The Hillman Avenger is a small family car, originally engineered and manufactured by the Rootes Group in the UK and marketed globally from 1970 to 1978. It is a five-passenger car with two- or four-door saloon and five-door estate body styles and a front-engine, rear-wheel-drive layout.
As a completely new design, the Avenger was a conventional, straightforward and economical design – the saloon distinguished by its four-doors, chair-height seating, four-link coil rear suspension and unique, J-shaped or "hockey stick" taillights.
The project was conceived in 1963; Design Director Roy Axe received his styling brief in 1965; and engineering began in 1966. The Avenger became one of the first automobiles to use computer-aided design (CAD) in the engineering of its unibody, and it was one of the first cars to address growing safety requirements, featuring a rigid passenger compartment with a front crumple zone, strengthened windscreen glass, and heavily padded instrument panel.
After its press introduction in Malta in early 1970, manufacturing took place at the Rootes plant in Ryton-on-Dunsmore, England, near Coventry which had been renovated at a cost of £8M (£154M 2025) — with bodies and body panels shipped by train from Linwood, Scotland, and powertrains shipped from Stoke. Manufacturing moved completely to Linwood in 1976.
Rootes marketed the Avenger from 1970 to 1975 solely under its Hillman brand, as the Hillman Avenger. After Rootes became a division of Chrysler Europe, the car was marketed from 1976 to 1978 as the Chrysler Avenger. After the sale of Chrysler Europe to PSA Peugeot Citroën it was marketed from 1979 to 1981 as the Talbot Avenger.
The Avenger would ultimately spawn a host of global badge engineered variants, including prominently a North American variant marketed from 1971 to 1973, the Plymouth Cricket; by Chrysler Brazil for 1971–1980 as the Dodge 1800 (notably in a two-door body style) and later as the Dodge Polara — by Volkswagen Argentina as the VW 1800.
Despite its conventional underpinnings, the Avenger was successful in motorsport, winning the 1971 Press-on-Regardless Rally (in Plymouth Cricket badging); winning the British Group 1 Rally Championship in 1975 and 1976 in Northern Ireland, winning the British Saloon Car Championship numerous times, and winning the 1976 Heatway Rally of New Zealand.
At its introduction, the Avenger's success was considered crucial to Rootes, and by the time UK production finished in 1981, some 790,000 examples had rolled off the Ryton and Linwood production lines. While the Avenger was one of the most popular British cars of the 1970s, by 2016, reportedly fewer than 260 remained in use in Britain.
1970: Hillman Avenger Introduced in February 1970, the Avenger was significant as it was the first and last car to be developed by Rootes after the Chrysler takeover in 1967. Its styling used conventional three-box and two-box styling featuring an American-influenced "Coke Bottle" waistline and semi-fastback rear-end, later spawning a station wagon variant.
The Avenger used conventional unibody construction and a 4-cylinder all-iron overhead valve engine in 1250 or 1500 capacities driving a coil spring suspended live axle at the rear wheels. The Avenger was praised by the press for its handling characteristics and overall road competence.
Initially, the Avenger was available as a four-door saloon in DL or Super trim levels with either the 1250 or 1500 cc engines, as well as a GL trim level with the 1500 cc engine. The DL featured rubber mat floor covering and a simple dashboard with a strip-style speedometer. The Super also featured carpets, armrests, twin horns reversing lights and dashboard carried from the DL. The GL trim featured four round headlights, internal bonnet release, two-speed wipers, brushed nylon seat trim (never previously used on British cars), reclining front seats, and round instruments in its dash along with extra instrumentation. During the first two years of production, only the car's curb side featured the Avenger emblem, as a cost saving measure.
In addition to its styling, its engine and transmission were purpose-designed exclusive to the Avenger. Its plastic front grille, a first in Britain and at wide was claimed as the largest mass-produced plastic component used at the time by a European car. The Avenger was a steady seller in the 1970s, in competition with the Ford Escort and Vauxhall Viva. Chrysler marketed the Avenger globally, prominently but unsuccessfully as the Plymouth Cricket in the U.S..
Body and trim variations
In October 1970, the Avenger GT was added to the range featuring a twin-carburettor 1500 cc engine, four-speed manual or three-speed automatic transmission (also optional on the 1500 DL, Super and GL). The GT featured twin round headlights, door stripes and "dustbin lid" wheel covers, similar to on various 1970s Datsuns and Toyotas.
A basic fleet Avenger was added to the range in February 1972 with either 1250 or 1500 cc engines (the latter available with the automatic transmission option), while the interior featured a driver sun visor and a single speed heater blower. In October 1972, the Avenger GT was replaced by the Avenger GLS, featuring a vinyl roof and Rostyle sports wheels.
In March 1972, the five-door estate versions were introduced, in DL and Super trim levels, both available with either 1250 or 1500 cc engines and using the same specifications as the saloon. The estate featured 'heavy-duty springing' with a maximum load capacity of , compared to for the saloon.
A two-door saloon model was added in March 1973, with all engine and trim levels of the four-door range.
The car was extensively marketed in continental Europe, first as a Sunbeam and as the Sunbeam 1250 and 1500 in France, later the 1300 and 1600. Some Northern European markets marketed the car as the Sunbeam Avenger.
