MORRIS MINOR
I worked for British Leyland in the late 60s as a Field Service Engineer. Our job was to liaise with fleet operators and main dealers to address frequent or difficult vehicle issues and, if necessary, go back to the Design Department for advice. The works had a number of Morris Minor Travellers as pool cars; they were all white and had been registered as a batch so all had similar registration numbers. Reputedly these were the ones which British Leyland couldn’t sell when production stopped.
Several were allocated to our department but there were never enough cars to go round, so jobs frequently had to be arranged around car availability. One day my colleague was catching an early morning flight from Manchester to Dublin so had to take a pool car which he was going to leave at the airport for several days. We arranged that he would leave the keys with our agent at the airport and I would get a lift later in the day from another colleague and use the car while he was away.
My colleague dropped me at the Short Stay car park and there was the white Morris Minor Traveller with the familiar registration number. I called at our agent’s office but no-one had any knowledge of any keys. Nor did the airline desk or lost property. So I walked out to the car and noticed that the quarter light wasn’t quite shut and I easily opened it with a pen knife. I
