Austin
Austin company has remained forever in automotive history thanks to the great range of world famous cars and trucks. In 1906, Sir Herbert Austin (1866-1941), former CEO of Wolseley, established in an old printing house in Longbridge village, south of Birmingham, a company of his name. In April, he introduced his first car "25/Z0HP". In few years Austin offered a whole range of cars.
The full-scale production of trucks began on the eve of World War II. In December 1912 the company presented models with a capacity of 2 and 3 tonnes, production of which started from February of the next year. Soon 1,5- and 5-tonnes versions were presented. After October 1917 about thousand of unsold trucks accumulated in the warehouses. Austin tried to sell them up to 1922.
Having huge problems with the trucks, Austin decided to leave them and concentrate on the production of passenger cars. From 1921 on the basis of almost each passenger car the company made commercial versions with a capacity from 300 kg to 1.5 tonnes. In January 1939, just before the War, Austin, received the government order and returned to truck production. The new range which was later named as the "Series 1" consisted of two basic models "K2" and "K3" with a carrying capacity of 2 and 3 tonnes. Then a 1.5-tonnes pickups "K30" were added to the lineup.
From the end of the war and until the mid-50s Austin had been producing unchangeable series "K2" and "K4" with a capacity from 2 to 5 tonnes. In the early 50s the economic difficulties forced several British companies, including Austin and Morris, to form a joint venture British Motor Corporation, or BMC. From that moment the unification of commercial ranges of both companies began and in a few years Austin and Morris cars differed only by names. Since 1956 some models were produced under a common brand BMC.
The economic crisis of the 60s and the inclusion of BMC in 1968 in a new British Leyland Motor Corporation, BLMC, leaded Austin to stop production of trucks. The original BMC mass-production brought together into the Austin Morris division of the new organization. In 1975 a light truck Sherpa suggested to produce under the Austin brand, but the new owner chose to for it brand name Leyland. Until the last days of the Austin company its production range included only commercial versions of passenger cars.
