BMC Australia evaluates the Morris 1100 for the Australian Market and is given free reign to modify the car to suit Australian Conditions. Nine English 1100s are imported and test-driven nearly 200,000 miles in the Outback with one car travelling more than 75,000.

As a result many changes are made to meet conditions not encountered in England and many are incorporated into English cars produced for export. Changes include steering modifications to reduce noise and kickback, the overall gearing of the car was reduced to give more lively performance and more pull in top gear.

Australian production begins at the British Motor Corporation's factory at Zetland in New South Wales. Following the National Press Preview it was released to the public on Monday the 17^thof February.

The Motoring press proclaimed it "The Car With Many Virtues".

An immediate success one fortnight after going on sale buyers face a six week waiting list as BMC struggles to keep up with demand. The most popular colours of white and green still wait-listed 2 weeks at the end of the year. With a total of 17,701 sales, it is second only to the Volkswagen (with 22,291 sales) for the year.

By the end of May the Morris 1100 is outselling all its rivals except the Volkswagen 1200 beetle and clocks up its best year with 20,378 sales - no doubt helped by all the publicity, and actually eclipsing VW by the end of the year.

Morris 1100 continues to outsell the Mini, Cortina and Volkswagen maintaining its place at the top of the class despite clocking up only 14,746 sales for an 8% market share, giving BMC 13% share of overall car sales.

BMC advertising campaign boasts that it is "Now Australia's most wanted family car!"

Number One in its class for the first 4 months with 4974 sales, and local content has risen to 81%.   The 1100 S is introduced with a bigger 1275cc engine, helping to achieve 15,803 sales for the year but the Ford Cortina edges it out of the top spot by just over 700 more sales.

Such is the popularity of the 1100 that AVIS begin offering them as rent-a-cars.

The 1100 Automatic is introduced. The 4-speed automatic gearbox adds $250 to the price of the car. With 14,575 sales for the year it is ranked 3rd behind Cortina and Torana by a small margin.
The advertising campaign pointed out the advantages of the car for both men and women with a His/Hers style of ads: "His and Hers A"    "His and Hers B"

The Morris 1100 is superceeded in June, with total sales over 5½ years reaching almost 90,000.
In its place, the Australian-engineered Morris 1500 based on the Australian Morris 1100 but incorporating the cropped tail fins of the English Morris 1100 MarkII of 1968 and with the all-new 1.5 litre OHC engine and cable operated gearbox from the new UK Austin Maxi also released in 1969.

The motoring press approved of the new car - especially the new engine. But, unfortunately, it suffered with teething problems mainly concerning the cable gear linkage. This, along with increasing competition from Japan and from Holden and Ford small cars, resulted in only about 26,000 sales before being discontinued in 1972 to make way for local production of the Morris Marina.