Talk Morgan Forums Morgan Sports Cars Classic Morgans (pre-CX) Slipping sales at Morgan

I am in total agreement with your comments, Ivanford. Unfortunately, too many purchasers have been forced to accept really poor build quality "because it's a Morgan". As far as I am concerned, that excuse has never been acceptable but now, with the cheapest Morgan £30k+ it is even less so. If Morgan have a stockpile of traditional cars they should use the time to get the build quality right before they deliver them to some unsuspecting customer. I love my Morgan but I am not prepared to make excuses for poor quality going hand-in-hand with high prices.

Cash is king and stockpiling finished cars mst be killing their NWC.

Their customers accept MTO so it would be better to go that route.

Speech over as VP Ops for a multi national

Hi ivanford
I fully agree, especially with your argument that any other 50K product would not be accepted with so much "tolerance" most of us concede to a Morgan car. Until a certain threshold, tolerance may be part of a quite "romantic" relationship with this cars.

But that is indeed not acceptable if a) MMC wants to acquire new customers and b) if the faults arise on a very functional / basic / and therefore important and not to excuse level.

No problem if I have to fix all screws after the car has settled. No problem to get a new car where the first ride goes directly to the tyre-service to balance it, or to get water during the first car wash inside because some rubber seals are not right in place in the engine bay.

But what I have read concerning the M3W issues until now, well, it cannot be so difficult to get a car go running which has been developed 102 years ago with great success. The difference may be 100y ago they "had" to take what was offered e.g. the engine. Today they "could" have made an attempt to sort out and select which of so many engines in the marked would match the car, the gearbox etc to avoid e.g. vibration issues from scratch.

I´m concerned that beside some chances to better the built quality two major tasks have to be revamped: a) product development and b) understanding of the markets.

It´s somewhat less than perfect if you offer a new product (M3W) which seems to be successful from start on but should be "finished" before going on sales.
And at the same time MMC thinks about a new product (EVA) where they cannot be sure if it succeeds at all - with addressed customers who are no compromising and not "romantic" and not accepting faults when shifting from some Aston, Porsche, BMW etc to an EVA.

In comparison with those target groups we, here at talkmorgen, are tendentially defenders of the factory philosophy and we are "educated" apologists of the "nonchalant" view on quality expectations.

I have to say that there was nothing amiss with mine and it only broke down once at 33000 miles when the rotor arm disintegrated. Since then and the opportunity to run contactless ignition and the remap, it hasn't missed a beat. Meabh.

Cash is king and stockpiling finished cars mst be killing their NWC.

Their customers accept MTO so it would be better to go that route.

Speech over as VP Ops for a multi national

Unfortunately I know not so much about Peter Morgan. Some of you may have met him. He certainly was a man who had very good understanding of the markets. Famous is his way of life and his market strategy:

"...Peter's love of the simple life - operating his garden railway, collecting stamps, driving with his dog in the passenger seat or campaigning for the RSPCA, particularly against the live export of animals - moderated any desire to increase car production or profits. Whether by accident or design, this meant that demand for Morgans always exceeded supply, making their ownership a financially attractive prospect...."
http://www.guardian.co.uk/news/2003/nov/05/guardianobituaries.motoring


John +4

sorry, what means NWC and MTO (I googled NWC and found something like "Napoleonic Wargame Club" )

Net Working Capital and Made To Order

What is it with Ops guys and TLAs?

I wonder who is the source of the stockpiling story. I hope it's not the same source who asserted that AeroSS production had ceased.

Anyone who has been to the factory will know that there is no scope there to stockpile, and to move half completed cars off site would be seen and reported with photos.
There are a number of things at play here. No Roadsters in production will supress trad numbers from October. But at my last visit with MSCC, 4cyl trad production was in full swing with an emphasis on +4SS, which were everywhere. Dealers take build slots anyway whether they have a customer or not. There are three lines of demand now, and these are the M3W - this product will probably fill the production plans for 18 months on its own. The new Plus8 which with the promise of a limited run will sell well I imagine, even in a major recession. Then there's the 4/4 75th anniversary which again with limited production will sell. All on advance orders. Obviously a standard 4/4 in production could be morphed into a 4/4 anniversary, and maybe one or two are being held with that in mind, but at 20 cars per week, if say ten are M3W's it's only three each of the 4/4Ann, Plus8 and four standard cars. I wouldn't have thought that this would be so difficult to achieve from a sales point of view.

Look at the MMC secondhand cars and it's true that numbers have risen of late. Even Plus8's are sticking, and the number of trads generally is higher than normal. But it is winter after all.
The quality issue is another matter, and the screen problem must be sorted. I can't imagine that the factory are ignoring this when it gets aired on forums like this. Much of the rest reported on TM seems to be electrical. You'd expect this to be sorted at the factory, but you would hope that the dealer would find & fix before handover. Dealer PDI's will vary in quality. That's life.

The M3W is uncharted territory, and the longevity of the transmission will have to be measured by the owners. Some will last and some will fail until the balance of engineering is found.

Would I buy a new Morgan? Of course I would.
And apologies if that sounds like a lecture - it's not meant to be.........

Im waiting for them to re-start Roadster production. I'm suffering serious withdrawal symptoms since I lost the last one in a fire :-(
Ian

Dave

to keep a sense of proportion, I would buy (and I have so) a new Morgan as well. I guess this thread is also about concerns which address the future orientation of the company towards the markets in a mix with some, let it call, "symptoms" of home made quality issues which should (and surely can) be sorted.

Anyway my interest is not to blame the company but to articulate some concerns which reflect my wishes for a healthy future of the company.