I think there are several issues in play at the moment being reflected in the wider classic car market beyond the current recessional influences. Firstly, we can see the writing on the wall for the ICE, whilst we may wish it to be decades away, so not in our lifetime. That's just not going to happen that way, once new ICE sales stop, the market for ICE will shrink very quickly, prices will fall dramatically, ICE no go areas will grow exponentially and the cost of fuel, spares availability, etc will start to see the cars off the road either due to cost or unavailability. Simple things like changing the ethanol content of fuel to say 80%, ,lower quality petrol with much lower RON ,stricter environmental emissions control, reduce petrol imports so limited availability and higher prices coupled with limited distribution network as economies of scale diminish as petrol sales volume falls. Lots of different way of seeing the ICE off the roads.
Secondly, upcoming generations will have been indoctrinated on the Green agenda, ICE's will begin to be seen as antisocial and irresponsible behaviour and the market demand for them will fall
Thirdly, the increasing taxation of eg pension pots and other assets, a major source of cash release for many on retirement to finance the likes of a Morgan upon retirement. There will be increasingly less cash in the system, and assets such as classic cars, watches etc may well start to be come taxable either on acquisition or disposal or included in a an wealth tax.
Finally, The EV market and range of available cars and much increased battery range, coupled with more sophisticated and more widely available recharging network will present some real and cost effective choices to the ICE, There are some fantastic performance and open toped EV's on the way, at such low price points that will just blow the ICE away.
Whilst I enjoy driving my Morgan, the one element that is always there at the back of my mind is will it be reliable and complete the journey and get me home ok. Experience has taught me that valuable lesson, I only ever have a home recovery package when I drive a Morgan. Of course, other cars I've owned have from time to time been unreliable, but I've never needed a recovery service. And then when it comes to the bout of Morgan failure, the next question is who can fix it and what is the availability of the spare, how long will I have to wait. I don't skimp on maintenance of my Morgan, I use it all year round to reduce the unreliability that comes from extended period of inactivity and so on. I've never been interested in the mechanical maintenance of a car, and there is a growing body of people who don't want to get their hands dirty or more importantly don't know how to get their hands dirty with mechanical things, which is often a prerequisite with Morgan ownership.
When it comes to my perception of the trad Morgan brand, I after 5 Morgans associate poor quality and increasing unreliability especially as they have had to adopt more cleaner technology in their engines and more sophisticated wiring components eg PCBs into their cars. Their ride quality has become harsher and ground clearance lower and more compromised compared to the 70's and 80's Morgans I have owned. The CX is another animal all together and a step change compared to the trad, but increasingly with the passage of time and as the miles rack up on CX's the poor engineering and questionable quality starts to shine through again. It may have improved but its nowhere near where it should be for the price point of the car.
Last edited by JohnHarris; 16/05/25 09:44 AM.
