Talk Morgan Forums Morgan Sports Cars Morgan Three Wheeler & Super 3 Cracked and bent chassis .

I bent the frame on my M3W (July of '13 build) in late 2014 and the insurance company paid for a new frame and the labor that went with it. The actual frame replacement took about 4 days and was done by two guys at the local dealership. This was the third morgan that they had disassembled and put back together and it went fairly well. The new frame was a 2015 version with the latest bells and whistles at the time. I received new uprights which did away with need for a comfort kit and the new frame also had the NHV kit that isolated the bevel drive from the frame. The NHV kit is pretty useless as far as I can tell (or hear) and makes servicing the bevel drive a real pain.
The real downside of the swap was that it took nearly six months for all the parts to arrive and the shop finally had to liberate a passenger front fender from a car that had hit from behind and that would be there a while.
I have 22,000 miles on the beast at this point and the frame and all the associated bits seem to be holding up.
I am guessing that the nearest dealer to hbatts would MorganWest in Santa Monica. Dennis and his crew would certainly have the expertise to do a frame swap on your car. It remains to be seen if Morgan will step up and do the right thing.

Good feedback Rol

Keep racking up those miles..smiles!

That's the way it SHOULD work.

Guess I've heard from Malvern through my dealer. Morgan says they will replace the chassis without charge IF I can get it back to them---They didn't say anything else. So it sounds like I pay to have the car disassembled and pay for shipping the chassis from California to Morgan and back again AND reassemble the car. $3,000 to $4,000 To Morgan and $3-4000 back to me. Rolsmith says 2 guys took four days to change his car to the new chassis, what? another $3 to 4our thousand for that?? All this sure sounds like a bargain especially considering what could happen IF the chassis breaks.
Advice anyone?

Have your dealer keep fighting.

My last chassis that I damaged (accident) cost 4750 euros to insurance alone without the other parts and labor.

hbatts, This is a tough one as you may be spending significant money and still not have the problem fixed. What will you do if, like RedThree you go through three chassis?

Chassis cracking or failing is a well known problem, certainly to Morgan and once again raises the issue of “Fit for Purpose” and obligations of a supplier when a product fails under consumer law.

Have you contacted Consumer Authorities in your country to establish your rights and options particularly in relation to returning and repairing defective goods?

Attached are some extracts from our own Australian Consumer Law – interesting

Replacements and refunds

You can ask for a replacement or refund if the problem with the product is major.

Replaced products must be of an identical type to the product originally supplied. Refunds should be the same amount you have already paid, provided in the same form as your original payment.

The business may take into account how much time has passed since you bought the product considering the following factors:

• type of product
• how a consumer is likely to use the product
• the length of time for which it is reasonable for the product to be used
• the amount of use it could reasonably be expected to tolerate before the failure becomes noticeable.

What is a major problem?

A product or good has a major problem when:

• it has a problem that would have stopped someone from buying it if they’d known about it
• it is unsafe
• it is significantly different from the sample or description
• it doesn’t do what the business said it would, or what you asked for and can’t easily be fixed.

Returning the product

You are entitled to return a product if you believe that there is a problem. You are generally responsible for returning the product if it can be posted or easily returned. You are entitled to recover reasonable postage or transportation costs from the business if the product is confirmed to have a problem, so keep your receipts.

When a product is too large, too heavy or too difficult to remove, the business is responsible for paying the shipping costs or collecting the product within a reasonable time of being notified of the problem.

If the product is found not to have a problem, you may be required to pay the transport or inspection costs. An estimate of these costs should be provided to you before the product is collected, and the costs must not be inflated in an attempt to deter you from pursuing your claims

An excellent post OZ.

Manufacturers have got to provide a product which is fit for purpose.

Thanks Guys, its all appreciated. This is a work in progress--

I would suggest that you contact the authorities in the UK too.

I'm certain they've engaged the MMC on this subject.

Unfortunately the MMC are still doing as little as they can get away with.

Given that it's a known design fault, they should be obliged to supply a new chassis to your local dealer and to pay all costs to install it.