Talk Morgan Forums Morgan Sports Cars Maintenance & Servicing Another "Why Do they Do it"

I've bought two new Mogs. The first, a mk1 Roadster, was fine ( at least until a cheap plastic P clip broke & the car was written off after the resulting fire ), but all in all it was a good experience, including the factory vist to see it in production.
The second, a 3.7 Roadster, was a disaster, from the factory vist (" what car is it? Roadster? they're not in production yet"), broken promises on delivery, shoddy parts & numerous faults.
If anything happens to this car, I won't buy another new one
Ian

I agree

The adage comes to mind "if you don't like the heat then get out of the kitchen" just as I did with one well known high volume Marque which just became a big disappointment to me, over a 15 year period. If you enjoy your car then look for the good in it, yes it is very unlikely to be perfect, after all it is designed by and built by humans, even more so a Morgan.

If you want a perfect car in my opinion it does not exist, they all have issues, some worse than others, as some know I have owned in 38 years at least 38 cars, from the mundane through to the exotic and everyone has had issues, after all it is a complex mechanical device, so get over it. The only three Marques that come close to excellence have been Aston Martin (but that has probably changed over the last 15 years) and Ferrari (but they do go wrong and are expensive to buy and service), and German excellence Porsche. A Morgan is a relatively cost effective fun car compared to similar devices, it's quirky and that's part of its appeal, my +8 was great and why I brought it and I enjoyed tweeting her. My Roadster in my opinion is fantastic, a merger or a modern performance engine and gearbox in a traditional style car that is able to produce blistering acceleration and can still return 31mph when driven sensibly. So value for money it's a winner, just as I am sure a new plus 8 is, or a 4/4 if you want a great touring fun car.

Rant over

We also have to remeber that had we bought any other marque of car back in 1989 that most of them would have been scrapped 10 years or so ago as not economic to repair so in context this really isn't bad!

Adrian,

I have been driving cars for many more years than you, so I think I have a fair idea of reliability of cars. We have had until recently Honda cars which never let me down, I never had a warrant issue, and all they cost were the normal maintenance items. That is over 25 years of owning Hondas. i don't care if its a Ferrari, Aston Martin or other exotic makes, there is no excuse for shoddy workmanship. Morgan are capable of producing a car which leaves the factory with little or no issues. It all comes down to management of the product, a little more effort in quality control and a desire to have happy customers.

Neil

+1 Agree

Neil

I think you miss my point, if you look at all cars there will be issues take a look at

http://www.hondaproblems.com

http://www.walkersport.co.uk/360-buying-guide.htm

http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/cc250af8-8e7e-11e3-98c6-00144feab7de.html#axzz39a1vmSz0

No car is going to be perfect or necessarily fault free.

This is just a random sample and I am sure you could find many more examples. The point I was trying to make is that it is very unlikely one particular vehicle will not have an issue of some sort. I think we need to remember the history of Morgans and how they have evolved, improvements I believe have been made, ie. galvanised chassis, stainless steel bulkhead and petrol tanks, better brakes, changes to seating and interior, better wings with less corrosion, the wiring on my Roadster is far tidier than on Rosie, and I am sure there are more. I do agree that a car quality control is down to management of the production line, hence my post previously, and poor or shoddy workmanship should not be allowed. It should be remembered that Morgan is still a relatively low volume car producer and any change to a vehicle has an impact, this is and can be a costly process, what might be seen initially as a minor change may result in a large impact. So it is a careful balance of change and investigation into the impact in relation to cost, if every issue raised here on TM or improvements as we see them were applied to a new Morgan then I suspect the cost might increase by 50% or more.

On your point of driving for many more years than me, you have probably only had a licence for around 10 years more than me, and on the other hand for around 25 years most regularly used cars I owned did 15-20k miles per year to commute. The majority of sports type cars I have owned I have worked on myself either out of necessity, because I enjoy it or because I think I can do a better job. So just like you I appreciate the variances of car reliability the good and bad.

So my point was if someone is not happy with their Morgan why keep it and complain. I love mine and my previous one, yes it I am sure it has faults and I will probably make changes, whether I need to is another matter, whether these are quality issues is another issue, if they are then I will address them with the dealer or MMC.

I started these threads because I wanted to highlight a number of little imperfections I discovered when stripping out the car in order to fit sound insulation.

To put them into perspective nothing I found is likely to have resulted in a breakdown or warranty claim: indeed Aldermog is largely well built and after 5 years and 22K miles looks good and should, I suspect, go on for a long time.

BUT all of the points raised highlight a fundamental issue at MMC: lack of thought and attention to detail. This is a consequence of the way workers are trained and the expectation management has of them.

I agree totally with Adrian: most car makers have issues, but they tend to be occasional and serious, involving the failure of a mechanical or electronic component. MMC's problems with the trads are mostly down to one of two things:

1. Not thinking through the consequence of a small change
2. Lack of attention to detail.

As examples we have the seat to seat runner bolt issue I've highlighted and the fact that they don't bother to vac. out the body shell before starting to trim.

I suppose I'm frustrated because I know that the cars could be so, so good and all they need to do is up their game a little at zero true cost.

Enough: I've finished the sound proofing and radio fit project. Aldermog is the better for it and I've learnt a lot and had great fun.

Remember we are talking about a pre-owned 5 year old motor. How many different people have been 'playing' around with it?
Come on guys take some chill pills, the forum is sounding as it does at the end of winter when everyone is stir crazy, get out in your motors and drive.
And I bet they all start first time.

I'm the first owner since it left the factory!

Aldermog was built in 2009 and was owned by MMC until 2012 when ownership was transferred to a Morgan employee with no interest in DIY servicing. The car was sold on in 2013.

So from assembly in September 2009 to its sale to Williams in 2013 all servicing was done by the factory. Which is why I have NOTHING in the service record other than a letter from Steve stating the care was serviced as required by the factory.

This means I received the car is exactly as it left the factory. Mechanically it is flawless. All my niggles are to do with assembly/trim details that mean it wasn't perfect. My inherent OCD means I get frustrated when I see silly faults that could be easily be corrected if people thought about what they are doing.

Chill Peter, I know that it has been a factory car. How many different people have had a screw driver on it?
I get your point about not vacuuming out before fitting the insides. I agree with you on that. Most of the grot is sawdust, which you don't get on a mass produced vehicle.
In reality how many owners take their seats out. That is not an excuse it is a fact.