Some experience of my first Morgan purchase. Today I can smile about it.
My first Morgan in 2005 was a distaster due to the freedom of choice. 40,000 colors etc. That sounds very appealing at first and for a few days you think you have the control of the universe.
The problem is that with 40,000 colors no preliminary decision is made. We all like the freedom of choice. But paradoxically, pre-filtering is an increase in the strong sense of choice. From a psychological point of view, we need a restrictive pre-selection in order to enjoy the good feeling of freedom of choice.
Moreover, this pre-selection must offer clearly distinguishable types. For example, if I buy an ice cream, I can choose between chocolate, vanilla, strawberry, mocha, etc. But there are 20 sorts of ice cream, and not 40,000.
40,000 colours means endless and undefined transitions, even if I know the car is supposed to be green, blue, or any other color. The incentive to want to become even more individual is simply too great. It is slightly comparable to an experiment that Pawlow did with dogs. He had presented a circle and an oval to the dogs. The circle meant reward and the oval meant punishment. Consequently the dogs chose the circle to be rewarded.
Then Pawlow had made the oval more and more like a circle. At some point the dogs could no longer distinguish between the two forms. They became hysterical and aggressive. They developed fear of making the wrong decision and were helpless as to whether what they saw and selected meant reward or punishment.
Today also known as cognitive dissonance. It can be similar when you have freedom over the choice of 40,000 colors. It is the treachery of the seamless shades that can make you jerk.
For others who like this experiences and who can make an easy and strong decision it is a huge benefit that Morgan still offers the great spread of colours..
Hardly anyone chooses their Morgan from these undefined transitions of so many colours. A lot of people may be guided by historical or current colours of many brands. But the next problem lurks: Does my favourite colour from brand XY go just as well with the Morgan? Could it be more unfavourable than the Maseratti or Mercedes or Jaguar?
Morgan somehow recognized the problem. With the Sports models came a range of Sports colours that was clear and even now they habe a selection of standard coloirs if you have a look at the 110 years models.
To go back to the story about our first Mog. Actually I just wanted dark green, maybe not the most original idea but so what. Also the demonstration car was conought green. The interior was sadle.
My wife suggested dark blue, that Mercedes night blue that many Morgan have. It was just a friendly suggestion, not a force. So I found it myself an interesting alternative and we ordered midnight blue. The interior should be dark reddish brown. But after a week I thought that Mercedes midnight blue might look too dark, classy and not sporty enough...
So the decision changed to indigo blue. Then I thought that reddish brown was too dark in the new combination and I changed the interior to mulberry. The car was ordered. Then I thought that stone would give a nice contrast with indigo. The dealer changed and confirmed the change.
When the car arrived it was mulberry. Not too much an issue. But the essence of the story is, that it was not an easy walk. And I learned not to confuse the factory in the future after an order was done. I can imagine that MMC was confronted with not only a few final order changes which leads to the todays fine regarding too late changes.
All later cars were not bespoked with the exception of the third Roadster, a Sport, where the choice of colours and combinations was minimized anyway as said above.
The second car was on display and we liked it. The P4SS was a no brainer in RAF blue and the current car was a demonstrator.
Therefore it is in my case a not too bad idea at least to see a car before you buy it.
