Austin

The Maxi (code name ADO14) was the last car designed under the British Motor Corporation (BMC) before it was incorporated into the new British Leyland group, and the last production car designed by famed designer Alec Issigonis. It was launched in April 1969 and underneath the spacious bodyshell lay an all-new front-wheel drive chassis, which was interlinked with a five-speed manual transmission, a feature which many manufacturers did not adopt until more than a decade later. Despite the new platform, the Maxi's styling suffered from the decision to save costs by re-using door panels from the Austin 1800, which gave the Maxi an unusually long wheelbase in relation to its length. This design was by then five years old, at a time when the "coke bottle" styling was very much in vogue, contrasting sharply with the Maxi's obviously mid-1960s looks.

As of 1976 all export models are sold under the name Maxi, without Austin. A year later, the Austin name is also officially dropped in the UK. However, British Leyland was not very consequent about this in their publicity materials.