We visit Willenhall's Reliant car centre, which is celebrating it's 50th anniversary.
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00:00Hi, I'm Andrew Smith and I'm the owner of the company.
00:03My dad started it back in 1975, just three weeks before I was born.
00:10So my dad's run it, now it's I've run it, and now my two sons are down here, and they're
00:16getting their hands dirty as we say, having a go.
00:19Reliant Robins are one of our best purchase icons, I think to be fair, they're getting
00:25to the point now where they're collector's items, and this is the only thing that we've
00:30ever done.
00:32So it's reaching a 15 year old milestone for us, is an achievement.
00:38What I like working a bit on these cars is the old school, all the bells and whistles
00:43have gone compared to the modern cars, and them so, to be fair, it's just, them just
00:51quirky.
00:52They're nothing like a modern car, we've got all these computers and gadgets, as I say
00:58them old school, and a lot of the old guys prefer that compared to the younger generations
01:03where they want all these suit up modern cars, them just, as I say, very basic, but them
01:09popular.
01:10They've sold over the years, I wouldn't, any way I guess to be fair, we've sold hundreds
01:16and hundreds.
01:17We used to be the main dealer, and the new cars that we've sold is, I wouldn't even throw
01:25a figure, it's been a lot.
01:28This one to be fair would probably be worth around about 5,000 or 5,500, but the new ones,
01:33the last ones we sold brand new, you'd probably be talking between 11 and 12,000 pounds.
01:39I'm John Smith, and I'm the guy who started the Reliant Centre, okay, 40 years ago, it
01:46was nothing like it is now, I mean this place, this side of the business didn't exist, which
01:52started at the little street at the back of us, and it started as a motorcycle shop, and
02:00then it built up from the motorcycle shop, because people could then drive Reliant on
02:06a motorcycle licence, so your motorcyclists used to put their bike away for the winter,
02:12and take out the Reliant, because they were so cheap to run, they were very, very economical,
02:19and really speaking then, virtually every motorcyclist had a Reliant, because they could
02:26also drive a Reliant on a motorcycle licence, which was a bonus, they didn't have to go
02:31out and take a car test, and even provisionals, they could put L-plates on and drive one of
02:38these, because they were classed as a tricycle, literally as a motorcycle and sidecar, and
02:43that's how it became, as a tricycle, and then from there it progressed to the stage where
02:50they got a little bit more technical, but as the son had explained earlier, they were
02:55very basic, they were very easy to maintain, and even the bikers could service their own
03:02Reliants on the drive, because they all had the old systems of points and plugs, and not
03:08like the technical, because I was so interested in motorbikes, and I did ride a little bit
03:14of speedway, and they all said you've got to stop that and do something sensible, so
03:19I decided then to open a motorcycle shop, and it sort of all progressed from there,
03:25from motorcycles, and then as the Reliants were taking hold, long story, but I brought
03:32one for the wife, so she could learn to drive an L-plate, and towing it back, I was towing
03:37a friend, and the rope got wrapped around the front wheel, and it ended up in a lamppost,
03:42so I repaired the Reliant, and from then on it just built up and built up, and so its
03:49heyday was really in the late 70s, 80s, when there were thousands and thousands of Reliants
03:56leaving Tamworth. The last 50 years, for me it's gone so quick, I can remember actually
04:03starting it, I can remember turning the business from a motorcycle shop to Reliants, and it
04:10started basically from scratch, I didn't take a business on, just built it up slowly over
04:16the 50 years, and as you see it is now, Reliants have dwindled, they are becoming now collectors
04:23items more so than an everyday vehicle, but we've still got the whole breed that love
04:29them because they're an icon, and it's a niche market, so no one else bothers now,
04:37they're just us.