Often cited as one of Britain’s worst cars, representing an era of industrial turmoil and poor design. The Austin Allegro was launched in 1973 offering no dynamic improvement on its predecessor, and featured an odd quartic steering wheel, which British Leyland had assured journalists testing pre-production models would be gone by the time of launch. It was supposed to represent a high-technology approach to cars; what resulted was a car that had been compromised at every step of its development, resulting in its podgy looks. Improvements were made through the 1970s, not least the disappearance of the quartic steering wheel, but the Allegro was well overtaken by more modern hatchbacks (the saloons retained a conventional boot through their run) as the late 1970s came. However, it has its followers, who point out that the car was not that unreliable but came to be grouped with other BL offerings. It was finally replaced by the Austin Maestro in 1982.

• Austin Allegro Mk I
• Austin Allegro 2
• Austin Allegro 3

Marque: Austin | Predecessor: Austin 1100, 1300 | Successor: Austin Maestro

q.v. Vanden Plas 1500, 1750; Innocenti Regent