Talk Morgan Forums Talk Morgan Members Section Dealer Talk MMC Opening a Dealership?

It seems that MMC is putting some effort into selling cars directly.

THIS LINK takes you to the job advertisement for a Malvern based sales executive.
It was posted on LinkedIn.

I think a lot of people would prefer to buy from the factory it could/should be a very special experience allied to a factory visit.
The pricing of their demo fleet cars are very keen and they mean business alright, good luck to them they have invested heavily in this area.

It's been coming for quite a few years now when the dealers were told to keep crazy levels of new cars in stock, and over the last five years or so we are just left with the big players in terms of dealerships. This was probably inevitable with the entry level costs spiraling significantly which became necessary to produce a "compliant" car for the new breed of customer.

They have been for a while:

https://www.morgan-motor.com/morgan-works-malvern

In recent years dealers have had to upgrade their showrooms to a Morgan defined standard, hold higher stock levels, pay for the franchise and now are faced with competing with the factory themselves.

Its not surprising that some UK dealers have already dropped Morgan and I wouldn't be surprised if a few more follow suit.

The crazy levels of demands and costs for portals etc has driven away the best dealer we ever had in Ireland. Kirwans are ceasing to be a dealer as at 31st March. Thankfully they will continue servicing and most if not all their morgan customers have indicated they will want to keep relying on the excellent service they have had there, so , for all current owners, little will change. I'm not sure how this will promote the brand in Ireland,though!! - A very short-sighted policy by the factory IMHO

I shouldn't think the factory giving customers a discount so reducing the dealer's chance of competing helps.
It rather looks as if they are going the way of most manufacturers, wholly owned dealerships in the end.
Force the dealers to take too much stock then buy them out.

Then go public with bigger figures in the accounts for max share price....it has been known....quite recently too!

Morgan are following the market, the more technology in a product the harder it is for a dealer.
They used to be essential for keeping in contact with the customer, now technology means it is so much easier. In the part of the chemical industry I know dealers are a two edged sword, the manufacturer never trusts them 100% and the reverse applies.
Own your distributors and that trust issue disappears.

Next we will have EV Morgans, another step in technology and at the same time, less reason for a dealer to exist.
Tesla don't have dealers, in the accepted sense and in the same way they don't have service departments.

Having your own dealerships is a counterbalance to the independent network. This is an industry I worked in my entire life , during this time independent dealers would club together in an association making it almost impossible for manufacturers to introduce anything that upset the status quo. Morgan will soon open a dealership in London tapping into the high nett worth population close by and I personally think it is the right thing to do to survive and thrive.

I suspect this is to replace a sales person who left fairly recently.

London Morgan had a small dealership in some posh Mews in Kensington, but it didn't survive more than a couple of years