princess sales, although initially strong, were tailing off by the end of the 1970s. some of its competitors had gained a fifth-door as a hatchback which the princess lacked (though harris mann originally designed the car with a hatch) and the medium large-car sector fell victim to a poor economic climate further compounded by the opec oil crisis of the day. it was somewhere between the ford cortina and ford granada in terms of size, being designed to compete with more expensive versions of the cortina as well as entry-level versions of the granada. british leyland restyled the princess with a boot so that it would not compete with their existing sd1 and maxi designs.