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

Thanks, I'll have another go at it this weekend .

Can confirm the new "forward" gear levers ARE threaded - mine is anyway!!

Blake, how did you go with the warranty repairs?

The basic difference between the M3W and all kit cars is ALL kit cars plummet in value the moment you take delivery. the time you spend away from your family putting the thing together is entirely a labor of love ( automotive love) its not profitable or logical.

I've done both and continue to do so. Working on cars can be more fun than driving them.

The Morgan 3W holds its value better than any production car on the planet. The months of whining on line about your trivial issues proves you should own BMWs or MBzs so every little thing that goes wrong with it gets you a loaner and a latte and an apology.

"Stiff upper lip" is a term the British came up with to cover their weather, and habit of open top motoring.

Seems you didn't do your homework.

Sell it or fix it. Working on cars is fun, breaking down is an experience.

how do we know the M3W is going to hold its value, it just launched, how can we know this yet? make a lot of assumptions here...

Wow, Rufus3, you certainly like to be blunt. Are you from Yorkshire by any chance?

The point is that, and I feel it is rhetorical, the Three Wheeler is a production car, but built like a kit car, with all of the faults too. For this we pay a premium, quite a hefty one if you look at what is available in the kit market, and for this premium, one expects profesionals to design and build a character car without silly little faults.

None of us are stupid, and we catagorically don't expect the levels of quality and reliability that you would expect from a modern production car. I would also go on to surmise that many of us have been brought up in an age where motoring was more of an 'adventure' and you always kept a tool wrap or box in the boot, along with spare plugs, belts and other goodies to keep the car going.

I'm sure that some of us have also built kitcars or renovated an old 'classic' at some time, so we know all about maintaining a stiff upper lip, however, it doesn't mean that you have to put up with stuff that you shouldn't have to, and why should we be modifying stupid little things because the manufacturer didn't do it? For example, a mudguard over the rear tyre. It's fun to do, yes, and satisfying, but.....

I can tell you all about holding value too. I thought the same as you, my Three Wheeler [or 5 speeder as Martyn quite rightly calls it], has just lost me a little over £3000 in 12 months. Now whether you consider this good or bad is a personal thing, but I have, in the past, assembled a Caterham kit, run it for two summers and sold it for around £500 more than I paid. OK labour of assembly is not costed, I did it for fun, but I just mention this as an example, probably one that you hadn't thought of?

I think your sentiments are right Rufus, but please try not to be so condecending, even if owners' views about the deficiencies of the car are annoying to you.

I look forward to hearing your continuing experiences though.

well said paulj.

I think you hit the nail on the head. this isn't about wanting perfection or a modern car, it's about dumb ass oversights on the manufacture's part that could and should of been recognized/and fixed after less than 500 miles on a test mule.

while i understand that morgan's are works in progress both on the part of the manufacture as well as by the owners, I think someone from the factory spending 30 min a week on this forum and taking notes on what is actually happening with these cars would allow for progress at a breakneck speeds due to the fact you have a huge collection of test mules "aka paid and delivered customer cars" who are providing invaluable feedback and even creating solutions for the manufacture free of any r&d charge.

I just wonder how much morgan loses on senseless warranty claims that could of easily been fixed at the production stage of things instead of post sale work by dealerships.

All of this being said i'm having a blast in my morgan and have enjoyed getting my hands dirty as it was something that was missing from my life before the 3w, but i'd much rather not being fixing mfg's oversights, laziness, or sloppiness and spending that time and energy modifying the car or just basic upkeep.

I just don't think it speaks very highly of the "craftsman" putting the car together when non mechanically inclined people who don't do it for a living are able to fix and reassemble the car properly and with better attention to detail.

and for those who either don't have a morgan or do and think i'm being oversensitive, he's a cherry example, they forgot to put rubber grommets on the screws that attach the cover to the air filter which meant that there was about a half inch of play between the cover and the filter. this means that when accelerating it would rattle and bang against the engine sounding like a can of rocks and would make terrible noises when hitting bumps. it was fixed by less than a $1 with the purchase of a couple pieces of rubber to put on the screws so it was seated properly.

i know i'm coming across as a dick and stepping on a lot of people's toes with those comments but i only say it out of love because i want morgan to be around for another 100 years and honestly I just can't see that with this kind of rushed production/development. just so much wasted potential with such great cars to be made.

It's been said before here, but it will be worth repeating. Those who have had Morgans and know the way the factory works, are more likely to overlook things, because of a love for the Marque, those of us whose first Morgan this is, do not have those same rose tinted specs, a bit like the Kings new clothes, if you know that story? We fully understand the limitations of producing relatively small numbers of cars, by hand, but my feeling is, rightly or wrongly, that because the factory are overwhelmed with orders, they do not try as hard as they should, to get things right.

I've come across this in other businesses which are overly successful, and frankly, it's not a nice trait, but, big but, we all agree that the product is so good that we are content to put up with its' foibles, we are just saying that Morgan could do better, in some respects.

I think these points are particularly relevant if they hope to attract new and /or younger buyers who are obviously vital in the long term. My 2 boys and their friends love the car but can't believe what I'm prepared to have to sort out. I still think the three wheeler is the best car I have ever owned !

Blake, I think the Morgan factory is starting to listen.
I suspect there has been an effort to get global customer feed back. I was one of many here and overseas to be asked to complete a customer survey in the last few weeks.
My completed survey along with detailed notes has been returned.

No response as yet but they did ask.