Talk Morgan Forums Morgan Sports Cars Classic Morgans (pre-CX) When Did New Cars from Stock Happen

In the past the waiting list has always protected the factory from lay offs. With the current sales model, any down turn in sales is going to hit them hard.

Interesting question: I wonder if the family made more money out of the business when it was only making 500 cars a year.

Merry Christmas David .
Peter.

Perhaps the stock situation should be one of the questions put to the management at the factory visit in January.
Should we have a list of questions for the Q and A session?

Hi Peter,
Merry Christmas!
David

I reckon it happened at the time of the 4/4 Sport (so, between 2008 and 2010)
The 4/4 Sport offered very little in the way of customer spec options. Just a few different colours and a couple of trim colours. I think it was a very well thought out package. The perfect entry level Morgan, if you like, but that said, the whole principle of dealers stocking new cars is not the way to go for either Morgan or their owners.
With craftsmanship and a degree of rarity comes value, desirability and investment, and although these cars are for driving and enjoying from behind the steering wheel, their relatively high purchase cost can be far more easily justified for many of their owners because of their lack of depreciation.

It's a very delicate balance.

It's a one time only benefit for the factory to move stock out on to the dealers. Once it's done there is no further benefit. I do wonder whether the type of customer who buys a brand new Morgan from dealer stock is likely to be a long term owner or more likely to be somebody moves on to something else in a year or two and not stay with the brand.

It is a tough one for Morgan and I really dont envy them. We bought our car 18 months old and love it to bits so I don't see any likelihood in changing it for a long long time. What benefit will MMC get out of me, especially, as they are making them last longer? It I were to go new it would be to have a bespoke one rather than buy something off the dealer stock. Not to do that to my mind means you're missing the whole point of making the choices and seeing the car coming to life as it is being built.

As we tend to keep all of our cars for a long time if is more likely that I will consider it is more cost effective to make any changes to this car rather than buy new. After all, touch ash, it's such a troublefree car and does everything I want why would I need to change it?

Asbo's daughter did a thesis a couple of years ago on the dynamics of Morgan buying. Some of us on here contributed our thoughts. The factory are fully aware of the fact that in general terms, those who buy a Morgan will either keep it a long time before changing to another Morgan, or not have a second Morgan. This is the predominant nature of the product.
So they have to seek out new customers constantly and I suspect that this fuelled the M3W and all the special editions of the trads, and the morphing of the Aero. So far this has kept the factory busy, but there comes a point when the dealers are saturated with stock and it's hard to see who the buyers will be, when as I said earlier, and Roger has also commented, that the whole point of buying new is to spec the car as you want it. The 2% price increase in April will however make new builds more expensive than the new dealer stock.

I don't know the answer to this. But I don't think increasing the number of dealers and having shiny glass & tiled emporiums is the answer. The Aero 8 will keep the factory busy into 2016 but even if there's a hundred orders it's only a small part of annual production. The 50 ARP4's could have generated more orders had it been more conventional, and so on.

What will be will be.................

Dont know the answer but its all about demand and desireability. A nice Plus Four costs the same as a Boxter GTS.

To increase sales, I guess MMC have to appeal more to the mass market or find more left field odd balls like us!

It's all about 'just in time' isn't it. I doubt that there are any parts designated as 'spares'. There's certainly no sense at the factory that this is the case except for piles of key components such as engines, wheels, aluminium panels etc.
Supply of spares to dealers is one are which could be better. I waited quite a while in 2013 for all the extra bits I wanted on Mr Bumble, and I had to contact the factory in the end to press them into action. It was 'a number' of weeks delay.

However, much more manufacture of components is now in-house. That may well be to optimise costs but it should also free up the supply chain.

Reported as departed in the last few weeks.