Morris Minor Owners Club

I wonder why Nuffield Exports did not offer a boot lid that would suit North American number plates?
The resultant aftermarket bracket never looks anything other than clumsy with the original pressing accentuating the ‘from away’ origins of the car. When you consider the re-tooling effort to place the headlamps on the wings (driven by US lighting regulations) and the effort to add flashing indicators to early export cars.

jagnut66 wrote: ↑Sun May 23, 2021 2:56 pm ...ruined the look of many a good British classic...

True and I can’t argue - they are pugly. But you can understand why BL did that. They were chasing the Yankee Dollar and kowtowing to get certification and trying to keep an ailing car industry afloat... and full marks for trying.

There is an excellent BBC documentary under the Timeshift banner that explained how the demand of returning US personnel after the second WW for affordable sports cars, kickstarted the UK sports car manufacturers and points out that once the US stopped importing the high volume low price manufacturing ceased - until BMW came along!

Incidentally there are no end of MGs, TR4, 5 and 6s and big Healeys here. It’s the classic Brit saloons that are in the minority. I suppose Nuffield, BMC, BL knew what was going to make the money.

(And I answered my own original question )

I think if a backing plate the same size as the UK number plate was placed behind the U.S. plate in the same colours, that may improve the look a little.

jagnut66 wrote: ↑Sun May 23, 2021 2:56 pm Yes, I agree, American regulations have ruined the look of many a good British classic, Series 3 Jaguar XJ6s and MGBs / Midgets both had put put on ugly great black plastic bumpers replacing the nice aesthetically pleasing chrome ones they started out with, for example.....

Best wishes,
Mike.

Yes, it's ironic that back in the 70s, US legislation forced those ridiculous changes onto UK cars, supposedly to improve pedestrian safety as I understand it, yet they never did anything about Bull/'Roo Bars going on pickups, or even just US designs in general.

Only this morning, I saw a Tweet from someone highlighting child safety around US vehicles....the image illustrating the Tweet was this....

Don't think you could expect the Export Department to worry about number plate mounting, when they couldn't even be bothered fitting a key operated door lock on the LHD driver's side until 1962!

jagnut66 wrote: ↑Tue May 25, 2021 11:09 pm Just goes to underline why I think all such vehicles should be banned!

A rare point of agreement between jagnut and myself! The flight to ever larger cars baffles me and has undone all advances in fuel efficiency due to the weight of the things.

To the original point; quite a drastic and expensive measure but smooth boot or rather trunk lids without the number plate crease are available in fibreglass.

A rare point of agreement between jagnut and myself!

Blimey! I need to go and lie down.......

Mark Wilson wrote: ↑Wed May 26, 2021 12:40 pm Don't think you could expect the Export Department to worry about number plate mounting, when they couldn't even be bothered fitting a key operated door lock on the LHD driver's side until 1962!

Aye, I noticed that too!

The timing of the 1962 left door lock is the same time that there were no "official" imports to the States. I think the attraction to these bigger cars over here is the upright seating position. The auto makers nor the buyers realize this. If there was a vehicle in which a person can enter and sit like a human, they would sell well.

jaekl wrote: ↑Thu May 27, 2021 11:50 am The timing of the 1962 left door lock is the same time that there were no "official" imports to the States. I think the attraction to these bigger cars over here is the upright seating position. The auto makers nor the buyers realize this. If there was a vehicle in which a person can enter and sit like a human, they would sell well.

The Mini only sold 10,000 in the USA over a 7 year period (60-67) and was withdrawn due to the 1968 changes in US federal regulations.
So perhaps there's some truth in your comment; or it's just that a quirky little car can't compete with Detroit producing cars over 4 times the size...

My guess is it went something like this;

US importer. ‘You need to fit higher headlights to the Minor’

Morris. ‘Why?’

‘There’s a new law here, the old lights are too low.’

‘Suppose we don’t?’

‘Well then you can forget about selling any more Minors over here.’

‘I suppose we’ll have to then.’

‘Also could we have a different trunk lid? Our plates are different and it looks odd.’

‘Do we have to?’

‘No but you might sell a few more cars if they looked nicer.’

‘Nah, don’t think we’ll bother.’

Aside; ‘Damned colonials, just who do they think they are,’

‘Also could we have a different trunk lid? Our plates are different and it looks odd.’

‘Do we have to?’

‘No but you might sell a few more cars if they looked nicer.’

‘Nah, don’t think we’ll bother.’

Aside; ‘Damned colonials, just who do they think they are,’

Never a truer word spoken in jest......

Interesting supposition. Don’t listen to your customer (at home or abroad), produce dross, lose your car industry.

I remember reading the biggest mistake of the Allegro (biggest I said!) was not to include a hatchback that had been identified by pre launch focus groups.

It’s a shame. We laught at Russian cars, are critical of American goliaths but they still have a thriving industry whereas in Britain we build damn good cars for Japanese, German and Indian parent companies. (Nissan, MINI and Jaguar Landrover) - Two former enemies and an ex colony...

jagnut66 wrote: ↑Thu May 27, 2021 11:25 pm Yes, it has been said that we 'won the war but lost the peace'.............
Along with our Empire........
Standing up to Hitler was the morally right thing to do but once we'd won we seemed to go and turn it into a bit of an 'own goal'.....

Agree.

We entered the war a global superpower and owner of the worlds largest empire. After - bankrupt, shorn of empire and economically weaker than the wartime enemies.

Nobody has mentioned the TR7 which was a big seller in America until the bumper safety instruction