[Healeys] Registering Austin Healey

[glemon at neb.rr.com]

I always thought of Austin as the parent company and Austin Healey as a subsidiary marque.

Certainly the cars were badged and marketed as  "Austin Healey" "3000"  "Austin Healey" "Sprite" not "Austin"  "Healey Sprite".  And in fact after DMH left and the Austin Healey Sprite became the Austin Sprite, I think they were changing the name of the marque, not the name of the model of the car, which is of course simply  "Sprite" is it not? 

My original 100 Service Manual is published by the Austin Motor Company Limited, but then again there is literature that refers to "the Austin Healey automobile" and a specific one that I could find, the 12 page AH 100 marketing brochure, refers to the Austin Healey '100'  with the Hundred in quotes as shown.  That would seem to me to indicate that  Austin considered Austin Healey is the make or marque, and 100 the model name.

Austin marketed the Austin Healey as a separate marque, even though it certainly was made, sold and serviced by the Austin Motor Company Limited.

The Cambridge online dictionary defines "marque" as: "noun [C] a name of a range of cars, which is sometimes different from the name of the company that produces them"


 have had three Austin Healeys in the states and they have all been registered a AHs.


As far as the Polish DMV, probably not worth arguing with them. 

Greg Lemon