Hants & Dorset had a reputation among NBC subsidiaries as somewhat loss-making. While routes in the Poole-Bournemouth, Southampton, Basingstoke and Salisbury areas made reasonable returns, those elsewhere were weaker. The impact of the private car throughout the 1960s and 1970s together with successive withdrawals and fares revisions further weakened what had now become marginal rural services. During the 1980s, Hants & Dorset's financial position was so precarious that it had to be propped up by an inter-company loan from fellow NBC subsidiary Amalgamated Passenger Transport Ltd in order to remain solvent.