Hillman Avenger

The Hillman Avenger was a small, conventional family car that the Rootes Group designed and built in Britain and sold from 1970, in two- and four-door saloon and five-door estate forms with a front engine driving the rear wheels. Introduced in February 1970, it was the first and last car developed by Rootes after the Chrysler takeover of 1967, and it was among the first cars to use computer-aided design for its unibody, with a rigid passenger cell, a front crumple zone and a padded dashboard. It was built at Ryton-on-Dunsmore and later at Linwood in Scotland with 1250 or 1500 cc four-cylinder engines, and was sold as a Hillman until 1975, a Chrysler from 1976 and a Talbot from 1979 to 1981. It spawned the Plymouth Cricket in North America and Dodge versions in Brazil, and about 790,000 were built.