Austin Motor Company Limited U.K.: Austin is a British automobile motor vehicle manufacturing company Ltd, established on December 1905 by “Herbert Austin”. The company head quartered located in Long Bridge, England, U.K. The company products are automobiles vehicles, Rover, Austin Rover, MG, Morris. It joined with “Morris Motors Limited” in the new tenure company British Motor Corporation (BMC) Limited, keeping its separate identification. The brand is currently owned by SAIC after being transferred from bankrupt subsidiary Nanjing Automotive which got it with MG Rover Group in July 2005.
Established
December 1905; 111 years ago
Headquarters
Longbridge, England, U.K.
Founder
Herbert Austin
Website
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History
Formation and Development
1905s–1918s :
Starting in 1895, he manufactured 3- cars in his free time. They were among Britain’s first cars. The third car, a four-wheeler, completed in 1899. The backing of the Vickers brothers Austin started a separate car manufacturing business still using the name Wolseley. In the last week of April 1906 a large body of motorists travelled to Long bridge “where snow keep full three inches deep on the ground and was still falling fast” to see the new Austin car, a traditional 4-cylinder model with chain drive. It was available as a 15/20 hp complete at £500 (chassis, £425) and a 25/30 hp for £650 (chassis, £550). The sole concessionaire for sale of the cars was Mr. Harvey Du Cros junior.
1919–1939: Interwar success
After the war Herbert Austin decided on a one-model policy based on the 3620 cc 20 hp engine. The models included cars, commercials vehicles and even a tractor, but sales volumes were never enough to fill the vast factory built during wartime. Cars were introduced; the 1661 cc twelve in 1922 and, later the same year, the Seven, a reasonably priced, simple small car and one of the first to be directed at a mass market. At one point, the “Baby Austin” was created under license by the fledgling BMW of Germany (as the Dixi), by the Japanese manufacturer Datsun, as the Bantam in the United State, and as the Rosengart in France.
In 1930, in England the Austin the most manufactured car (the American Austin Car Company operated as a largely independent subsidiary from 1929 to 1934, and revived under the name “American Bantam” from 1937 to 1941).
1939–1958: War years and post-war years
Austin continued manufacturing cars but also made trucks and aircraft, including Avro Lancaster bombers. The post-war car range issued in 1944, and production started in 1945. The immediate post-war range was mostly same to that of the late 1930s but did include the 16 hp, important for having the company’s first overhead valve engine.
1959–1969: Era of revolution
With the threat to fuel supplies resulting from the 1956 Suez Crisis, Lord asked Alec Issigonis, who had been with Morris from 1936 to 1952, to design a small car, the result was the revolutionary Mini, came in 1959. At first the Austin model was called Austin Seven, in 1970, British Leyland dropped the separate Austin and Morris branding of the Mini, and it was afterward simply “Mini”, under the Austin Morris division of BLMC. The big exception to this was the Austin 3L present in 1968, it was a rear-wheel drive large car, but it shared the central section of the 1800. It a sales disaster, with fewer than 10,000 examples being made.
1970–1979: Era of turbulence
By 1970 Austin was division of the British Leyland combine. Austin’s most infamous model of this period was the 1973 Allegro, successor to the 1100/1300 ranges, which criticized for its embedded styling which earned it the nickname “Flying pig”. The wedge-shaped 18/22 series appeared as an Austin, a Morris and a more up market Wolseley since 1975.
1980–1989: Austin Rover era
The Austin Metro, released in October 1980, was apprising as the savior of Austin Motor Company and the whole BL combine. After 21 years, it launch of the Mini, it gave BL a much-needed modern supermini to challenged with the recently launched likes of the Ford Fiesta, Vauxhall Nova, VW Polo and Renault 5.
Plant
Austin started business in an excluded print works at Longbridge, Birmingham. Due to its planned benefits over Morris’s Cowley plant, Long Bridge became British Leyland’s main factory.
Models Lineup
Cars
- Small cars
- Austin 7 hp (1910 to 11)
- Austin 7 (1922 to 39)
- Mini, as BMC (1961 to 69)
- Metro, as Austin Rover (1980 to 90)
Small family cars
- Austin 10 hp (1911 to 15)
- A35 Countryman (1956 to 62)
- A40 Farina Mk I (1958 to 61)
- Allegro (1973 to 83)
Sports cars
- A90 Atlantic Convertible (1948 to 50)
- A90 Atlantic Saloon (1949 to 52)
- Austin-Healey 100 (1953 to 56)
- Austin Sprite (1971)
Limousines and Landaulet
- Austin 60 hp 6-cylinder (1908 to 10)
- Austin Twenty (1919 to 38)
- A120 Princess (1946 to 56)
- A135 Princess (1947 to 56)
- Princess IV (1956 to 59)