ok. would have been better as fwd especially the coupe

larryital wrote:8) the marina was ok. would have been better as fwd especially the coupe

Wash your mouth out Sir!

Wrong wheel drive?

I shudder to think, next you will tell me that Rolls Royce should market a hatchback for the masses!

Not as bad as this:
Tystysgrif Brawf M.O.T. ?

mus remembre to put the spolcheck on wen i orda mi chockel cabal & bork n beek clotsh!! AYE, AYE, AYE, It wudunt mayk a pet. Hooow many farmmeers do yoou knowe?

who's idea was it to put the DVLA in Swansea?, somebody ought to hacksaw Wales off the uk, pull out the plug & scuttle it in the Irish Sea.

Saunders Politically Incorrect Dept.

8) but we are talking marinas. so you have fwd and rwd gm cars. what is your favourite. the opel or the vauxhall.

Depends which name you prefer !!

larryital wrote:8) but we are talking marinas. so you have fwd and rwd gm cars. what is your favourite. the opel or the vauxhall.

Er, they are all right wheel drive!

MK 1 Cav's, Opel Ascona's and Opel Mantas shared the same floor pan, engines and running gear...

then again it is a g plate and i might ad that it looked a lot worse after your brother had it must admit though im supprised its still about :shock: