Start with what the Riley 4 is: a 4-door saloon / station wagon (Argentina) / 2-door pick-up (Argentina) with 1489 cc B-Series Straight-4, built from 1959 to 1969, at the height of the post-war boom. What it meant takes a little longer. The shape is credited to Pinin Farina.
The story
The Riley 4 / Sixty Eight and Riley 4 / Seventy Two are cars produced by BMC from 1959 to 1969, under the Riley marque. They are closely related to the Pinin Farina-designed MG Magnette Mark III and Wolseley 15/60 and the simpler Austin A55 Cambridge Mark II, Morris Oxford V pair, sharing the MG's rear styling and engine (with a milder cam).
This Riley was the most expensive car in that series. This model's introduction, using the same engine, did not affect production of the smaller-bodied 1½-litre Riley One-Point-Five sports saloon which continued until 1965.
What is underneath
The engine is 1489 cc B-Series Straight-4. On the scales it comes to 36 cwt. The wheelbase is 99.25 in / track. These are manufacturer figures carried by Wikipedia and Wikidata, not road-test measurements.
Its place in the line
In the British Motor Corporation line-up the Riley 4 has a clear place: it replaced the Riley RME (1945–1955); it handed the line to the none. The cars a buyer would have weighed it against include the Nissan Patrol, the Dodge Challenger, the Mini Mini. Nearby in the British Motor Corporation catalogue sit the Austin 10 and the Austin 12.
Owning one today
MotorJury scores cars on the United States complaint and recall record, and the Riley 4 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.