Talk:Morris Minor

message: I don't know if any of the people who edit this page are interested, but there's a 1967 (or thereabouts) Morris Minor soft-top parked outside my work building. Anyone need a picture? I can blur out the reg number if anyone's worried about that sort of thing (it's not my car). --El Pollo Diablo (Talk) 14:21, 21 July 2008 (UTC)
thread_title: Soft-top

message: It seems notable that the car came onto the market only a few years after WW2; given that car production had ceased during the war (as far as I remember), had the basic design been in the works since the late 1930s, or was it strictly a post-war project? The body style looks ancient by modern standards, but was it up-to-date in '48? It might be out of the scope of the article, how did Austin expect to sell the car to a nation in the grip of rationing; and how did the people of Britain perceive the car? Was it an aspirational consumer durable, or was it just another cheap car amongst many others that are forgotten nowadays? The article would benefit from a short paragraph outlining the competition, assuming there was any, perhaps explaining with references why the Minor remained popular whilst other cars faded away. -Ashley Pomeroy (talk) 22:38, 6 March 2009 (UTC)
replies: text: These are all good questions.  Since I have several books about the Morris Minor, plus I've owned 4 of them in my life, my plan is to extensively expand the article and provide references.  To very briefly answer a few of your questions, yes, Alec Issigonis worked on the prototype -- then called the Mosquito -- of the Minor before and during WWII. The intent in the immediate postwar period was primarily to export the car to the US, Canada, Australia and other countries.  Relatively few of the cars were sold in Britain at that time.  The Morris Minor was indeed very up-to-date in 1948.  Otherwise, it's unlikely to have remained in production until 1971.Armona (talk) 03:40, 7 March 2009 (UTC)
thread_title:  1948, and other questions 

message: As an active member of both the National and my local Morris Minor club and an owner of three Morris Minors I was saddened to see vandalism of this page- that someone had deleted the links to five local branches. Please, if you do not own a Morris Minor and are not part of the club do not deface the Morris Minor page by deleting links. You do not have the knowledge of this subject to judge what is and what is not appropriate. Please leave the editing of this page to us Morris Minor experts.
regards
John  —Preceding unsigned comment added by Funkychickenjohn (talk • contribs) 13:29, 27 January 2010 (UTC)
replies: text: No, not vandalism - but an attempt to keep the list of external links within a reasonable compass, and which I explained in my edit summary and at User talk:Funkychickenjohn. Please see WP:EL, WP:SPAM, WP:NOTLINKS, not to mention WP:OWN. I will not delete it again for the moment (note WP:3RR), but I invite someone else to do so - and I suggest that Funkychickenjohn would do well to read those poilcy pages. SNALWIBMA ( talk - contribs ) 13:45, 27 January 2010 (UTC)

text: I have removed it again. Before reinstating it, I suggest it would be sensible to discuss here whether it is desirable to include a link to every branch and every local club around the world. Why pick out East Kent, from all the possibilities? How long a list would you like? It very quickly falls foul of WP:linkspam, not to mention common sense. Surely better to link just to the national associations. SNALWIBMA ( talk - contribs ) 09:28, 29 January 2010 (UTC)

text: For Morris credibility, I've owned Morrises for 17 years.. As for the idea that there should be links to every individual Morris Minor club in the Morris Minor article, no. There's no reason to link to individual clubs in the external links section. Where on earth would you stop?—Kww(talk) 15:57, 29 January 2010 (UTC)
thread_title: Links to Club branches

message: I remember that back in the 1970s there were a lot of locally assembled Morris Minors in Ceylon (as we in England then knew Sri Lanka).   Does anyone have access to a source that would permit the creation of a brief para on Morris Minors assembled (I would imagine, at least initially, using CKD kits) in Sri Lanka?   Regards Charles01 (talk) 17:09, 11 February 2010 (UTC)
thread_title: Morris Minors in Ceylon/Sri Lanka

