Talk Morgan Forums Community Vehicle Talk (non-Morgan) If not a Morgan??

Perhaps Bob doesn't want to spend £45/£50K on a car that needs to be fettled? It's not unreasonable to expect something in that price bracket to work 'out of the box'. Maybe he doesn't want a car that might be off the road for an indeterminate period of time owing to replacement parts being unavailable?

Define character and explain why a Boxster should have, as you imply, none.

He's the one who is buying it !

Resistance to change seems to be endemic amongst sports car owners!

That has to be wrong as illustrated by the other "independant" sports car makers in the UK - Lotus. Lotus are fully modern and arguably even more of a sports car that the Boxter. Less refined more hard core.

Trad Morgan are a funny niche . Combination of old style sports car and nostalgia though even Morgan have gone modern to some degree with the Aero family.

I know what posters mean when they say the Boxter doesnt have character. Its not a criticism of the car which is immensely competent. Its just that it could have been made by any number of mass manufacturers. I liked it when I test drove both it and the 911 several times. But neither grabbed my attention like the Plus 8 did or tbh the F type V8. You could almost say that the two Porsches were simply too good and too well developed.

But then if we were all the same there would be only one manufacturer.

Indeed I am, so let's make a start.

Chambers defines "fettle" as to make ready, set in order, to arrange, to tidy up or rub excess material off a casting. A fettler (Aust) a maintenance worker on the railway.
Railways did become a form of transport I became familiar with in the first year of my ownership.

Do I enjoy fettling? No, I sodding well don't.

Do I expect to fettle on a £50K odd purchase? Most certainly not.

The areas of comparison I intend making, and reporting on, will be as follows:

Do any of the bolts in the engine compartment compromise any rubber hoses?

Do the essential gauges work, and if they do lurch into activity on the odd occasion, do they accurately impart information?

Will there be the ability to accurately gauge how much oil there is in the engine?

Will the body paintwork resist chipping?

Will the leather seats not rub into holes after four years?

Will I experience excessive heat in hot conditions from an engine intruding into the drivers compartment?

My expectations of buying a new hand built car were that it would it would offer me a different experience. It did. The experience was that I bought a product that didn't fit together particularly well, but was fun to drive before the irritations set in.

Fall in love with it? It's an inanimate object for goodness sake.

I have gained the impression that many of the contributors to this forum are forgiving to the inadequacies of the product and the attitude of the manufacturers to their customers that would not be the case in other spheres, products or services.

I shall report objectively on my impressions of the Porsche after a coupe of thousand miles or so.

Keep smiling!

Howard , I think you like characterful cars by that post !

Madmax, you bang on about Morgans having character. Am I to understand you consider the features listed by Bob in his last post are desirable? Do you seriously believe that having to fettle a £50K+ purchase is part of the attraction of ownership? Are you content to accept the excuse that "they all do that, sir"?

Please explain how a Morgan has character and a Boxster doesn't.

I'm cheating ! I have a z4mc 'everyday sports car' , it isn't really possible to fettle but its far from perfect as many describe most Porsches , the z4mc has to be driven and it does slide about and it can bite as it doesn't forgive being pushed round corners .It does sound nice when accelerating but is planets away from a plus 8 .