Talk Morgan Forums Morgan Sports Cars Morgan Aero 8, 2012< Plus 8, SuperSports, Coupe & Aeromax aeros for sale

Blimey that is a massive difference in production numbers 284 to 2,000.

That's only series one's Richard.

Aerotaff

Oh thanks Aerotaff, that sounds a bit better.

Yes, and no.

The dealers are selling their demonstrators.
It's the time of year to but/sell a soft top.
And values are strong.

So there's plenty of cars about... But it's not as if everybody's abandoning Aeros as a bad idea.

Will

They've not built 1000 since 2013, have they.
Maybe 250 - 300 aero chassis cars in the past four years?

Will

The figure of 117 for the AeroMax is definitely wrong, Sturdza’s initial version was on an Aero 8 chassis number as was my prototype AeroMax (chassis no: 0660 in the Aero 8 Series 4 run which was current at the same time) and the 4.4L written off by Charles’ son also had an Aero 8 chassis number (can’t remember it I’m afraid).

There was at least one (possibly two) new cars built to replace insurance write-offs and then the car currently in the MMC museum at the Works, which was chassis number: 0000 and previously driven by CM. Including the Aero 8 numbered cars and the other AeroMax’s built it can’t be more than 106 AeroMax’s in total.

I find some of the other figures pretty questionable too...

I forgot the GTN, currently birching myself. I also forgot the Speedster+8 if you consider it as different to the Aero+8.

I did think the number of S1 exceeded that as well but have nothing to back that up. It was in production for a while and I understood quite a few got exported. The howmanyleft web site is UK only. Helpful but not total as many have also been bought and taken out of the UK when the £ was bad.

Nice to see the number of Aero +8 as high as that. If we add the run out models then it should still be less (but close to) than 2000 ?

It makes sense for MMC to obfuscate the exact number as it makes it more of a talking point. Mystique, Intrigue and fun, good for them!

Whatever the precise numbers are the bottom line is that Aero Chassis cars are somewhat rare...

Records are certainly confusing, my Plus 8 is described in the V5 as a Morgan Aero Supersports....

Let's say that total production of the V8s will be, for the sake of argument, around 1900 cars when the last Plus 8 rolls off the factory floor.
That is since 2001.....17 years and a few months.
So an average of just over 100 cars a year.

Given that many have been exported the number left in this country will be modest and that makes them very special in the UK.

It's a slow Sunday morning in snowy Salisbury...

Howmanyleft says there's 323 Aero chassis cars registered in the UK, of which 238 are taxed.



There's another 5 in the Aero model listing with engines smaller than 4 litres.
And another 50 or so in 'model unknown' Morgans with 4.0 - 4.8 litre engines - which could be Aeros, or Rover engined Plus 8s.

There's no mention of the Coupe - which is presumably included in the Super Sports or Super Sports Auto listings.

The numbers of S5 Aeros looks about right for 2015 - 2016, but 2017 (marked as a ? in HML) looks light at just 11.

The Plus 8 registrations looks right too, trickling along at 4,10,3,5,2... but then leaps to 43 in 2017.
So maybe taking Aero and Plus 8 together gives the right number for 2017 - 54, and a total of 91 Aero chassis cars since 2015.


===
So what about sales & values?

There's 20 dealers in the UK - most of whom you'd expect to have an Aero or Plus 8 for sale.

Taking 3 major online outlets where you'd expect to find Aeros advertised:
Pistonheads have 14 Aeros for sale in the UK
Autotrader have 8 Aeros for sale (let's exclude Williams' imaginary used Aero GT from the numbers.
Car and Classic have 19 Aeros for sale in the UK
Some of those dealer cars for sale are unregistered.

So even if there were no duplication amongst those ads (& there is) that's 41 cars for sale, from 323 registered cars - 12.5% of the stock. Halve the number for sale to take out the dealer demonstrators, and you're at 6%.

If fewer than 10% of these toy cars are for sale, I'd reckon there's not "a sign on people cashing up in the face of the economy / brexit etc." to quote Howard's original question.

If anything, looking at the dealer prices (& knowing how the price list has changed since launch) the advertised values are often more than a dealer might have expected to advertise the car for at the point at which they ordered it.

fwiw, based on market valuations, my insurer has accepted an agreed value more than 10% over the invoice cost of the car.

The market for Aeros & Plus 8s looks very healthy.

Will

The other thing to remember was the 'controversy' of CM signing up to 200 4.8 engines which was going to be for circa 100 supersports and other Aero's.

The Coupe, Plus 8 and S5 all seem to have been added to the range to get through that order of 200.

I wonder if many more were really ordered after that engine commitment was all finally used up?