Talk Morgan Forums Community The Malvern Arms Sigh - what to do ? flog it ?

Covid had, and still is, affecting how people behave. The restrictions were a massive change in lifestyle. Habits, attitudes took a beating and there are still lingering changes. Many people have been slow in reverting back to their previous lfestyles and are still looking at choices differently.
Looking back on how I came out of the covid era I still consider risks, options but increasingly less. It's a natural process and now has very little influence on choices. It's a process based on risk assessment and sensible interpretation of reliable statistics.
Over the last two years my Morgan mileage has exceeded the pre-covid levels. I've " upgraded" from a Plus8. to a Plus Four a year ago. 10k+ miles done. More planned for the next year. Not just stay-away trips but local use too. No winter SORN. The car is there to use. Going to play golf, shopping, spur of the moment run out just for the fun.
It's a psychological healing effect. Use it while I can as lifespan is limited. No medical reasons not to or looming ( as far as I know!) so enjoy it while I can.
Nil Carborundom Illegitimus.

Exactly.

Ars longa, vita brevis

Well the Greeks life expectancy made Hippocrates get a wriggle on 😂

Just the right attitude Sospan 👍

'No winter SORN. The car is there to use. Going to play golf, shopping, spur of the moment run out just for the fun.
It's a psychological healing effect. Use it while I can as lifespan is limited. No medical reasons not to or looming ( as far as I know!) so enjoy it while I can.
Nil Carborundom Illegitimus.'

All buyers and owners of Morgans should be made to sign a legally binding document worded like this, or not only are they not allowed to buy it, they're banned from buying any sports car for a period of 2 years if they don't sign......!!!😆

It should be the MSCC moto, it should be above the entrance to the factory, it should be engraved on the dashboard of every Morgan........👍🏼🇬🇧

Life is short, don't worry about the mileage, don't worry if it gets wet or dirty, who cares about resale values.....
It's a machine, it gets better with use........

I agree with these sentiments. Use it while you can. You never know when you won’t be able to.
Bud
4/4 - Stanley

We are using the Morgan less in the last 4 years than we did in the first 6 years of ownership. None the less we clicked over 80,000 km somewhere in Spain on our recent trip. Actually we have about 1,000 km unrecorded because of electronic problems with the original Morgan dashboard printed circuit so we are now up somewhere about 82,000 km.

The reasons for the reduction in use in the last few years are first of all, and obviously, Covid, secondly the fact that snr now has 92 years and is increasingly losing her sight and has become highly dependent on us for daily visits of around 2 hours every evening (she has someone helping in the house weekday mornings): this tends to restrict the time and frequency of trips away as we then have to organise alternatives including SIL who lives some distance away coming to stay.

Since the "fleet" is about to be reduced by one car the Morgan will be used a little more for short trips; it will become my only car and the other car will be a small van based 5 seater. As long as I am able to drive the Morgan it will get used.

My real conundrum relates to the 24 foot sailing boat which I have at the local mariner at an ownership cost of about €3K a year; fees, maintenance, insurance, etc. Alis has not been on the boat for about 7 years, and, since I had the heart attack, is not all that happy of me going out by myself. She also has trouble with her hands and increasing discomfort with arthritis. I did have an arrangement with a friend for a couple of years where he had free use of the boat in exchange for taking care of the expenses but Covid put an end to that. Except for the Covid lockdown, when I could not use the boat at all, I have used the boat only a couple of times a year; in part for the same reasons as the Morgan has had less use.

The trouble is that I always want to use it but when there is a fine day and a nice breeze something else always gets in the way. It also has to be said that climate change seems to have caused more rainy days and severe storms in the last few years.

So there it is. For me, at least as far as the Morgan is concerned, there is no question, but for the yacht I either have to find a way of using it or I will, very reluctantly, have to sell it.

I was chatting away with a neighbour who plays golf locally and as in all things we got around to the weather and how wet it feels compared to years ago. Apparently the local course has a small weather station and has been keeping records on the amount of rain fall etc each year. As there were growing complaints about the drainage of the course, despite heavy expenditure in recent years to improve the drainage. It transpires that in the last 10 years alone our local rainfall has increased by 5 fold which for an area renown for its dry sunny microclimate on the coast in Lancashire is quite startling.

As a result basically there is nothing more the course can do to improve drainage, so rising sea levels and increased rainfall is lifting the water table even closer to the ground surface, making for less playable days. For some local houses with basements, its causing more problems with rising levels of water getting into the basement on high tides etc and basement pumps now having to run more often. This is what you get for building golf courses and houses on land reclaimed from the sea..............we are fortunate where we live as the last widespread flooding of the area was in 1952, only a few streets around our house didn't flood at the time.....but higher spring tides are forcing water beyond the sea defences sides and we are seeing the first signs of wider flooding to come. We are expected to be under water by 2050.....and they are still building new houses here on the old reclaimed mere...........all the more reason to enjoy things whilst you can as inevitably things change.

John

That is a most interesting write up and quite concerning for the close future.

A lot of Dartmouth town centre is on reclaimed land so I suspect it's only a matter of time before nature claims it back again.

I have never seen the point of not driving the Morgan year round, salt permitting.

Having lost my brother at 39 and Heather lost hers at 40 their legacy is just get on and do it now it's not even a decision but a way of life for us during the past 35 odd years, and never suffer fools.
We both lost our fathers when they were 64 albeit 10 years removed, ironically the result of these happenings actually makes you want to help people to enjoy their lives as best they can.

So the math teacher was right two negatives do make a positive..