Extinction fears raised for British classic cars | Car Talk - Car News Jul 2016

14:57 Friday 29 Jul 2016

Many once ubiquitous British classics should be considered as an endangered species according to research conducted by a leading insurer.

Insurance specialists ClassicLine compiled the figures as part of their new ‘Save our Classics’ campaign, and found that topping the endangered list is the British Leyland built Morris Ital. With just 35 registered examples left from 175,276 built between 1980 and 1984, the Ital is now rarer than a Javan Rhino.

Here's the top 10 endangered British classics:

10. Ford Cortina

Only 3,580 remaining from over 4 million examples that were produced in the the 20 years between 1962 and 1982.

9. Ford Sierra

The Sierra replaced the Cortina in 1982 and production ran for 11 years and 3.5 million cars. There's around 3,350 left now.

8. Vauxhall Victor

There's only 828 of these left.

7. Austin Metro

More than 1.5 million Austin Metros were made in the 80s and early 90s, there's only around 460 left now.

6. Morris Marina

Over 800,000 Marinas were produced in the 1970s, Now there is only around 270 left.

5. Hillman Avenger

Well over 600,000 Avengers rolled off the production line, but now we're down to around 215.

4. Vauxhall Chevette

Only around 200 of the 416,000 Chevettes that were built can still be found on our roads.

3. Austin Allegro

Between 1973 and 1982 there was almost 650,000 of these built, only 170 remain.

2. Austin Maxi

Production for the Maxi totalled around 470,000, now there's only 140 left.

1. Morris Ital

Essentially a restyling of the Marina, a relatively modest 175,000 examples of this model were produced. However, there's only around 35 left now.

“Once common 1970’s and 80’s cars are disappearing at an alarming rate and this new list is evidence that a serious extinction crisis is mounting”, said Ian Fray, managing director at ClassicLine. “Tens of thousands of Itals were built during the 1980s, they are a proud part of our British manufacturing heritage so it is very sad to hear that so few now remain”.

The rapid decline in numbers of once popular models can often go unnoticed, highlighted by the loss of more than 64,000 Ford Sierras from the roads in the past decade. Now less than one percent of the nearly three-and-a-half million built survive.

It’s a similar story for other former best sellers, with the Austin Maxi, Metro, and Allegro, Vauxhall Chevette and Victor, Morris Marina, and Hillman Avenger, and Ford Cortina all seeing their numbers dwindle to below one per cent of the total number produced.

ClassicLine’s ‘Save our Classics’ campaign launched this month, calling amongst other things for a reduction in the road tax exemption from 40 years to 30 years in an effort to encourage enthusiasts to maintain dwindling stock, while the ClassicLine webpage encourages classic car spotters to share their sightings of rare classics on the road.