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

Tim, I think you're addressing a problem MMC shy away from.
By marketing cars as craftsman built and all that they have stepped away from Peter Morgan's view of the car as a good, well built by good workmen, cheap way of getting high performance.
I've never forgotten the sales director at the motor show in 2005 saying to me that MMC sold dreams not cars. At that time they were having trouble with aero 8 customers complaining about hood leaks; when they tried the "they all do that" approach the customers were replying "my BMW doesn't" and demanding refunds. They'd stepped into a new price level and a new set of customer expectations.
I'd just ordered a roadster and my dealer introduced me as a suitable Morgan customer as I laughed when I got wet (The roadster was my third Morgan) but unfortunately people spending 80T didn't.
Now a good 4/4 costs 45T they too are in a new league of customer.
4/4 s were about the price of an mg....Now a Mazda is half the price (and the same engine gearbox really)........
Dreams only sell for a short while. People want a product.

My view of Morgan character came from a review of the plus 8 in 1969. He said something like......
The rear of the mog may look rather plain but that's all most people will see of it. Sitting at traffic lights the people around know you have sacrificed everything else for performance.

Unfortunately for MMC average modern car performance has increased massively and has basically outrun the mog.

So why do we like them? Beats me. But I still do.

Nick

Dreams last for ever Nick. What else do you think of when someone is droning on at a board meeting, or when SWMBO is dragging you round IKEA? We men like to pretend that we are down to earth rufty tufty characters but in reality we are every bit as romantic as our wives. Absolutely obvious in the sailing world where times many you see owners equipping their boats to sail the southern ocean when all they will ever do is cross from Lyminton to Cowes. I must have a hundred "sell up and sail away books " as proof of that.

So in a way you hyave answered your own question. You like Morgans just because you are an old romantic.

Absolutely right Nick. MMC have depended on the goodwill of their customers for years, and for most of them, they can continue to do so. The challenge they face is as you say with the £80k customers, who have a completely different mindset.

The MX5 is the perfect example of what MMC is up against, it's a fantastic car, does everything a 4/4 or +4 can do, it can do it with much more comfort and total reliability, and as you says costs half the price.

If they were built in Britain and I were in the market for a new sports car I'd have no hesitation at all in buying one over and above a Morgan.

I have a self-imposed restriction of only buying stuff that's UK-built, though, on the basis that "If you want to live in a country that makes things, you have to buy the things your country makes".

Bloody hell!
Not too many options left for a poor Austrian but to change for KTM's X-Bow.

Nothing wrong with the X-Bow, but I think you might have a bit more choice what with Magna Steyr being in Graz? They build the E-Class 4Matics for Mercedes and the MINI Countryman for BMW, I believe.

There is one issue here which I am surprised no one has raised - the poor quality of Porsche 6 pot engines. Right the way through the era of the 996 and 997 model 911s and the corresponding Boxter / Caymans, they have suffered badly from scored bores and intermediate shaft failures. Have a look at http://www.pistonheads.com/gassing/topic.asp?h=0&f=48&t=1052310

and bear in mind that to some degree, owners will fight shy of admitting an issue which would devalue their cars.

Has yopur Trad given you that sort of problem? No it hasnt but you maybe have had an occasional bolt fall off

I bought my +4 because I wanted a "classic" car that didn't have o come home on a trailer, so far after 23k miles it has lived up to expectations I have "fettled" it to some degree not because it was particularly lacking but because I wanted to. Just the same as I "fettled" my new Fiesta ST by having Mountune add some horses, it didn't need it but...................

So you don't want imperfection; you just don't want an out of the box solution? You seem to miss the point that Morgans are no longer a cheap car so should not require finishing off by the purchaser. Anyone who wants to fettle to their hearts contents as you do can buy a kit car.






So the performance of the BMW Plus 8 and Aero isn't unusable but the performance of cars with symbols on their bonnets is?

I don't miss the point, just trying to indicate that this is an opinion that you (and many other) customers think the situation ought to be.

Real life, however, is as it is, not how we think it ought to be, and the fact remains that for many years there was a distinct and conscious view that Morgans were indeed intended to be 'finished off' by the purchaser, it was a principle widely accepted amongst the customer base.

Yes, it's true that in an ideal world MMC would be capable of constructing tiny numbers of cars by hand on a tiny production budget to the same level of quality as major manufacturers, but the fact remains that they don't.

Purchasers have to make up their minds as to whether this state of affairs is an acceptable price to pay for the advantages of Morgan ownership, or not.



I've already said that it wasn't directed at Aeros or their owners. It was directed at the kind of person (like my neighbour), who scoffs at my 'cheap' Honda CRV (£30k) and buys instead an Audi Q7 (£50k) as it's a 'much better car'.

And what does he use it for? Commuting to Gloucester along pretty much exactly the same route as me, in the same stream of traffic, at the same speeds, but burning more fuel to do so and experiencing greater levels of depreciation, for no rational reason whatsoever.

Howard , you are right about the scoring of bores on the 997 , that put me off , so they aren't perfect after all ! Stick to something more characterful ?