Talk Morgan Forums Morgan Sports Cars Morgan Three Wheeler & Super 3 Bespoke sportscar or hastily put together kit car?

thanks MonteZooma for understanding where i was coming from. when i was initially looking at the morgan 3 wheeler i was also looking at several classic porsches and one of the things that leaned me to the side of the morgan was that it was a "new" car but with all the feeling and emotion of a car of yesteryear. This meant that in my very rare and precious free time in between traveling almost 200 days a year and the san francisco weather that i'd be able to fire up the morgan and enjoy it from start to finish and not look at it as a weekend project. I've owned classic cars and while they offer lots of the same joys as the morgan, I'm at a place in my life right now where taking on an additional job "managing" another car is not something i have the time or patience for.

B

I wanted the post to come off as factual and minimally whiney but more a starting point for a more philosophical discussion about morgan, the cars they produce, and the expectations of a new morgan owner.

As for the BMW - Morgan comparison I stated from the beginning that it wasn't an apples to apples comparison but i still feel that morgan shouldn't be immune to be held to a standard of craftsmanship or testing of their cars/parts. I guess a more apt comparison would be to a pair of high dollar custom made leather shoes. they are not mass produced, they are handmade by a craftsman to your exact specs, the take time to create vs the mass produced $80 pair of loafers from the department store, but in return for the price premium of the $600 pair of shoes you get a product that was meticulously crafted by individuals, not a machine, gone over time and time again to make sure they weren't delivered until everything was finished. These shoes will also last a lifetime if properly taken care of an occasionally resoled.

As for the delivery, i was there at the cargo area as i gave my dealer a lift to the airport. After pickup he took the car to my house to do a car swap with his. and yes, i believe there should of been done a proper PDI on his part and this is something that i have taken up with him as i felt he took the easy road by handing over the car shortly after him driving it 30 minutes to my house. PDI or no PDI on the dealers part, i do still feel like it is morgan's responsibility to ship out 100% complete and vetted cars and not cars that need a full day of PDI by the dealer to discover things that should of been done right at the factory (front brake lines that often are resting against the exhaust pipes, misaligned drive belts, and just a few other issues new 3 wheeler owners experience at delivery) once at the dealership to go over all of morgan's work making sure all the t's are crossed and the i's are dotted.

As for the bevel box being a known issue and me not doing proper due diligence at researching it, or course i knew of it via the forums, i was also told that "new and improved" boxes were being used on the new cars. unfortunately that was also followed by a "some cars get loud ones and some get quieter ones", and it's just the luck of the draw and if i get a loud one to just complain often and loudly to morgan and maybe they will replace mine with a new one.

again, I still feel strongly on an issue like this that if morgan knows a part is faulty in it's design or construction they should stop fitting new cars with the dermot bevel box and only resume builds when they have properly solved the problems as i don't think it should be the owner's job to vet their box and if their car has recieved a loud one to have it towed (with so few morgan dealers in the US, not all of 3w owners are fortunate to have a dealer close by) and be without their car for a week or two. If the BMW or custom made shoes comparison doesn't hold properly in this analogy, maybe one of fine, handmade timepieces will. would you ever expect a Patek, IWC, or Panerai watch to knowingly have faulty parts installed from the factory and to be expected to be either tolerated by the new owner or required of the new owner to bring the issue up frequently to their dealer and handing in their new timepiece to service for rebuilding. Again, for those of us who aren't in the UK, the option of dropping it by the works for them to work on it is out of the question.

As for the floor mats and using double sided tape, while i'm not opposed to using either the tape or velcro to keep them in place my point is that they are too big and overflow out of the openings in the frame/floorboard. but again, are we really going to give morgan a pass on that? It's things like this that to me signify a larger issue of what they are willing to let that pass. What about issues of the wishbone cracking? Had a journalist not made it public would morgan have brought it up to owners and offered a fix, and if so how long would that of taken?

I'm trying to plan a 1,500 road trip and struggling with full confidence that everything has been tightened and secured properly. Beyond our own safety, many of us take our loved ones motoring with us and can we have full confidence in build quality if something as simple and visual as floor mats not fitting are looked over, what else has been looked over ( and in know that sounds dramatic but i don't think it's an unreasonable question to ask)?

As for the cleanliness of the car that was delivered I guess a large part of that can be put on my dealer but i'm just a bit surprised that with all the pride that is supposedly taken in the products morgan creates and the premiums for which they charge that there ins't more uniformity to what gets shipped our or delivered.

all taken care of. for some reason when you said split i as thinking of a different way of splitting. this morning when i pulled the knob off i had remembered the twist off collar an audi I had previously owned had and a quick twist revealed the screws you mentions. slapped it back on, tightened the bolts and screwed back on the collar and we were back in business. much thanks.

