1975: FYFE ROBERTSON - Has the CAR Gone TOO FAR? | Robbie | Retro Transport | BBC Archive

[@hilaryepstein6013]

I like his style. A wonderful social commentator who was really ahead of his time but he liked life's little luxuries too. I wonder how many Minis in the 1970s had a phone and a TV.

[@depniff]

ROB1E is currently on a Bentley Continental. I love Fyfe's questioning. He's not telling us how it should be but instead puts across a series of points for the viewer to make up their own mind. A lot of these points still really make you think about where we are going wrong. Maybe someone can create a Fyfe AI from his recordings to come back and give us his view on the modern age.

[@JJONNYREPP]

1975: FYFE ROBERTSON - Has the CAR Gone TOO FAR? | Robbie | Retro Transport | BBC Archive. 24.11.24. Probably didn't suffer fools gladly...he would be the prototype for python's Tim the enchanter....

[@vulgivagu]

I was 11 in the late 1950's when the Tonight programme started on BBC television. Fyfe Robertson was one of the roving presenters who gave us amazing entertaining programmes. Television was totally different back in those days.

[@markiliff]

Robertson was such a compelling presenter, whatever the subject. Interesting that every one of the gadgets on the RR Camargue that wowed him is today pretty much standard on anything above a downright poverty model… and the ~£30k price tag is not that far off either.

[@numbereightyseven]

"the look of concentrated tycoonery". Wonderful.

[@shellsbignumber2]

What a marvellous programme. Look how many British made cars were on the road then compared to now, how depressing.

[@williamegler8771]

If they made them more reliable and durable then buyers wouldn't have turned to imports.

[@Dan-co4zl]

Yeah, its a shame unreliable british made british leyland cars didn't continue to haunt the horrors of British motorists

[@TheKievKen]

@@Dan-co4zlHow dare you decry the pinnacle of British motoring? 😂

[@mariemccann5895]

Nothing depressing about it, they were utter crap.

[@MerkJacobus]

Until 1973, imported cars had a tax of 25% added to their price and after that tariffs were gradually reduced. That's the real reason most cars were British.

[@davidpayne3938]

Fyfe, you were absolutely right back then as you are now with being concerned with pollution to our environment that vehicle transport brings along with it although not until recently manufacturer's have rushed in electric vehicles but the point of view the British Leyland chairman had with charging the battery with a majority of fossil fuels in the UK still exists but with turning gas into electric instead of using clean energy, basically we are still not ready to save our environment Fyfe after nearly another half a century since you started driving vehicles and doing something about all of your concerns you raised. .😢

[@jameshurst3279]

Fyfe Robertson for the next Top Gear host!

[@phillipcarter8045]

He’s in heaven now . 👼

[@Keithbarber]

​@@phillipcarter8045died 1987 He was 73 when he filmed this

[@jameshammons2826]

The origin of "top. gear"

[@GuyGibsonsDog]

If they can AI Captain Kirk they can AI Fyfe..

[@Bob-_-Smith]

They’ll need to use a ouija board

[@ashcross]

BBC Archive, you are spoiling us! We asked for more Fyfe and you delivered!

[@professormcclaine5738]

That road in Eltham is Rochester Way, it's just as busy today, despite there being a bypass and now vehicles park with one set of wheels on the narrow pavement, with every front garden having been removed to accommodate a vehicle.

[@richardjones8699]

Back when the BBC used to make good TV programmes.

[@danellis-jones1591]

But do you support EVs?

[@Keithbarber]

Making good tv programmes is a lost art...

[@danellis-jones1591]

@Keithbarber It's also expensive.

[@Keithbarber]

@danellis-jones1591 maybe so, but today's offerings are just so lousy and poor quality they are not worth a penny

[@alanhargreaves-thevoiceofr2361]

before it became the 'IPC' . ..

[@transferdatathreewally24]

I love this fellow. The old days and old fashioned gentle, in assuming ways. I get a feeling of old England, old Scotland, us, in the old days when life was simpler, people better cultivated and charming in a natural way. II feel elevated when I encounter people like this.

