Bewick:
Just to stimulate further debate,which was the better motor for it’s time,the BMC (Austin & Morris) or the Thames Trader,they were both in the same market place 50 odd years ago and sold in large numbers.I always think of the Trader as the better of the two but there will be,quite rightly,equal and opposite opinions !! Cheers Bewick.
Couldn’t really say Dennis, only drove the BMC’s though I have worked on Trader’s. The BMC’s were a nice truck to drive though with a better (I thought) driving position as the trader seat was a bit low! I guess that the Ford was stronger in tipper form, though Derbyshire Stone ran plenty of BMC tipper’s as well, I guess that there wasn’t much between the engines but the Ford had a synchro gearbox as opposed to BMC’s constant mesh one. As has been said it was the FJ that caused their downfall against the D series Ford but before that I would think it was just a case of whatever took your fancy and what dealership’s were local?
Pete.