It took its name from Giorgetto Giugiaro's Italdesign studio, which had been employed by BL to manage the re-engineering of the Morris Marina, which had been produced by the company since 1971.

Italdesign had been involved in a consultancy role, to help design new tooling and assembly methods, and work out how to integrate the altered parts of the new car into the existing Marina production chain.

[2] The Ital had revised exterior styling, but retained the Marina's 1.3- and 1.7-litre petrol engines and rear-wheel drive chassis.

The dashboard and interior of the Marina were also carried over largely unaltered, including the main fascia panel, which faced 'away' from the driver.

The Ital's technology differed from many of its contemporaries, such as the Opel Ascona/Vauxhall Cavalier, as well as the Talbot Alpine, which all used front wheel drive.

[5] After the introduction of the Opel Ascona C / Vauxhall Cavalier Mark II in August 1981, the Ital and Ford's Cortina (and later Sierra) were the only European mass volume cars in the sector to retain rear wheel drive.

The saloon was dropped from the line in February 1984 with the van and estate completing outgoing contracts for another six months, until they too were axed.

[6] Already outdated by the time it was launched, and continually saddled with build quality problems, the Ital soon gained a poor reputation.

Although the Itals' reliability was never an issue, as it used tried and tested components, it was said to have similar rust problems to its predecessor, the Morris Marina.