[@transferdatathreewally24]

* I mean unassuming

[@kyle8952]

Be careful with that kind of feeling, it's of a time that never existed. This man lived through the times of Edwardian slums, men dying by the millions to poison gas, the great depression... Life was not in any sense simpler and for most people there was no chance to become "cultivated and charming", they had to work from a very young age and were lucky if their diet was good enough for their teeth not to fall out by the time they were 30.

[@transferdatathreewally24]

@@kyle8952 I'm in no doubt about the validity of your thoughtful reply. The written word, as in this instance can appear clumsy and a brief response, may appear to lack circumspection. I'm sure you are right, it was not a barrel of laughs

[@transferdatathreewally24]

By which I mean my own clumsy response. And here above is another

[@chucky2316]

​@@kyle8952worse today in 2025

[@ivanbogush]

I would have loved to hear Fyfe record an audiobook of the Hobbit. He's got the perfect voice for it.

[@peterww3241]

Bless him! He was lovely.

[@mattw8332]

I was likely brought home from the maternity ward in a Ford Cortina mark 3 estate and in 1980 my parents replaced it with a1976 Granada like the ones seen at the motor show.

[@unklesannjay]

Fascinating video

[@hedydd2]

I was 18 when this was filmed and I had an ex-antique dealer Cortina 1600 MkIII, the same American style Cortina style seen early in the film. It or ’76 introduced the first front wheel drive hatchback Ford Fiesta. The market was dominated by the Vauxhall Viva, Ford Escort MkI, Morris Marina and Austin Maxi. The Morris 1000 was in its last days. They were all poorly built relatively thirsty carburettor fed, unreliable rust buckets. The Japanese were just starting to appear with the Datsun Cherry and some Toyota models which were reliable but even worse rust buckets. Exhausts and batteries hardly lasted a year, the warranties were for six months. Even my 1976 Fiesta 1300S was terribly unreliable, achieved only 30mpg with a following wind and needed a respray under warranty, yet its unlined wings and door pillars had rust holes by the fourth birthday. This is unheard of these days. The Mini was in its prime and there were badge engineered versions of it like the Riley Elf, or ‘Wee Riley’ as it was known in Fyfe’s Scotland. Fyfe was a very forward thinking man, seeing the issues with town congestion and pollution and forecasting pedestrian areas in town centres long before they appeared. Traffic pollution was a massive issue back then with lead and sulphur in petrol, carburettors spewing half the unburnt petrol out of the exhaust and trucks with diesel engines that puffed massive volumes of soot. Also he is correct about the drive-by noise of the period. At 6am every morning I have an eight wheel heavy truck parked and pumping liquid about 15m away from my bedroom window. Up until around 2010 the engine noise when it accelerated away caused my windows to rattle and there was a tremendous engine roar. Today the same size truck is whisper quiet and I literally cannot hear it coming, pumping or accelerating away. Its engine also has Adblue, cats, soot filters and the fuel is ultra low sulphur with up to 10% clean biofuel mixed in. Nearly everything has become more economical, cleaner, quieter and even, dare I say it, far more reliable over a similar 50 year span of my experience that Fyfe mentions, but all after this video was originally filmed.

[@stephenspence-d9q]

Interesting post.

[@halfbakedproductions7887]

One of the major problems with the Leyland Princess was the utterly dire fuel economy. It got something like 17mpg which even for the 1970s was pathetic. Also, just a couple of years ago I was walking down the street and someone pulled up to the lights in a suffix-Y (1982) model Vauxhall. You could feel and smell the hot acrid oil cloud that all cars had in those days, it was noisy, there was visible filth coming out of the exhaust. There was a time that was completely normal for a car. It then moved off with the typical gearbox whine of that era as well. I also remember seeing rainbow puddles on the ground as parked cars leaked fluids. Don't think I've seen that anywhere since literally 1999 or so.

[@greenbunnyinabongo7299]

Is this large lorry that you speak of filling tanks at a petrol station ?

