Talk Morgan Forums Community The Malvern Arms Morgan 100 Years plus , what do you love?

Maybe Graham should buy a convertible. My daughter (TM regulars will recall) has had a BMW MINI convertible since the end of September, and despite the car being parked outside in Exeter through the constant downpour of this autumn and winter, and having been driven 9 hours back home last Saturday through a deluge of biblical proportions, she has yet to experience even mild dampness in it.

HOWEVER, it has to be said that BMW's development budget for the hood of the MINI convertible was probably more than the entire development budget for the M3W. When you consider that Aero production numbers for each version has only been in the hundreds, and that they are already pricey, it's clear that there is a limit to how much can be spent on development. I do accept that for cars in the price range of the Aero, customers will invariably compare them with Porsche, high end BMW, Mercedes and so on, and that when you've shelled out that sort of cash, it just seems wrong that the roof should leak. This is the risk a manufacturer runs by going upmarket - it certainly did for TVR and has done twice for Lotus; when cars are cheap(ish) and make you smile, it's far easier to be a bit forgiving.

Maybe the way forward for the aero range would be for Malvern to engineer them so that they fit the hood from a mass market car (the BMW Z4 for example) seeing as they're already supplying the engines.