Austin Maxi 2 1750 HL

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According to BL’s promotional blurb, you could join the ranks of multi-car owning families with just one vehicle, the Maxi, such was its amazing versatility.

Conceived to fill a completely new slot in the model range, the Maxi’s designers had been compelled to make do with some of the principal outer panels from the superb (if by then rather dated) Issigonis-designed Land Crab to keep costs to a minimum.

The new car was singled out within the BL range to get a practical hatch-back, their marketing at the time being focused on the slogan: ‘All the Fives’ – five seats, five doors and five gears (assuming you could ever locate the latter using the floppy ‘magic wand’ gear stick).

They were very good cars in the main but, as ever with BL, typically suffered from one or two significant issues – such a shame as the basic design concept was actually very good. For 1972 a vastly improved rod-operated gear linkage made gear selection less of a pot luck affair, while a more responsive ‘E’ series engine allowed the Maxi to soldier on valiantly until 1981 when a lightly revamped Maxi 2 gave it a stay of execution that lasted a year.

Sold as the 1500 or 1750 (with an HL luxury version also offered), its fifth gear was a genuine overdrive, an unusual feature usually associated with the more sporty and exotic European offerings from the likes of Alfa Romeo and BMW. Alas the average user didn’t understand why they might need such a profusion of ratios and its complexity, poor selection and general reliability issues were to tarnish the car’s reputation until its demise.

This 1982 Maxi 2 has the top spec 1750 HL (High Line) trim option which makes it more desirable than most. Off the road for some time now, it will need a certain amount of sympathetic recommissioning before it can sally forth once more.

However, once back out on the Queen’s highway where it belongs, it will add substantially to the ranks of survivors still out there. Rather tragically there are only 150 or so Maxis still taxed or on SORN, according to DVLA figures and, more alarming still, just 10 of these are 1750 HL models. No wonder the vendor, a fan of BL’s more unloved ‘70s and ‘80s products travelled all the way to Dunfermline to pick it up.

We therefore feel somewhat honoured to be offering a shade under 20% of the surviving Maxi HLs in this one sale. As both are being offered here at no reserve, their fates lie entirely in your hands. So do your patriotic duty and bid vigorously to save them for the nation!