Was the avant-garde Princess ahead of its time?

The Princess has got a bad reputation. By the time it featured as Terry Scott’s suburban car in the ever-so middle-class, middle-of-the-road “Terry and June”, it was seen as just another unreliable mistake from British Leyland. But the Princess was front wheel drive – something large family cars flocked to in the 1980s after the Vauxhall Cavalier showed it was the way to go. It had a forward-thinking design, turning its back on boring three box shapes like the Ford Cortina that launched just a year later. And it focused on a low drag shape, just like Citroen, to get the most power and fuel efficiency from the engine.
But being produced by British Leyland in the 1970s, becoming successful was beyond even this car’s reach, and almost as soon as it had launched it was forgotten, and Ford’s boxy Cortina went on to rule the roost. So just what went wrong?

Music (from the YouTube audio library):
* The Basement Strut - The Whole Other
* So Smooth - Danny Kean, Doug Maxwell

Sources:

#bigcar

[BigCar]

Erratum: The Post Office changed from being a department of state to a public corporation (in 1969). It would have been a bit weird if it was private before the Second World War!

[Steve-GMHUU]

Years ago, I worked with gent who had his Princess up until the mid 90s. I think it was around 17 years old when he decided to trade it for a Volvo. I remember he that he described departing with the Princess as a, "moment of weakness". He was a very discerning, capable and knowledge Engineer who had owned many cars but really liked the Princess as it was quite easy to maintain, was good for towing his caravan and just seemed soldier on as a family car year after year.

[rorymacve]

Superb video! :D

The Princess may be a car people love to hate, but even today it's still an eye-catching little machine. :)

[joshbacon]

Who remembers when James May drove a Princess for the British Leyland cars challenge in Series 10 of UK Top Gear in 2007?

[syedammarkhalid]

Hold on- James may used this car in the British Leyland challenge, it was the very car which won the challenge.
I'll always remember Jeremys line when James brought the car, "And he's brought a piece of cheese"

[davidhumpherson]

My Uncle was the "driver" of GOM122N pictured outside a hotel on the Austin Morris Wolseley 18-22 ads. Great video as usual 👍👍👍

[marksntl]

In around 1991 I got hold of a W reg. 2200 HLS. It was in mint condition at the time. It had 71, 000 miles on the clock and I used to clock-up around a further 1000 miles a week on average. I had no major problems with it. Mostly just replacing tyres and brake pads. I sold it with 120, 000 miles on the clock. I loved that car. When I pulled up to a stop at traffic lights etc. the engine appeared silent and when I first owned it, I thought the engine had stalled, on turning the key to restart it, I got the shock of the grinding noise from the starting motor, because it had not stalled at all, it was just silent in traffic. The other cars engines were just louder than mine. The magic carpet ride was the other thing and so much more. I could go on, but not enough room here to tell the whole story. I only sold it because it only ever achieved 23 mpg, no matter how it was driven, around town or long distance. My new purchase achieved between 40 and 50 mpg. After a while, having missed the princess so much I wished I had kept it a Sunday drive / Holidays car.

[gadi]

I had Princess 2 2000HL LHD here in Finland. It was very rarely seen car, and imho the front of it looks great, especially with round headlights. I only needed to replace one valve, clutch and rear suspension bushes. I previously owned Saab 99, and surprisely quite a lot of it's parts (including clutch) were snap-on alternatives, since British ones were quite unknown. Great episode!

[stefanu]

This is a very heartwarming report about BL’s strategy and small innovative steps. Very well done!

[vwestlife]

It looks a lot better with round headlights and without the vinyl roof.

[tonykeogh]

Worked on these back in the day at the main dealer I was with and really liked them. Just a shame the build quality didn’t match the imagination of the style BUT what possessed them to not make it a hatchback amazes me to this day and why build it without a 5th gear as per the already out there Maxi was madness. Could have been a winner so easily.

[richardjones]

"Don't keep asking me why Reg, it just happens to be that year". Another great video, with a great Shuttleworth tune!

[frededwards]

I so enjoyed this video - my now departed Dad was a sales manager for Leyland Trucks through the 70s and 80s and you can imagine his pride when he got promoted in 1976 and changed from a Marina to a Princess 2.2 :-) I reckon he had about 4 or 5 Princesses then 2 Ambassadors (they changed them every 18 months) and he did Star Trek miles so he probably did over 500k miles in these things. Probably because of his mileage they were being serviced very frequently so I don't recall too much unreliability, although one of them had a suspension collapse on one side. We towed trailers, went on holiday to France and all the usual family stuff. Very nostalgic for me but of course when you look back, they just epitomised the BL malaise. Thanks for the effort you put into these videos, they are consistently excellent!

[Ice_Karma]

10:08 I have no idea if they’re even involved with the story of British Leyland, but I'm still reminded of this entry from the ‘fortune cookie’ program found on Unix and Linux (which displays a short, randomly-selected amusing anecdote, story, quote, joke, and the like from a database of thousands) which I first read many years ago: “Lucas is the source of many of the components of the legendarily reliable British automotive electrical systems. Professionals call the company ‘The Prince of Darkness’. Of course, if Lucas were to design and manufacture nuclear weapons, World War III would never get off the ground. The British don’t like warm beer any more than the Americans do. The British drink warm beer because they have Lucas refrigerators.”

[Mike-kcrl]

I had a 1978 1.8HL and it would get very light on the front at speed and very nasty in the wet ! Pretty unstable like a Capri but without any of the cool factor!
Mine was truly a nightmare with it living up to the reliability issues. One of the plus sides of it was the full dual braking systems? I had it six months and that was more than enough for me! Interesting to see video's on them today!

[ichibanmanekineko]

Personally i think it's a beautiful car and that you've certainly done it justice with another excellent video!! :)

[royashworth]

In 1977, I had a Mk2 Princess 2.2HLS automatic. Incredibly spacious (great front and rear seat legroom), comfortable, and reliable, I could not understand all the complaints/criticisms I read about the car. My family and I loved it!

[montyzumazoom]

I had two. 
1st one was an 1800.
The second 2200 was the best, 6 cylinder, auto box and power steering. It surprised other drivers when you floored the pedal off the lights. Best thing was me taking it on a touring holiday from the south coast up the western side of the uk to Scotland including the Isle of Skye, then across to Inverness and down the eastern side of the country M back to home.

2 adults, 1 teenager and 3 kids plus 2 tents and belongings, we did 2, 121 miles in 10 days. Never missed a beat even over Hardknott pass. Cost a fortune in petrol but we had a lot of fun.
Very underrated cars.

[JohnnyNorfolk]

I had a Princess and found it a very good, Ran well, plenty of room in the car and a massive boot. I had it for 4 years without problem. i think it was under rated.

[simonhodgetts]

I learnt to drive in an Ambassador - it was roomy, comfortable, and had an amazing ride. Unfortunately it was also slow, had a woeful gear-change, and by 1984/5 when we owned ours, was completely out of date. Still, I loved both Ambassador’s that my dad owned - I thought they were lovely cars, and for some reason, a cut above the Ford and Vauxhall competition.