The WORST Car Ever Made? | Allegro vs Marina | Clarkson's Car Years | Top Gear

The same meeting the BBC had when they got the Square Clarkson

I aint Bri'ish, and i never owned or even seen one of these, but if theres one thing i like about this particular Marina - the side mirrors on the hood. Having to turn my head to the side to see whats behind, instead of having both of those in front sounds like a good idea.

Then again, adjusting those would be a constant pain in the ass, as id have to leave the car to do it, plus, im sure bumps would throw those off constantly too, which bring us to point 1 again. Unless if theres an adjustment thingy inside...?

I thrashed a used Marina 1.8 coupe up and down the UK for a couple of years in the 80s. It was a peppy enjoyable drive that was well worth the couple of hundred quid I paid for it.

Just after the Allegro was started to be sold, I worked for Marshall in Cambridge and needed a car to go and visit a supplier. The transport manager provided me with a Allegro, on the understanding that only me was on the Insurance. My manager decided to come with me and took over to drive the car. He wanted to believe that at certain engine speeds you could change gear without using the clutch! The noise was pretty awful , but eventually he got bored with idea. Next day the transport manager called, demanding to know what the hell I had been doing—————!

Lada Are so bad they make British Leyland look good the 1070's car marina ang Allegro are not that better.

AMC Pacer not winning is scandalous

My first car was a Marina estate, terrible car it has to be said. My brother had a lime green Allegro, hideous in every way.

I love that the two contenders for "the worst car ever made" are both small british shoeboxes

Bad cars were the pre 00s Dacias and Skodas, not these..

So the regular alegro has 4 doors but the estate only has 3???

Curious the filming location

RIP Piano

Haris Mann's original Allegro concept was quite different to the car they eventually made.

The Marina looks nice.

Lot of urban myths from the comments me thinks, no doubt fuelled by Clarkson & Co.

My dad had a marina estate for years and was always reliable. I owned an Austin maxi for six years and the only failing was a water pump. As with all cars of the 70's they were rust traps but I always thought the actual build was pretty solid.

Worst car ever made? As a Yankee, I'm going to have to proclaim the 1971 - 1977 Chevrolet VEGA as the worst car ever made. HORRIBLE engine, rust, poor structural strength.

Can we all agree the reliant robin was the worst car ever made? 😎

40 million on development i could have designed that marina on the back of a envelope 😂😂😂

What was the car with three wheels (one in the front so it constantly rolled when you went around a corner too fast?). Robin Reliant???

I had an Allegro 1500 for 3 years from new in 1979. It was excellent. No real issues.. It was class and luxury amongst the Skodas, Lada's, Citroen-2CV, Wartburgs, DAFs and my previous car, a renault dauphine (that caught fire on the A12 one Boxing day)... and a Vauxhall Viva with a pressed tin dashboard and more leaks than the Titanic, along with a footwell that rotted through to the extent that only the floormat was between my feet and the road. The Allegro was fantastic in comparasion.

Anything below BMW E30 quality in the 80s == shit car. Simple as that really, so that's pretty much every other car lol

In Australia you could get the Morris Marina with a 2.6 litre inline six engine. It could do 0-60 mph in 9 seconds.

This is how I defend my 2008 Hyundai Elantra. It’s so cute

Notice Jeremy doesn't have any American cars in his list

The Allegro had a very smooth ride on tar seal roads but absolute rubbish ride on a gravel road. I had a ride in the back of a brand new Allegro around 1980 & I couldn't believe how crap the ride the ride was on a gravel road. And as others have pointed out the steering wheel is similar to the Tesla Cyber Truck.😂

The front of the allegro looks like the front of a 1972 Chrysler valiant VH

The worst cars back then are still somehow better than the crap they make now

Come on, who else was expecting a piano to fall on that Marina...I know, I was.

I also did drive a Morris Ital, the groovier, hip and more modern version of the Marina around in my yoof, in the early 80's. However, it began to fall apart soon after I purchased it from a car auction, for the princely sum of £85. Mechanically it was actually pretty adequate, but was regularly overtaken by 2CV's, hearses, and the odd invalid carriage!😊😊😊

They both loose🤢🫣, in my opinion

The design was actually quite good wit rather steep A-pillars and not the low angled useless low pillars of todays' cars.

Clarkson has got a massive bonce, I would not have liked to give birth to him

They were bad, but yugo 45/55 was worse.

How dated this looks now, in the light of tesla's control cockpit station wheel. The turning circle though I think is a joke.

Austin Allegro, wasn't that nicknamed the land crab due to it seemingly needing a wheel alignment.

The Marina is a Morris Minor in a new frock, The Allegro is just a bigger classic Mini and is actually pretty cool looking these days, Especially the 1750 Equipe version IMO

Why don't they plant some evergreen trees in England, it looks so bleak?!

If I remember correctly, the Marina was an attempt to bring the Morris Minor up to date. It is, basically, just a Morris Minor with a larger body. Unfortunately, while the suspension and steering were perfectly fine for the smaller Morris Minor body, when fitted with a Morris Marina body - not so much. Still, they did run. I had one. It never broke down. You had to be careful cornering, because, basically, it didn’t (corner, that is) but if you turned it gradually it was not so bad. Nothing really wrong with the engine or gearbox, although not really rated for such a large body.

I never owned either of these vehicles, but I did drive a V reg Marina from London to Leicester one day back in the 1980s having gone down with family to collect a new car they had bought. The Marina was ok but not something I would have owned myself.

Where was this exactly filmed in the uk. Does anyone know the precise location of the roads? The area looks when Clarkson is driving past homes and talking about both cars. Excellent video anyways.

We like to rag on old Soviet cars, and they do deserve it, but wow, there are some western cars from every decade that are equally as ugly, and I would imagine based on what I've heard, equally unreliable.

Allegro styling grows on you.

Any ideas where this segment was filmed?
Looks familiar, but can't place it.

what does that housing estate look like now

My old man had both of these MArina then Allegro, hated both and said he spent 70% of his spare time under the bonnet. UK drivers must have kept the Automotive spares industry going throughout the 70s 80s.

My parents owned a dark blue 2dr "coupé" followed by a red 4dr. Then took a test drive in a puke yellow TC (Twice as Crap) but it was too powerful. Finally settled on a coffee/brown 2tone Maxi. A burgeoning family was the reason for the need for increased space.

Probably not as bad as some of the modern cars.

its a draw, I had both of them

We had a great allegro. Nothing wrong with it. It was just a car.