So chaps, this is my car. Apologies for the new login – my old one does not work for some reason. You can see me under Harry Flashman on PH, and the Aero is in my profile. It is my second – I previously owned a lovely Series 1, sold to a nice chap in Scandinavia and so no longer on our shores.
The car is indeed cosmetically a bit rough: leather could use a clean, has some surface corrosion around the lights on the aluminium panels, and the odd ding/dent. But the car has been mechanically cared for in an open chequebook manner at BHM: it has never wanted for anything. I inherited it from the previous owner with slightly tired bodywork and driver’s seat, and have never bothered to rectify them – I have instead driven this car happily and not worried too much when it was parked in a pub car park, as it already has some minor battle scars. Despite this, it has acquired no more such scars in my tenure! As someone surmised, it used to belong to Boshly, and was Morgan’s own car before that. It has a dyno-tested engine running 367BHP, and my last drive of it confirmed that it is way, way faster than the other V8 toy in my garage, an Aston Martin V8 Vantage. It has had a new electronics module, new wiper motor new headlights in my 5 years with it – it has not needed anything else. Frankly, at 60,000 miles it is well-used, but I feel that all of the issues have been shaken out. My previous Aero, bought at 6000 miles, cost me thousands in things going wrong and needing to be replaced in the 4 years I had it and took it to 22,000 miloes.
The car drives beautifully, sounds fantastic (on the custom side exhausts I had made for it), and the other (original) wheels, wearing Toyo Proxes T1s are sitting in my garage. As other have said, I am sure I could have spent £5k on it cosmetically and sold for a higher price, but I wanted a fast sale and did not want to risk this. With a detail and the seat bolster restored, this car would look fabulous and would be worth every penny of £40k. I feel £45-50k would be a stretch, due to the high mileage.
Someone would have got a bargain – I wanted to sell it quickly as it has had very little use in the last year, and was about to have less: we were expecting a child, and the Mog would have been a casualty of fatherhood. It was to go to fund an Audi R8 V10 or Ferrari, as I wanted something a bit more modern that was a slightly more convenient ownership prospect. I have to say that I look at other convertible sports cars available for £40k. The V8 Vantage Roadster and Audi R8 Spider are definitely contenders in this space – the Aston is fabulous to look at and drive, and the Audi feels like a proper junior supercar. Both are cheaper to run, easier to own (both Aston and Audi pick cars up for service and return them). With a baby on the way, I no longer wished to be driving to BHM annually on a Saturday to drop[ the car, and doing the same thing to pick it up a week later. I wanted a bit more convenience, and was ready for a change. My Aston was to be next up on the sale block.
Sadly, we found out this morning that our baby is not viable, and that we have to have a termination. This frankly devastating news meant that I could also not bear to part with my beloved Aero right now, especially as I no longer needed a fast sale. So the car is coming back to me in the new year. If you are the buyer, I am very sorry about this. I would never normally pull out of a transaction, but in this case, I feel justified.
I’ll try to not be such a stranger to the forums – used to post here quite a lot.
Merry Christmas, all.
HF.
Sounds like I suspected, a great car.
Sorry to hear of your news especially this time of year, I am sure any potential buyers should be more than understanding.
