Talk Morgan Forums Community The Malvern Arms MMC 2023 results

Exactly. It's a bad year so dump the lot and then get out the lipstick next year is the usual vc behaviour. But of course we dont know that and all vc firms aren't the same.

We as owners need them to be viable so let's hope they can generate higher gross margins or control cost better soon.

Whatever situation the Italians inherited is probably imaterial.
A big chunk of any losses have to be due to poor quality components, lack of R & D and poor build quality.
No business can survive if it's products are perceived as low quality relative to their cost.
Reputations, however hard won, can be lost very quickly. Creative accountancy can only cover up so much......
If MMC are to survive and thrive, and offer a modern affordable British sports car it looks like Italian money is needed to keep the dream alive..........

Absolutely bang on. During quite a tough relatively high interest rate environment and resultant lower consumer confidence market place and some belt tightening going on, against a backdrop of the highly publicised CX warranty issues ongoing at the time, they still sell more cars. The Director's statement clearly identifies they see themselves as increasingly moving more up market into more premium products.

So the days of base model Morgans of the past, may well be over. Time will tell but as they move more upmarket but keep their traditional looks and connection with more traditional Morgans, may have a positive uplift on the values of trad Morgans, as the marque brand loses its cloth cap image. Who knows, time will tell,

There only seem to be two directors and one of those has just left....does that mean there's only one director now?

I would agree that the cloth cap and flying jacket era is over. This is clearly demonstrated by plummeting trad values and still no buyers.
The modern Morgan owner doesn't want to buy a new car that they have to continue the development of, they don't want to grease king pins and contend with a wet lap whenever it rains.
The modern Morgan owner wants an automatic gearbox, hi-fi and puddle lights.........
At £100k it's not unreasonable to expect high quality and consistent build quality.
MMC will have to buck their ideas up dramatically if they want to truly compete in the world of high end sports cars.
It would be very easy to say that the 911 is the benchmark for Malvern to aspire to, many sports car manufacturers aspire to compete with Porsche, few get close.
MMC have a tricky job ahead, I think the CX chassis is a great starting point, I hope they get a bit more adventurous with the bodies they put on it....!!!!
Come on MMC.........!!!!!!!!!!!!🇬🇧

I never understand big business, it always looks like selling tenners for a fiver then valuing your empty wallet at a million quid.

I don’t think Morgan are alone in their struggles, JCT600 closed their brand new Ferrari / Bentley Newcastle dealership with four weeks notice recently, just one branch but a sign of the times. Porsche has been surfing on the backs of the deluded who see their cars as investments, that’s pretty much over now too, won’t bother Porsche too much though, it’s the run of the mill cars they make the money on.

JulianBB .... you are likely correct ... sad to see the 'enthusiast' era fading from most endeavours as the world turns ... though I have to say, as long as the company doesn't drag the name through the mud then sell it off to some Asian company to stick on yet another EV bland-mobile, I'll happily clatter of into the sunset .... slightly damp and wind-blown, but with a big grin .... in my old 'perfectly imperfect' crossflow and leave them chasing whatever appeals to those with more money than sense this week 😁

K

I used to think of the trad Morgan as being crude and rudimentary, lacking modern refinements when held up against modern machinery, and it is true. I can outperform, out handle with ease my Plus 4, in my wife's diesel SLK. It has all mod cons. from a heated neck scarf to a nine speed automatic gearbox, it laps up the miles roof down in comfort. A firm ride, very economical. not too much luggage space, but more than capable of continental touring with ease, I always enjoy driving it. Don't know what we will do when we come to change it as they stopping making the SLC/K in 2020.

When I had my Roadster, it left me with the feeling that too much power for the chassis etc, and when I tried to use it all weathers and soon found its limitations and some journeys were not a pleasure and it became more of an endurance. The Plus 4 by comparison seems to be well balanced, its a light positive gearbox, nicely spaced, the brakes with little effort stop straight and true, it corners quite well, could do with power assistance for parking but other than that it leaves a massive smile on our faces every time we go out in it. It has its limitations eg wet weather, so we just work around it, when ever we decide to use it. In my humble opinion it might just be the pinnacle of light weight traditional Morgans, its not cost me much and I doubt whether it will depreciate much further, not that that bothers me. As long as spares supplies allow me to keep it on the road, my first few months of ownership have been brilliant.

Increasingly, when I think of getting a CX, I start to compare what else you can get for the money, the beautiful shape of the CX is undeniable, the leap forward over the trad dynamics is undeniable, whether reliability has improved has yet to be seen long term. But them when I look at other features eg relative safety, the CX in my humble opinion falls very short for their speed and power, eg how would it handle a roll over, there are no windscreen/cabin roll over structural mechanisms be they roll over bars or pop up bars at the rear and then the package starts to look more antiquated IMHO when it comes to passive safety. I hear you all say they won't ever roll over, well I've been passenger Mercedes SL that was forced into a ditch and rolled due to a tractor with all sorts of nasty wide implements, on the wrong side of the road at a blind bend. We weren't travelling fast but the roll over protection was great.

The same is very true of a trad, but I find most of the time I'm traveling at a much lower speed than if I was in the wife's SLK or potentially a CX with its ABS, Traction control and better handling and performance. I've been driving fast convertibles for decades, so am alive to the relative safety features., the structural safety of the windscreen , pop up rear roll over bars or head rest etc,

So whilst there is a sense of improving quality and reliability coming out the Morgan factory, I would like to see far more emphasis on safety built into the cars for the money you are spending for quite fast open top cars.

I made the point years ago that the lack of roll over protection was 'less than adequate' and the response came back "it's safer than a motorbike, if you don't like it sell it". I always thought the answer missed the point an oversimplified the issue.
It is essentially true, but the retro styling and the way they're built doesn't allow for any modern roll over protection.

I guess that if you look at the relatively low numbers of Morgans produced, the number on the road at any one time, the length of the average journey and the speed they're driven at, they seem pretty safe............
But they're not magic and any roll over would have serious consequences......... at least with a motorbike you're thrown clear if you fall off..............🤷🏻‍♂️
The CX doesn't address the issue at all but the next generation might......

Morgan have chosen the upward path towards high end prices with high end expectations. But at the same time they have always sought out the most cost effective components, which might not always deliver the required level of warranty claims. The brake master cylinder fiasco should not have happened, and the radiator failures seem to point at under-engineerined components, while over engineering the cooling systems.

Having a Trad shaped car at a similar price to a mainstream car makes no sense without parity in ownership. The reason Trads survived was that they did not compete with mainstream sports cars, even though the the retail price never stopped climbing, thus securing the residuals of the second hand market.

Now it appears that there are more CXs than buyers. Even if CXs meet newer Trads on value, that doesn't make the choice easy or logical, because complexity and cost will always be an issue.