It’s time to take a feather duster to the cobwebbed, dusty memories of years gone by, and a look at a car SO AMAZING that to deprive North Americans of it just wouldn’t have been Cricket.
It’s the all-new for 1970 Hillman Avenger, a car whose dynamic, warplane-like name rather belied the actual product, which would become so commonplace as to be near invisible on British roads very soon. Welcome back to The Carchive.


“When we set out to design the Avenger, there were several things we knew it had to do. Above all, it had to offer the maximum possible value for money but without risking our reputation for quality and reliability”.
Exactly the same development aims as Grumman had in mind with their Avenger, I’d say. The Avenger went on sale in 1970 in a crowded middle-class car market, landing squarely in the middle of an arena packed with Ford Escorts and Cortinas, Vauxhall Victors and Vivas. It was always going to be a difficult fight, made harder because the Avenger was slightly bigger, and therefore more expensive, than a small car, but a bit too small to be a bigger one, if you see what I mean. The Avenger didn’t quite compete directly with either Escort or Cortina.
It was especially welcomed to the market by historic fans of Rootes Group products, and was generally well thought of (at the beginning, anyway) by the general public and press alike, who felt that it looked and drove well enough to succeed.

“The shape of the Avenger isn’t only beautiful. It’s stability and aerodynamic qualities were revealed after months of wind-tunnel tests.”
Not ONLY beautiful, eh! It was the Coke-Bottle Hips, soon to become de rigeur in the seventies, that made the Avenger distinctive, that styling cue would be adopted very soon by Ford with the Cortina, and the Japanese would do everything they could to incorporate the same profile on every design they came up with.
Plus, the rear lights with their strange L-shape configuration, were among some of the most unmistakable on British roads.

“The interior of the Avenger is a breakthrough in the use of available space for passenger comfort.”
It was roomy enough and the seats were plenty comfy, and brushed nylon of upper models was quite a novelty at the time, far better than the leg-scorching Ambla vinyl found in the lowly DeLuxe. Standard equipment was sparse at this level, with the brochure crowing about such luxuries as an interior coat hook, a rubber floor covering and flush door handles. Move right up to GL and you earn more comprehensive instrumentation, reclining seats, door-mounted armrests and storage pockets, and carpeting. If you wanted glitz you’d have to save up and go to Ford and buy a Cortina 1600E.
Motivation was provided by a choice of two four-cylinder lumps, a 53hp 1248cc mill whose “quiet, unflustered” power could net you a top speed of nearly 85mph. For greater raciness, a 1498 could be had with 63hp and top end of 90mph.  Real performance fans would have to wait until the twin-carb GT model arrived later in the year.

“And all because we wanted to put more car in your hands. The Hillman Avenger”
Rootes Group, and their Chrysler parents had every ambition that the Avenger would become a popular car on a global scale, to that end they commenced export to the USA in 1970 where it would have Plymouth Cricket badging nailed to it, but by 1973 it was all over, beaten by a combination of general disinterest from the public at large, a reputation for rust and poor quality. US models were all fitted with the 1498cc engine and quad headlamps as found on the UK GL model, due to federal mandate against square headlamps. Air-Conditioning could be chosen, if that was selected in conjunction with the automatic gearbox I imagine there would be very little power left for forward motion.
The car did rather better in Brazil and Argentina, sold as the Dodge Polara until 1981 until the takeover of Chrysler Argentina by Volkswagen. They continued to produce the car as the Volkswagen 15o0 until 1988.
I very much doubt anybody in the UK could have guessed that would happen.
(All images are of original manufacturer publicity material, photographed by me. Copyright probably belongs to Fiat now, but who knows? There was a Top Gear magazine article once about buying one of these for £50 and driving it from the tip of Scotland to the bottom of England. It was in such hideous condition they named it “The Toxic Avenger”.)