Bad executive cars of the past

[philfrommancs]

Re: Bad executive cars of the past



Austin Princess. My dad had one 2nd hand. Often maligned but my dad thought it was the bees knees. One of my first cars was a Talbot Solara. Not quite executive but it did have electric windows. Was forever having to fix them .

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[Arran]

Re: Bad executive cars of the past

The Hyundai Sonata from the 1990s. Take a lacklustre family saloon, expand the bodyshell, fill it with every electrical toy, then advertise it as being an executive car. Except that it's not up to the refinement and standard that one would expect from an executive car even by the standards of the 1990s.

[Richard1978]

Re: Bad executive cars of the past

The Chrysler 2 Litre was planned to be sold in the UK, but Chrysler decided to start merging the Rootes & Simca ranges.

[Arran]

Re: Bad executive cars of the past

Humber was the upmarket division of Rootes. During the 1950s and 60s the Humber Hawk and Super Snipe were elegant large saloons sometimes referred to as a poor man's Rolls Royce. They were discontinued without replacement in 1967 leaving the Mk3 Sceptre as the last car with a Humber badge. The executive car that wasn't. It was nothing more than a top of the range Hillman Hunter with a wood veneer dashboard and quad headlights. It even used the same 1.7 litre engine. At its best it was a competitor for the Ford Cortina Ghia but even that was a more refined car and available with a 2.0 litre engine.

It's late replacement was the Talbot Tagora but it sold in such small numbers that hardly anybody knows it even existed. Unlike the offerings from Humber with wood veneer as standard, the interior of the Tagora was very bland and plasticy.

[darren]

Re: Bad executive cars of the past

Funny enough a fella in the street where i lived as a kid had a black one of this green one well as far as i can remember it was pretty similar.

I used to love going round to see it.

we had a silver granada gear with w black vinyl roof for a while, like this one:



turned out to be three different cars welded together. We sold it to the milkman.

We also inherited my grandad's humber hawk, that was a lovely beast, this model in black:



i remember him dropping me off at junior school in it once and other kids asking if it was the mayor's car. Xd

[staffslad]

Re: Bad executive cars of the past

The Ford Zodiac was mentioned by a previous poster. My dad's mate had a Zodiac Executive, pale metallic blue with--I think--front bench seat. It was a very big car. One day he took it into a multi-storey car park, but its turning circle wasn't tight enough to get round the corners and he had to back it all the way out again.

[Mulletino]

Re: Bad executive cars of the past

We had a Silver Granada Gear with w black vinyl roof for a while, like this one:



Turned out to be three different cars welded together. We sold it to the milkman.

We also inherited my Grandad's Humber Hawk, that was a lovely beast, this model in Black:



I remember him dropping me off at Junior School in it once and other kids asking if it was the Mayor's car. XD

[Zincubus]

Re: Bad executive cars of the past

what about a Ford Granada......smart cars but BIG and the one I inherited from my boss had a car alarm that was always going off at the merest touch...and the Zodiac ?

I loved the look of Ford Granadas - probably as they were used by Jack Regan in the Sweeney .

Can't recall seeing many around our way , plenty of Capris though

[DSCOMAN]

Re: Bad executive cars of the past

what about a Ford Granada......smart cars but BIG and the one I inherited from my boss had a car alarm that was always going off at the merest touch...and the Zodiac ?

Re: Bad executive cars of the past

i'm tempted to say the chrysler 180. think it ceased production around 1980. my mates dad had one as a company car. my mate hated it, but i kinda liked it.

[staffslad]

Re: Bad executive cars of the past

I think the Humber Sceptre was a tarted up Hillman Hunter, wasn't it? My dad came close to buying a used one, but the garage wanted him to buy it on HP and he wouldn't. I seem to remember that the Hunter was also the basis for the Singer Gazelle and Hillman Minx and Sunbeam Rapier. And possibly the Rootes Arrow was the originator of them all.

[Arran]

There were several bad executive cars around in the 1970s, 80s, and 90s including the:

Humber Sceptre Mk3
Talbot Tagora
Rover 800
Alfa Romeo 6
Fiat Argenta

Only the Rover 800 was a big seller. The Talbot Tagora is so rare that very few people saw one even when they were in production.