message: One of our fellow editors has repeatedly deleted a statement at the beginning of the article to the effect that one author wrote that the Morris Minor typifies "Englishness."  This editor claims that the statement is "anecdotal" and should have at least two sources.  I submit that it is not but rather is a sourced statement (Karen Pender's 1995 book "The Secret Life of the Morris Minor") and that Wikipedia does not require two or more sources.  So, what does everyone think?  Is it an acceptable statement to include about Morris Minors or not? Armona (talk) 02:05, 17 May 2011 (UTC)
replies: text: The Morris Minor, thought to typify Englishness, was first launched in London in 1948 From Daily Mail and    The Morris Minor: A British miracle Strange to say for something that acquired a reputation for essential Englishness Telegraph.co.uk,  Kathryn Hughes The Guardian, Saturday 6 December 2008 Article history quote: . Dr.K. λogosπraxis 02:32, 17 May 2011 (UTC)
replies: text: Hi fellow editors.  Great point.  Who is Karen Pender and why should her opinion matter?  Is her book a "fan" book, by a "fan" for "fans"... or is it a serious reference itself?  Is it an opinion by an isolated author?  You stated in the edit line that the statement reflects "a commonly expressed sentiment."  And if this is 'commonly' expressed... show us examples... especially by a notable author from a notable source. 842U (talk) 02:35, 17 May 2011 (UTC)
replies: text: Hello fellow editor. I think we are now well past Karen Pender. I just supplied three reliable sources other than Karen Pender verifying what she claims. Here is a fourth one:  Fifty-one, but still a BabyPRINCE FREDERICK Morris Minor models, believed to “typify Englishness”, were in the ascendant. from Hindu.com. Dr.K. λogosπraxis 02:42, 17 May 2011 (UTC)
replies: text: We must consider not just the merit of the quote itself (or its author), but also whether it adds anything to the article. Since "Englishness" is not even linked to any helpful explanation of the term, which is rather open to interpretation, I'd suggest that it in fact detracts from the clarity of the article. Definitely in favour of removing it. Perhaps if we could find a reference which suggests that the Minor's "English character" contributed to its sales, that might be more relevant. – Kieran T (talk) 10:29, 17 May 2011 (UTC)
replies: text: Why should being British have contributed to sales, rather than detracted from them? Or been thought of as more than just a defining characteristic? There are enough sources to back the statement up, and I do think the car has come to be seen as typifying Britain.—Kww(talk) 11:26, 17 May 2011 (UTC)
replies: text: I agree with Kww. One way or the other the Morris is a British icon:  Nominate England's greatest icon, (from BBC news.com), where it is called a "design classic". I also agree that "Englishness" may be a vague term but if this description is supported by reliable sources, even if vague, it can be included in the article. The threshold here is verifiability, not absolute clarity of terms. I also think that "Englishness", in the present context, is a term which applies to the design of the car. The design is an important aspect of any automobile and it sometimes defies a precise definition. So "Englishness" although not a a well defined term, helps the reader get a feeling of the essential design elements of the vehicle. Dr.K. λogosπraxis 12:58, 17 May 2011 (UTC)
thread_title: Englishness?

message: The infobox describes the Minor as a 'subcompact', an American size category which isn't used or understood in Britain. Given that the article is written in British English (which it should be, given the subject) the use of this category as a primary description is inappropriate and jarring. --Ef80 (talk) 13:34, 19 January 2017 (UTC)
thread_title:  Subcompact 

message: Hello fellow Wikipedians,
I have just modified one external link on Morris Minor. Please take a moment to review my edit. If you have any questions, or need the bot to ignore the links, or the page altogether, please visit this simple FaQ for additional information. I made the following changes:
*Added  tag to http://www.morrisminoroc.co.uk/index.php?page=452
*Added archive https://web.archive.org/web/20120531075600/http://www.aronline.co.uk/blogs/2011/08/27/the-cars-austin-allegro-development-history/ to http://www.aronline.co.uk/blogs/2011/08/27/the-cars-austin-allegro-development-history/
When you have finished reviewing my changes, you may follow the instructions on the template below to fix any issues with the URLs.
Cheers.—InternetArchiveBot (Report bug) 22:57, 5 February 2018 (UTC)
thread_title:  External links modified (February 2018) 

message: A 918 cc-engined tourer tested by the British magazine The Motor in 1950 had a top speed of 58.7 mph (94.5 km/h) and could accelerate from 0–50 mph (80 km/h) in 29.2 seconds. However, the 918 cc engine did 0–60 mph in 50+ seconds.[6]
How can a car with a top speed of 58.7mph have a 0-60 time that's less than forever? Stub Mandrel (talk) 10:53, 4 September 2018 (UTC)
thread_title:  Does Not Compute 

message: The Hotchkiss-designed XPAG engine, which was used in a number of Morris and MG cars from the 1920s to the 1950s, had metric threads. However, the nuts and bolts that were used on these engines had Whitworth-sized heads, so you would need a combination of metric and Whitworth tools to work on them.
Wizzy…☎ 14:41, 26 June 2023 (UTC)
thread_title:  Metric threads