Talk Morgan Forums Morgan Sports Cars Morgan Plus Four, Supersport & Plus Six (CX & CXV Generation Vehicles) Safety Recall - Brakes

Sounds reasonable....

I've seen this sentiment regularly repeated ever since I have been a Morgan owner (22 years) and doubtless it's been said for longer than that. Peter Morgan openly said that he sold cars as a starting point for the owner to improve: the thing about Morgans is that we buy them because we love them, not because they are actually any good

It's dead easy to buy a good-looking sports convertible that is cheaper, better built, better equipped, faster, more reliable, handles better, and is more comfortable for long distances and I would always recommend that purchasers look elsewhere if they expect any of these things from a Morgan. That's not what they are about.

i'd agree with Phil. If you can't accept the car as it is, reject it, but I'd also counsel that you look elsewhere if you expect a fault-free car. You simply won't get such a thing from a Morgan.

I hesitate to reiterate my reason for buying a Morgan as I have done it so many times. I did not jump in blindfold, I had the benefit of circa five years of advice on the web from kind folk who had been there done that. Not only that, but I had spent many a year learning to be as independent as I could be relative to the care and maintenance of my old scrappers, up until the stage where I had worked my way into ownership of a few air cooled Porsches over a decade or so. Having worked through MGB, TR, Lotus and others, I learned just how good automotive engineering could be in the shape of an air cooled 911.... Morgan had always been of interest, not much interest, but interest none the less.

By the time I had spent a few years on the internet with MSCC DG and then eMog, I had been well educated to just about every foible a Morgan might suffer, be that straight out of the MMC`s doors, or some old crock that had lain in a barn with a hopeful soul looking to restore it....Great times indeed.

I felt sorry for the evolution in expectations that seemed evident at a time when delayering and downsizing was in full swing with "forced" early retirees all looking for a project, or to buy the Morgan of their dreams... Those looking for a project were searching for something relatively simple to tinker with, or indeed totally rebuild, which seemed to make even barn finds values soar outside my idea of their real worth. Perhaps al those lump sums added to a possible market surge..?

In truth I did feel rather sorry for those who had been enjoying the benefits of company car ownership up until industry spat them out... The idea that a new Morgan was not perfect out of the box seemed`d beyond the level of understanding for some, and to add insult to injury, to have to pay for repairs to foibles...when the cost of their company car service or repairs mattered not a jot. Yeah Morgan ownership came as quite a shock to some, but then the pure joy of driving a Morgan and all it brings with it is so very different from driving any high end saloon ? With luck the frustrations were overcome for quite a few. Fortunately for me I was never one of them, though I will admit to using occasional foul language when thinking "They could have spent a few more bob on this," however years of reading of those who thought they new better and modifying this or that and ending up chasing their tail as each mod created another issue when resolved created... well you know what I mean... All part of the fun for some, less so for me these days..

I've only been connected into the Morgan way since 2003. It took me five years of research before buying my Roadster, and even then I didn't know half of it.

Even over this period, each model has had "Quirks" which with a bigger budget could have been eliminated.

The enduring quirks are things like minor paintwork issues, steaming up gauges, minor leaks over the header rail, leather blemishes, and so on.
Bonnet fit can vary a lot, and the grille fasteners into the lower front panel can show some serious ovalling.
Obviously there's much more, such as those factory door mirrors, fuse box diagrams which don't reflect reality, mis-drilled holes in the floorboards and odd sized fasteners.

Most Trad buyers take this on the chin. Trads have been around long enough for the good dealers to know the score, and Trads are easy for diy owners to sort out. That's a big attraction.

When things get more complex, things get more difficult. And issues such as Peter's Canbus problems appeared out of the blue. Older Aeros may become more troublesome than Trads simply because of the added complexity.

The CX cars are even more complex, even without the master cylinder affair. The early radiator problems shouldn't have taken this long to resolve.
It's obvious that the old Morgan approach won't work with expectations of the CX market. Only time will tell if this is survivable.

I had the same issue with the engine management light and momentary loss of power, as you say quite scary. It appears to have rectified itself for the moment.

If support for CX cars don’t improve, some people will look elsewhere…

I must say I’m beginning to think a CX is not for me. I have no intention of spending about £80k on a car with poor backup. There’s very little I can’t fix properly and safely on my current 2002 4/4 but I wouldn’t tackle the CX so need to know if there are issues I can get prompt specialist attention.

Hi Guten
Do ya want me to let you know when/if I ever get Belle back? I am happy to pop over to yours to take you out for a quick trip so you can see how much the ride/power etc has improved compared to your current mog just in case it helps at all….
No worries if not, hopefully see you at the vaccine place sometime soon anyway….
HB

Thank you for the offer and I may take you up on that some time. At the moment this has not been put to management only that I have a loose plan but not what I’m thinking the replacement might be - softly softly catchee monkey

I also had the engine MIL issue on my CX. According to my dealer, Morgan had known of this problem and informed them of a fix for a poor earth. Worth mentioning to your dealer. It needs sorting as it is likely to happen again and you might be in a situation where you don't appreciate the sudden drop in torque delivery!

On the wider point that you make, it is difficult to disagree. Morgan do need to up their game and I honestly wonder if the rose tinted Morgan glasses that many wear are not helping MMC in the long run. Younger owners do have higher expectations and they are more critical - thats a fact borne out by nearly all in-depth customer satisfaction surveys. If Morgan want younger customers' money then they need to take what comes with it i.e higher expectations.

I purchased my 2nd Plus Four (manual as I didn't really enjoy the automatic as much as I thought I would) and 10 days after picking it up I got the stop-drive notice. I seriously considered rejecting the car then and there and it was only because I was busy with other things that I sucked it up and waited for the dealer to fix it. Also I'm lucky in that I have an Alpine A110 to enjoy so the lack of the Morgan was not so annoying.

The Plus Four has now been back on the road for a couple of weeks and all seems well so far. As far as compensation is concerned, I don't like to think about the true cost of not having the car for some months but I do feel the 3 month extension to the warranty offered by MMC is borderline laughable.

Now, where did I put my rose tinted glasses. Ah, thats better I'm all calm again now. :-).

Mums the word… 😇. Haven’t said anything to Lady HB so we won’t mention anything if we see you. Presume you have had to do the CRB as well for the centre? Amy seems on good form and quite chirpy still…
HB