[@hedydd2]

@@greenbunnyinabongo7299 No its a milk tanker filling milk from my dairy. But its just a modern Scania truck with a tanker body but Volvo and others have similarly got more powerful and far far quieter over the years.

[@micrashed]

Brilliant

[@chadclay1643]

Man was right about electric cars

[@markiliff]

If you mean Stokes, he was right then - a rarity for him - but his logic fails for today's conditions

[@halfbakedproductions7887]

Electric cars are a much older invention than people realise. Really basic EVs existed as far back as World War I and there were electric milk floats way back in the 1960s. But I honestly have no idea how they were charged.

[@leenevin8451]

Yes 50 years ago they weren’t viable

[@-DC-]

Thank Goodness i kept my Horse, Emissions are a bit Wild though 😘

[@phillipcarter8045]

But 🚗 cars don’t fart

[@Excession-h6e]

You havent met my wife.

[@jamesdecross1035]

1975 eh…? He is speaking in what today we see as they heyday of the motorcar.

[@danellis-jones1591]

This absurd "modernisation" that Fyfe so eloquently questioning was highly influenced by the oil, car, bitumen and tyre manufacturers in the USA colluding to close down public transport. They bought public transport companies and closed them down. There was a huge anti-trust case in the USA in the 1930s. But these industries basically colluded again after ww2 and pushed car-dependent suburbia. Which spread across Europe. But Europeans revolted (more than in the UK). Amsterdam in 1970s was a car-dependent city, but CHOSE to change back to a human-first city. And now more people cycle to work than drive.

[@halfbakedproductions7887]

Parts of Victorian Glasgow were also trashed for the motorway network. Birmingham as well. And as you say, the Dutch were on track for the same until the early 1980s or so, imagine the centre of Amsterdam and all that beautiful historic architecture getting pulverised for more motorway. Praise be that we moved past that and didn't end up like the US.

[@dartskipper3170]

Of course more people use bicycles in Holland than most other countries. It's flatter than a flat pancake cooking on a flat baking plate. The only part of the UK remotely like Holland is South Lincolnshire and North Cambridgeshire, but towns and villages are much further apart, up to 17 miles or so, which doesn't encourage widespread use of bicycles.

[@TCHorwood-xq7mw]

3:40 In 1975 my parents bought a four bedroom house for £8,000.

[@andyt1048]

And now a run down mid terraced house cost twice as much as a Rolls Royce 😂

[@GuyGibsonsDog]

Thank the money-lenders.

[@halfbakedproductions7887]

£29250 is around £225k as of 2017 (the calculator I'm using doesn't go more recent). In 1975 the average price of a car was £1840 (around £14k in 2017) and the average house price was around £9423 (approx. £72k in 2017). Average salary? Around £2335 for a normal bloke, less for women.

[@halfbakedproductions7887]

That £29250 RR Camargue is equivalent to about £224k as of 2017 (I don't have a more up to date conversion). The modern equivalent of the Camargue is probably the Ghost, which is the entry level model and starts around £280k. That's not as big a difference as I was expecting. Meanwhile, the average price of a 'normal' car (such as that Cortina) in 1975 was £1840. In 2017 money that's £14k - there are barely any brand new cars you can get that cheap.

[@pokeboi5438]

It would’ve been the Wraith which was also a Coupé

[@MrFIZZYMann]

~ £30.k for That Rolls Royce You Could've Bought 5 or 6 Family Houses in South East England for That Money, Which Today Are Worth £3 or £4 Million 😲

[@carlgray6764]

just great ... .. .

[@ericablair4425]

When RR was British !

[@Excession-h6e]

Beautiful car, apart from the arse. That was clearly a Friday afternoon job.

[@quicknickdriver8510]

The more it changes, the more it stays the same…

[@RoadCone411]

The man may be from a different time but he was clearly quite ahead of his time, even in 1975, regarding the social awareness of vehicles and how they might be managed politically. Lord Stokes would have done well to listen to his message. Congestion pricing in London is 20 years old now, and gasp!, there is even talk about it happening in Manhattan, New York.

[@leeavalondick9531]

Clarkson learnt from this chap.

