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www.leylandprincess.co.uk Wedge Stories
John Fonger’s Wedge
Story My
memories from Holland of a British Leyland car. Ok, really
appreciate your honesty while reading the history of the Leyland Princess. My father,
against my advice, purchased a 76 2200 HLS automatic from the managing
director from BL in Holland. My father
had a friend who could arrange for him to get very young BL company cars at
(we're Dutch) great prices. This 2200 HLS was a stunning looker, maroon with
a webasto sunroof and beige "velours d'Utrecht" upholstery with
green tinted windows and the famous Triplex windshield. And huge Lucas
headlights - that actually worked properly! However, the
car was crap, after seven months the engine seized and after that
the automatic gearbox, all on a car that did not even do 100,000k. It was
horrible. Our
neighbour drove an 1800 in light metallic green. In winter time my severely
corroded X-ray picture of a Datsun 120Y was used to start both Princesses
almost every day! This had not been a good enough lesson for my father; he of
course bought another 2200 HLS, in the same colour scheme, from the same man,
but a manual. This car suffered from real bad suspension problems every six
months making the car look like a sinking battleship. We called the
second Princess ' Bismarck' for this reason! I remember
being pulled off the road by the Police trying to come home in it, the
ordinary coppers called the more technical Dutch Traffic Police after
having heard my story and the normal coppers (there are two types pof Police in Holland? Ed) was very annoying,
not believing my story. It started to rain and when the Traffic Police
arrived in their white BMW 2002, the guy came up to the car, told me he'd sit
inside instead of standing outside in the rain. I wanted to make a sarcastic
remark but fortunately I didn't. He
caressed the upholstery of the HLS, told me had had an Allegro in the same
colour scheme as this Princess, understood the story I told him and said
"lovely cars Sir, but
the build quality is crap." A Police car with blue light on
accompanied me home and then, once again the Princess was picked up on a
trailer by the garage for repairs. You could
not sell a used Princess that had done some mileage; these cars all ended up
at scrap yards after 5 - 6 years because nobody wanted them. Of course,
a few years later with the arrival of the new 2 litre my father could not
resist and made the same mistake again, this time a pale metallic blue 2 litre
with the 'O' Series engine and charcoal interior. Oh
stupid people at BL! If they had only made this car properly
immediately from the start. The 2 litre ran without any extra costs or
maintenance on LPG for over 200,000 kilometers ! The engine performed better
than any of the six-cylinders we'd owned, the engine did not use any oil
between service intervals, it always started and the suspension had no
Bismarck signs at all. This
Princess was the only one that we did not take to the scrapyard, and with its
respectable 200,000 kilometer we sold it on to a Turkish guy who needed a
cheap motor to drive down to Turkey for his holidays with his family. The real
sorry thing of the Princess story is that in Holland the car
initially was a big success against the 504 Peugeot the Opel
Rekord (Vauxhall Carlton) Ford Granada, Audi 100 or a disappointing BMW 518. There was nothing wrong with the car's shape, performance, or
looks. It was the issue of reliability that set people off and the
expensive maintenance and spares. Best
regards, John
Fongers Added 29th
October 2006. Tell us
your Princess story. Email it to me and I’ll put
it on the site, and don’t forget the pictures! |
Dutch specification Princess2 |
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