Do they still do poverty spec ?

[jamesd1972]

Think I’ve stumbled across one !
Skoda octavia hire car diesel 5 speed no cruise or anything.
White full on taxi spec.
Bit of a PITA on long Spanish motorways not to have cruise, can’t remember the last time I had a hire car without it including tiddlers like Corsa’s etc.
Bumhats
James

[carledo]

Lets face it, what we REALLY want, is not "pov spec", but the "stripped out racing spec" that the Americans did so well in the late 50s and early 60s. Like that Glorious 55 Chevy pictured a few pages back. Delete everything you can live without (including PAS and power/disc brakes) and fit the biggest engine in the range, the beefiest manual transmission and a locker diff. Wind up windows, no aircon etc. Basically a factory built cafe racer!

It's certainly the car I want!

Steve

[ratchart]

Something like this '57 Ford?




Basically a bare bones no frills saloon but those in the know could tick the right boxes on the order form and get a supercharged Thunderbird 315 cubic inch V8 to go with their dog dish hubcaps and rubber floor mats.

A few years down the line they took the concept to it's logical conclusion with the factory drag racer Thunderbolt, where (more or less) they pulled 50 pov-spec Fairlanes off the production line and shipped them down the road to have all the good stuff (427 ci motor, slicks, modified suspension etc) added by a specialist builder.

[Waxoyling Lyrical]

Nov 12, 2019 18:54:39 GMT jamesd1972 said:

Think I’ve stumbled across one !
Skoda octavia hire car diesel 5 speed no cruise or anything.
White full on taxi spec.
Bit of a PITA on long Spanish motorways not to have cruise, can’t remember the last time I had a hire car without it including tiddlers like Corsa’s etc.
Bumhats
James

Funnily enough, my 2003 Mini Cooper has it fitted, but I've never been on a long enough motorway journey since buying it in February 2018 to even attempt using it!

[glenanderson]

Nov 12, 2019 20:17:53 GMT ratchart said:

Something like this '57 Ford?




Basically a bare bones no frills saloon but those in the know could tick the right boxes on the order form and get a supercharged Thunderbird 315 cubic inch V8 to go with their dog dish hubcaps and rubber floor mats.

Now that ^^^

I could definitely live with. 

[Dez]

Nov 12, 2019 20:17:53 GMT ratchart said:

Something like this '57 Ford?




Basically a bare bones no frills saloon but those in the know could tick the right boxes on the order form and get a supercharged Thunderbird 315 cubic inch V8 to go with their dog dish hubcaps and rubber floor mats.

*cough* 312 *cough*

Essentially A stoked version of the earlier 292 y block with a Paxton supercharger strapped on, giving 300hp, which was big news at the time.

[Paul Y]

Many years ago when it was an apprentice spanner twirler I had the job of fitting an interior light (including the door switches to turn it on when the afore mentioned where opened) passenger side sun visor, radio and arial, plus other trinkets to upgrade a newly purchased Ford Fiesta Poplar - in burgundy - to Popular Plus spec....

Those where the days.....

P.

[glenanderson]

Nov 12, 2019 22:59:03 GMT Paul Y said:

Many years ago when it was an apprentice spanner twirler I had the job of fitting an interior light (including the door switches to turn it on when the afore mentioned where opened) passenger side sun visor, radio and arial, plus other trinkets to upgrade a newly purchased Ford Fiesta Poplar - in burgundy - to Popular Plus spec....

Those where the days.....

P.

My friend Alma had a brand new (F reg I think) Fiesta Popular Plus, in burgundy. I remember that the “Plus” was slightly squint on the boot lid. It had never occurred to me that it might have been a dealer upgrade. She was very proud of it.

[bmcnut]

Nov 12, 2019 23:19:09 GMT glenanderson said:

Nov 12, 2019 22:59:03 GMT Paul Y said:

Many years ago when it was an apprentice spanner twirler I had the job of fitting an interior light (including the door switches to turn it on when the afore mentioned where opened) passenger side sun visor, radio and arial, plus other trinkets to upgrade a newly purchased Ford Fiesta Poplar - in burgundy - to Popular Plus spec....

Those where the days.....

P.

My friend Alma had a brand new (F reg I think) Fiesta Popular Plus, in burgundy. I remember that the “Plus” was slightly squint on the boot lid. It had never occurred to me that it might have been a dealer upgrade. She was very proud of it.

I would absolutely love this to be the very same car.

[glenanderson]

If Paul was working in Ayr in the late 80s then it might well have been. 😃👍

[bmcnut]

[Paul Y]

Nov 13, 2019 0:01:07 GMT glenanderson said:

If Paul was working in Ayr in the late 80s then it might well have been. 😃👍

Sorry to disappoint but this was in the mid 80’s whilst I was an apprentice at Gates of Woodford.

Not sure the plus was a dealer option, seem to remember that somebody bought the cheapest Fiesta available and didn’t realise how basic it actually was!

P.