[@bill3641]

@2:30 , The "Car Man" of 1975 states the reality of 2024..............................

[@MrJohnJames1988]

I think it's quite shocking that 50 years ago a program was put out like this and there were clearly people who were environmentally conscious and yet today we're having the same issues with traffic, pollution and fuel prices. Perhaps if British Leyland didn't have the attitude of "well you'd use more oil if they were electric" they might have become the leading innovators of electric cars and their fate would have been different. It's clear that the chain of events of private car ownership having a negative effect on public transport had already started before this video was even made and only recently has there been a push to encourage people towards using public transport and trying to make it more accessible for people. I imagine Fyfe Robertson would have been a supporter of ULEZ schemes as he even said that one day he thought that private cars would be banned from city centres and he was right in many cases, many of the high streets I remember growing up inside and out of city centres have been pedestrianised and the resulting reduction in pollution has improved things no end. We're not completely ready to get rid of our internal combustion cars just yet but electric cars have come a long way fast and there seems to be more people adopting them as a viable means of transport so perhaps there's still hope for humanity!

[@GuyGibsonsDog]

A month ago the National Grid was hours away from throttling service due to calm winds, a blanket of soup cloud and Norway not picking up the slack by supplying us. Good luck to you, but I'm staying with a gas cooker and ICE car.

[@Excession-h6e]

If you're prepared to take a 50% hit on national income, which when you take away London barely exceeds Albania, and farm your pollution to rural areas, you can have EV. How expensive does the luxury of a conscience have to be before it becomes prohibitive?

[@MrJohnJames1988]

@@GuyGibsonsDog I wasn't suggesting that we should give up ICEs yet, I was just saying that if people had looked at things sooner then we'd be a lot further along by now. We had quite a lot of electric cars in the early 20th century but people picked ICE over them due to range and electrics were used more for local stuff...kind of like now. I think at the moment hybrids are probably the best thing in terms of fuel economy, range and emissions however I do still find it quite funny that most petrol cars and a lot of hybrids don't have the same fuel economy as a Mini from the 60's and it's still cheaper for me on fuel to use my motorcycles than it is to drive.

[@MrJohnJames1988]

@@Excession-h6e I don't think that I said I wanted an EV, I was honestly just musing about what it could have been like had electric vehicles been taken more seriously and adopted sooner. I don't think electric vehicles right now suit everyone's needs because we don't have the infrastructure to be able to support widespread adoption of EVs, I think as a run around in the city they're perfectly okay but long distance you can't currently do better than an ICE or Hybrid. I ride a motorcycle most of the time however i'm looking at getting a car that I can use sometimes for bad weather, long trips where the bike isn't practical and it's too expensive to use the train or get a coach or if there's more than me and the Mrs in the car as well as a few other reasons. We've settled on the idea of a hybrid as we'd be doing more longer trips than we would local ones however if we only intended it for local use a small EV would suit our needs because for the most part I will still continue to use the bike.

[@TRexo-ds5ze]

@@GuyGibsonsDog A better perspective: it's remarkable how quickly the UK has switched to renewable energies in such a short time despite the opposition of so many very obvious vested interests.

[@TinLeadHammer]

He's absolutely right. Return back to public transportation, trains, biking and walking.

[@amplify3735]

your a socialist Marxist so no thanks you return back to public transportation, trains, biking and walking and leave the rest of us alone. Modern cars are clean and convienient unlike the clips here. If you dont like cars on the road go walk in a forest

[@The-tg5zg]

That’s why UK Governments are investing in cycle paths and foot paths, only problem is the concept gets shot down by motorists who see it as a birth right to drive the half mile to the nearest grocery store. No surprise we have obesity issues!.

[@GuyGibsonsDog]

I prefer not to be mugged by a newcomer.

