Memories of a Morris Traveller

A post by John Naughton has prompted others to reminisce about their Moggies.

I, too, had a Morris Traveller. Or, rather, my better half did. Her grandfather had worked for Morris Commercial in Birmingham, and got a Traveller when he retired. We had it until about ten years ago, when we were told it needed about £7000 of repairs to keep it going long term. Reluctantly we decided that was not a priority in our lives and sold it. It went - slightly indirectly - to a firm that hired out wedding cars, and the owner told us (somewhat apologetically) that they were going to paint it white for the wedding business. (It was previously Rose Taupe, AKA dull grey.) The firm was local, so we've been keeping an eye out for it ever since, but without success to date. Please let me know if you see a Morris registration no. FUY 663C.

Nicci French talked about the stir a traveller caused in Sweden, and we had a similar experience in Brittany. One of the times that it broke down on a holiday over there (... yes, that was one of the reasons we got rid of it in the end... boring modern cars do tend to be a little more reliable) it was repaired by a local garage and clearly provided some excitement for the mechanics. They said that it was rare to find old cars in France because they don't enforce the annual MOT in the same way as in the UK, with the result that cars were not maintained as well and don't last as long.

By contrast, when it broke down on the Isle of Lewis in the Outer Hebrides the island's mechanic took it in his stride. Cars of that vintage were nothing special out there.