Talk Morgan Forums Community Vehicle Talk (non-Morgan) Hand Crafted Cars, Anyone?

Tim, that is a very interesting journey you have travelled Morgan wise, there is another Pembleton owner on here that went through the M3W route to the V Sport and he now has the Pembleton T24 which he is very happy with for much the same reasons you are with the 3 wheeler version.

Wishing you many happy miles when you take delivery.

This thread is a good illustration of why there is no real answer to Peters original post. You simply cant compare cars when every enthusiast has different features they want and different features they dont like. One mans Classic is another mans Old Banger if you like. Trad Morgans are a tribute to personal taste - for the fan there is no real alternative however dynamically challenged they are.

I think its fair to say that the less idiosyncratic and dare I say bland that you get ( Boxter anyone?) the wider the general appeal. So in my view the trad and the boxter are at opposite ends of the sports car spectrum, the one with the appeal of brilliant engineering ( almost Ferrari standards :-) ) the other with the limited appeal of being very different to almost any other car.

Personal perspective beats external judgement every time.

This article https://www.carsales.com.au/editorial/details/morgan-plus-4-morgan-magic-29697/ had some very interesting comments but unfortunately they have all disappeared. One lady was comparing a Morgan to a custom one off built guitar and a Mazda MX5 to buying guitar in a music shop. Someone was disagreeing with her saying the Morgan is more like a custom shop Gibson Les Paul as you still have to have a Les Paul shape, you can get different wood, colours etc. but it will still look like a Les Paul, she kept arguing and he became a bit obnoxious. But I have to agree with him, I couldn't go to Morgan and say I want a Morgan Plus 4 but with an extra metre of boot and cut off wings etc. Unless I was the Sultan of Brunei and I ordered something really special a a one off.

When I ordered my Skoda Octavia the available colours for the VRs was Racing Blue, Black, two different but both horrible greys and 4 different whites. We went Racing blue and I really like it, however 10 months later when we finally got to pick up the car I went to the dealer and saw a Racing Green Octavia VRs and a nice Red VRs right next to my car. I said to the dealer when did they change the colour options, his reply was those cars he specially ordered as display cars, my car was also a special order so I could have picked any colour Skoda paints a car in. A bit late to tell me that otherwise we would have got the Racing Green as my wife loved it.

I feel the customisation possible ranges from,

• Taking whatever the dealer has in stock regardless of the colour etc.
• Ordering a car and choosing from a range of a few colours plus maybe a few bundled options like either a Tech Pack or Luxury Pack.
• Ordering from a company willing to do any colour for you, but not anything else to customise apart form a few optional packs.
• Cars offered with a list of individual options to choose from.
• Cars like Morgan with a huge list of paint and interior colours to choose from. Plus a lot of individual options.
• A fully customised one off car with an engineer checking and signing stuff off to get a road worthy car in the end..

I expect most people do the first option for cars and juts care about the deal, or whatever they can get as nothing seems available currently. I find it very frustrating that the second option seems to be the most common for factory cars. Nearly a year ago I have put down a deposit on a Mitsubishi Outlander PHEV, as I feel a true EV will not suit our needs but the PHEV could be very good. What is annoying is the top of the range only comes in white and black, the next one down comes in a really nice red but the massage seats in the top of the line are nice and the price is very similar. Seeing it is going to be two years from putting down the deposit to getting a car surely I can choose any colour they make and get the massage seats. But no it doesn't seem like it and if something else comes up in the mean time from another manufacturer with the specs and colours we like so I pull out the dealer doesn't care as chances are someone will buy it straight away being happy to not wait two years. I expect if I pull out now they will keep the car in the production list for the dealer anfd probably sell the car to someone before it is even made.

I feel most high end car manufacturers would offer as much customisation as Morgan do, Morgan make a deal of it as something special others don't offer, but as discussed others do allow as much customisation. What is special about Morgan to me is the classic shape. I feel with my Aussie Frontline MGB I have had more customisation offered than I could have got with a +4 Morgan if ordered in 2019, but like a Morgan that always looks like a Morgan it will still look like a MGB.

For the price the Pembleton looks very tempting and I assume gives you a bit of tailoring like Morgan gives. Certainly would be something I would be interested in if I was in the UK but getting one off's registered in Australia is a pain.

I love customized cars but I expect the price goes up well past what I would be allowed to spend. Here is one I think is very interesting https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rtatGNh2z3k non Aussies might have to Google Holden FB to know what the car started off as.