[@nigden1]

You omitted going vegan, wearing Lycra, swearing at motorists, and throwing oil on Van Gogh paintings. But I get the premise of the argument ;)

[@xjet]

Ah, the 1970s when *every* car was distinctive in styling. These days it's hard to tell a Toyota from a Mazda from a Hyundai from an *anything*. Modern (affordable) vehicles seem to lack character in the way those of the 1970s had. Bland sameness is what we get now. And don't get me started on how much modern cars cost, compared to those of the 1970s. Finally, modern cars seem to be far less reliable -- especially after they hit the 10-year mark. It's like they're designed to fail and be ludicrously expensive to fix -- so as to force you to buy a new one I guess.

[@chucky2316]

Lemmings and I phone people behind the wheel of a modern suv

[@Brimstoneandfire]

I love that a BL exec points out about fossil fuels being depended upon by EVs, with more oil needed in the first five mins if this video..!

[@billyjo1148]

i prefer this guy to that obnoxious clarkson

[@JJONNYREPP]

1975: FYFE ROBERTSON - Has the CAR Gone TOO FAR? | Robbie | Retro Transport | BBC Archive. 24.11.24. Yes. The car and it's lovers have gone too far.

[@keithmartin1328]

14:27. Unfortunately, no. 50 years later and driving has become as fun as a flat tyre. Congestion is worse, SUVs pack narrow streets and the motorway network is crumbling. One wonders what Mr Robertson, who passed away in 1987 at the age of 84, would make of Britain today.

[@chucky2316]

Like the rest of us cry

[@pbee8294]

If he thought the car slums were bad then.... it's only gotten way worse

[@cooperization]

Sounds familiar.

[@stephenbrookes7268]

When a RR cost £23k the average man was making 40 quid a week.

[@chucky2316]

What average man could buy a brand new rolls in 2025 they struggle to purchase a kia tucson on pcp finance 😂. Or if there feeling a bit more flush the smaller merc or bmw suv or a tiguan.

[@ColinOYoung]

£29,250 for a Rolls Royce. VW Golf money now.

[@chucky2316]

And the golf in 2025 loses ten grand the minute it's driven off

[@vwgolf9826]

Big cars! He's never come across SUV's

[@nickoteen3329]

Remember the days when the BBC wasn’t the mouthpiece of the Far Left 😢

[@transferdatathreewally24]

I* meant unassuming

[@regd.2263]

Only if you miss a turning.

[@ash2250]

Move the clock on 50 years, what would he have to say now I wonder!!

[@MrDavey2010]

£29000 for a Rolls! Gee whizz!

[@Keithbarber]

×7.6 =£224,000 in 2024 values

[@halfbakedproductions7887]

@@Keithbarber And the equivalent entry level Roller today is the Ghost. That starts at around £280k. Not a huge difference really - and the target audience for such a car is very narrow. The sort of person buying that car isn't going to be too fussed.

[@Keithbarber]

@halfbakedproductions7887 To some people, the cost of a rolls Royce is loose change in their pocket

[@chucky2316]

​@@halfbakedproductions7887worthless in a year or two 😂

[@russthebiker]

just as it got interesting a loud advert for black friday at currys , turned it off

[@bonnetdedouche437]

2:25 Austin Allegro EV Prototype? The Rimac of the 1970's? An opportunity missed!

[@jakejohns3463]

Luckily Hammond was only 6 by this stage! The Allegro EV may have just missed its fate with a mountain top!

[@endintiers]

Most electricity is generated by brown coal in my country, so electric cars make little sense...But the rich all have one.

[@TechSuper-wz6cp]

How come he has phone in his mini in 1974. Mobile phones were invented much later.

[@vulgivagu]

Post Office started car phone service in some Northern areas in1959

[@Danceup-dh6kn]

Lord Stokes was right about the electric car

[@CollapseReport]

Do you think so?

[@ivanmifsud6972]

Lord Stokes was so right about everything that British Leyland went bust within a few years! And now the legacy car manufacturers got it so right once again where concerns electric cars that they are all on their knees because they missed the boat by trying to preserve the status quo.

[@MDeeeeev]

Not anymore! In the 50 years since the proportion of electricity produced by renewables has skyrocketed. Personally I don't like the idea of me and my family breathing in carcinogenic petro-chemicals anyway

[@scottyg7284]

@@MDeeeeevToo funny.

