The Ital was given the design code ADO73 and was first launched on 1 July 1980.
It took its name from Giorgetto Giugiaro's Italdesign studio, who had been employed by BL to manage the reengineering of the Morris Marina, a car which had been produced by the company since 1971.
BL's advertising emphasised the car's connection with the Italian design house, which had not had a direct role in the styling of the new car, which had been handled in-house by Harris Mann.
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.
This is why, despite bearing the studio's name, the Ital is absent from lists of the styling jobs handled by the firm.
It was originally planned to brand the car as the Morris Marina Ital, but for most markets the Marina name was dropped on the orders of Michael Edwardes and only the Ital name was used.

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 Marina's coupé variant was not produced in Ital form, but the four door saloon, five door estate and pick up and van versions were carried over from the Marina range.

From October 1980, an automatic version of the Ital was available with the 2.0 litre O-Series power unit, as the range topping 2.0HLS.
Only about 1,000 2.0HLS models were sold so due to this and their short production run, the 2.0HLS is now the rarest Ital model.
In November 1981 all HL and HLS models were fitted with upgraded interior trim.

Finally, in September 1982, a revised Ital range was introduced.
The L and 2.0 litre models were dropped and the HL and HLS were replaced by the SL and SLX models.
Front suspension was changed to telescopic front dampers across the range and parabolic rear springs were also fitted, together with additional soundproofing and improved trim.

Thus cropped, the range now consisted of the 1.3 SL and SLX saloon, 1.3 SL estate, 1.7 SLX saloon, and the 1.7 SL saloon and estate.
The saloon models were dropped in February 1984, with the estate models remaining in production until the summer of that year.

During the 1970s, British Leyland had in fact been working on the development of an all new car to replace the Morris Marina, but a shortage of funds meant that its launch was delayed by several years, and the Ital was only ever intended as a stop gap replacement between the demise of the Marina and the launch of an entirely new model, which emerged in April 1984, with the launch of the Austin Montego.
The Ital was given the design code ADO73 and was first launched on 1 July 1980. It took its name from Giorgetto Giugiaro's Italdesign studio, who had been employed by BL to manage the reengineering of the Morris Marina, a car which had been produced by the company since 1971. BL's advertising emphasised the car's connection with the Italian design house, which had not had a direct role in the styling of the new car, which had been handled in-house by Harris Mann. 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. This is why, despite bearing the studio's name, the Ital is absent from lists of the styling jobs handled by the firm. It was originally planned to brand the car as the Morris Marina Ital, but for most markets the Marina name was dropped on the orders of Michael Edwardes and only the Ital name was used.
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 Marina's coupé variant was not produced in Ital form, but the four door saloon, five door estate and pick up and van versions were carried over from the Marina range. 
From October 1980, an automatic version of the Ital was available with the 2.0 litre O-Series power unit, as the range topping 2.0HLS. Only about 1,000 2.0HLS models were sold so due to this and their short production run, the 2.0HLS is now the rarest Ital model. In November 1981 all HL and HLS models were fitted with upgraded interior trim.
Finally, in September 1982, a revised Ital range was introduced. The L and 2.0 litre models were dropped and the HL and HLS were replaced by the SL and SLX models. Front suspension was changed to telescopic front dampers across the range and parabolic rear springs were also fitted, together with additional soundproofing and improved trim. 
Thus cropped, the range now consisted of the 1.3 SL and SLX saloon, 1.3 SL estate, 1.7 SLX saloon, and the 1.7 SL saloon and estate. The saloon models were dropped in February 1984, with the estate models remaining in production until the summer of that year. 
During the 1970s, British Leyland had in fact been working on the development of an all new car to replace the Morris Marina, but a shortage of funds meant that its launch was delayed by several years, and the Ital was only ever intended as a stop gap replacement between the demise of the Marina and the launch of an entirely new model, which emerged in April 1984, with the launch of the Austin Montego.
Morris Ital