Happy 50th birthday Maxi!

Yesterday marked exactly 50 years since the Austin Maxi was presented to the world on 24th April 1969 in Oporto, Portugal. The Maxi has had a bit of a tough life: born prematurely as a step-child to parents who got together long after it was conceived, it finally came good 18 months later but was then left to fester for a decade before quickly disappearing into oblivion, and is still often mocked but only now finally earning the recognition it deserves. It's hard to believe this brilliant but flawed car is now half a century old, so join me in raising a glass to the humble and often-misunderstood Maxi as it celebrates its 50th birthday...

A troubled start

 

The Maxi's original form, 50 years young

The Maxi didn't have the easiest of gestations. An early decision to cut costs by sharing the doors of the 1800 'Landcrab' compromised its layout and meant there was little that could be done to distinguish it from its slightly bigger brother. It was the last production car to be designed by Alec Issigonis and as usual for him was an odd combination of advanced technology with little in the way of style and creature comforts. As much as I love the Maxi, I have to admit it is quite a strange looking car, and while Issigonis's simplistic approach to styling looks cute on small cars like the Mini and 1100 it doesn't really work on a larger one.

Under new management 

 

An odd-looking car, designed by Issigonis at BMC but launched by BL

Then came family turmoil. Having brought it very close to production, the Maxi's creators at BMC suddenly found themselves part of the British Leyland combine under new managers from the Leyland side of the business who didn't really see the point of the Maxi. It was too far advanced to cancel though, so development had to continue but it was always seen as the unwanted step-child and instead of embracing it BL management were quick to blame their predecessors at BMC for lumbering them with this undesirable oddball.

Welcome to the world 

 

So much potential but was it rushed out too soon?

So it was that against this troubled background the world's motoring press gathered in Portugal fifty years ago for their first taste of BL's long-awaited new family car. It was so unlike anything they'd seen before that they didn't really know what to make of it and reception was somewhat mixed. The infamously awful cable-operated change unforgivably tempered the benefits of the innovative five-speed gearbox, and the lack of choice was another bone of contention with the original Maxi coming in only one basic specification. As a result, initial sales were far slower than BL's grand predictions and the original target of 2000 cars a week would never be achieved. 

Rebirth 

 

Second time lucky with the rod-change 1750

Things got so bad that just 18 months after its debut the Maxi was completely relaunched in a much-improved form. Cosmetic changes were minor and didn't do anything to improve the odd styling, but with a rod-operated gearchange and the option of a more powerful 1750cc engine the driving experience became much more pleasant. This made for a far better car and is what the Maxi should have been from the start, but it was too late and the overly radical design that scared away conservative buyers combined with the issues suffered by those early models had already done permanent damage to its reputation from which it never recovered.

Neglect 

 

Maxi 2 - end of the line and outdated by 1981

There would be no more significant developments to the Maxi over the following decade, and instead it was just left to soldier on largely unchanged with little effort put into promoting its unique features, a victim of apathy more than anything else. There was a last-ditch facelift in 1980, confusingly named Maxi 2 despite being the third generation, but by this time no amount of cosmetic upgrades could disguise the dated 1960s design as a product fit for the eighties. Production came to an end just 12 months later, leaving British Leyland somewhat disappointed that the Maxi didn't ever achieve the volumes they had hoped. That arguably had less to do with the car itself than a failure to market it properly though.

Problem child?

 

Part of the furniture in 1970s Britain

 

 

Although not in the same league as the Allegro, the Maxi is still consistently mocked for being among the worst cars ever made. I don't think that's justified as although it never reached its manufacturer's lofty targets it was by no means a colossal failure. It remained in production for 12 whole years and almost half a million were made, so plenty of buyers saw past its dubious reputation. Maxis really were everyday street furniture and a part of 1970s British life that could be seen everywhere, and it's amazing how many scenes from the seventies and eighties feature at least one Maxi somewhere in the background.

Reaching maturity

 

Just a banger for so many years

Despite so many being built, time has not been kind to the Maxi and attrition is extremely high as they were never desirable cars and the unconventional technology meant they were scrapped by the thousands after entering banger territory. Today little more than a hundred Maxis remain on UK roads, but these rare survivors have a very devoted following and many owners are so committed to the Maxi that they have more than one. After so many turbulent years in the doldrums, forgotten or ridiculed, as it reaches its half-century the Maxi has finally started to earn well-deserved classic status and be taken seriously by the enthusiast community as a genuinely groundbreaking if sadly flawed car rather than the flop it has so often been branded, and I for one welcome this long-overdue acceptance.


Happy 50th birthday, Austin Maxi - here's to the next fifty years!