Austin Used Antique and Classic Cars For Sale

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Photo	Title	Make	Model	Year	State	Price	Placed
	1963 Austin Cooper	Austin	Cooper	1963	ON	$20,000.00 or Offer	February 1, 2012
	1948 Austin Devon	Austin	Devon	1948	FL	$6,500.00 Make an Offer	January 19, 2012

Austin Motor Company History (Continued from top)

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Herbert Austin left the Wolseley Tool and Motor Car Company to start the Austin Motor Company in England in 1905. The first car was a chain driven four-cylinder car and only 200 were made. He was able to expand his company producing aircraft and artillery during WWII and afterwards decided to build a variety of vehicles based on the same 3620 cc, 20 horsepower engine. He made cars, trucks and tractors with that engine but sales were marginal and his bank took over in 1921, making Ernest Payton the financial director and Carl Engelbach in charge of production. The "Seven" was introduced in 1922 and their "Baby Austin" was built under license from Datsun and sold in the US as the "Batam". The American Austin Car Company was an independent subsidiary from 1929 to 1934 and came back as American Bantam from 1937 to 1941.

The success of the Austin Seven got the Austin Motor Company through the Great Depression truck and aircraft construction got them through WWII. When Herbert Austin died in 1941 Ernest Payton took over as chairman; and he was replaced by Leonard Lord in 1946.There first post-war cars were similar to previous models and in 1952 Austin merged with the Nuffield Organization to form the British Motor Corporation (BMC) with Leonard Lord at the helm. However Austin was the senior partner and soon had a deal with the engineer, Donald Healey, to build the famous Austin-Healey sportscar.

In Leonard Lord oversaw the development of the now famous "Mini", also known as the "Morris Mini Minor" and introduced it in 1959, leading the industry in front wheel drive, transverse engine, vehicles. The British Motor Company merged with Jaguar in 1966 to become British Motor Holdings (BMH) who merged with Leyland Motors in 1968, leaving Austin a part of the huge parent group, British Leyland Motor corporation (BLMC).

Some 20 years after producing the Austin Mini, the Austin Metro was introduced in 1980 and sales were good. In 1982 Austin was renamed the Austin Rover Group and badged the MG as an affordable car, as compared to the Rover. then came the Austin Maestro and Austin Montego. The Austin name was dropped in 1987 although the cars were still made and sold. The rights to the Austin name passed through the hands of British Aerospace and BMW before being sold to MG Rover and then Nanijing Automotive.