But surely it's not dumb when there is a loyal customer base that does know the difference and will buy Trads ? Those cars sold and many customers came back for more. Would it not have been better, if possible of course, to keep Trads and CX cars produced side by side? I'm not convinced Morgan can compete for wealthy customers who are more likely to buy a Porsche than a Morgan. Morgan purchasers have generally done their research and know what they are buying.
I look at the evidence on this site. The forums relating to Trads and Three-Wheelers are reasonably active. The CX Forum always seems quiet. Where are the new enthusiastic Plus Four purchasers? There are some, but it seems not many.
My guesses:
- They can't justify the investment to run 3 product lines, especially when Super 3 and CX have so much synergy.
- They can't produce trads at a sufficiently low cost to provide clear water between them and the the CX cars
- The trads are unable to be adapted for stuff like airbags. CM gave an interview about this years ago saying that the road's days were numbered
- With less than 8 years to go, they can't justify the investment necessary to engineer an EV drive train into both platforms
- Their market research has indicated that the repeat purchaser pool of people who have bought a trad in the past is actually quite small.
I recognise that in the TalkMorgan echo chamber it might seem that there are loads of fanatical trad buyers out there who are repeat purchasers and could afford a CX but wouldn't buy one is pretty small. But I bet MMC's market research doesn't support this view. There might be a few hundred, sure, but MMC need to shift 800 - 1000 units every year.
(Interesting stat: since TM was founded 15 or so years ago, fewer than 250 people have posted more than 500 times in all those 15 years. The overwhelming bulk of the posts come from fewer than 100 regulars)
