Now I can see your pitchforks already, and please put them down. As we all probably know the Austin Allegro is a terrible car made by the Austin company of the British Leyland Corporation. It was made as a horrible attempt to get the European public to buy this car. That way British Leyland wouldn’t go out of business, as it had been struggling for some time. This car of had the opposite effect and is considered one of the most pivotal mistakes of British Leyland.
History
The Austin Allegro came out in 1973 as the replacement for the Austin 1100/1300. Which was a very popular and well-selling car for the British Motor Company, the precursor to British Leyland. In 1968, Leyland, a truck and bus company, merged with the British Motor Company. And British Leyland, as it was now called, was surprised to find that there was no planned replacement to the Austin 1100/1300.
So, British Leyland decided to produce a new, cutting-edge car. With revolutionary features like front-wheel drive, and advanced technology. Unfortunately, this advanced technology didn’t work very much of the time. And the car was hardly built due to all the issues that British Leyland had with strikes during the 1970s.
An Austin Allegro concept (credit: aronline.co.uk)
However, the Austin Allegro wasn’t intended to be so bad. The original concepts for the Allegro looked far better than how the car actually turned out. The reasons for the ruination of the good concepts were primarily due to the engine, and gearbox, which were all recycled from previous cars in the British Leyland parts bin. Along with advanced electrical systems and a heater system, which was rare in most cars during the time. Adding more random things to the car, for reasons known only to British Leyland engineers, the Allegro featured a “quadratic” steering wheel. Which is just a steering wheel that’s been made a square and rounded at the ends. All of this advanced engineering destroyed the looks of the Allegro and changed it to the monstrosity we know it as today.
Downfall
Trade in Britian was opening up to the foreign car makers during this time. And Britian was also known for its exports regarding cars during this time. So, with trade opening up, British Leyland thought they could sell the Allegro to foreign markets and make enough money to keep the British car industry running.
British Leyland was wrong, very wrong. With the British car industry now completely open to foreign markets, German and Japanese imports began taking over the British car market. The British consumer wanted a far more reliable and quality-built car than the Allegro. And British Leyland never recovered from this, and afterwards it would go completely bust in 1986, 3 years after the Allegro was pulled from production.
So, is it the worst car?
The Allegro does have quite a bit of downsides to it, and it can be partially blamed for the fall of British Leyland, and along with it, the entire British car industry. Also, the car just looks terrible and has an utterly stupid design. But I’ll let y’all decide, is it the worst car ever made? Please let me know in the comments.