‘All the fives’ was the Maxi’s high technology tag line when launched – with a five door hatchback body and five speed gearbox, Austin’s new mid-range fighter really did seem to have it all. Sadly, the technology might have been there, but the execution was a little less than marvellous, and this avant garde car [...]

Designed and specially built to become the Corporation’s new mid-sized engine, the E-Series had a troubled early life, but eventually matured into something very worthwhile indeed. New engine, new factory; new start? By the mid-1960s, it had become clear to BMC’s management, that in order to maintain sales volumes, the company would have to produce [...]

When the ADO17 was launched as the Austin 1800 in 1964, few people can have imagined that one of its defining features – its doors – would later appear on a series of cars ranging from a 1.5-litre family hatchback to a 3-litre executive saloon. But the story doesn’t end there. As well as being [...]

The main problem with Hydragas is that over time, the sealed units would lose gas and become less effective. Alexander Boucke describes the steps involved in getting your Hydragas suspended car back into rude health From 1977/78, Maxis leaving Cowley no longer used the Hydrolastic suspension system, having been upgraded to the more advanced Hydragas [...]

The biggest criticism normally aimed at the Maxi – other than the early model’s obstructive gearchange – is usually reserved for its plain Jane styling. The Aquila showed how it could have been made into a far more stylish beast. Alas, it was only ever to be a one-off styling exercise. AS the winning entry [...]

The Austin Maxi has the honourable distinction of being Sir Alec Issigonis’ final production car – and just like the Mini and 1100 before it, the Maxi boasted an extremely advanced spec sheet. KEITH ADAMS takes a look at this oft-misunderstood car and highlights the good… and the bad. Availability Years produced: 1969-1981 Body style: [...]

The Maxi received a couple of facelifts before it reached production in 1969. Here are a number of prototype images of the ADO14 project before it received its final Roy Haynes penned front and rear ends. Pictures supplied by Ian Nicholls. Styling sketch Full-size clays Full-sized prototype The four-door Morris Maxi Thanks to Ian Nicholls [...]

Taken from the first-ever issue of What Car? magazine This 1973 test makes fascinating reading, and is a great insight into how road tests used to be. The repmobiles compared Comparison between the Maxi, Marina and rivals Ten years ago the average man in the street would have been happy with a Mini, Imp or [...]

Hydragas suspension was one of the quiet achievements pioneered and refined by British Leyland – and yet, it never received the praise it deserved. KEITH ADAMS briefly explains how the system works. Pioneer that led nowhere… SINCE the introduction of the Mini in 1959, BL’s predecessor, the British Motor Corporation (BMC), had been right at [...]

Two family cars which changed the face of motoring… forever. First published in Classic Car Weekly in September 2005, KEITH ADAMS pitted the Austin Maxi against the car that arguably sparked off the family hatchback revolution, the Renault 16… Family feud… Introduction WHAT decade gave us the best cars? It’s a long-running debate in the [...]

The Austin-Rover website has been live for sometime now, and yet the Maxi has never featured as Car the Month… May 2004 finally sees this oversight put right… Regassed and revived… The Maxi is seen by many as the final flowering of the Issigonis concept, and it has to be said that it is one [...]

By Julian Mounter Motoring Correspondent A completely revised and greatly improved Austin Maxi is announced by British Leyland today. Quieter, with a smoother and more positive gear change and modernized interior layout it is offered with a choice of 1500c.c. or 1750c.c. engines. The Maxi was heavily criticized after its launch in April last year. [...]

A massive rescue operation carried out on British Leyland’s Austin Maxi car is paying off. Sales of the car dropped to less than 700 in December but are now approaching 3,500 a month,the highest since it was launched a year ago. When home market penetration figures for last month are published within the next few [...]

DAILY EXPRESS By Basil Cardew There are two Maxis in our lives, the ankle length fashion and the 5-seat, 5-door, and 5-gear car. Both slow starters. Whatever view you take of the clothes, the best that can be said for the car is that it has been doggedly defended by Lord Stokes, head of the [...]

By R. W. SHAKESPEARE There was still more trouble in Britain’s strike bound car industry yesterday. All vehicle assembly at the big Austin-Morris division of British Leyland at Cowley, Oxford, stopped at lunchtime because of a one day strike. It was called by shop stewards in protest against the management’s plans to introduce a four [...]

By GILES SMITH The share of the British car market won by British Leyland’s new and much publicized Maxi , production of which will be cut back for the second time in a month later this month, dropped to less than 2.5 per cent in the three months following its April launch it was understood [...]

A second cutback in Austin Maxi production at Oxford within a month will begin when the Morris Motors assembly plant re-opens on September 29 after the autumn week’s holiday. Planned output is now 1600 a week, but this is to drop to 1300. Day workers are to go on a four day week and the [...]

HIGH ROAD Charles Griffin, Director of Engineering at the Austin Morris Division, discusses the Austin Maxi with the Editor. Charles Griffin – This car has been a general talking point for a long time in that the big market place outside has been shouting at us to produce a 1½ litre car to fill the [...]

By GEOFFREY CHARLES, Motoring Correspondent Rapid re-thinking inside the BMH-Leyland group has led to a decision to postpone their next family saloon, the 1.5-litre BMC, until next year. Up to early February, Sir George Harriman, chairman of the group, was setting October as the date for introducing his new front-wheel-drive model, designed to slot between [...]