1931 Alvis 12/50 Sportsman Tourer 1600

Summary:

Tremendous family fun & available in Saloon, 2 seater or 4

Faults:

Misfire on no. 4 cylinder

General Comments:

Alvis, especially vintage & post vintage are up there with Lagonda & Bentley & achieved good racing results while being cheaper to buy & run.

They are mechanically simple, but carefully built with quality materials.

Home maintenance is helped by excellent maintenance manuals & spares service.

The 12/50 is a pleasure to drive, with good road holding & reasonable comfort by modern standards. Acceleration is good for its age & cruises comfortably at 55-60mph. Like most vintage cars it is happier on A & B roads, rather than motorways.

Would you buy another car from this manufacturer? Yes

Review Date: 5th November, 2023

1923 Alvis 12/50 1553cc petrol

Summary:

Once driven, you immediately fall in love with this car

Faults:

Valves blew at 90,000 miles, starter motor died at 92,000. Clutch replaced at 98,000.

General Comments:

Glorious old lady. Leather upholstery, wooden dashboard. Love the handling and acceleration, and general power is amazing for such a vintage car. Turns more heads than a Lotus!

Would you buy another car from this manufacturer? Don't Know

Review Date: 15th March, 2000

1st Jul 2007, 00:40

Alvis, the great British automobile manufacturer, was like a Rolls-Royce. The difference was their funds, not their quality. Alvis cars were fine luxury cars in their day, practically a world (or at least several classes) removed from Morris Minors, the British Model T.

19th May 2008, 07:20

Quite right that last entry. The quality of the Alvis was that good; it was the British car of choice if you couldn't afford or didn't want a Bentley. Alvis continued to be made until the late '60s. The last model produced was the Graber-bodied saloon or convertible (I think it was the TD21 but I'm not sure about that) 3 litre, six cylinder, triple carburetters and with a 5-speed gearbox. They were so good, the Duke of Edinburgh had one of the earliest. I certainly saw him still with it in the 70s - maybe he's still got it! The company got shafted by Rover when they bought out Alvis cars (they might still make heavy military vehicles) and instead of dropping in the 3.5 litre V8 and making Alvis more competitive with Aston-Martin, etc, they ceased production of what was a very good car indeed. Another British Leyland mismanagement issue!

28th Oct 2008, 19:32

I think that we should all be glad that BL didn't attempt to make them into one of their luxury divisions. It would have wound up with an Austin Princess clone body and a reputation just like all other BL cars, even if it didn't have the problems that would have inevitably come from BL's close proximity.