Talk Morgan Forums Community The Malvern Arms Dealer Exporting

At the moment there is a Tonight programme on and they are talking about intrest rate rises.

On the programme Williams Morgan were on saying their export sales would go down if the UK interest rates go up and then the pound goes up. They also said a good few of their customers were using savings to buy Morgans due to the present low interest rates and again when they go up people will keep the money in the bank.

So my question is with many overseas Morgan Dealers why would someone buy a Morgan in the UK to export rather than their local overseas dealer.

eddie

Maybe it might be because they don't have a local dealer, or I guess it could be to save money.

For example, when I bought my 4/4 I looked into buying it from BHM instead of from my local dealer in Paris - I could have saved about €5000 by so doing.

At the time a new lhd 4/4 sport with the extras I specified would have been about £33,000 from BHM - €38,600 at the exchange rate then. I ended up buying it from Morgan France for €43,500. I decided to do it that way as I reckoned it was only fair to give the business to the dealer who would be servicing the car. Also, the deal from Morgan France included 4 years of servicing and 4 years of warranty

Pandy
you show a really honest gesture concerning your dealership caretaking. That's not cynically meant. Where are we without our dearship. Nevertheless I bought my 2010 Roadster from Uncle Melvin, after my local dealer could sell me two cars (one at a time) before that happened. I had talked with my dealer about my intentions in front of the Rutter purchase. As my dealer anyway had no more slots for me, it was very ok for him and we have a peaceful relationship until the present day. This way, in 2010 I payed 54.000€ instead of 62.000€ overhere for a LHD from Mr. Rutter.

The P4SS was an exeption. I bought it via my local dealer for exactly the same amount than it was sold in the UK. For the UK friends, the P4 SS was 49.9K without extras. A Roadster at that time was about 39 GBP? i can't remind if with or without VAT, but Roadster was significantly lower in the UK than P4 SS. At the same time in Germany, the P4 SS was in € 57K and the Roadster (incl. VAT) was about 62K. A curious situation if you compare product price tags and countries.

To come back to Eddie's Question. If the interest rates in the UK should rise, and consequently the value of UK currency it will be harder for € payer to afford any UK product. But I don't see such a strong arise of UK currency. What I see is the future depreciation of € value (same effect at the end of the day anyway).

The dealers over here who sell UK products are a story on it's own.
Over morer decades German dealership have added a huge amount of profit regardless if Morgan, or i.e. UK hifi such as Tannoy or Meridian etc. Life will become harder for them. First, people will lose interests or the idea to import on your private level will increase to save some money.

At the moment it makes no sense at all not to buy a car locally. On a 4/4 the difference is less than 2.000€. The price tags are frozen since 3/4Y and the GBP runs away. I know that with Jan2015 price lists for UK goods (not only Morgan) will rise up more than 4% if not more,. Then the game starts from new, importing will become attractive again.

Williams export to New Zealand I believe, a place with only a franchise dealership for both Islands. I can understand the logistics and costs being effective in such a place.

Eddie,

the reason Williams and others export is that they can offer a better deal. Prices in the UK are lower as UK dealers, with their larger volumes, are willing to work on lower margins, as Heinz' post makes clear.

For reasons best known to Morgan the LHD price list is about 5% more than the RHD list. My guess is that this is to support the higher prices and import costs of the continental dealers.

I must say that it seems a bit of a rip off that the same wheels fitted to a LHD car cost 5% more than those fitted to a RHD car.

Peter just to clarify for all, you are talking about 5% more for an LHD when buying in the UK. BTW in 2010 it was only 3% more. Of course they try to protect the EU dealership doing so and It may work in times of a weak € to GBP rate like today.

In 2010 the diffference was ca. 16% in total for a Rodaster, the 3% EU dealer protection counted in ... at a currency rate with a strong €, ca. 1,15 to 1GBP. So privat import was tempting.

But:
I would estimate that the number of German self importing people is pretty small. The Morgan target group is a little bit older than average and a bit more whealthy than average.

Therefore, not many would like fly to the UK for collecting the car, don't know the dealer personally, bank wire in front, having the chance of real trouble/ paper war with the registration (in my case they did not believe that it was an unregistered new car), driving back the car on the "wrong" side, then later on try to make one of the German dealers your "friend" in case of warranty repairs, etc etc...

A new phenomenon are one or two...let's call them "agencies" which post so many classifieds on Mobile.de (popular web car market) where used Morgans from the UK are offered. Of course RHD, they offer nearly everything you find on the total sum of all UK dealer web pages. And they offer a LHD conversion too. In my personal view a touch unserious. and certainly our dealer are not amused about it.

To be honest it was a bit under 5% in late 2011. I am talking about the actual factory price list (FOB Malvern)

We purchased our car direct from the factory and as soon as we had the COC we were able to pay the tax and get the plates and insurance in Italy before even seeing the car. I have to say that, for Italy, it was one thing that worked surprisingly well. We then went to the factory, fitted the plates, and drove home.

When we picked up the car I asked what to do if there were any warranty problems. The response was to take it to Borghi, the importer in Milan. We were told not to worry as he would be "looked after". Certainly when we went there he treated us very well. The first service (no oil change on the first service) was done at no cost to me (no doubt billed to Morgan) and a couple of small things rectified. Since then he has been excellent to deal with. I can only assume that "looked after" meant that he still received a commission of some sort but I have never asked.

If I was buying another Morgan I would most likely still pick it up at the factory but I would order it through Borghi rather than direct from the factory.

Buying from a UK dealer would introduce yet another person into the equation and it would not be something I would consider. Of course if it is a second hand car it really makes no difference where you buy it and your local dealer will get the repair and service work anyway. The only thing you would not get is any local warranty which dealers normally offer (sometimes by law) on second hand cars.