IDRIVEACLASSIC reviews: 60s Austin Maxi

Today we're looking at the car made famous with the campaign 'all the fives' - it's the iconic and sometimes overlooked, Austin Maxi

Today's video is sponsored by Adrian Flux

If you're hard of hearing like me, I've put the walk around text below:
1969 was the year man landed on the moon…and that ADO14, or the Austin Maxi as we know it, became available for purchase as the first car sold by the British Leyland motor corporation.

The car sold under the strap line ‘all the fives’ was meant to be a mid-range, more modern motoring choice for the discerning car buyer.

It was a 5 door hatchback with a five speed box and as we discussed in the Austin Allegro video, this fitted perfectly into the Austin stable.

Decisions had been made whereby Austin would be the trail blazer, experimental and daring brand with the leading technology whereas Morris would be the Ford challenger - so it makes perfect sense the Maxi was sold under the Austin branding.

The Maxi came into the fold to replace the Farina saloons, which had launched in the late 50s but were proving to look outdated when sat alongside the more modern offerings from competitors like the Cortina, which looked a million miles ahead of the Oxford and Cambridge.

Unlike many 70s BL cars which were rushed over the line, the Maxi had a little more thought behind it.

Work began in the mid 60s and as I mention later on, one of the biggest design overhauls was very early on and partially due to cost. The team were told the car had to use the doors from the 1800 cars which meant the car was longer than planned and made it considerably bigger than the Cortina, which was of course, fast taking market share and therefore a big consideration.

Although we talked about Morris being the Ford fighter, the Cortina was very much a consideration when designing the Maxi because of it’s capabilities.

It even impacted the engine choice, which meant the tired A series wheeled out for every occasion wasn’t really cutting it and to be honest, would’ve made this a stodgy, slow car.

But sometimes competition is a good thing, because it meant that the team had to come up with something new - which saw the birth of the E series.

In fact, it’s an investment we shouldn’t undersell, because they spent £16 million on a new factory to make these gearboxes and engines - so it should’ve been absolutely without fault for that level of investment.

There were some real high hopes for the E series in the early days and engineers thought it would fly with four different capabilities - 1160cc, 1300cc, 1485cc and a 2227cc six cylinder variant.

However, for a myriad of reasons this didn’t happen. It’s a real shame, because I think with more investment and less trade offs, we might’ve seen a stronger replacement for the A series in later decades.

When discussing all the fives, it’s worth mentioning the gearbox too. The idea behind it was to remove fuss when cruising - or in real speak - make long distance travel at high speeds less taxing. It was said the noise levels came right down, but as you’ll see when we go driving, this car is really noisy - almost offputtingly so.

Although it is worth mentioning despite the 5 gear strap line, there was an optional automatic gearbox available from the mid 70s.

Although this is a car you can look at today and feel like it’s an attractive proposition, press reception at launch wasn’t great, which is something we’ll talk about when we go for a drive.

It was this negative feedback which saw the cars given a shake down and relaunched in 1970 with feedback and input from BLMC management and senior engineers from Triumph and with that, the range was doubled and if you wanted a Maxi you could’ve picked the 1500 like we’ve got here today and the exciting 1750. Both had rod operated gear change instead of the hated cable change, but the exterior still saw the 1800 doors and a few interior changes and a new grille. I show you some of these when we get into the car later on.

The range was expanded again in 1972 with the HL which had the 1750 engine but now with twin carb set up and a sporty makeover of the interior which meant a new steering wheel, seat coverings and a padded dash and in 79, the HL became the HLS allowing them to insert a new HL which was essentially the same car but with single carb set up.

The sales on the 1500 soon petered off and it was quietly dropped in 1979 and the maxi 2 was introduced in 1980 before maxi production ended in 1981. It got replaced by the Maestro, which for me, is no way near as cool or as exciting as the Maxi. In short, not all progress is progress.

Just under 500,000 Maxis were produced and It might’ve only been in production for 12 years, but to me, they’re one of the coolest BL cars produced.

#austinmaxi #1960s #britishleyland

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