[@MDeeeeev]

​@scottyg7284 what's funny friend?

[@theblurredcrusade.2557]

I wonder what Fyfe would say to Elon Musk 😆

[@multifaceteduser3405]

BBC with propaganda back in 75.

[@thenotanclan]

I would suggest that, at some point, there was a moose loose aboot his hoose

[@GavinMellon]

Bbc was just as anti car then as it is now.

[@TRexo-ds5ze]

Are you that easily triggered when a 1970s conservative like Fyfe Robertson comes back from history to tell you a few truths?

[@laurasands8322]

Well he wouldn't get a job with the BBC nowadays.

[@boombox2661]

What, not a BBC fiddie kiderler?

[@sirrichardrichard5655]

Helloooh I'm herrrre in 2024rrr...and this is the new Faguar Gay type

[@GuyGibsonsDog]

Are you the fella with the yellow rubber ring around his waist?

[@sirrichardrichard5655]

@GuyGibsonsDog no..I'm the one with the yellow sledge hammer

[@daffyduk77]

Very far-sighted & a great communicator & commentator

[@derekmillar318]

Lawsons pork sausages'...

[@elswick4636]

Mass car ownership is the worst thing to happen to humanity

[@chucky2316]

Why ?

[@elswick4636]

@@chucky2316 More than a million people are killed every year in car crashes. In the UK that's five a day. Not to mention the pollution....

[@alanhargreaves-thevoiceofr2361]

Fyfe was spot on ..what a disgrace and general nuisance to humanity the motorcar has 'evolved' into . ...it will only lead to a complete banning at some point in the future , its basically the same scenario in George orwells book . . .!

[@robinofilfracombe712]

He forgot to mention Sadiq Khan banning cars from Central London unless you pay the fine and then it doesn't really matter.

[@jamesfx2]

Congestion charge was introduced to London in 2003 by Ken Livingston, 13 years before Khan became mayor. It's not an unpopular policy because central London was just one big traffic jam.

[@MrPlannery]

Are you confusing a fine for not paying with a charge for paying? Yes, I think you are.

[@GuyGibsonsDog]

EVs soon to pay it all too, which goes to show it was never about pollution.

[@TRexo-ds5ze]

Why did you make most of this up?

[@halfbakedproductions7887]

@@jamesfx2 Central London was absolutely vile. Ancient diesel engines everywhere and spewing filth, no parking restrictions or serious traffic management so everyone drove everywhere, noise, litter etc. Most of it was sooty black until it was cleaned up for the Jubilee in 1977. Even Downing Street is meant to be a light sandstone colour and they just kept it filthy as part of its historical charm and pedigree.

[@michaelgriesel8388]

National Speed Limits should not be applicable to Country Lanes Period !!

[@halfbakedproductions7887]

Not that the locals would give a fig. Nothing better than going to a rural area and having a local in a pickup truck wanting to park in your exhaust.

[@raftonpounder6696]

The Camargue was an ugly brute.

[@encoreunefois1X]

I sorta kinda think it's a bit of a looker, in an odd way. I see however, why some might find it downright ugly.

[@robinvanags912]

Pininfarina's biggest display of straight lines.

[@steve00alt70]

Ban private car ownership. Make bicycles the king

[@dianesadler]

Bring back local shops then.

[@GuyGibsonsDog]

Cars will become a service - like Hello Fresh. Enjoy your 15 minute neighbourhood.

[@halfbakedproductions7887]

I just don't like riding bikes and would rather walk. The seats are uncomfortable, they wobble around a lot, I see no point in a machine where it's easier to get off and push uphill. But I do like a solid, sturdy motorbike or scooter. Get me one of those charged exclusively via renewables and we'll talk - I would happily use that on shorter journeys where the car might not be practical or where I'm not carrying anything big.

[@chucky2316]

And if you live in rural Wales westcountry or Scotland how do you propose the bicycle will be suffice

[@beausexon7546]

I disagree entirely with this video.

[@grbadalamenti]

😂😂😂

[@TRexo-ds5ze]

Are you a shill for Big Oil?