Morgan's are emotive cars and to me you buy what you want and let others buy what they want. I love Marzipan but the rest of my family hate it, now my mum has passed away I don't think I will ever get it on the Christmas cake again unless I make it myself, however I could just buy a chunk and eat it.
What I wanted was before the CX came out so not even thought about. However being in Australia a new Morgan is not an option, the dealer is keeping a list of client who want a CX and if there is enough interest he will apply for a car to be tested against ADR's (Australian Design Rules) which is an expensive process so he needs a long list to make it worthwhile, or charge a lot for each car to cover the costs. To give an idea the test is about $100,000 plus they destroy a car in the process and i am sure there are other expenses, us Australians have been arguing with our government saying if the car is good enough for another RHD market like the UK or Japan then just let the model in without testing it here but I think those in charge feel the general public need to be protected from ourselves because we are just kids who can't be trusted to know what we want. If that happened then Morgans might be available again but for now the market is second hand trads.
The three wheelers don't appeal at all. Sure if it could be registered as a motor bike and parked in motor bike spots it would have some appeal but it is treated as a car, it had a legal reason to exist in the 1920's but not now. I also don't like the look of the Aero and in Australia they are stupidly expensive.
I saw my first Morgan in about 1981, a new Red +8 and thought that is a car I want one day, but after that every time I saw Morgans at car shows they either looked very new or very tatty and the tatty ones didn't appeal. Every time a new model came out it looked nicer to me and was what I wanted, once the long doors came out in 1997 the car looked a lot nicer to me and I didn't want anything earlier.
2018 when the 2019 +110 model was announced was when I seriously thought it is time to jump in. Initially I thought order a new one because firstly I get what I want and secondly it didn't seem much more expensive than one a few years old, but once I got talking to owners it appears a new one can take a lot of fettling to be a good car and a good second hand fettled one was a better option. I tried a couple of older V8's but the newer 4 cylinder seemed sweeter to drive with the +4 the sweet spot, Green with Mulberry red leather and a wooden dash. But I ended up buying a house for my son and pregnant girlfriend to live in, I now have two lovely grand daughters who love their Papa and to me that is better than any car.
However in 2020 I lost a car to a freak storm that wrote off 10% of all the cars in my city so I wanted something special. The car I had was 34 years old when written off and very special but the insurance company wouldn't let me keep it, but if it was 35 years old I could have. Not wanting to go though that experience again I wanted a car over 35 years old but a new Morgan is a new car so I either had to insurance and register it as new or get one made before 1990 and not have a long door.
I went for a Frontline MGB which is registered and insured as a modified 1969 car with salvage rights. It is a similar engine to the +4 Super sports and I got Green with Mulberry red leather. I have been driving it for about 1.5 years now and have had a ball doing 11600km so far. The local MG club is happy to have me as a member and I have been helping organising many of the events, they don't care the car is not 100% MG as they are happy to have someone active in the club and my car looks like a MG to most people. The closest Morgan club is 300km away so a Morgan would not have given me the social aspect the MGB has given me. Frontline Australia have been great to deal with and if I want to fettle I can talk to them about my ideas and they seem to encourage me having fun tinkering with the car, not that I have had to, just had fun doing the odd thing.
I love this forum because of the people in it. I feel as if I know a lot of them from what they have written in posts over the last 5 years. If I was in the UK I would have got a Morgan and enjoyed driving it with other owners and other club events. But I am extremely happy in a MG in the local MG club and having weekly morning teas chatting about everything under the sun just like the Malvern Arms here, regular club trips away and other social events.
So to me while my particular choice would be +110 +4 in Jaguar British Racing green with Mulberry leather and walnut dash it is owning a car that allows you to be sociable in a club that is the most important thing.
