The car was originally called the Austin / Morris / Wolseley 18:22. Later, it was given the name first used on the Austin Princess limousine of the 1940s and 1950s. It appeared in revamped form as the Austin Ambassador between 1982 and 1984.
The car was widely reviled at the time, but many enthusiasts believe it's now possible, looking back, to divorce the car itself from its manufacturer's problems and inability to build, market, maintain or promote their products. The Princess, it is argued, was certainly flawed, but it got other things very right, and it did not commit the cardinal sin of being boring-looking and forgettable.
Controversial styling
Like many other controversial cars, the exterior styling was distinctive, innovative, and somewhat divisive. The Wedge, as it's often been nicknamed, is indeed very wedge-shaped; the styling is all angles and slanting panels, very 1970s style as created by Italian stylists (see Lamborghini Countach for the production epitome of such style). The designer, Harris Mann, was also responsible for the Triumph TR7, another notably wedge-shaped car, as well as the decidedly non-angular Austin Allegro. The Princess, unlike the Allegro, made it to production metal relatively unscathed and unaltered from Harris' original plan. The bonnet (hood) was a little higher, to allow for taller engines, but the biggest change from Harris' design involved the rear. Harris had intended the design to be a five-door hatchback, but management decided that the Austin Maxi should be the only hatchback in the range, making that its unique selling point, and besides, they thought the Princess' prospective buyers wouldn't like a hatchback - even though, in the Rover division, the new Rover SD1 was being given a hatchback design. So the Princess received fixed rear glass and a seperate boot (trunk), belying its appearance. This was to prove a sales-loser the Princess' entire life.
Mechanical details
Engines fitted were typical and uninspired; the base engine was the 1800cc pushrod B-series engine, already quite long in the tooth and notably lacking in power, though torque was reasonable. The larger engine, fitted to upper models in the range, was a 2200cc E-series SOHC straight-6, very smooth and a much more modern engine, but still not hugely powerful. The Princess was a big car, and the engine choice gave lacklustre performance. This wasn't helped by the provision of only a 4-speed manual gearbox (a Borg-Warner automatic transmission was an option, but performance with this was by all accounts positively lethargic). Bigger engines and a 5-speed would have made the Princess a much more exciting car and helped sales. There is a huge amount of unused space under the bonnet of a Princess; they could definitely have fitted more of an engine in there.
Suspension used BL's Hydragas system, and was very soft and smooth; the intention was to offer as smooth a ride as the Citroën CX and this was almost achieved. The Princess' ride was excellent, and comfort in general was a selling point; the car was roomy, reasonably well-appointed for the time, the seating was comfortable, and overall the driving experience - provided you didn't care that much about performance - was excellent.
Launch in three varieties
Launched in March 1975, it was not originally named the Princess; the original designation was the unwieldy and uninspired '18:22', referring to the engine sizes available. For the first six months of its production life, it was produced in three badge engineered variants, for Austin, Morris and Wolseley. Dealer networks of the three brands had not been consolidated, and all three needed a new car of this size. The differences between the versions were minor.
The Austin variant was really the 'standard' one, with no styling changes from the original. It had square headlights and a simple, horizontally-barred grille. The Morris and Wolseley cars had a raised 'hump' permitting a larger, styled grille for each model; the Morris one was a simple chrome rectangle with 'Morris' in the lower right-hand corner, while Wolseley's had a center chromed vertical bar with a Wolseley logo on it, with narrower vertical bars, set slightly back, filling in the chromed surround. Both of these versions had four round headlights, and the Wolseley model was only available with the six-cylinder engine and luxury trim.
Unfortunately, for all the good words said at the model's introduction, worse times were ahead. Build quality was often atrocious, exacerbated by bitter industrial disputes, and the Princess quickly developed a reputation for unreliability that would dog it for the rest of its production life. The styling, praised upon introduction, was soon labelled 'ugly' by most. Good cars with 'edgy' styling always have their admirers, but cars with a bad reputation are always considered horrid to look at. Most of the Princess' flaws were corrected over time, but the damage to its reputation was done.
In October 1980 some more minor appearance changes were made, but this would be the last year of the Princess. Production was stopped in November 1981.
The basic Princess design lived on for a few more years in revised form as the Austin Ambassador.Leyland Princess
By September of that year, the absurdity of producing three so-similar cars was abundantly obvious, and the process of unifying Austin and Morris dealerships was advanced, so the three versions were scrapped and a single version, the Leyland Princess, was built henceforth. A crown badge was affixed to the point of the bonnet and the script word Princess was affixed to the grille, the thick vinyl-clad C pillars and the boot.Princess 2
In 1978 the Princess was revised to become the Princess 2. The ageing 1800cc B-series engine was replaced by new power units, the O-series overhead cam 1700cc and 2000cc. Power was scarcely improved despite the switch, and the six-cylinder 2200cc version continued unchanged. The Princess script was removed from the grille and C-pillars, and the boot lid lettering was changed. Minor improvements were made to the Hydragas suspension, and a new laminated windscreen was fitted. This was the total extent of the changes, bar some interior tweaks. None of the Princess' major flaws, the lack of a hatchback and the lack of performance, were addressed.