Talk Morgan Forums Morgan Sports Cars Morgan Aero 8, 2012< Plus 8, SuperSports, Coupe & Aeromax S5- Paint Issues

It's a pity to hear this. Luckily I always interacted with the factory through my dealer, Borghi. I do not know if it was because of him, or because they have a different channel with the factory, but all my issues have been fixed in a timely manner.

I have heard some stories from German dealers. It seem the factory wants to save as much money as possible. Neither dealer nor customer seem to be a partner for the factory.

I have business contact with suppliers in England and Germany, this behaviour from Morgan is already unique.

If I were to sell items as expensive as a Morgan, I'd lose interest as a trader or I must be a real enthusiast. For a small factory it is really dangerous only to rely on enthusiasm of all partners. In former time this was a way to stay in buisiness but in the future?

Exactly. It may well be that the root cause of many of the problems are not within MMC's control - in which case they need to get their customers to understand and forgive rather than get annoyed and in the worst case litigate.

Frequent, open, and honest communication is the way to achieve it. Clamming up and pretending there is no problem will simply make things worse.

These are exactly the problems that made me sell my Morgan. I want to drive and enjoy, not wait excessive long periods for repairs.

I also was part of the M3W feedback group meeting chaired by Steve Morris. I was far from being a satisfied customer at the time and felt similar disappointment to those with these paint issues. My impression was that Mr Morris did care passionately that customers were satisfied. I don't think it was lip service.

I came away from the meeting however feeling that not all the assembled management team that I met were on the same page as Steve Morris. I felt they were perhaps letting him down. A couple of them just didn't seem to "get it" and almost refused to accept there were any real issues.

What surprised me was they didn't know what each model line was costing in warranty claims. Well they said they didn't! So as many have already said it seems to be partially a resource issue along with no actual system in place to manage customer satisfaction.

Yes they do a great job making some fantastic cars but things can and do go wrong - its how its dealt with that matters - and learning from it.

Having said that I know trad owners who have experienced great after-sales care from the factory.

Regarding paint issues on the S5 -

I think i recall that of the time of the TM factory visit in winter 2016 there was quite a few unpainted bodies laying around while they perfected the front suspension? Production was delayed at the time and was causing some stress on company cash flows? Perhaps the extended wait and maybe resulting rush to get them through production has helped cause the issues?

Seems all very sad really - my Oct 2015 4/4 paint has remained in brilliant condition so I know the factory can-do a fantastic paint job. I really feel for the guys waiting weeks and months for news/return of cars. Such a disappointment. I'd be very tempted to go down for a factory tour and get answers - direct from Mr Morris if possible, who I know does care.

Hi Lucky - well the car finally arrived back from the factory on Friday afternoon and I must say looks excellent - like new again. I still don't know exactly what has been done or what future warranty is to be offered as the dealer hasn't heard the full lowdown from Morgan as yet. I suspect that only the affected panels were removed from the car and resprayed (not the entire car).
What was a little disappointing was that there were small things that weren't as they were when I gave them the car i.e. a loose wire hanging down in the boot, the clamp on the battery has been put back on in the wrong place so that I can't open the cover for the terminals, my 12V jack lead is missing from the glove box. Small issues that are easily rectified but that just jar somewhat.
Anyway the car does certainly look better than when it was handed over to the factory 2 months ago. I will keep you posted once I know more about the warranty. Have a great Christmas.

It's both annoying and wonderful when you get the car back again. Annoying because it took so long and it never comes back quite right but once you put some miles on it again you just shrug and love it. Damn things.

Hope you have a lovely holiday and put some miles on it, it fixes almost everything.

From talking to the people at the body shop that re-sprayed the E350 there are some well hidden problems within the paint industry that have been brought about largely by the push to make paints ever more environmentally friendly. No one is able to talk about it, it seems.

The big manufactures have some leverage with the particular paint maker concerned, but dear little MMC? I suspect that they are between a rock and a hard place because it would not surprise me if MMC has been bound by a gagging order by the paint maker as a condition of getting some financial compensation for all the work needed.

Sad, but the use of gagging order seems to be the way of the big corporate world now.

The owner mentions "what paint warranty will now be on the car?"

FYI most of the prestige VM's give a Lifetime Paint warranty, if you need paintwork on your car (obviously if the work is completed at one of their Bodyshop's).

BMW's - Approved accident repair centre's: "provide a warranty on the vehicle's paintwork - for the lifetime owned".

I am pretty sure Morgan and BMW use the same paint brand (Glasurit)..

????,

Last i knew Morgan dont use Glasurit

Keep in mind paint warrenty is only from the Panel to the paint surface, not from the surface to the panel.

Faults developing from surface chips or scratches will not be covered under warrenty.

Mercedes had a big problem with E Classes around about 1997 to 2003, they used inferior metal to produce the front wings, all panels effected were replaced and painted F.O.C (recall)