The Morris Ital was a medium-sized car built by British Leyland (BL) from 1980 until 1984.
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Design and launch
The Ital was launched on 1 July 1980. It took its name from Giorgetto Giugiaro's ItalDesign studio, who had been employed by BL to manage the re-engineering of Morris Marina, a car which had been produced since 1971. Although the redesigned car was named Ital, it was actually Harris Mann who was responsible for the car's new look. BL's advertising, however, emphasised the car's connection with the Italian styling house Italdesign, who had in fact merely productionised the design.[1]
The Ital had revised exterior styling, but retained the Marina's 1.3- and 1.7-litre petrol engines and rear wheel drive chassis which could be traced back to the 1948 Morris Minor. The Marina's coupé variant was not continued, but the four-door saloon, five-door estate and pick-up and van versions were carried over from the Marina range. From 1981, an automatic version of the Ital was available with the 2.0-litre O-Series power unit.
Sales
The Ital sold reasonably well in Britain during the early 1980s, offering a competitive asking price and low running costs. The Ital's technology differed from many of its contemporaries, such as the Opel Ascona/Vauxhall Cavalier, as well as the Renault 18 and Talbot Alpine, which were front wheel drive. After the introduction of the Opel Ascona C / Vauxhall Cavalier Mark II in August 1981, the Ital and Ford's Cortina (and later Sierra) were the only mass-volume cars in the sector to maintain rear-wheel drive.
The end of Morris
The Ital was the last production car to wear the Morris badge (though there was a van version of the Metro which wore the Morris badge until 1984). Production of the Ital was swapped from Cowley to Longbridge in September 1982 to allow the Cowley plant to be upgraded for production of the forthcoming Austin Montego and Austin Maestro. At this time the Ital received an upgrade with different front and rear suspension (parabolic rear springs and telescopic front dampers) and models were redesignated SL and SLX. The saloon was dropped from production in February 1984 with the van and estate completing outgoing contracts for another six months until they too were axed. From this point, the Morris marque was kept alive solely by the Metro van, and by the end of the decade the Morris marque had been completely discontinued along with the Austin marque, as the Rover brand monopolised the range of hatchback and saloons.
The Ital's successor was the Austin Montego, launched in April 1984 as a four-door saloon, with a five-door estate arriving in January 1985.
Later production in China
After UK production ceased, the Ital's production tooling was sold to the Chengdu Auto Works, a company belonging to the First Auto Works Group in Sichuan province, China. In 1998 the Ital estate (utilising a locally-made chassis) reappeared there under the name Huandu CAC6430. Van and pick-up variants were also produced. However, Chengdu Auto Works is thought to have closed down in May 1999.[2]
Reputation
Already outdated at its launch, and continually saddled with build quality problems, the Ital soon gained a very bad reputation. In July 2008, it ended up 2nd in a poll of "the worst British car ever" conducted by The Sun newspaper[3], ending narrowly behind the Austin Allegro. The Ital was said to have similar rust problems to its predecessor, the Morris Marina, and because of this surviving Itals are rare today, although the Marina and Ital Owners Club is making sure the few remaining examples survive.
References
External links
- Morris Marina Owners Club & Morris Ital Register (UK)
- AROnline.co.uk — Morris Marina/Ital index page
- The Morris Ital Resource
Categories: Morris vehicles | British Leyland vehicles
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