Talk Morgan Forums Morgan Sports Cars Classic Morgans (pre-CX) Mileage and depreciation

In picking up two themes that have emerged from other threads regarding car mileage, age and potential depreciation I am curious to know what other TMers think. A quick look at used classics in three dealers indicates that the average mileage is less than 1000 miles per year with very few examples having travelled more than 40,000 in their 25+ years life and only one above 50,000 miles.
I totally agree with others on the forum that our cars need to be used regularly to keep them in good condition and I certainly bought mine to use rather than invest in but I was told by a dealer that now that it has passed 50,000 miles it might be more difficult to sell, and its value might drop a bit as potential buyers would be looking for something with lower mileage.
I have also picked up that spares are now more difficult to source and this leads to a potential concern about age and mileage. Are there any higher mileage cars out there i.e. 100k +, and what are the realistic life expectancies of our various engines and related components?

I can think of Button! And Jeremy must be getting pretty close in his 4/4 by now!
Once a car reaches the age where it has been restored, mileage surely is not an issue. There is probably a worry but I would have thought that buyers looking for an older Morgan would be prepared to work on the car themselves.

I sold my previous Mog for £500 more than I paid for it after 7 years & adding 35k to bring the mileage to 55k

A cars condition is far more important than mileage in my opinion. A high mileage correctly rebuilt Morgan can end up in as new conition.
Clearly buyers of high priced air cooled 911's with in excess of 100,000 miles take a similar view.

I'm sure people, especially first-time Morgan purchasers, do look for low-mileage cars, I think it's possibly because they might not know much about Morgans or cars generally, and so (not entirely unreasonably) assume that a car that's not been used much has had less time to wear things out.

Once they learn more about cars, they realise that this is a false logic, and do the sensible thing which is to assess on overall condition as others have said.

Fortunately for the Morgan trade, there's a steady stream of new purchasers who are in the first category, and it's good for purchasers in the second category as they are able to buy better cars for less money.

My car is 32 years old, has done 120k miles, and is probably worth around £20-25k to the right buyer - which would have to be someone who values performance over appearance . Would I have more fun or enjoy it more if it was worth twice as much? Would I swap it for a new Plus 4? Definitely not.

Interesting subject - When I bought my +4 in 2011, it had 53k miles on the clock, it now has 175k.
The gearbox (LT77) caused me a bit of grief, jamming itself in 4th, last year and it took me six (!) attempts to finally find out the promblem and fix it. As I am now retired, luckily I had the time to do it myself but the learning curve was a little steep..
Since then, Scruffymog's taken us all over the place including Cantabria and, this summer, down to Andalucia without any problems or, perhaps suprisingly, any signs of overheating in 35+° temparutures.
The engine, M16 Rover, is now showing small signs of hydraulic tappet wear when cold but, with a bit of luck and ferreting about on Internet, it should be easy enough to fix it.
I think to fully appreciate a Morgan, or any other "traditional" motor car, it helps to have a certain mechanical sympathy and not be afraid of getting your hands dirty. And of course there is a wealth of information and advice on TM and GOMOG, not fogetting other sites concerning the different drive-train components.
Regular servicing and maintenance is essentiel but it should be remembered that it is just a motor car and as such, just a mechanical machine that needs looking after.
Enjoy your Morgan for what, at least for me, it is - a fabulous way of seeing this world.
Cheers
Chris

I don't disagree Jay, but I wouldn't want to dissuade any prospective purchaser from buying an older car if they think they'd have to maintain the car themselves. The country is full of small garage operations that are extremely well-suited to maintaining classic cars for owners who lack the facilities or inclination to do their own maintenance.

Condition, condition, condition. High mileage and a high number of previous owners will almost certainly have an impact on some buyers to whom such things are important (mostly for their impact on other such buyers come resale time - it’s a vicious circle!). I would be wary of a very low annual mileage.

I certainly don’t want to offend anyone, it’s a valid and popular subject, but this is the type of thread I’d put on ignore. For the same reasons PistonHeads supercars section is completely useless these days as every thread becomes an obsession about money....and axe grinding by the hard done to.

If TM follows this trend I’ll be off.

A bit tangential to the current discussion but here goes anway - I bought my 69 4/4 in 2008 for 14k. I've only done about 6k in it, and its probably worth 14 - 15k now. But you could not buy from me for any sum as far as I'm concerned. There's no doubt the more I drive it the better it gets, provided I do the appropriate maintenance. Parts in general have not been a problem, so long as you don't want them on a 24 hour delivery. Just about any part can be rebuilt, with sufficient effort and money. I have however failed to fix the temp gauge throughout the 10 years....sigh. On the other hand the Crossflow engine was rebuilt at about 80k miles and appears to be good for many more 10ks. I expect it to last longer than me, (at which point you can buy it!).