Morris Marina Men - Mad!

Has this already degenerated into all-out war? Oh, for God's sake.


To the Marina owners that read this forum: It's always hard to fathom that if you love your car, it's not always necessary and never an occurence that absolutely EVERYONE in this world loves your car as much as you do. In fact, there are gazillions of cars out there, each and every single one of them with its fans and detractors. Your bad luck was that the Morris Marina is viewed by most of the British public, as far as I can tell, as a rotting and useless piece of sh**. At least in its original state. Maybe you guys did some restoration work on your cars that improved their reliability, their driveability and so on, and if you did that, you have every reason to feel proud about that. But when there's a general consensus that a car is rubbish, which in the case of the Marina is punctuated by the fact that it's one of the most scrapped cars, you have to accept that there are people who hate that car with a vengeance. And not just a few people, but many who have had miserable experiences with that type of car.

I'm guessing that classic cars do work properly when maintained properly, but the problem with the Marina is that it wasn't easily maintainable because of its many faults. You guys must find it relatively easy to use these cars because you maintain them, but what do you have against burning a scrapped one? It's just a weak one perishing, and it means now that there's a higher percentage of maintained ones on the road, and one less junked Marina on this planet; I'm sure that the one that was burned was beyond mechanical help at the time.


So please let off some steam. You can't ask everyone in this world to love your car, you have to accept that there are many people who hate it, especially if the public opinion about the car was negative from the start. And there are many people who hate it so much that they want it destroyed. Try searching for people who had bad experiences with an old car and ask them if they ever want to drive that car again, or if they want to see it wiped off the face of the Earth.
 
"And what else did you do with your life Grandad?"

"Well, I spent several years lovingly sourcing and restoring what is considered to be one of the worst... oh God what a waste..."

Actually, it has just occured to me - in order to restore them to prime condition, as exact as they were they day they rolled out of BLs factory, requires them to start the car and have it break down by the end of their street.

I imagine "the wife" is waiting there with a triumphant cup of tea.
 
Yours is all over just as quickly as it started, whereas I've built mine to last.... longer.

:)
 
Member list

Look at some of the names just on the second to last page "Topgearlover" "MORRISMARINASARESHIT" and "Raining_Pianos_On_Marinas" :lol:
 
Now the site says that
Sorry, but Fastmarinamagazine.com is currently unavailable due to site maintenance. We hope to be back around 18:00. Sorry for the Inconvenience.
Click to expand...
 
Yeah, I bet they test the members with technical questions about Marinas.

Edit: Just read the Wiki page. There's barely a positive thing written about that car! The Marina Men(or some members from here) should edit it as quickly as possible!
 
Instead of wrecking the Marinas, Jeremy should stick that stupid V8 he's been dicking around with in one. Then have the Stig ramp it over a 747 or something.
 
Mind if I chime in here?

First of all, to the previous owner of the Marina-turned-brazier: If it mattered so much to you then you should not have sold it at all or at least sold it to someone from your board who would have taken good care of the car. Once you sell your pride and joy it's in the hands of another. I know what it's like seeing a car you love go out the door. Even if it's a car most other people just don't understand. I get it, I really do. However, don't go crying when your baby doesn't end up in a museum or Jay Leno's garage.

To my fellow FG members:
Look, the destruction of what is, for all intents and purposes, a horrible car was good for a giggle. The uproar it created was a chuckle for a bit, but that time has past. There is no reason that this should turn into The Great Forum War of '08. The fact is that the members on the Marina forum are petrol heads as well, and we probably have more in common with them than either of us realize. Ok, so the car of their admiration doesn't have a V8 or do screaming lap times, but I bet most of us don't own cars like that and probably never will. I am a huge fan of the mid 1970s Volvos (especially the estate). We all have cars we love that other people just don't understand. I actually applaud the Marina owners who are not ashamed of their unconventional infaturation with BL and have found a community of fellow enthusiasts. I'm sure that BL and the Marina are special to each member on that board for one reason or another, the point is that they are fellow auto enthusiasts. It's easy to be a fan of Mercedes or Porsche from that same time period, but it's not so easy being a fan of BL, I suspect. There are a great number of terrible cars that have loyal followings (just look at America). That's not the point, the point is to follow your passion and if that passion is for smoking electrics, dodgy gear boxes and poor build quality, thats fine - I say go for it!

