Talk Morgan Forums Morgan Sports Cars Morgan Photo Gallery The 4/4 "Speedster"

I thought you all might be interested in a couple of quick phone shots of the first sub £30k 4/4 to come out of the factory. Sorry about the quality.

Sports body, Ambla instead of leather for all surfaces, silver painted wheels.

It generated some positive interest with a couple of guys on my tour this afternoon to the extent that one of them has gone off to talk to his wife and then contact his local dealer. He was interested in a three wheeler but once he'd seen the 4/4 he changed his mind.

Great to see some pics of the speedster - its got some appeal as a track day car or basis of a racer. For the road it needs at least another aero screen - is a folding screen an option?

I hope it generates a new market but the door handles really don't work in my mind.

With regards to the leather I should imagine it's down to cost to get it sub £30k.

MCC are taking the P**S surely with this one. The lack of a spare wheel was bad enough - The "Entry Model" 1600cc is no where near as lively as the predecessor 1800cc version and now the rediculous "speedster". Watch the second hand prices on this one - they will drop far quicker than a normal 4/4 in my opinion. All this cost cutting disguised as price cutting will come back to haunt the buyer. Steer clear would be my advice !

I agree that the door handles should go, better to have a small blanking plate if they can't get door skins without holes.

Good to see they have gone for Ambla, much better than leather for an open car.

I don't think they are likely so sell that many, however. The number of people who would rather buy a new speedster than a used 'full fat' 4/4 or +4 for the same money can't be that high.

I am still concerned however, that MMC is dissipating time, energy, and money doing loads of different and new things rather than focusing on reducing their warranty claim costs, which must be huge, given what we hear reported by purchasers of new cars.

Don't build new stuff, build the stuff you currently build properly!

interesting attempt!

Whilst i do agree it doesn´t really need the external doorhandles it would make a rather nice "sleeper" (especially with the soon-to-come Cossie engine option)...

Jays, c´mon - you ARE (at least a little) tempted, hum?!

Ambla is hard wearing and waterproof....which makes a lot of sense in a car with no roof. In my opinion, it needs a second aero screen both for the passenger and visual balance. Retro fitting a full screen would of course be possible but you'd need to drill holes for screen mounts, wipers, washers etc....so a big job.
A folding screen was mentioned....you can't fit folding mechanisms to the latest style screens.

Please note....its me calling it a Speedster..not Morgan.!

I see nothing wrong in Morgan producing this...it's hardly taking up time in development..it's just a car where the body panels haven't had screen and wiper mounting holes punched in. It's a bit of fun and if it attracts some buyers....well that's great. And apart from the well known Three Wheeler issues, I really am not aware of large numbers of warranty issues.....TM certainly isn't a good indicator of that.

A Speedster type bent acrylic aero screen would be better in terms of practicality as it would protect the seam between the bulkhead and the ambla on the upper dash from water

As a former M3W owner I do " get" this 4/4 version.

Agreed it needs second screen and the seal for the bulkhead needs to be sorted ( if it's not already).

But help me out here apart from these two issues how does this car not compare with very open expereince of the three wheeler?

As a marketing man I believe that this very low entry model is a good idea.

And of course if it attracts a new ( younger?) customer that's good too!

Those attracted can always get hooked on the Morgan brand and upgrade from this model at the point of purchase.

Time will tell!

BTW I really like the Speedster model name - gives a great cache IMO .

I know its Jays branding - but it's good and could well stick.

" I just bought a Morgan 4/4 Speedster " sounds cool to me!!

I'm glad and mightily relieved to hear that Morgan don't have a problem with warranty claims, but I'm intrigued as to why TM isn't a representative indicator? Certainly the folks on here might complain more loudly than others, but does that mean that the others aren't experiencing the problems?

There has been a great deal of work in the quality management field, my involvement was a good few years ago now, but we found that when customers stopped complaining, it didn't mean they were happy, it meant they had given up and were going to the competition. There's a neat little book called 'Raving Fans' which discusses these kinds of issues very clearly.