The Moggy 1000

Wow what a piece of automotive history. The Morris 1000 was the car that got Britain moving after the 2nd world war. There were three series of Morris 1000 with the 1948 MM, the 1952 Series 11 and the 1956 1000, originally launched in 1948 and designed by .Sir  Alec Issigonis.

It was available in 2 and 4 door variants, as an estate car often known as a "woody" thanks to its wooden framework to the rear luggage area, a pick up and commercial van and the rare and now extremely sought after convertible. There was a special edition Morris 1,000,000 in 1961 to represent the 1 millionth car produced, all 350 Morris 1,000,000's were finished in lilac with a white interior so that they could be easily identified. 350 were produced there being one for each Morris dealership in the country.

Not endowed with much power the 948 cc engine just about propelled the car to 70 m.p.h. but was unburstable. Easy to maintain and reliable the basic engineering concept ran throughout the entire car. Rust was the biggest problem for all Morris 1000's.

The last incarnation for the Morris 1000 was the Morris Marina and later Morris Izal which unwittingly picked up on a brand name for a particularly horrid brand of toilet paper that was common in the first 60 years of the 20th century. The Morris Izal was an equally horrid attempt to re-body a 40 year old design for a modern world, it flopped and was one of the causes for the demise of the unweildly and unmanagble BL Group.

Today there are numerous specialist restorers and enthusiasts clubs around the world.

Michael and Linda Peters both had a Morris 1000 as there first car. Linda remembers hers as being a 4 door whilts Michael's was a 2 door, both were finished in battleship grey with red leather interiors. Both were utterly horrid to drive, had no syncromesh on first gear and feeble performance. Michael and Linda Peters both have fond memories of their first cars.