Talk Morgan Forums Morgan Sports Cars Morgan Plus Four, Supersport & Plus Six (CX & CXV Generation Vehicles) Living with a Plus Four

We are considering buying a current-model Plus Four and going through the many options. Could any existing owners comment on these questions please?

1. We love lighter leathers, but with an open-top car there must be a lot of dirt that gets in. How have others found looking after leather in practice? Would we be better off with the rich tan leather - how does that wear over time?

2. Matching leather over the centre tunnel looks great, but what's this like in real life - does it get scuffed (and therefore should we just have carpet)?

3. The Morgan would be our "fine weather car" with another car for everyday use. We don't have a garage, so I assume it may therefore spend a few months a year parked on our drive, presumably with a storm cover and battery conditioner? Does this work ok?

Any other "actually living with this beast" thoughts would be most welcome, especially things we might not discover in the showroom or talking to a dealer. Thanks!

Our 4-seater has a leather interior with magnolia seats and oxford blue center console and sills. The magnolia needs much more effort to keep clean than the blue parts. Yet after 16 years and 70000 km the interior still looks good despite children and dogs.

Hsrald

Leather care products are fine for keeping it in good condition. Mine is light in colour and no issues.
Limited use with no garage is possibly your biggest thinking point. Any car benefits from good storage and regular use. A neighbour has a TVR he keeps in a rented garage. He'll keep it on his drive more often in summer than winter to save going to the garage. An outdoor cover will ge an absolute minimum A car coccoon better. A rented/borrowed garage better still.
VED is high for 5 years, SORN can help a bit for extended storage but you can miss out on fine winter days for driving.
My advice is not to treat it as a "fine weather car" but use it. Join your local MMC centre. Go now before buying to get feedback from members there. I think Oxmog is your local.
I've done 7k+ miles in year 1 with my Plus Four inc a tour of Scotland. Similar to previous Morgans. Year 2 is likely to ge higher with two Scotland trips planned plus other stays away. The Plus Four is a good tourer with a case on the luggage rack plus stuff on the shelf. Performance and ride are great. One warranty fix for a minor behind the dash problem. I chose the auto so have the choice of auto or manual paddle shift.
A chunk of money to buy but absolutely no regrets.

Some insurers insist on night time locked garage storage for classics (unless touring obviously) so check the weasel words within the T&C's

Good point Jon mine do.

Thanks for the input so far.


I think my hope is that to an insurer, a new Plus Four is a "normal car" not a "classic". I seem to be able to add it to my Admiral multicar policy for a similar price to our other cars...

Yes, that seems to be a consensus view -- perhaps in Winter our plan would be to get it on the road at least every 2-3 weeks just to keep it running smoothly, and keep it covered with a battery conditioner in between. We do have dryer cars available for bad weather motoring though :-)

That's good to hear. We do a lot of Eurotrips but we will continue using our Porsche (Taycan Sport Turismo) for that ... but more local touring could be fabulous in the Plus Four I agree.

Non-garaged over night seems to be governed by replacement price of the vehicle and location of driveway parking; however, even with challenging situations (higher value than the insurer would like or a location they deem to be poor), the addition of security can help mitigate this. For instance, a gate on the driveway of the property, cloud based security cameras pointed at the driveway and a simple pull up bollard, that makes the car immovable unless the bollard is removed, all help. The other addition they may ask for would be a CAT6 tracking device (active tracking rather than passive). Lastly, and thankfully, Morgans tend to be low on the theft sale and therefore, most insurance companies view them as less of a target than either a similar or lesser value vehicle.

Sospan's winter advice would be mine - some of my favourite driving has been in the winter and my general attitude is unless they have salted the roads, why not use it (driven not hidden!). With this in mind, the storm cover and charger option is a good one and if you have space, another option is a temporary garage (there are threads on here discussing the various options).

As for cream leather, again, it has been covered and my advice, as someone who has had a few of them would be: expect them to be work, especially if you favour jeans and or navy trousers. It isn't so much as they mark as they pick up colour from clothing dye. Soleng is right, they can be kept looking good but it takes time and on a regular basis - the longer you leave it between cleaning sessions, the harder it is to bring it back. However, there are some great products on the market and I (and I am sure others!) can recommend them if you go that route.

That’s helpful thanks.
What about the “rich tan” soft leather? Is that easier to look after? It is very orange in some photos - does it darken a bit over time?


And does anyone have thoughts on this:
2. Matching leather over the centre tunnel looks great, but what's this like in real life - does it get scuffed (and therefore should we just have carpet)?

I can't comment on the CX leather because I don't have insight into the source of it; however, I would be surprised if the new-MMC aren't using standard automotive grade leather, which like most modern equivalent leathers is designed to not alter in tone over time (aka pigment dyed and protected leather). Far less common is Aniline leather, which does have a tendency to change tone over time. Morgan would previously use any leather you wanted (for instance, I used a furniture leather for one Morgan I owned, which did age and gain patina) but due to lack of experience with the CX, I do not know whether they still allow this level of customisation - your dealer or MMC should be able to advise. With a standard, protected, auto leather, you will not achieve the patination you mention (unlike a saddle leather)

As for the tunnel, same as the seats, knees rubbing against them will cause marks to light leather. So all down to personal choice and the amount of time you want to spend cleaning!

I've used leather offcuts from the factory for a long time. They sold a largish bag of leather for a fiver, in a range of colours, but sadly since the change in management they no longer do that.

During the migration period to the CX range, leather was sitll available, so I got some blue and whatever the other colour was from the launch Plus Six. As Simon mentioned above, this is much more similar to VW leather (for example), which is nowhere near as soft as Morgan leather once was. This is very obvious when trying to stretch a piece of leather over a curved surface. The thickness is crucial, and thinned hides stretch much more easily, but the later leathers I have are thin, but also appear to have a backing layer which makes them much harder to stretch. I have made some drinks coasters from the CX intro leathers, and they remain flat and without shrinkage, even when heated by a mug of tea. The older leather is much softer under those conditions, and would crease and get crumpled edges.

What you can take from this is that the current leathers will be hard wearing, like any other automotive leather, but whereas there was once a big difference in quality between Morgan leather and the rest, now I don't think you would see that. The VW leather in our Golf is very rigid and plasticky in comparison to the soft supple leather in both My Trads.

Leather will scuff. Rings, fingermails and keys, but is also repairable. It will sand down, it will fill, it will re-dye. Our son in law has just used a furniture clinic steering wheel repair kit (who knew?) on an old leather Golf wheel, and quite honestly it looks like new. Lacquered wood on the console will also scuff, so I don't think there's much to chose between the two.