Faults:

Generally what you would expect from a car of this vintage.

Replaced battery and alternator.

Replaced radiator.

Developed an oil leak.

Hydragas gave lots of problems and hard to get spares.

General Comments:

Bought wanting a bit of 70s nostalgia.

Alternator went within a week of purchase. Battery soon after - left me marooned in an Oxford petrol station at 1.00am on my way home to London!

Engine generally good, but developed oil leaks.

Hydragas suspension was a constant headache. Very difficult to get spare displacer units and not many garages have the pumps anymore.

However, I enjoyed driving it. Good motorway performance and a big advantage that a car of this vintage had 5 gears.

Bodywork generally good. Brakes very good too.

Non-assisted steering good for getting you in shape!

Seats not very comfortable by modern standards and lack of headrests annoying.

Very practical for trips to Ikea - could fit whole full-length bookcase very easily.

Moved on to a 1980s Honda Accord Aerodeck - in short, this car has shown me why British Leyland no longer exists!

Faults:

Brake fluid started leaking at 54,000 miles.

Stereo buttons were very easy to pull off.

Tyres wore very quickly.

Left side passenger door handle broke at 57,000 miles.

Rust was starting to appear during final few weeks of ownership.

General Comments:

The Maxi stood the test of time and proved itself to be a reliable and solid family car.

I appreciated its practicality and ride comfort.

Was superb value at £440. Held its value well and sold it the following year for £370.

Faults:

The clutch master cylinder developed a leak which I had to bleed regularly during the last months of owning the car. Unfortunately when showing one prospective buyer the car I forgot to remove my spanner from the bleed nipple!

It failed the MoT on some minor welding and a rear suspension bush, which was the only garage job it ever needed.

The most awkward fault to fix was when the nearside wiper fell off (while raining, of course) due to the splined shaft shredding. Fitting the new driver (which incidentally is common to Jaguars) was a 4-hour job for anyone without 8-inch fingers.

General Comments:

I had many happy miles in this (my first) car and impressed my friends with its interior space and torquey engine when they all had 1-litre Fiestas and Minis. My Granddad had one too and we both concluded that they were a very under-rated workhorse which was usually OK if thoroughly maintained.

Faults:

Head gasket blew twice.

Radiator hoses had to be replaced.

Heater core plugged up.

Front seat frame broke.

Shift lever mechanism wore out.

General Comments:

What a piece of junk. I recall seeing chips of metal come out of the drain hole in the engine/transaxle case, and realising that the poor old Maxi was self-destructing. Still, it was so cheap to fix and patch that there was no bitterness.

The old Maxi had good coachwork, and a high quality (but ugly: it was harvest gold) paint finish. The mechanical quality wasn't so great; evidently scaling up the Mini's mechanicals did not result in a better car. Handling was pedestrian, with a firm, buzzy ride. The roomy cabin was a hit with friends, but the heater never seemed to do much to drive off that winter chill.

Working on the engine was always an invitation to skinned knuckles and other physical damage; it was too tightly wedged in the front end, with little space for wrenches and hands. Rust was a huge headache, but fortunately all structural parts were intact, and she passed MOT no problem.

All in all, it was fun. I sold it for what I paid for it, and despite several close calls, it never left me sitting by the side of the road.