The MG Y-type was clearly a cut above mass-produced, mass-market saloons like the Ford Prefect

Launched in 1947, the neatly styled YA was unassuming yet of a gently sporting nature, with independent front suspension and rack-and-pinion steering. Indeed, the sporty open-top MG TD was basically built on a cut-down YA chassis, so with the YA you get most of the genes without the connotations.

What’s more, the XPAG 1250cc engine was eminently responsive to tuning. The model also performed creditably in competition. In 1951 the revised YB model appeared, with twin leading-shoe brakes and a hypoid rear axle.

Yet the Y was only a moderate success, notching up 7359 sales by 1953. By comparison the TD totted up nearly 30,000 in four seasons.

The 1½-litre RM Rileys were a rung up from the Y,  and the overbodied 1½-litre Jaguar was no quicker, but it was flashy.
 
Conversely, the Y was clearly a cut above the mass-produced, mass-market saloons like the Ford Prefect and Austin A40 Devon. So that leaves it somewhere in a lonely hinterland of its own, and therefore this underrated car is undervalued in today’s market.