Top 10: Survivors from the 1970s
The ’70s were tough times for Britain’s motor industry, with a drop in production and a dramatic rise in sales of imported cars throughout the decade. Set that against a backdrop of poor industrial relations and over-complicated model ranges, and it’s easy to see why companies like British Leyland had problems.
At the start of the ’70s, Britain was building more than 1.6 million cars annually – a figure that fell to less than a million by 1980. By it wasn’t all bad news, for the ’70s saw some all-time greats produced. Check out these figures for the ten top survivors, which include the ones still in use and those that are SORN’d.
Triumph Stag
7317 still registered in the UK
Launched in 1970 and running for seven years, the Triumph Stag was an upmarket V8-engined ‘grand tourer’ occupying a relatively small market niche, which helps explain why just 25,939 cars were built. Around 19,000 of those Stags were sold in Britain, which makes today’s survival rate of more than 38% of that figure seem amazing.
That gives the Stag the greatest survival rate of any 1970s car in percentage terms, a testimony to it being considered something of a classic whilst still in production. It may have had its reliability issues when new, but the Stag has had the last laugh.
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