The one thing that has always struck me about Morgans from the factory visits over the years and owning one since the mid 80's , is in essence they suffered from under investment in both manufacturing facilities and in the end product itself. It clearly evidenced by the finished product was left for the purchaser to basically finish off. The lack of adoption of more modern underpinnings eg wish bones and the reliance on very little automation in manufacturing with labour intensive processes, for myself is more a reflection of the lack of capital invested over the years, Therefore subsequent reliance on old style production processes continued long after their demise in other sections of the automotive industry. Which overtime switched from being inefficient and labour intensive to being a positive selling point ie hand build craftmanship. What was recently achieved with the CX monocoque could have been achieved in the 60's (when coach building died out) with the right capital investment and inclination. We have moved on and now Morgan is just basically an assembly point for outsourced components that could be established anywhere in the world.
Sir John HJ was basically profit and money orientated as with profits it generated cash flow without which its very difficult and more expensive to obtain external funds to invest in product development , manufacturing infrastructure and stock holding . The most poignant comment JHJ made is why is the most expensive components the engine etc,(tying up cash) one of the first things fitted to the chassis This of course doesn't hold so true these days as it did in the past as many IT derived organisations have inflated values and access to funding even when they have no immediate or short term in some cases long term prospect of making a return/profit, but they are in vogue to speculative investors..
Last edited by JohnHarris; 12/10/2308:31 AM.
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