Decline and Replacement
During the life of the Minor 1000 model, production declined. The last Convertible/Tourer was manufactured on 18 August 1969, and the saloon models were discontinued the following year. Production of the more practical Traveller and commercial versions ceased in 1971, although examples of all models were still theoretically available from dealers with a surplus of unsold cars for a short time afterwards. Over 1.3 million Minors were made in all, with almost 850,000 being Minor 1000 models.
The Minor was officially replaced on the Cowley production lines by the Morris Marina (ADO28), which was developed primarily as a response to Ford's top-selling (and in many respects, conservatively engineered) Escort. Building a mid-sized car capable of volume sales (particularly in the lucrative fleet-buying market) was becoming increasingly key in generating healthy profit margins, and was an issue BMC had consistently failed to address in the past. The Marina was developed under the watchful eye of British Leyland management, and used a floor plan and running gear deliberately similar to the Minor to streamline production changeover and minimize the financial outlay associated with chassis development and retooling.
The spiritual successor to the Morris Minor was arguably the ADO16 Austin/Morris 1100 range, which had been launched in 1962 and aimed at the same small family car market (and actually replaced the Minor in some export markets such as Australia and New Zealand). The crisp styling, hydrolastic suspension and innovative front-wheel drive system (itself a 'scaling-up' of the Mini principle) made ADO16 a worthy successor to the (in its day) strikingly forward-looking Minor. However, due to the British Motor Corporation's commitment to both the Morris factory at Cowley, and Austin plant at Longbridge - in addition to a healthy demand for both products - production of the two cars continued in parallel for nearly ten years. Ironically, production of ADO16 only outlasted that of the Minor by 3 years or so, before being axed in favour of the innovative, export-oriented yet under-developed Austin Allegro in 1974.
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