in 1968 bmc merged with leyland (leyland, standard and triumph) to become british leyland even though leyland had been a much smaller firm. it was the british leyland years that were perhaps the most difficult and in 1975 british leyland was nationalised. austin's market share fell, as did other marques within the company, leading to the phasing out of the morris name plate in 1981. there were many strikes at british leyland's factories, making british leyland and other companies with the same problem, such as the ford motor company unproductive compared to japanese and european companied like volkswagen. many of the models in this era failed to sell well, either because they were old fashioned or deemed unreliable; the austin princess and the austin allegro were the only modern cars of this era, while the 1300, 1800 and austin maxi were all dated. the princess and allegro sold well, but both were saloons, and the only hatchback the company had was the maxi, which wasn't a popular car.