Talk Morgan Forums Community The Malvern Arms New or secondhand?

Spot on here. Mine was "love at first sight", brought unseen in person and I wasn't necessarily looking for a Morgan!

I'd also add I like to tinker etc. so an older, simpler car (mechanical/electrical -wise) suits me as I can do more myself.

Not so important in some countries but in Italy the Euro rating is important. Given that I wanted Euro 5 and aircon the only option was new. If I ever buy another it will be new too.

My first Morgan is Rosie, a 17 year old plus 8, she had been looked after by previous owners, and was in quite good condition but needed a bit of TLC, and certainly was not sorted out in Plus 8 terms. The last owner had garaged her over 5 years and done only about 2k and I firmly believe this does no car any good. Anyway I have done lots to her suspension and brakes, and tuned her up. A fellow Mog owner recently commented the best steering of any Mog he had driven, and he has driven them all except an Aeromax. I have had great enjoyment fettling Rosie and still have a few minor tweaks, I am not sure that I would have got the same from a new one, although the thrill of receiving delivery of a new Morgan would have been a big event. If someone else had purchased Rosie they may not have had the time or will to do what I have done and may have just got frustrated with her so I think it really depends upon the individual as to whether a new or pre-owned is best. Also the state of a pre-owned and how it has been cared for in its life is a major consideration.

whats wrong with the factory after sales service? are they just unhelpful? walk away from problems?

for that matter what are the sort of problems you get with a new morgan?

Thanks for all the interesting and helpful replies, so far. It is always fascinating to hear of owners experiences, both good and bad and their advice is always worth listening to.

In my experience of dealing directly with the factory for the purchase of a new car and afterwards to resolve a few small problems I found communications sometimes left something to be desired (ie. slow to respond to repeated emails) but in the end they were very helpful. There were absolutely no problems in dealing with the local importer (Borghi in Milano) for the few small warranty issues.

In general terms I don't believe there are any more issues with Morgan than there are with any other manufacturer of low volume production vehicles. (ask anyone who has owned a Lotus)

or major manufacturers like Landrover for instance

We've said before that in most cases you can't talk to the factory, so Morgan is quite special in that respect anyway.
I don't think they ignore e-mails but if they are bombarded with dozens of e-mails, you may not get a response. A phone call may work better.
Certainly when you visit, you are made welcome and they are nice people. Having said that, spare parts are slow, and it's looking like my Roadster will be off the road for a while yet, and will probably not be ready for our trip to Devon on the 8th September, which is disappointing, but not a certainty yet. Fingers crossed.
I doubt that I will have fetched Mr Bumble by then either because time is rapidly running out, and I only have Monday to Wednesday next week, and very possibly Saturday before Devon. Any of those days would require reorganisation of plans for each day.

Of course you werent being serious I know . Lotus are renowned for their after sales support!

My experience of them has in fact been surprisingly good.Initial support in answering queries about the Toyota engine and its rev limit and its ability to self destruct above 10000rpm if buzzed were well dealt with. Less good were their attempts at the factory service dept to get my aircon working - the standard ventilation system is so carp that air coming out of the vents with the heating off is 10C above ambient. So aircon is a necessity but the factory service dept totally failed to discover that they had in fact put it together at assembly without sealiong washers. But they were nice to deal with and subsequently a dealer cured the issue.

Equally unimpressive was to break down completely on the M4 when a plug fell out of the multi function relay. This plug was inserted from below the relay but had no retaining clip to hold it in. Good design! Cured by me with a zip tie.

I would say the reliability has been acceptable, the problems in 6 years being the two mentioned above and the failure of a water pump in the Toyota engine.

But to come back to Morgan, I have been getting the impression on the forum of poor build quality and not so hot back up. Thats unfortunate because I am bored with the Lotus after 6 years and teetering on the edge of chopping it in and buying a trad. I'm prepared to put up with the worse performance that I know I will get since it might slow me down a bit. But in my crabby old age I will not tolerate bad reliability and service

Probably safer to go for a sorted second hand one then Howard.
The only faults I've had on my Roadster in five years (to the day) is the water leak which took a while to sort, and now the broken damper bracket. Nothing else, and this is a car which started as a dealer demo and then two owners before me, all in the first three years.