1st Jan 2010, 17:32
My father had a 1977 Morris Marina in blue. That car was part of my childhood for many years. My father owned it for about twelve years, then sold it to a local garage as the engine was worn and thus burning oil. I remember it well and have fond memories of the car. The registration was EDN887S and it was the 1.8 model.
My father never looks after his cars, and just drives them until they break, and the Marina survived past 100 000 miles, getting to and from each end of the country. The garage left it parked up for a while until it was vandalised a year later. Although the car was no longer in the family, I was at the age of twelve at the time, very heart broken to see the Marina being slowly destroyed, until six months later it was towed away and crushed. Even my father was distraught to see this, and wished he had bought it back.
Out of 800 000 Marinas sold, they must be about 400 left.
7th Mar 2010, 08:54
I used to own 2 Marina's. My first was a beige 1.8 coupe whose famously poor brakes resulted in its demise as the Viva in front stopped faster than I could. (WJO 748K)
As a repair I bought a complete 1.8TC Jubilee 4 door in Citron (a strange luminescent yellow/green colour), but this was the better car, so I got this going instead (UGX 398M) and scrapped the old coupe to recover the £90 paid for it. By the time I had sold the engine, gear box, back axle and other bits, I made a profit.
I sold UGX in 1986 for £275 to a guy from Stratford-On-Avon. Still had a lick of speed on it, 36 miles from Newbury to Woodstock in 23 minutes... don't know what top whack hit as the speedo had died by then. Still miss that car.
26th Jul 2010, 10:29
I still own a Marina, now in 2010, although mine is a 1.3 Coupe.
For a 37 year old car mine is still in remarkable condition, I have done a fair amount of work to her including a full respray to professional standards which I did myself, but mechanically she's needed next to nothing. OK the car compared with modern stuff feels ancient, but nevertheless it's still huge fun to drive and has character by the bucketload I think!
If ever there was proof that the motoring press talk crap it's in one of these. They took a downer on the car back in 1971 because BL were daft enough to let a motoring journalist loose with a pre-production 1.8 with unfinished suspension geometry which made the legend of the car having terminal understeer. In reality, if you stay within sensible limits the car doesn't roll or understeer any worse than any other run of the mill 70's car. Put it this way, I've never found myself on the wrong side of the road on a bend, and I don't drive slow!
Overall I like these cars and they deserve their Classic status!
10th Dec 2010, 10:29
I had a Marina Jubilee that I bought at auction when it was about 4 years old. It was one of the most reliable and fun to drive cars that I've owned, and I've had quite a few.
It was written off after I'd owned it 3 years (hit from behind by a Volvo articulated at the Sherwood Forest roundabout), but I bought it back from the insurance company, and had it repaired at a small backstreet body shop. I ran it for 3 more years before giving it to a friend.
I can't remember the registration, but I remember that the colour was described as green by women, and yellow by men!
15th Apr 2011, 01:05
I certainly remember my special edition model in a sickly lime green colour, but I still loved it. Can't remember the reg, although UBX does ring a bell. Made a nice throaty sound. Aah, good times.
13th Jan 2012, 05:08
I had a Jubilee TMP132M from 1980 to 85, took it to Munich for 3 years, and sold it at auction in South London on return.
Apart from rust resulting in a full respray, which I did myself, and an exploding gearbox, I never had much trouble with it. Covered 100,000 miles by the time I parted with it. Nice comfy ride, not what can be said of my brand new MG Maestro that I moved onto!
4th Feb 2014, 14:44
We had a Jubilee model from new. As I recall, it was only one car per BL dealership. Our one had reg no NNS 100M and was the only Jubilee registered in the county of Sutherland. Sadly it was involved in an accident when only two years old, and after repairs, rust took hold in many areas. Happy memories of an eye catching model of its era.
14th Sep 2006, 03:55
Hi, the Marina Jubilee 1800TC was a special limited edition to mark the Diamond Jubilee of BLMC. All of these cars were saloon models, Citron in colour with black vinyl roof on a 'M' Reg plate (1973). They came with front under bumper fog lights, tinted windows, opening front door quarter lights, the TC grille was also trimmed in citron colour as apposed to red, Brushed nylon navy seats with head rests and navy interior. they did not have the standard TC wheels they had a centre trim with leyland badge in the middle. A Jubilee badge on the sides of the front wings below the TC wing badge was also added. I was also about 2 to 3 years old when they came out and I still remember them in detail.
There were only a limited number produced between 1000 and 2000 cars!
Cheers,
Paul.