The Morris Oxford is a car from British Motor Corporation, built from 1913 to 1971, as the assembly line was turning motoring into an industry. Under the bonnet: W&P 1018 .
Where it came from
Morris Oxford is a series of motor car models produced by Morris of the United Kingdom, from the 1913 'bullnose' Oxford to the Farina Oxfords V and VI. Named by W R Morris after "the city of dreaming spires", the university town in which he grew up, the manufacture of Morris's Oxford cars would turn Oxford into an industrial city. From 1913 to mid-1935, Oxford cars grew in size and quantity.
In 1923, they, together with the Cowley cars, were 28.1 per cent of British private car production. In 1925, Morris sold nearly double the number, accounting for 41 per cent of British production. Meanwhile, Oxfords grew larger from the first 1018 cc, Nine-horsepower, two-seater car to the last 2½-litre, twenty-horsepower car. The model name was recycled in 1948 and lasted almost another 23 years through to 1971, but in this time the market sector and engine size remained nearly constant between 1476 cc and 1622 cc.
Under the skin
Power comes from W&P 1018 . These are manufacturer figures carried by Wikipedia and Wikidata, not road-test measurements.
In context
Its family tree is legible: its successor was the Morris Marina. Its contemporaries in the catalogue — the Alfa Romeo A.L.F.A 40/60 HP, the Packard Six, the Lancia Theta-35HP — show what else the money bought that year. Nearby in the British Motor Corporation catalogue sit the Austin 10 and the Austin 12.
What it costs now
MotorJury scores cars on the United States complaint and recall record, and the Morris Oxford has none: too old, too rare, or never sold there. Its value today is a collector's question, decided by provenance and condition rather than by a class average.