We visit Willenhall's Reliant car centre, which is celebrating it's 50th anniversary.

Express & Star

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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.

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