Morris Marina 575 Pickup

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The Morris Marina has had a bad press over the years. Much of the criticism has been justified, but the vast majority of its 807,000 British customers got along with it just fine, liking its honest design and simple engineering.

British Leyland had reserved the Austin brand for their avant-garde range of vehicles like the Allegro and Princess, its more straightforward models being earmarked for Morris badges. When BL merged their brands and got to grips with their product development programme, they were shocked to find that the cupboard was bare, the firm having to rely on the old Morris 1000 and Farina saloons to keep sales going until some new products could be rushed to market.

Codenamed ADO 28, the new car was to be aimed squarely at competition from the Ford Escort and Vauxhall Viva. Destined to use a new E-Series engine that never came to fruition, in the end it was fitted with the well proven A- and B-Series engines, in 1.3 or 1.8 capacities, mated to Triumph-developed transmissions to speed up production.

Available in saloon, estate and coupe body styles, a van and a pickup were also added to the range in 1972 designated 440 or 575 with 7cwt and 10cwt payloads respectively. Within 11 months of its 1971 introduction the badly overcrowded Cowley factory had built its 100,000th Marina, a nightshift having been employed to meet demand. Rarely out of the top-five UK best sellers and often vying for second place, it was replaced by the re-styled Ital which in turn was superseded by the all new front-wheel drive Montego.

First registered in February 1983, this 575 Pickup has had just four Herefordshire owners from new and is said to be in good order throughout following a light restoration last year which included a full repaint. Although there is very little history with the truck, the indicated mileage of 72,000 is believed by the vendor to be correct.

With a useful ply-lined load area and a very smart interior which retains its original radio, it is said to run and drive well and certainly bowled along nicely when we were treated to a short test drive on the occasion of our visit. Due to have a fresh MOT in time for the sale and supplied with an owner's handbook, this smart little workhorse is one of very few remaining, DVLA figures showing that just 29 Marina 10cwt  pickups are still registered, so you could wait a long time to see another for sale, let alone one as smart as this.