The Princess is a large family car produced in the United Kingdom by the Austin-Morris division of British Leyland from 1975 until 1981 (1982 in New Zealand).

Some competitors had added a fifth door as a "hatchback", something the Princess lacked (though Harris Mann originally designed the car with a hatch) and the large family car sector fell victim to a poor economic climate further compounded by the OPEC oil crisis.

British Leyland restyled the Princess with a separate boot so that it would not compete with their existing SD1 and Maxi designs.

Based on the top of the range Princess 2200 HLS, stretched at the B-pillar to allow more room for the rear compartment, the front door remained unchanged, making the car look oddly proportioned from the side.

The Princess 2200 HLS Limousine was produced between 1975 and 1979, and was mostly sold to local borough councils (as a mayoral car) and to the funeral sector.

The Princess, unlike the Allegro, made it to regular production relatively unscathed and unaltered from Harris's original plan.

The bonnet (hood) was a little higher, to allow for taller engines, but the biggest change from Harris's design involved the rear.

The lay-out closely followed that of the predecessor model, but access to the alternator/water pump was greatly improved by exploiting the car's longer nose to fit a front-mounted radiator.

[6] The basic design of the engine dated back to 1947 and the unit with a claimed output of 84 bhp[6] was notably lacking in power, although torque was reasonable.

The Princess was a big car, and the engine choice gave lacklustre performance, not helped by the provision of only a 4-speed manual gearbox (a Borg-Warner automatic transmission was an option).

A six-cylinder car was road tested by Britain's Autocar magazine in March 1975 at the time of the model's launch.

[1] They found it quiet and comfortable, the driving position in particular representing a vast improvement over the car's predecessor.

By September 1975, the process of unifying Austin and Morris dealerships was advanced sufficiently, while the Wolseley marque was to be abandoned.

All cars now used the Austin versions flat bonnet and horizontally-vaned grille, a crown badge was affixed to the point of the bonnet and the script word "Princess" was affixed to the grille replacing the "Austin" script, the thick vinyl-clad C-pillars and the boot.

Assembled in the New Zealand Motor Corporation's plant in Nelson, it was introduced to the market in 1977 and utilized the Austin 1800 B-series engine.

Due to a conflict of the Austin Princess and Morris Marina competing in the same market sector in New Zealand, the Princess got a 2.0 L unit mounted transversely, while the Marina (which was face-lifted at that time and renamed in NZ as "Morris 1700") received the 1.7 L unit mounted longitudinally.