JulianBB .... you are likely correct ... sad to see the 'enthusiast' era fading from most endeavours as the world turns ... though I have to say, as long as the company doesn't drag the name through the mud then sell it off to some Asian company to stick on yet another EV bland-mobile, I'll happily clatter of into the sunset .... slightly damp and wind-blown, but with a big grin .... in my old 'perfectly imperfect' crossflow and leave them chasing whatever appeals to those with more money than sense this week 😁
K
I used to think of the trad Morgan as being crude and rudimentary, lacking modern refinements when held up against modern machinery, and it is true. I can outperform, out handle with ease my Plus 4, in my wife's diesel SLK. It has all mod cons. from a heated neck scarf to a nine speed automatic gearbox, it laps up the miles roof down in comfort. A firm ride, very economical. not too much luggage space, but more than capable of continental touring with ease, I always enjoy driving it. Don't know what we will do when we come to change it as they stopping making the SLC/K in 2020.
When I had my Roadster, it left me with the feeling that too much power for the chassis etc, and when I tried to use it all weathers and soon found its limitations and some journeys were not a pleasure and it became more of an endurance. The Plus 4 by comparison seems to be well balanced, its a light positive gearbox, nicely spaced, the brakes with little effort stop straight and true, it corners quite well, could do with power assistance for parking but other than that it leaves a massive smile on our faces every time we go out in it. It has its limitations eg wet weather, so we just work around it, when ever we decide to use it. In my humble opinion it might just be the pinnacle of light weight traditional Morgans, its not cost me much and I doubt whether it will depreciate much further, not that that bothers me. As long as spares supplies allow me to keep it on the road, my first few months of ownership have been brilliant.
Increasingly, when I think of getting a CX, I start to compare what else you can get for the money, the beautiful shape of the CX is undeniable, the leap forward over the trad dynamics is undeniable, whether reliability has improved has yet to be seen long term. But them when I look at other features eg relative safety, the CX in my humble opinion falls very short for their speed and power, eg how would it handle a roll over, there are no windscreen/cabin roll over structural mechanisms be they roll over bars or pop up bars at the rear and then the package starts to look more antiquated IMHO when it comes to passive safety. I hear you all say they won't ever roll over, well I've been passenger Mercedes SL that was forced into a ditch and rolled due to a tractor with all sorts of nasty wide implements, on the wrong side of the road at a blind bend. We weren't travelling fast but the roll over protection was great.
The same is very true of a trad, but I find most of the time I'm traveling at a much lower speed than if I was in the wife's SLK or potentially a CX with its ABS, Traction control and better handling and performance. I've been driving fast convertibles for decades, so am alive to the relative safety features., the structural safety of the windscreen , pop up rear roll over bars or head rest etc,
So whilst there is a sense of improving quality and reliability coming out the Morgan factory, I would like to see far more emphasis on safety built into the cars for the money you are spending for quite fast open top cars.