I actually thought the challenge put forth on the Marina forum was quite interesting - a lap around the TG track in a 1.8 Marina against the 1.8 Chevy. The gauntlet has been thrown down, and I, for one, would love to see the result.
 
Blind_Io said:
I actually thought the challenge put forth on the Marina forum was quite interesting - a lap around the TG track in a 1.8 Marina against the 1.8 Chevy. The gauntlet has been thrown down, and I, for one, would love to see the result.
Click to expand...

What, the Marina bursting into flames halfway through the followthrough and crashing into yet another conveniently-placed Marina? Oh I would love to see that happen on TG.

I can somewhat see your point on the Marina being worthy of some niche corner of attention. If you just go by the Classic Wall's definition of a classic, it does tick the necessary two of three boxes:

Rare: Sure is, and getting rarer by the day.
Beautiful: To its mother, yes, so no.
Interesting: As a poster child for BL idiocy, yes, but it's a very special kind of interesting.

I for one have a soft spot for late-80s Corolla 3-door hatchbacks, which is probably even less interesting than a Marina in some eyes. Feel free to tell me to get a life, blow one up in front of my eyes, and I won't ask you to get drawn and quartered. That's what we're making fun of, not just the fact that these guys are enthusiasts about an obscure rot-box, but that they take it so damn seriously and touchily.
 
IDK, they're taking this too seriously methinks, I mean it's not by any means a classic car, It will probably have no historical significance in the future (then again they say the same thing of my 2007 Impala LS and I want to baby that car so it runs forever).

By all estimations the Morris/Austin Marina was a horrible car... and yet I can't help but feel a little kinship for it, you know, feel a little sorry for it when the TG people make fun of it. You see my mother's first car was a flaky 1973 Austin Marina Saloon (Canadian Spec) in that brown color that is now fashionable on Buicks. She drove it all the way from Nova Scotia to Edmonton in 1979 before it basically gave up the ghost and she replaced it with a 1979 German-Made Ford Fiesta Mk1 (which lasted twenty years).
 
Plissken said:
Yours is all over just as quickly as it started, whereas I've built mine to last.... longer.

:)
Click to expand...

More destruction my way :lol:

Labcoatguy said:
I for one have a soft spot for late-80s Corolla 3-door hatchbacks
Click to expand...

Those cars actually found a niche market, and today actually have a use in drifting. The Marina is just...well...nothing but a boring, unreliable car
 
You know, with as much hate as they still dish out towards TG, I bet any one of them would still sell their cars if the BBC offered them some money.

Sure, there's some pride in having "One of the Worst Cars in Britain", I could see that... but having a couple thousand GBP is always going to be better.
 
nouseferaname90 said:
Those cars actually found a niche market, and today actually have a use in drifting. The Marina is just...well...nothing but a boring, unreliable car
Click to expand...

Oh, I'm referring to the FWD ones, the FX16 with the 4AGE. Even more niche.
 
nouseferaname90 said:
Oh the insanity that I have just found

[YOUTUBE]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g714QzYvfcA[/YOUTUBE]

the entire video a bunch of lies!
Click to expand...

:lol: I couldn't stop laughing after the BL logo appeared after the intro.
 
I think what set the Marina guys off more then the destruction of a Marina was the fact that the BBC lied to the previous owner.

Just a thought.
 
Webmonkey said:
If it's a British car, someone, somewhere will find a reason to fall in love with it. Even if it's essentially a bag of bolts.

The same is true of Americans, they get very protective of some of their ludicrous cars.
Click to expand...

You said it.

The Pontiac Fiero comes to mind here. In fact, anything made by GM since the 70's now that I think of it. Every time I hear the sound of a 3800 V6 I get a little sick.

The GNX is only thing they made that was even slightly innovative.
 
Plissken's avatar is mesmerizing.

I can actually get the love of somewhat questionable cars. I adore the Lincoln Blackwood, because it's so gleefully stupid that I have to have one. I also love the '93 Buick Skylark, even though nothing on them fit together properly and they were known to self destruct, mostly because the design is so out there and weird you've got to admire it for getting put into production.

Then again, the Marina isn't exactly looney, but rather just fairly boring. So I don't love that.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top