[ratchart]

Nov 12, 2019 22:35:30 GMT Dez said:

Nov 12, 2019 20:17:53 GMT ratchart said:

Something like this '57 Ford?




Basically a bare bones no frills saloon but those in the know could tick the right boxes on the order form and get a supercharged Thunderbird 315 cubic inch V8 to go with their dog dish hubcaps and rubber floor mats.

*cough* 312 *cough*

Essentially A stoked version of the earlier 292 y block with a Paxton supercharger strapped on, giving 300hp, which was big news at the time.

Hands up, I'm curse word with numbers.

[shampooefficient]

I miss the days of a police spec. I know Vaixhall and Ford do them now, but even our Transits have heated seats as standard.

My Omega is the biggest engine, manual box, and LSD... With wind up rear windows (so they could take the handles off), the basic interior, and no toys. Perfection.

[accord83]

The A body Senators were great, no sunroof, no leather (cloth), no electric rear windows etc.



But their predecessors, Granada Mk2's were better for povo spec. 2.8i Sport running gear, lower, spoilers, heavy duty suspension, taxi pack interiors (blue nylon and vinyl, looked knackered after 9 months.)

[ovimor]

Oi Oi Oi.....

Seems the 'black bumper bomber' Sandero ACCESS WAS turrbo powered

www.autotrader.co.uk/classified/advert/201910073045184?advertising-location=at_cars

..... Ooh, nice


OVIMOR

[Waxoyling Lyrical]

So is the next cheapest UK car, a Suzuki Celerio, which can be had with a 793cc 2 cylinder turbo diesel engine.

www.team-bhp.com/forum/official-new-car-reviews/165305-maruti-celerio-diesel-official-review.html

It has about the same power output as a 1098cc Morris Minor engine, but a fair bit more torque.

[MkX]

Nov 13, 2019 21:56:33 GMT Waxoyling Lyrical said:

So is the next cheapest UK car, a Suzuki Celerio, which can be had with a 793cc 2 cylinder turbo diesel engine.

www.team-bhp.com/forum/official-new-car-reviews/165305-maruti-celerio-diesel-official-review.html

It has about the same power output as a 1098cc Morris Minor engine, but a fair bit more torque.

Interesting but with the base model counting powered steering & air conditioning amongst its refinements I'm not convinced we're absolutely at the poverty end of the scale? Aesthetically you wouldn't give this car a second glance in Europe, unlike some of the other offerings above, it is well enough styled. From a pollution point of view I'd really wonder at the wisdom of putting hundreds of thousands of small diesel engines onto the roads of Indian cities?!

[retrolegends]

Nov 11, 2019 22:39:48 GMT MkX said:

Nov 11, 2019 21:24:57 GMT madmog said:

Does that big nothing gauge on the right light up with the other instruments? It's probably unobtainable now. You'd probably find whatever went in the blank gauges and someone paid hundreds extra for cheaper on Ebay than the nothing gauge


I think 'poverty spec' is not a static thing. I'm sure in the '60s quite a few cars still had heater, any kind of rustproofing and passenger side mirror only as extras. Go back further and the starter motor was an extra over the starting handle.

It's also relative. I recently got a Merc SLK as a daily. The R172 was my budget but the latest model the R173 seems to have a 'poverty spec' version in the form of the 250 turbo diesel. I haven't seen one of these come up on Autotrader with the things you didn't know you needed like heated steering wheel and air scarves. Best I saw was with leather seats over vinyl. Still has air con and electric mirrors but they make the centre screen do less - not connect to your phone or do sat nav. I think it's some sort of spec to stay under a tax band but I'm not really sure.

I've pulled this pic off the internet but did own an Allegro with this dashboard configuration. The 'sonar' dial would have been a revs counter on the sportier models, I honestly don't recall if it lit up. There were lots of blanked off lamps & switches just to remind the original owner he'd bought cheap!

I’m pretty sure the HL has a clock in that space.

[Waxoyling Lyrical]

Nov 14, 2019 3:12:05 GMT MkX said:

Nov 13, 2019 21:56:33 GMT Waxoyling Lyrical said:

So is the next cheapest UK car, a Suzuki Celerio, which can be had with a 793cc 2 cylinder turbo diesel engine.

www.team-bhp.com/forum/official-new-car-reviews/165305-maruti-celerio-diesel-official-review.html

It has about the same power output as a 1098cc Morris Minor engine, but a fair bit more torque.

Interesting but with the base model counting powered steering & air conditioning amongst its refinements I'm not convinced we're absolutely at the poverty end of the scale? Aesthetically you wouldn't give this car a second glance in Europe, unlike some of the other offerings above, it is well enough styled. From a pollution point of view I'd really wonder at the wisdom of putting hundreds of thousands of small diesel engines onto the roads of Indian cities?!

Hmm, they probably count air conditioning in India as a pretty essential 'refinement'. I daresay they may well offer a base version without PAS and air for other impovershed markets though...