Both engine sizes were upgraded in October 1973. The 1250 became the 1300, while the 1500 became the 1600 with nearly all the same previous trim levels except for the basic fleet Avenger, which was discontinued at this point. The three speed automatic transmission was upgraded to four speeds with the Borg Warner 45 transmission replacing the earlier 35. The GL and GT trim levels were offered with the 1300 engine and two-door saloon body.
1972: Hillman Avenger Tiger
Named to evoke memories of the Sunbeam Tiger, the Avenger Tiger concept began as a publicity exercise. Avenger Super (four-door) cars were modified by the Chrysler Competitions Centre under Des O'Dell and the Tiger model was launched in March 1972. Modifications included the 1500 GT engine with an improved cylinder head with enlarged valves, twin Weber carburetors and a compression ratio of 9.4:1. The engine now developed at 6,100 rpm. The suspension was also uprated, whilst brakes, rear axle, and gearbox are directly from the GT.
A distinctive yellow colour scheme ("Sundance") with a bonnet bulge, rear spoiler and side stripes was standard, set off with "Avenger Tiger" lettering on the rear quarters.
Road test figures demonstrated a 0– time of 8.9 seconds and a top speed of . These figures beat the rival Ford Escort Mexico, but fuel consumption was heavy. Even in 1972, the Tiger developed a reputation for its thirst.
All Avenger Tigers were assembled by the Chrysler Competitions Centre and production figures are vague but around 200 of the initial Mark 1 seems likely.
In October 1972, Chrysler unveiled the more production ready Mark 2 Tiger. The Avenger GL bodyshell with four round headlights was used. Mechanically identical to the earlier cars (from contemporary road tests, however, there were better performances and fuel consumption), the bonnet bulge was lost although the bonnet turned matt black, and there were changes to wheels and seats. These cars went on sale at £1,350. Production was around 400. Red ("Wardance") was now available as well as yellow ("Sundance"), both with black detailing.
1976–1979: Chrysler Avenger
In September 1976, the Avenger was rebadged as a Chrysler. It also gained a comprehensive facelift which included a new frontal treatment and a new dashboard. Both treatments looked similar to those of the Chrysler Alpine. The greatest change was at the rear where, on the saloons, the distinctive "hockey-stick" rear lamp clusters were dropped in favour of a straight "light-bar" arrangement. To save the cost of retooling the entire rear wings/fenders, the top of the former light apertures simply had body coloured metal plates attached in their place, whilst the fuel cap was moved from the rear to the right hand side of the car.
Three trim levels were available, LS, GL (known as 'Super' in certain markets) and GLS, the latter being only available in a high-compression 1.6 L form.
From the beginning of production in 1970, the Avenger's bodyshell components had been manufactured at Linwood, and then transported south to Ryton on the component trains used to move materials for the Hillman Imp north to Linwood. Following the Imp's discontinuation in 1976, the Avenger production line was moved from Ryton to Linwood where it was produced until the end of its UK production life., whilst Ryton was switched over to producing the Simca-based Chrysler Alpine and later the Talbot Solara.
1977: Chrysler Sunbeam hatchback
In 1977, a hatchback variant was introduced, known as the Chrysler Sunbeam. This was based on a shortened version of the Avenger's floorplan, and was intended to compete in the lower "supermini" class. It also shared doors with the 2-door Avenger. Initially three engines were available: a 928 cc Hillman Imp-derived unit and 1300 and 1600 Avenger units. A sporty "Ti" version was soon introduced, also with a 1600 engine.
The model's name was a revival of the Rootes Sunbeam marque, which had recently been killed off along with the final Sunbeam model, the Rapier.
In 1979, Chrysler unveiled the Sunbeam Lotus at the Geneva Motor Show. Developed in conjunction with Lotus with rallying in mind (because none of the existing models were competitive) and using a 2200 cc Lotus engine, the road-going version of the rally car was not actually ready for delivery to the public until after the Peugeot buyout, and thus became the Talbot Sunbeam Lotus. At first, these were produced mostly in Lotus' then tobacco-sponsorship colours of black and silver, although later models came in a turquoise and silver scheme.
1979–1981: Talbot Avenger
Following the collapse of Chrysler Europe in 1978, and its takeover by PSA Peugeot Citroën, the Avenger was rebadged with the resurrected Talbot brand with the Avenger remaining in production alongside the hatchback-only Horizon to meet the demand which remained for traditional saloons and estates in this sector.Hillman Avenger car development: Detroit meets Coventry, www.rootes-chrysler.co.uk Retrieved 25 January 2014 Unlike newer Talbot models such as the Horizon, the Avenger retained the Chrysler "Pentastar" badge, instead of the Talbot logo featuring a letter "T" inside a circle – this was because Chrysler had retained the rights to the Avenger model after the sale of Chrysler Europe to PSA, who only had purchased the rights to the Simca-based Alpine and Horizon. The Sunbeam was afforded a minor facelift in Autumn 1980 with revised headlights and grille now featuring the round Talbot logo. Production continued until the middle of 1981, when PSA closed the Linwood production plant and concentrated all British production at the Ryton plant. The Avenger was discontinued with no direct replacement – the Peugeot 305, introduced in 1977, was the closest car to the Avenger's size in PSA's lineup; although the slightly larger Talbot Solara (a saloon version of the Alpine/Simca 1307) had been introduced shortly before the Avenger's demise.