Another element retained from the old series was the use of stylish cars in the show. Ever keen to uphold a thoroughly British image, Albert Fennell and Brian Clemens decided to strike a deal with a UK company. Once again Lotus were anxious to become involved but (possibly due to budgetry restrictions) it was felt that the production team’s needs would be best served by one company who could supply all necessary vehicles including those for the crew such as pick-ups and trucks. The Ford Motor Company were very keen to promote their own vehicles but, of course, they are American-owned. In the end British Leyland were chosen – a deal which quickly turned sour.

It’s well-remembered that at the time the UK car industry was in poor shape, with the BL conglomerate arguably suffering from more than their fair share of strife through workers’ disenchantment with their management. Strikes seemed to occur for the most trivial and ridiculous of reasons – in one BL factory the workforce walked out allegedly because they didn’t care for the colour of their new overalls! 1975 to 1978 saw the industrial unrest at its worst, leading to shoddily-built, unreliable cars. At the time BL was a nationalised industry and it’s arguable that a great many of the problems stemmed from over-manning (indeed when it was privatised in 1986, eighty percent of the workforce were made redundant!). As a nationalised company, controlled by the Government of the day, BL was obliged to take on as many staff as possible in a bid to resolve unemployment problems in certain ares of the country. This led to a financial crises, forcing cars to be built using low quality materials. Indeed it seems even quality control itself was thrown out the window.

This was a great shame as, in terms of actual design, BL were capable of dreaming up some very interesting cars – some of which featured in The New Avengers.

All these problems affected Avengers Film & TV, often leading to money-draining shooting delays. Some of the vehicles they were supplied with repeatedly broke down. Promised back-up vehicles would sometimes never arrive.

Later on in the series it was decided that Purdey should have a motorbike in some episodes (not shown here). Although one of BL’s companies, Triumph, were still making bikes at the time, unsurprisingly Brian and Albert chose to look elsewhere and approached Honda. This from Brian: “We went to a Japanese manufacturer and within hours they replied ‘How many bikes do you want? What colours?’ ... If we gave them a little time they would be pleased to produce a special ‘Purdey’ bike for our use! In that one incident I realised why the Japanese industry was growing so rapidly – and the British one was doomed to oblivion. Later, on The Professionals, we involved Ford – a US company – and again received excellent and professional treatment.” (Quote courtesy of 'The Ultimate Avengers' by Dave Rogers.)

Unfortunately for Avengers Film & TV, they were too entrenched in their deal with BL to be able to back out.

Listed below are all the main cars used by the Pat, Gareth and Jo, including those from the French and Canadian episodes. At the time BL were exporting many of their models overseas, so it was not unnatural to see Steed driving a left-hand drive Jaguar through the streets of Toronto!

As to the the car driven by Jo, Brian Clemens recalls taking delivery of it prior to a shoot and unable to get it into reverse gear. However it was later discovered that the gear knob fitted to the car was actually from an Austin, in which reverse gear was in a different position. Yet another foul-up by BL! Meanwhile the car itself was last registered for road use in 1994 - its fate is unknown.

In the series there were actually two Jags used (you can tell them apart by the fact that one of them has a dent in the passenger-side front wing) as neither of them could relied upon to keep going for very long! In fact BL themselves couldn’t supply a back-up when the first one went wrong and the team had to hire the other from a local dealer!

The car used in the show was last registered for road tax in 1986 and it is rumoured that the mystery current owner has had it in storage ever since.

As for Jags in general, well the usual 70’s problems of rust and unreliability meant pretty low used prices. However in 1986 Rover Group (the new name for BL) decided to sell off Jaguar to Ford US who quickly vanquished all the problems.... good old Ford!

Launched in late 1974, strangely to the American market first – not available in the UK until ’76. Early ones suffered all the usual BL problems including dodgy electrics and a two-litre engine that was prone to furring up along the waterways. A shame because apart from the ‘7’, Triumph had managed to produce some pretty decent cars throughout the decade, despite all the antics going on within BL. Early four-speed gearboxes were straight out of the Morris Marina and hardly appropriate for a sportscar. In late ’76 five-speed and automatic boxes (which came from the Rover SD1) were made available.

Convertible versions appeared in 1979.

The 3500cc V8 engine from the big Rover was also available to the US from 1980 and shipped in very small quantitles (approx 20, I think) back to the UK where this version of the car was dubbed TR8.

Purdey’s TR7 was only ever seen briefly in the series – reliability problems again?