Several things came together to kill the Alpine and Tiger. Number one being
the possibility of roll over legislation (the fear of which eliminated
convertibles in the US a few years later), second being the phasing out of the
Audax and Husky series of Rootes cars which meant no more chassis components
and third being the need to design a new car (because of number 2 above).
Chrysler, unlike Rootes, thought in terms of volume production and would not
spend the money on a design that would sell only about 70,000 cars over nearly
ten years (look at the Alpine production figures). Every dollar (make that
"pound") spent had to be justified, a low volume sports car was just not cost
justified.
The next was a major change in policy at Chrysler UK. Chrysler USA believed
in stock car racing's idea of "win on Sunday and sell on Monday", a win by
Sunbeam didn't translate into sales of bread and butter Hillman Minxes. The
whole logic behind stock racing in the sixties was that the winning car looked
like the one in the show room (even though there was virtually NOTHING in
common between the NASCAR winner and the car in the showroom). BUT, it was
very successful in selling cars in the US at that time. So Chrysler USA
caused Chrysler UK to shift their racing/rallying over to Hillman. That is why
a Hillman Hunter (instead of a Sunbeam Rapier fastback) won the London to
Sydney marathon. Sales of Hillmans jumped substantially after that win-unlike
what had happened when a Rapier won the Alpine rally or the Monte Carlo rally
back in the fifties-no notable increase in sales of either the Rapier or the
Hillman. The same was true of Sunbeam Alpine wins in the sixties.
Finally, 2 seater open sports cars were beginning to fade away. The Austin
Healey 3000 died at that time and all of the other British two seaters slowly
faded away over the next ten years. The US emissions and safety laws surely
played a big part, but so did the vast improvement in "Sports Sedans", which
began to rival sports cars in performance (BMW for example).
In essence, the Alpine was an abberation in a company that usually built
economical sedans or big, luxury cars. For the 50 years from 1930 when Rootes
started until 1980 when Chrysler UK was sold to Citreon-Peugeot, 2 seater
sports were only made for about 15 years. Total production of two seaters was
about 70,000 cars, during that time Rootes built about 4,200,000 four door
sedans and wagons (plus some convertibles and 2 door models).
Chrysler tried to sell Sunbeam Arrows and Alpine fastbacks through Chrysler
dealers in 1969-70 and that failed (sales were about 10,000 cars over 2
years-actually very good for Rootes, but not anywhere near what Chrysler
wanted). Then Chrysler tried to sell the Hillman Avenger as the Plymouth
Cricket- about 45,000 sales over 2 1/2 years but the sales were nowhere near
as great as the Japanese Dodge Colt. The 1971 sales of the Cricket were
actually Rootes best ever year in the US, beating 1959 by a few hundred cars
(although by this time it was called Chrysler UK, not Rootes). So the Cricket
was killed just before the famous 1973 fuel crises. Real smart of Chrysler.
The Cricket marked the end of Hillman/Sunbeam in the US. Sales continued in
Europe and the rest of the world. The Hillman Hunter continues to be sold in
Iran (today, you can buy a new one!!!) and the Avenger/Cricket was sold in
Argentina as a Volkswagen 1500 until about 1990. I gather that some 1725cc
Iranian Paykan (the name for the Hillman Hunter there) short blocks were sold
in the US a few years ago!!!
Jan Eyerman (current owner of a 1959 Hillman Minx and a 1973 Plymouth
Cricket)
Past owner of: 1949 Hillman Minx, 1951 Hillman Minx (multiple), 1951 Sunbeam
Talbot 90, 1953 Sunbeam Alpine, 1958 Sunbeam Rapier, 1959 Hillman Minx
(multiple), 1960 Hillman Minx (multiple), 1960 Sunbeam Alpine Series I, 1961
Singer Gazelle, 1962 Hillman Husky, 1969 Sunbeam Arrow, 1969 Sunbeam Alpine GT
(multiple), 1971 Plymouth Cricket, etc., etc., etc.,
"Barbara Blue" <the_blues@worldnet.att.net> wrote:
Speaking of Alpines and "doner" production cars, why did Rootes stop
production of the Alpine? Was it because it was always tied to another
vehicles production? Years ago I heard it was because of pending safety and
emissions regulations coming on line in the U.S., but surely Chrysler could
have played that hand quite easily. It seems the Alpine was one of the few
things that had any signs of showing future potentional at Rootes. Sure, it
needed a dealer network, and QC improvement, but these are basics, needed by
any car they would ever hope to produce.
Bill
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