Talk Morgan Forums Morgan Sports Cars Morgan Aero 8, 2012< Plus 8, SuperSports, Coupe & Aeromax How many miles are 'normal' for an S1?

Another perspective: our 2014 Plus 8, essentially a late series 4 Aero chassis, has 30500 miles run and I add about 5000 a year.

I'm not overly concerned about miles run, the BMW lump is good for 150,000 as long as it is serviced properly. The rest of the car is a Morgan and needs more TLC than a production car, but that is half the fun of it.

I bought the car to drive: it isn't a garage queen, it is unlikely it will be sold and it certainly isn't an investment.
My kids will inherit it and they can fight over who gets it.

...and the souvenir around your waistline?

Which is absolutely fine, but of course very many people can't afford to write off a >£70k investment in that way. I treat my car in pretty much the same way, and it doesn't owe me anything, but it's an old nail in comparison to most.

I can easily understand how someone might set their heart on one day owning an exotic car of some description, but need to be able to preserve the value in it so that when they need it they can get back as much as they can.

Only using the car for limited mileages and in good weather only is a good way to do that but still gain enjoyment from the ownership experience.

What a waste of a car....1000 miles a year. The guy that took a Ferrari into the Moroccan desert gets my respect. Or the vintage car crews who drive down to the Med for a holiday with large bags strapped on.. But sitting in the garage making engine noises like a little boy..? Nah..

You'd have to wash the inside of the windscreen more often, for a start!

Buying new is where the usual outlay is at its highest.
S1cars are in the £35-£45k cost band in general, although there will be some outside. Prices seem to have stopped dropping and stabilised/starting to creep up (not based on exhaustive research).
So, buy a new one now at £100k+ and the monetary investment is keener.
The current value of the S1 cars is still a decently high price for a car that is a toy, though. I was tempted 3-4 years ago but.....
Morgan mileages tend to be low so there will be many low mileage cars about.
I do 7k+ a year in my trad (54k on the clock now). I don't make an effort to keep it low but use the car when I want to. Weekends away, day trips, golf, shopping etc.. Definitely less in winter but mainly due to fewer weekends away. Living this far west means longer distances to many events, Bicester this weekend is still iffy but mainly due to weather for a 3 hour drive.
Each to his own in the end.

Mine's a 2002 and done 5500 miles now and despite views here it's had no issues apart from the MAF.

Not a waste of a car as far as I'm concerned because I use it whenever I feel the love. Great car, one of my favourite sausages of all time, I love it but simply don't go very far.

Thanks guys so far ... interesting to hear the thoughts! Keep them coming!

The big encouragement for me is that the miles on my car still seem low so loads of scope for me still driving and enjoying the car. My aim was to enjoy the driving with 'low depreciation' so I think I am well on target!

If you are not going to drive the thing, join a Supercar club! The depreciation works out about the same as membership and you have access to a wide choice of cars and can drive around 2,000 miles a year.

I admit to only doing about 5-7,000 a year in the Ferrari but that does seem enough to keep it reliable. Any less than that and it seems to have issues.

With the exception of the GTN, my lowest mileage in any Aero over a year has been 20,000 and my highest just shy of 30,000. Mechanical things that had to be done outside of normal servicing (and me bashing the cars), a set of brake discs and the rear suspension springs on the S4 which I can blame on a pot hole.

Mileage had no bearing on any of the other issues which all my Aero's suffered from and that is the water ingress, either at the roof, the doors or behind the dash.

As for the higher depreciation, yes, my 80,000 mile S4 went for £45k when the low mileage ones were selling for £53-55k. Well, 60-70,000 miles more fun for about £10,000 difference seems bloody good value to me. My flat rad which I added 20,000 miles to in around 2 years of ownership, taking it over 100,000 sold for more than my cost so can't complain about that and that includes my maintanence and improvement costs!

The GTN is an unknown quantity at the moment regarding resale. When I got it it was on 9,700 as an 11 year old car. First year of ownership added 3,000 to it which for me is feeble but have been adding lots to the Tesla and put a bit on the S5. I don't have any plans to sell it right now but imagine it's not travelling South in value.

So all in all, don't worry about mileage, enjoy the thing, if something wears out, replace it. As for 150,000 on the BMW V8's, that is disappointing if that's all. Plenty of old clunker US V8's well over 400,000 miles and still going.

Some cars are most definitely an investment - their prices are still on the up and there's no CGT to pay. Keeping certain models under 10,000 miles helps enhance that investment. But I don't think a Morgan falls into that category, whilst the depreciation is modest, it's not in the same league as the early Astons or Ferraris for example.

A Morgan is most definitely for driving. It's why I bought mine as I no longer wanted the collection of garage queens I used to own.