Comments about this vehicle

Author	Message
Lateef ◊ 2023-07-17 12:17	76+ Princess 1800/2200 HL - best way to tell them apart are the badges or the headlights.
dsl ◊ 2023-07-17 12:42	No tints so not Wolseley or Princess HLS, and agree Princess HL which also matches the sill trim (which Wolseley did not). Book reference says 2200 HL had full vinyl roof (as here) but 1800 HL only had vinyl pillars - not sure if this is solid, as a photo on the opposite page captioned 2200 HL has painted roof, but 2200 HL works for the photo. Or maybe Scandinavians did not like tints on their HLSs??
pingis ◊ 2023-07-17 18:25	As I remember it every Princess sold in Sweden was a Leyland Princess.
dsl ◊ 2023-07-17 18:39	^ That's new info for me, and we don't have any entered on the site at the moment. But they did some odd [ADO71] branding in some markets - Austin Princess was used for F and I as this little batch shows - maybe Sweden was another oddball name, perhaps also Austin or maybe Leyland??
Lateef ◊ 2023-07-17 19:59	Contemporary Swedish brochure doesn't mention Leyland, and there are no Leyland badging on them either - sample for sale, except for the BL logo on the steering wheel and on the hubcap centers (which were on English samples, too). The mudflaps show British Leyland, but this is rather the parent company and not the make itself. Similar case in Norway, where Minis, Range Rovers, Morris Marinas, Austin Allegros, Austin Maxis, ADO16s and Princesses all had BL mudflaps. Retrospective literature indeed refer to them as 'Leyland Princess' simply because it's more convenient to use than simply 'Princess'. Related media: Norwegian Princess brochure Swedish junkyard with BL products in it
pingis ◊ 2023-07-17 20:00	There seems to be 72 Leyland Princesses registered in Sweden today. (A lot more than what I expected). This might prove that my childhood memories are correct. https://www.car.info/sv-se/leyland/princess
dsl ◊ 2023-07-17 20:05	Lateef wrote Related media: Norwegian Princess brochure That 2200 HLS doesn't have tints, so if my idea above is correct that Scaninavian ones didn't have tints, maybe our Swedish pictured car is HLS too. It's got top spec chrome trim, headrests and on what's visible all the other gubbins. Swedish scrappie is a sad sight - all those Maxis/Allegros (even if some repeats from different angles) - but I'm not too depressed by derelict 70s BL product. However I hope someone rescues the ADO16 estates and MG 1300.
zodiac ◊ 2023-07-17 22:16	I don't have all the information at home but I can check at the D-A-K archive in a few days. What I can say is that I have found three car catalogues at the moment; Alla bilar 1977, Bil 1977 and Alla bilar 1978 (which are catalogues published by the Swedish magazine Teknikens Värld (Alla bilar) and I believe Teknik för alla published (Bil...)). All of them lists only one model: Leyland Princess 1800 HL. Furthermore they wrote (in my translation) from Alla bilar 1977: "There is also a 2,2 litre version with a six cylinder engine, but unfortunately we'll not get that one to here." ("here" meaning Sweden)
dsl ◊ 2023-07-17 22:55	zodiac wrote All of them lists only one model: Leyland Princess 1800 HL. ...... Furthermore they wrote (in my translation) from Alla bilar 1977: "There is also a 2,2 litre version with a six cylinder engine, but unfortunately we'll not get that one to here." ("here" meaning Sweden) But this pic within pingis's link to the 72 Swedish Princesses shows 2200 HL rear badge. And a painted roof. So I'm voting for our pictured car being Swedish 2200 HLS with no tints, as the Norway brochure car. No idea if this is a solid theory to explain the confusing messages, but there was a major problem with manual 2200s snapping driveshafts which was never solved, but the automatics were fine. Maybe they held back supplying 2200s to Sweden until they had enough stocks of the automatic unit?? Which might explain the statements that only 1800s were available in 77 reports and 2200 was not expected to arrive - PR people camouflaging the problem?? But 2200 seems to have arrived eventually, and presumably when it did was automatic only. Read between the lines of this quote "The Princess Special Six Automatic was launched in desperation in March 1978 after the manual gearbox 2200’s developed a healthy appetite for drive shafts. The problem became so epidemic that Leyland was forced to remove manual gearbox versions from sale while they tried to sort it out." from here, referenced on this page. -- Last edit: 2023-07-18 00:09:47
johnfromstaffs ◊ 2023-07-17 23:08	They never fixed its appetite for petrol either. Back in the day we had one in the car pool where I worked then, it did about 19 to the gallon. I never heard of the six cylinder land crabs having the drive shaft problem, any knowledge? We had three 1800s, plus my f-I-l’s, two were 18/85S, never broke a drive shaft, but did have to replace the joints on the Mk1 Austin. -- Last edit: 2023-07-17 23:17:17
