Like a modern-day 500, Fiat’s original Panda was designed originally as affordable utilitarian transport but the minimalist approach encouraged some innovative thinking which gave the car a cult appeal across Europe.
The origins of the Cavalier go back to the ’60s when Vauxhall needed to downsize its UK range and the solution was for parent company GM to more closely integrate its German Opel and UK Vauxhall operations...
It was only natural that when the 68-year-old Defender production line creaked to a halt, interest in the iconic vehicle would accelerate...
The Metro became a Rover in 1990 and suddenly also became the car it perhaps always should have been: in place of the 50-year-old A-Series motor was the modern alloy twin-cam K-Series motor and finally interconnecting the Hydragas gave it grip like an insistent little terrier...
You could consider the Alfasud as a kind of Italian Hillman Imp: a great design pairing sporting appeal with small car practicality but flawed by government interference in manufacturing.
Think of TVR’s ‘wedge’ series of cars from the ’80s and you’ll probably picture a thundering open-topped V8-powered creation. The range started off though with the much less hairy chested Tasmin, which essentially debuted Oliver Winterbottom’s wedgy body style but with the more subtle engine options of either the 2.8-litre Ford Cologne V6 or even briefly the four-pot Pinto and the ‘TVR 200’ badge...
The Marina has taken its fair share of abuse over the years but in reality it didn't do so badly at the job it was designed for. Yes, the chassis owed a lot to the Minor which itself dated from the 1940s and no, you wouldn't have seen Ford or Vauxhall persisting with lever-arm dampers into the ’70s.
The fact that customers were still buying the ADO16 BMC1100/1300 range even after its replacement had been launched illustrates perfectly how popular the 'big Mini' was with UK buyers. In fact the car was Britain's top selling car every year from 1963 to 1971 apart from 1967.
Here’s an advert aimed at American buyers of British-built sports cars. In this case, however, the emphasis was on aftermarket accessories rather than the car itself, boasting that “the Amco-equipped TR4 clearly reflects ownership pride!”
Estate cars don’t come bigger than this. Or more practical for that matter, the CX’s traditional Citroën hydropneumatic suspension offering a self-levelling facility which gave it the carrying capacity of a long-wheelbase Transit.