Quick question, speaking of MMC being more open about said issues, are there any "officially MMC employees" on the TM forum? I know that plenty of other forums i'm a part of (whether it's for fine timepieces or cars) there are members of the forums that are either from dealerships, the companies themselves, or vendors of products (similar to how mike lempert of lempert wheels has been so kind to chime in on matters on the TM forums) where they can help set the record straight or offer advice to those of us who are struggling to get a handle on an issue or could really benefit from some transparency/openness to an issue and let us all be along for the ride.

This is something i've actually really enjoyed about sponsoring projects on kickstarter.com which is that more often than not ship dates end up lagging due to production issues but what is different from just saying your product won't ship until XX/XXXX, they actually include you in the journey which sometimes has bad vendors, poorly made molds or faulty parts, make you feel like your in this together with them opposed to just being given ship dates that never materialize.

just thoughts i'd share that thought as i'm trying to plow through as many of these posts as possibly as i woke up to quite a firestorm (totally expected though).

thanks 4/4 for seeing where i was coming from. i've got plenty of patience for quirky things as they relate to hand built items but i just felt that some of it just came down to shoddy/lazy craftsmanship. for example the starter sticker that is on top of the flip cover for the start button was applied too low where it isn't centered and hangs off the opening in the switch. really? i mean this is acceptable? especially when the solution is to pull the sticker off, and then take another 10 cent sticker and apply it properly taking less than a minute. these are the things that i feel most disappointed by

Very True. This is supposed to be a £35,000'ish product that has been designed, produced and tested by skilled engineers. If I wanted (or expected) bits to fall off, wear prematurely, not fit correctly and handling problems I would have got a kit car for a fraction of the price rather than order a M3W. Possibly being a bit hard on the kit cars really, most are put together very well. I have built 2 JZR's and a Grinnall Scorpion, none of which had anything fall off and everything fitted properly. What the M3W hopefully has going for it is fairly depreciation free fun motoring, as long as it doesn't get a name for being badly built and unreliable.

I would say it was not ideal to expect the dealers to find and correct all the manufacturing faults before delivery. Maybe the same effort should be put into quality of production as quantity seems to be getting. I hope I am pleasantly surprised by a flawless car when (if) it ever arrives.......Things are not looking good as my car has been delayed again I today, this time by a clerical error. Maybe I should have gone for the Triking after all, good handling, great engine, sorted design and I could put it together myself.

The analogy works because yachts are hand built using parts from many different manufacturers.

Just like Morgan's various skilled craftsmen build the yacht.

When Rolls Royce opened their factory at Goodwood they actively recruited workers from the local marine industry

They cost a lot and often have long snag lists when delivered.

Mike I think you hit the nail on the head. i can't imagine (especially for those of us who are not in driving distance to MMC) that between shipping bevel boxes or control arms clear over to the states, paying the dealer for the labor to replace the faulty parts is very expensive. far more expensive in my eyes given the global appeal/sales of the 3 wheeler than doing a bit more development and using more quality control and attention to detail during the build and prep for delivery. just seems a bit penny wise dollar foolish, especially given the costs of bad press as they pertain to journalists (or even the online motoring public) brining up things like this. I seriously contemplated whether or not to pull the trigger on the 3 wheeler due to the bevel box i researched and what felt like were issues stemming quality control. but like most of us were called in by the siren that is morgan and pulled the trigger anyway.

If you bought a new BMW sraight from the docks you would find a boot(trunk) full of parts waiting for fitting. PDI is part of the dealers contract with the manufacturer and you cut the Mog dealer too much slack. As for the dust and dirt MMC keep a retired employee in beer money whose sole function is to liberally sprinkle the interior with Malvern fairy dust Seriously I hope your trike is debugged soon so you can start enjoying to the full. I've had two 4/4's from new and a sense of humour is required - nobody needs a Morgan, they are a discretionary purchase but if it all gets too much, do what I did after 3 Morgans in 3 years - buy a Lotus

one last comment before i have to get back to the office work as it pertains to the comparison of the Morgan to Yachts, Mass Produced Cars, timepieces, etc.

I think it's important to remind ourselves that the M3W (and other new morgans) are BRAND NEW cars. not 30-60 year old vintage cars that require endless tinkering and weekend projects. Nope, theses are brand new cars. Many of us were attracted to morgan as we love the vintage aspect and feel of the cars but don't want to deal with the issues of a car that has been on the road for decades.

just thought it was important to put things in perspective.

and yes, i agree that if morgan and it's dealernetwork took a very active and public stance on that these were works in progress and or an * stating some assembly/tinkering required we'd be having a different discussion but we're in a position where the morgan lineup are being sold and marketed as bespoke, handcrafted automobiles where great attention to detail in their design and construction have been made to create them.