Talk Morgan Forums Morgan Sports Cars Classic Morgans (pre-CX) Quality Control versus Marketing Gimmicks

yes I am indeed. Kawasaki and Toyota thrashed the British car and bike industries, not by investing in fancy plant, but by understanding all the little things that cost very little to fix. This happens to be my area of expertise. When I returned from training at Kawasaki, I did some work for a prominent furniture manufacturer. They had a six week lead time and a parts warehouse with £500,000 of component stocks, but with constant shortages. Using Kawasaki's methods we reduced the lead time to a week and completely eliminated the need for a parts warehouse. Part of this was sorting out the quality issues by making it easier to do things correctly. And the investment Cost? Virtually Zero.
At another large company making fitted kitchens we eliminated shortages and turned round every order in a week. MMC is easily big enough to adopt low-cost improvement techniques and maybe one day it will have to!

Stuart,
There are many on this forum (and others?) who have similar expertise to yours in lean manufacturing techniques and quality systems, and some have even offered to donate this to MMC free of charge by providing their time gratis. I am afraid that even these sorts of offers fall on rather deaf ears, and are politely declined. The culture needs to change, and this requires leadership and commitment to change.

Andy, I'm sure there are many, and they must have found it very frustrating! I'm afraid I couldn't resist a bit of a rant having read all the comments about quality on TM.
Well, time to hold my piece now.

i would.
the "overpriced" retro green Caterham a few years ago was only 30k-ish.
Caterham also suffer men-in-a-hut quality issues, but like Lotus, Ariel and Ginetta they've made changes to improve. And they have.
I want a TVR but swmbo loves the Mog! If i did get a Tiv and it broke i'd never hear the end of it. Not that Tivs breakdown....

I do have to say here that my 2010 Roadster Sport is very well put together. Everything fits nicely and I have not had to fettle anything at all. Maybe because it was ordered by Richard Thorne? Who knows. I have done quite a bit to it and yes there is that annoying rattle on the right hand side of the dash which I just can't locate - it even has a cover over the pcb.- but it is the best Morgan of the four I have owned, by far.

It would be a fantastic accolade for Morgan - if the byword was "Morgan make really well engineered vehicles"...now that IS worth something?

I have only owned my 3 months and that sentence was NOT something I picked up when researching the marque or via owners (or indeed Dealers) selling these vehicles.

However, I will say the build quality is better than I expected...and that IS something I am telling folk

Selling branded items is definitely a good money maker for MMC. I have no issues with it. Would I pay the high prices? No. I do have Morgan branded items but none of the “frivolous” ( my term for them) ones.
Luggage? None as I use other practical good stuff saving ££££ in the process. Have you felt the weight of the suitcases? Also their size!
I have bought some clothing when on offer as a treat...same as I do with certain regular clothing brands I like.
As for quality...lots of scope to improve with many inexpensive changes by stepping back and making simple improvements. Wiring/electrical in particular as it is too exposed to the elements. Stainless fixtures to replace the zinc plated in many exposed areas where safety allows it. How many of us do this ourselves? Costs pennies to do. Such small improvements add to the brand image for quality with attention to detail. That would help justify the purchase cost of a Morgan.
MMC also seem to adopt improvements developed by others.
Rutherford rear hoop suspension, front suspension bearings to name just 2. M3W is a major one too.

Popped into KH today to see if my freebie leather suitcase and strap had arrived. Thought I'd timed it perfectly as they had a suspiciously suitcase sized cardboard box just in. Turned out to be a tan one inside though and I asked for black. Still, only 7 weeks wait so far

The empty weight is unbelievable, must be 10Kg on its own - that represents a serious amount of leather.

Coming back from a wonderful 3000km tour from the Loire Valley without any issues my 2009 +4 is very close to the 70000 km mark.
I never touched my car in any other way than oiling the sliding pillars (besides filling her up), and there was only little need to do any maintenance work by myself: after a stone from a lorry destroyed my windshield the mirror would not stay attached to the glass, I had to temporarily use double sided tape to attach it.
The only situation when I came home without my +4: the plastic radiator broke and was replaced by my dealer.
I cannot stress enough the importance of a good dealer for "Quality Assurance" of my Moggies, Jörg from Morgan Austria goes directly to the factory to accept new cars and to bring them to their "new home".
So I am very satisfied with the build quality of my +4, am I the lucky one to have bought the +4 which was built the way all others should have been built?

When I collected my new plus 4 from Phil Ledgerwood a part of the hood pinged off whilst he was demonstrating the lowering procedure.

His comment as he replaced the errant part was:



How true.