A couple of things about the demise of the Tiger and later the Alpine.
It didn't sell very well, as Chrysler saw it. They would have kept production
going, even with the Ford powertrain, if the sales numbers were better. Remember
that a Mustang convertible was available with several versions of the 289,
and it could be bought for under $3,000. Proof is that while Tigers sold
something
like 7,000 cars total, while the Series V Alpine sold approximately 19,000,
the 1965 and 1966 Mustangs sold 1.2 MILLION sixes and V8's those two years
alone.
The Tiger was roughly $3500 at the same time that the Corvette began in the
$3500 to $4000 range.
As has been previously mentioned, the US safety regs that kicked in for the
1968 model year also stopped importation of the Austin-Healey 3000 and Shelby
Cobra 427. The A-H 3000 stopped production at the same time, as the US was the
principal market at that time, and the Cobra remained in very limited production
in the home market(UK) under the guise as the AC 289 Sport, essentially the
289 powertrain installed in the 427 chassis and body.
A case can be made for crediting Chrysler with supplying the funds to stretch
the Rootes budget and allow them to bring out the Mark 2 Tiger.
Several Rootes historians cite the British government as the villans who forced
Rootes into needing to seek a buyout, by forcing the Imp production to be far
away in Scotland, which they say cost Rootes too much to stay solvent by
themselves.
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