Lateef ◊ 2023-07-17 23:43	Norway received two versions: 1800 HL and 2200 HLS. Seems odd that Sweden (twice as big a market as Norway) only got the 1800 HL.
pingis ◊ 2023-07-18 00:24	I just had another look at https://www.car.info/sv-se/leyland/princess What a mess of information. According to this site there are 72 Leyland Princess cars registered in Sweden today (July 2023). 71 of them belong to the first generation and they all are the 1.8 version. One Princess belongs to the second generation and has a 2.0 engine. When clicking on the picture dsl found it says it is a 2.2 6 cylinder Princess. This means the picture shows a car that doesn't exist. Is this a case for X-files?
dsl ◊ 2023-07-18 00:30	johnfromstaffs wrote I never heard of the six cylinder land crabs having the drive shaft problem, any knowledge? No. Have been trawling various ADO17 pages on ARonline, but nothing mentioned among various references to assorted landcrab reliability issues and the effect they had on its reputation. Presumably there was a different spec for the Princess 2200 manuals which was a Great Leap Backwards??
jcb ◊ 2023-07-18 08:27	Vague memories of reading something to do with engine mounting problems and lots of rectification needed . But this may have been for all Princess's. -- Last edit: 2023-07-18 08:28:38
zodiac ◊ 2023-07-18 10:23	The Swedish car magazine Teknikens Värld had in 1989 a Leyland Princess 2200 HL as a summer car Link to "teknikensvarld.expressen.se" . That was claimed as the only 2200 in Sweden at that point and was imported from Denmark in 1981. The number plate on pingis picture has a red outer border Link to "www.car.info" , typical of Danish plates Link to "www.google.com" which makes me believe it is a Danish car on visit to a Swedish event, or a picture taken in Denmark. -- Last edit: 2023-07-18 11:25:13
zodiac ◊ 2023-07-20 09:38	@dsl and others: I've now done some research into the Princess's sold in Sweden. They were available during the years 1976 and 1978 and only in one version; the Leyland Princess 1800 HL. When I say only one version, I really mean one version, because when I looked in Jan Ulléns Bilfakta (which listed all models sold in Sweden) and prices for all new cars in a price list published by "Sveriges Bilindustri- och Bilgrossistförening och AB Bilststistik i samarbete med Motorbranschens Riksförbund" (that complicated set of words that I don't bother to translate, but it's an official price list) not even automatic transmission was listed as optional extra. The vinyl roof, however, might have been kind of optional extra if not MY specific. But how come Sweden got only one model while Norway and Denmark got several? I can only think of one reason, the sales organisation in Sweden was not as successful compared with others. After 1978 they pulled out all Leyland versions apart from the Mini and even that disappeared a few years later. When I started to collect car brochures in the early 80's they had already pulled out. At least from the area where I lived. I have been interested in cars all my life. I grew up in the town of Falun in mid Sweden and only remember one Princess albeit BL used to have a sales representative here. It was a pristine green 1800 HL with vinyl roof parked not far from a childhood friend of mine. -- Last edit: 2023-07-20 10:02:48
QueenMDX ◊ 2023-07-20 13:05	Nice name, eh?
dsl ◊ 2023-07-20 13:20	Assembling all the points made by everyone as best I can: - the picture car is not an 1800 HL - too much chrome trim. And probably not 2200 HL. So I'm sticking to 2200 HLS - there was no other HLS until Princess 2 revamp. - which means it's not a normal example for Sweden, but arrived somehow from elsewhere, with DK and N as candidates - if not a normal Swedish example, does the Leyland Princess title still apply? Was that used in DK or N?? Have removed made for S and switched to EU as a holding position - if anyone wants to favour N or DK (with/without Leyland?) happy to amend again.
Lateef ◊ 2023-07-20 13:41	dsl wrote - if not a normal Swedish example, does the Leyland Princess title still apply? Was that used in DK or N?? In Norway: Princess 1800 HL / 2200 HLS In Denmark: Austin Princess 1800 / 1800 HL / 2000 HL / 2200 HLS Denmark also got the Wolseley-badged versions that we never got in Norway.
zodiac ◊ 2023-07-21 09:38	dsl wrote - the picture car is not an 1800 HL - too much chrome trim. Have a look at http://bilspanaren.blogspot.com/2013/06/ (the 16th out of 25 pictures)
pingis ◊ 2023-07-21 21:52	I just found an old newspaper supplement. The Swedish newspaper Expressen had a big fleet og cars they tested and here is an article from November of 1978 showing the '76 Leyland Princess 1800 they were testing.

Advertising

Last completed movie pages

1976 Princess 2200 HLS [ADO71]

1976 Princess 2200 [ADO71] in Harry H., Mini-Series, 1978 Ep. 2

Comments about this vehicle

Add a comment

Advertising

Watch or buy this title via JustWatch

Advertising