As a result of Canada being in the British Commonwealth, and Canadian consumers having more frugal tastes in cars, British non-sports cars were available for longer and enjoyed greater success than they ever did in the United States. That’s how they got Minis through the late 1970s, the Innocenti DeTomaso in the mid-1980s, and some other things we didn’t see in the US, like the Hyundai Pony, Lada, Skoda, and more recently, Mercedes B-class and first-generation Smart ForTwo. And while post-war Austins were offered in the US (this one as the Austin Cambrian), buyers of family sedans preferred American cars for greater size, power, reliability, and durability. Check out this 1958 Austin A55 Cambridge for sale for $3995 in Vancouver, BC at a Kia dealership.
Who knows how long this thing has been for sale – aside from the flat tires, these pictures show second generation Kia Sportages in the background, which were last sold in 2010. The car looks reasonably decent and complete, although there does appear to be some corrosion from outdoor storage, most notably around the passenger-side headlight and in the door bottoms. For some reason the rear wheels are wearing winter tires, which suggests this car was a daily driver when new and has been retired for quite a while.
The seller offers next to no detail on the car, other than a quick couple of lines clipped from the model’s wikipedia page. No doubt there’s some kind of bonus to the sales people for the one to sell this – a pizza, perhaps, or maybe a Starbucks gift card? The only thing that suggests some more recent interest in the car is the condition of the interior – the blue leather looks nicely done, and outside of needing a cleaning seems to be in good shape. There are some bits of hose and air filter housing in the trunk, suggesting there was an attempt to start the car at some point.
The rear lid appears to be a replacement sourced from another car, and looks to be out of alignment. Everything looks straight inside and outside on the rear of the car, so perhaps the original piece succumbed to corrosion. There are no shots offered of the engine, but being a B-series (as found in the MGA, and in larger form in the MGB), it shouldn’t be too hard to get it back in shape. Perhaps you can get a power upgrade as part of that work. It would be a real bastard, but picture this on subtly widened steelies wrapped in redlines, no caps, slightly lowered, and with a lightly upgraded MGB engine. Could be fun!
Rusty But Trusty 
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