The Morris Minor is the tops on the Highway
FORGET your swanky Aston Martin or even the modest Mini – it’s the marvellous Morris Minor which is the car that best personifies Britain and its people.
In a poll conducted for motor insurer Highway, it was the Morris Minor, which was in production from 1948 to 1971 that came top.
First shown at the London Motor Show in 1948, one of its designers was Sir Alec Issigonis, the man who went on to create the Mini.
Joint second in the poll were the Triumph Spitfire and the Austin Healey.
Other names in the top 10 included Ford Anglia, Triumph Herald, Morris Oxford and Morris Cambridge – all vehicles that were features of the road in the 1950s and 1960s as car ownership quickly spread to the majority of households.
When first launched in 1948, the Minor cost just under £360. Frank Spencer (Michael Crawford) in TV’s Some Mothers Do `Ave `Em, is just one famous owner of more than 1.6-million Morris Minors that were produced.
According to British drivers, the 10 cars which are ‘most evocative of all things British’ are:
1. Morris Minor
2= Triumph Spitfire and Austin Healey
4. Ford Anglia
5. Triumph Herald
6. Morris Oxford
7. Austin Cambridge
8. Vauxhall Victor
9. Bentley Brooklands
10. Morris Cowley