Wolseley 1899-1975 - Reliable workhorses
Summary
There were around 10,000 car brands and designers - most of them have disappeared. One of these vanished brands is Wolseley, which built vehicles for almost 80 years from 1899 to 1975. The company's history has had its ups and downs. In the end, Wolseleys were just luxury Morrises.
Estimated reading time: 3min
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They were upright black limousines with a small black box above the windshield bearing the inscription "POLICE": Wolseley models were the discreet supporting actors in those British movie thrillers in which perpetrator and victim, detective and inspector still paid homage to cultivated manners. And the author is pleased to note that the descendants of the family branch that emigrated to Australia assure him that they only drove Wolseleys as a matter of principle out of a Helvetic arrogance of quality. Wolseley was part of Australian economic history: Frederick York Wolseley founded a company in Sydney in 1887 for the sheep-shearing machine he invented. But it was the young engineer Herbert Austin who brought the machine to efficient warping. A new production company was established in London in 1889. Under Austin, a three-wheeled car prototype was created in 1895, which went into series production in 1899.
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