Andy/Simon,
Given my recent, off line, exchanges with you, which I discretely alluded to as "souring" on line, I thought if I was going to enter into any form of meaningful critical exchange, then I needed to clearly explain my position. Given the extent of our off line exchanges, not to have done this would, in my view, only have raised the spectre of the deleted account scenario again.
There are a host of points made on this thread, many more than by myself. I didn't start the Morgan vs BMW analogy (though I do see relevance in it). I chose my words carefully, tried to be balanced, was clear that the discussion was intended to be constructive, acknowledged that this is a "nice" site, introduced a bit of humour with the "Three Musketeers" analogy (you did see the
didn't you?) following the "Factory Visits Back in the Day" banter this weekend, and conceded that I too have have some problems with the so call "premium brands".
The fact that I am (self acknowledged) new to posting on Forums is irrelevant, surly? It would be incredibly naive to assume I haven't read them, here in advance of joining, or elsewhere. Furthermore, even if I am new to Forums, it doesn't mean I am incapable of expressing a view, discussing issues, or assembling valid comments by the written word... does it?
Andy, "A few cheap shots"? May be, but given recent history, what would you expect really? It now seems that you're offering the publication of the private mail messages we exchanged? To be honest I have no problem with that, I retained copies of the originals and I've nothing to hide there whatsoever. It has definitely challenged my view of the integrity of the private message system.... again. However, to be clear, whilst I really valued your off line attempts at mediation recently, and your very carefully crafted words, I think that you can't expect to suggest to someone that they "appear to lack confidence" or advise them to "chill out more" and to "take from the site what they like and just move on and ignore the stuff they don't", and then jump to such a defensive stance like this the first time they post something that perhaps isn't within the comfort zone of you, or the other Mods. IMHO, that could be construed as veering towards hypocrisy. You've also now accused me of "throwing my toys out of the pram" because a few weeks ago I privately challenged someone else's wording of a point of view that, rightly or wrongly, I was offended by at the time. Could it not also be perceived that the collective responses to my words on this thread could be are equally seen as being a bit unbalanced? There were others who agreed with the points I raised, and even my phraseology. Finally, Andy, the "I rest my case" post was meant to say the "Three Musketeers" defence had leaped to the noble Morgan cause, nothing more. Maybe I should have taken the time to post the
? If you took it as a snide comment, it wasn't meant to be, and IMHO, maybe that's a bit of your hypersensitivity.
Simon, IHMO, if Morgan is to survive in the long term and not go the way of the other tragic examples cited above it will only be by delivering a product that people want to buy. Surly, it can't rely on the purchases of a core group of hardy, and dare I say in general ageing, individuals who are willing to spend at this price point and still "fettle" their new hand crafted masterpieces. If the more trendy M3W is to bring in the future generations to the all model client base, and current issues under discussion aren't addressed (not just talked about) then I, sadly, fear for the longevity of marque. As I said in my posts, TM could (and in my view should) be an excellent resource for MMC with yourselves (the Mods) with your factory connections as excellent conduits; but it would be of significantly greater value if it could be a true warts and all environment. Otherwise, as also posted here, we are in the "Emperor's New Clothes" territory. As with all things, the truth sometimes hurts, it is difficult to hold up the mirror and say take a look, and it is tempting to shoot the messenger. So, if Morgan don't want to listen then it is up to them. But repeated justification of some of the glaring obvious quality and manufacturing issues that have been discussed on this site, IMHO does nothing to aid the survival cause either. I feel it would be really tragic in a few years time to see a great and unique make like Morgan on that road to ruin that is already littered with the corpses of other heroic examples, and worse still if this was in part due to this loyal and enthusiastic community failing to share and feed back faults, quality, and performance issues that could have made all the difference if acted upon in a timely manner.
I may, by choice, be new to posting on Forums, but I clearly recognise the power of the Internet and the globally connected world we now live in. Whilst this presents fantastic new opportunities, it also presents a level of threat that I suspect MMC hasn't faced in the past. I'd like to wager that the majority of their cars on the road today were built before the Internet Fora like this even existed. So, come on guys, you have your views, I have mine, but be assured that all my comments above and in the previous posts are rooted in a genuine desire to improve MMC quality and viability to the mutual benefit of the customer/owner and the company alike.
