The National Motor Museum Trust

Bean were among the many firms who tried to challenge Austin and Morris as mass-producers in the 1920s. Never approaching their target of 50,000 cars a year, low production meant higher, less competitive prices.

The saloon body is typical of the heavy type of coachwork offered before pressed steel construction became the norm. This example was made during Bean's penultimate season. It is currently fitted with a mock wireless aerial for a BBC promotion. There were experiments with car radio from 1922 onwards involving aerials of this type, but it remained a novelty in Britain until the first commercially manufactured model became available in 1932.