Talk Morgan Forums Community The Malvern Arms Interview with new CEO in Autocar

My guesses:

- They can't justify the investment to run 3 product lines, especially when Super 3 and CX have so much synergy.
- They can't produce trads at a sufficiently low cost to provide clear water between them and the the CX cars
- The trads are unable to be adapted for stuff like airbags. CM gave an interview about this years ago saying that the road's days were numbered
- With less than 8 years to go, they can't justify the investment necessary to engineer an EV drive train into both platforms
- Their market research has indicated that the repeat purchaser pool of people who have bought a trad in the past is actually quite small.

I recognise that in the TalkMorgan echo chamber it might seem that there are loads of fanatical trad buyers out there who are repeat purchasers and could afford a CX but wouldn't buy one is pretty small. But I bet MMC's market research doesn't support this view. There might be a few hundred, sure, but MMC need to shift 800 - 1000 units every year.

(Interesting stat: since TM was founded 15 or so years ago, fewer than 250 people have posted more than 500 times in all those 15 years. The overwhelming bulk of the posts come from fewer than 100 regulars)

Peter Morgan tried this with the Plus 4 Plus. It was a valiant effort but a commercial flop. The only thing it highlighted is that customers preferred the Trad. I suspect the same will happen again.

+1

Lets not forget the prototype "new car" that went before CX - the Aero. They have tried it before. The Trad continued to outsell it extensively and the teething issues were retained all the way through to the later cars in some cases. I was very surprised when the CX was announced as a total replacement for the Trad. I thought the CX was more of an Aero replacement to address the needs of the "new money" (me) crowd that liked suspension to get more involved . I was surprised when I understood it was a total transition. I thought it was a bit brave at the time but I admire their commitment.

I totally understand the issues TimH outlines. The compliance and regulation requirements of this market make it a challenge. Camel through the eye of a needle level. Expectations on what you get for £80k have also been raised when Dacia can pop out a highly capable device for £18k and Hyundai offers a 7 year warranty. Even people with deep pockets are suffering (JLR, Ford etc) so you do have to work out where you are going to spend your limited investment funds?

Your comment on the future of the business with respect to how they did in the past is interesting. Lets not forget that they had to lease the buildings to make the Aero happen. You can see the level of investment made (in truth prior to the new owner) with the CX and updates around the factory so the team did well on a Morgan scale. But with the challenge now facing the car market (regs, BEV, parts cost, volume) it is not a job I would take lightly.

All we can do is stay close and watch. It's their dinner to win. Given the flood of boredom in the rest of the products there will always be a little corner of loonies?