Whilst it's a nice thought that lower Morgan prices make them more attainable, there is often a sting in the tail. In my experience as car values fall and parts become more scarce or impossible to source and repairing and maintenance costs rise in relation to the value of the vehicle, you come to a point where maintaining the vehicle either suffers or it's just no longer viable option for the owner to maintain the vehicle. We have all seen it happen time and time again, when cars pass the early flush of youth and then start to over time become bangers and not adequately or properly maintained, until for a few they become desirable again and money starts to chase them.
Seen it with eg fast Fords in recent years where often after years of neglect and often amateurish maintenance and repairs, they have to be completely rebuilt. Bangers and Cash restored a Ford Mexico recently, which on the surface looked fine, but underneath was bodged repairs and chicken wire and filler, not structurally sound. Which would have been completely uneconomic to consider rebuilding had there currently not been a strong market and high sales value attached to the finished car. Those cars like the 30's to 60's which are increasingly out of vogue, finish up scrapped or abandoned as barn finds.
At least with the newer Morgans, they are better build and more corrosion resistant, have more galvanised steel, use of aluminium and treated wood, although modern electronics etc may be an issue. Older Morgans suffer much more from the effects of corrosion, and if the costs of rebuilding them outstrip their values within a much smaller market of demand, as current ownership dies out, we may start to see them lost forever.
The number of cars that I enjoyed in my youth, that where unique when new but quite commonplace brands and relatively low maintenance costs eg Vauxhall Viva GT are so rare these days as years of low value and relatively high maintenance costs in relation to their value and the inevitable tin worm consigned them to the scrap yard.
Low buy in costs is not always a good thing, especially for a high maintenance intensive vehicle., with a finite spare support network, All against a backdrop of the ICE is on its way out. It was a very interesting post of Simon with regard to the Aero spares support by model, and how more difficult it is becoming for the earlier models. One shouldn't take a single snapshot in time, but I've noticed more series 1 Aero's up for sale and sticking on the market, than at any other time, maybe a reflection of the poor spares support for a car which is only just over 20 years old.. It could just be a case of me taking more interest in the Morgan market in general that has draw out this regarding early Aero's and it may just be a normal reflection of the market, but Aero 8's seem to be sticking a bit as well and more for sale than I had noticed previously......interesting times
I've seen very few've trad Morgans driven by the younger generation most owners are retired and definitely a dying generation of demand. When it comes to the Morgan magic, I driven open top cars all my life all year round roof down when ever possible, I had just as much fun in Sue's SLK roof down, basking in the sun and the fresh air heading across to Lifes to collect my Morgan, as I did in the Morgan driving back home.
Last edited by JohnHarris; 22/05/25 09:32 AM.
