For those of you not familiar with the Acclaim, this was the first car built jointly by British Leyland and Honda and was in production from 1981 to 1984. It may be
justifiably regarded as one of the most reliable cars to leave a Leyland factory. It is a tribute to its quality that 20 years
on a significant number are still with their original owner.
Reliability is not the end of the story, the Acclaim is nimble, comfortable, economical and suprisingly nippy. Servicing
is a doddle and the Acclaim is easy to maintain and repair (not that it goes wrong very often!).
It is also,
despite appearances, very good fun to drive.
The basic Acclaim spec is as follows:
- 4 door saloon of unitary construction
- 1335cc four cylinder overhead camshaft engine producing 75 bhp on unleaded fuel (not bad for 1981!)
- 5 speed manual or 3 speed semi-auto gearbox
- 0-60 in under 13 seconds, turbine like cruising at 70 mph, top speed around 100 mph.
- Fuel consumption of 33-39 mpg.
From an aesthetic point of view, some owners think it is a good looking car, others think it is plain ugly (but love it anyway!). Judge for yourself
when I finally get some photos up on this site!
Four standard models and two specials were produced with varying specifications:
- 'L'. Base model made in 1984. A no frills version - not even a clock.
- 'HL'. Higher spec model. Clock, remote mirror control.
- 'HLS'. Not much different to the 'HL'. A few detail changes. Hatch in rear seat to allow longer items in boot.
- 'CD'. Top of the range 'standard' car. Velour upholstery and electric windows.
- 'Avon'. A special. Leather seats and wooden dashboard.
- 'Turbo'. A mean machine with 100 bhp and 0-60 in nine seconds.
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