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

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I bought a new car in 2009. I have had some paint issues, but they were sorted under warranty at first service time -- actually MMC took the car back, took off the wing and prepped and re-painted it completely, which was more than I expected.
Yes, I have issues with the quality of the Chrome mirrors and bases, I had to prime and paint the front crosshead as it was rusting, and I have "fettled" it with some of Dave W's mods - mostly to keep out the rain, all things which should not be on a car costing almost £40K (not to mention the iniquitous Irish registration tax )

However, I am still head and heels in love with the car -- it makes me smile when I look at it not to mention drive it and therefore, along with the fact that any other car would be worth a fraction of its cost price now 4 years later -- I feel it was a great buy.

It is time though that the quality of items such as the mirrors was sorted - it leaves a sour taste that you have to replace such things almost immediately so as not to have nasty blemishes on ones P & J!!!

One additional thought comes to mind in this debate and I hope you see it as a helpful one. I wanted a Morgan since I was 10 years old so a mere wait of 40 odd years to realise my dream would never put me off the marque. My health will let me down but a Morgan just cant! I was the 3rd owner of my 4/4 and it had several 'niggles' which previous owners had either tolerated, ignored or dare I say neglected, making them in my opinion 'the weakest link'. Work politely with Morgan and they really do try hard to make ownership a good experience.
Whilst some things I found quite surprising, eg. paintwork defective, the Factory gave it a wings off respray to rectify this, after the warranty had expired. Good on them, pity it was 'missed' by the first two owners. Other matters were less serious but annoying eg. Dreadful pinking, again rectified totally by the Factory and ignored by previous owners. A very leaky hood but again the Factory indulged me and after 3 attemtpts, I have a leak free Morgan! A full service by a dealer at purchase left me with no windscreen washers (an MOT Fail)they did wash my legs however but they must have been doing that for a while; rectified by the Factory. The factory have also had to rectify a few things they did get wrong but again, they sorted it. I have tried several dealers and other Morgan specialists and I like what I find. Thank goodness in this day and age we can find a motoring experience to relish and rely upon to be special.

Too right Dave!!

Andy/Simon,

Given my recent, off line, exchanges with you, which I discretely alluded to as "souring" on line, I thought if I was going to enter into any form of meaningful critical exchange, then I needed to clearly explain my position. Given the extent of our off line exchanges, not to have done this would, in my view, only have raised the spectre of the deleted account scenario again.

There are a host of points made on this thread, many more than by myself. I didn't start the Morgan vs BMW analogy (though I do see relevance in it). I chose my words carefully, tried to be balanced, was clear that the discussion was intended to be constructive, acknowledged that this is a "nice" site, introduced a bit of humour with the "Three Musketeers" analogy (you did see the didn't you?) following the "Factory Visits Back in the Day" banter this weekend, and conceded that I too have have some problems with the so call "premium brands".

The fact that I am (self acknowledged) new to posting on Forums is irrelevant, surly? It would be incredibly naive to assume I haven't read them, here in advance of joining, or elsewhere. Furthermore, even if I am new to Forums, it doesn't mean I am incapable of expressing a view, discussing issues, or assembling valid comments by the written word... does it?

Andy, "A few cheap shots"? May be, but given recent history, what would you expect really? It now seems that you're offering the publication of the private mail messages we exchanged? To be honest I have no problem with that, I retained copies of the originals and I've nothing to hide there whatsoever. It has definitely challenged my view of the integrity of the private message system.... again. However, to be clear, whilst I really valued your off line attempts at mediation recently, and your very carefully crafted words, I think that you can't expect to suggest to someone that they "appear to lack confidence" or advise them to "chill out more" and to "take from the site what they like and just move on and ignore the stuff they don't", and then jump to such a defensive stance like this the first time they post something that perhaps isn't within the comfort zone of you, or the other Mods. IMHO, that could be construed as veering towards hypocrisy. You've also now accused me of "throwing my toys out of the pram" because a few weeks ago I privately challenged someone else's wording of a point of view that, rightly or wrongly, I was offended by at the time. Could it not also be perceived that the collective responses to my words on this thread could be are equally seen as being a bit unbalanced? There were others who agreed with the points I raised, and even my phraseology. Finally, Andy, the "I rest my case" post was meant to say the "Three Musketeers" defence had leaped to the noble Morgan cause, nothing more. Maybe I should have taken the time to post the ? If you took it as a snide comment, it wasn't meant to be, and IMHO, maybe that's a bit of your hypersensitivity.

Simon, IHMO, if Morgan is to survive in the long term and not go the way of the other tragic examples cited above it will only be by delivering a product that people want to buy. Surly, it can't rely on the purchases of a core group of hardy, and dare I say in general ageing, individuals who are willing to spend at this price point and still "fettle" their new hand crafted masterpieces. If the more trendy M3W is to bring in the future generations to the all model client base, and current issues under discussion aren't addressed (not just talked about) then I, sadly, fear for the longevity of marque. As I said in my posts, TM could (and in my view should) be an excellent resource for MMC with yourselves (the Mods) with your factory connections as excellent conduits; but it would be of significantly greater value if it could be a true warts and all environment. Otherwise, as also posted here, we are in the "Emperor's New Clothes" territory. As with all things, the truth sometimes hurts, it is difficult to hold up the mirror and say take a look, and it is tempting to shoot the messenger. So, if Morgan don't want to listen then it is up to them. But repeated justification of some of the glaring obvious quality and manufacturing issues that have been discussed on this site, IMHO does nothing to aid the survival cause either. I feel it would be really tragic in a few years time to see a great and unique make like Morgan on that road to ruin that is already littered with the corpses of other heroic examples, and worse still if this was in part due to this loyal and enthusiastic community failing to share and feed back faults, quality, and performance issues that could have made all the difference if acted upon in a timely manner.

I may, by choice, be new to posting on Forums, but I clearly recognise the power of the Internet and the globally connected world we now live in. Whilst this presents fantastic new opportunities, it also presents a level of threat that I suspect MMC hasn't faced in the past. I'd like to wager that the majority of their cars on the road today were built before the Internet Fora like this even existed. So, come on guys, you have your views, I have mine, but be assured that all my comments above and in the previous posts are rooted in a genuine desire to improve MMC quality and viability to the mutual benefit of the customer/owner and the company alike.

some of the longest posting ever, this will keep me going until midnight

As a TM newbie I do not like to see/read some of the fighting comments as above - is it really necessary?

Please I plead can this all be toned down to a more open balanced debate - and not become a slanging match?

I really enjoy TM - you could say I am hooked - and so I hope for a more moderated debate - where opinions are expressed but sniping at TM mates is left out?

+1

Well said.

One of the "powers" of the internet appears to be the ability to create an instant reponse. As on o/f I remember the first office that I worked in. The Office Manager gave me the following advice. "If you are angry about something, by all means write a memo; but then put it in the drawer until the morning. In the morning, if you feel the same, after re-reading the memo, then by all means send it"
The only times I ever drop myself in it; is when I ignore that advice.
Good grief, I have just worked out, that was 35 years ago.

Bud
__________
2003 - 4/4

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Bud, I wasn't angry, today or a few weeks ago, so sorry for involving you too. I was actually upset on your behalf.

To the rest of you TMers, I do feel quite passionate about things, and I've been a car nut all my life, but I guess my style isn't right for this medium. So, I am sorry guys, I don't wish to spoil the site and if I have that wasn't my intention.

Good bye and may happy s(miles) plus days "fettling" from me.

I'll go now and you can delete my account please Simon.