Talk Morgan Forums Morgan Sports Cars Morgan Plus Four, Supersport & Plus Six (CX & CXV Generation Vehicles) 2020 Plus Six. A tale of two gear selectors

That's some journey Dave but a nicely compatible result Interesting your findings on shipping although I guess in this case it falls outside the norm of customs operations. I've been amazed recently having been obliged to buy motorcycle accessories from Italy, Germany, China and a couple of times from India. In each case I paid a single reasonable price inclusive of shipping, taxes and clearance. The longest I had to wait was 17 days before seamless delivery and again in each case precise and timely tracking info was provided, even on an item from China costing me just £3.36 all in!

Great write up and something I enquired about earlier this year... Still on the list of to-do's. Well done Davetherave.

When I was in discussion with Morgan Park, I dis ask the question if the German Tax could be reclaimed in the same way if buying a watch or other higher value item, as you are allowed to reclaim the the tax when you leave the country it was purchased. One small benefit of Brexit and leaving the EU is if a UK resident you are able to reclaim the local countries Tax/VAT when you leave the country the items were purchased. MP conformed this should be possible but I never took it any further, obviously this would have involved taking the vehicle or at least the old part to MP yourself and claiming at the departing port or airport. It also relies on not declaring when arriving back into the UK (obviously I would not suggest you do this, but savings have been made on watches & other items this way, so I hear).

Basically, a short holiday to Germany and MP (quoted 1 day to complete along with indicator stalks) may be as cheap as paying the carrier & export/import costs, and you get a mini break thrown into the mix. On a side note, you can only claim the VAT back on goods, not goods & services... this would require MP to invoice separately for the item itself & then conversion/installation if getting them to do.

One question I had which MP never fully replied to was if you have to rely on the dash display only (can be quite difficult in very bright conditions)... I'm guessing that asking for the gear selector to light up mike a 'magic 8 ball' might just be a little too much to ask, although selecting between R, N, D, S & M etc. it's quite nice to see on the original selector, It would be nice to know how you remember this sequence etc.

Best regards


Ps. here's the snippet of the email from MP relating to VAT

Hi

You’re correct. You can claim back VAT but I’m not sure if you have to pay your VAT then?! We are doing the same thing with customers from Switzerland. When they sent us back their stamp invoice/papers from customs office, we can then create a new invoice without VAT and we pay you back the VAT amount.

Mit freundlichen Grüßen / Kind regards

i. A. Daniel Tönnies

Ref reading the dash display.. Our 2020 has the older LCD display, I have experienced no issue reading the autobox drive status or speed in the LCD, unless in very very bright sunshine, but having said this, I normally drive top down using prescription reactolite dark grey glasses, so outdooors they are normally shaded to max, they are also not polarised. I believe the later Plus Six LCD display enables the use of polarised sun glasses?.

Regarding the autobox sequence, I have driven an auto box for quite a while now, so I can remember the sequence.. but, just in case.. I have just had made a small 50 x 35mm engraved plate showing the auto box sequence.
The plan is to fix it to the lower back edge of the wood dash using high strength velcro ( easily removed). The velcro and the plates mounting area will be hidden. The plate is in the post and at this stage it is work in progress and experimental, but when it arrives and if the idea works, plus it is in keeping with the car, I will take a photo of it mounted and post.

The original BMW gear selectors handle houses the circuit board that operates the Lock and Park functions, it also handles the illumination of the drive modes in the selector as the circuit board is the same shape as the upper part of the selector. With the modification, the circuit board is moved to its own housing external and forward of the selector. I suspect it would have been tricky and possibly costly to then get the display into the modified selector knob.

I did consider taking the car to Germany, but I did want to mount the modified selector myself and just sending it back and forth by small parcel carrier was easier. I have not been caught with a high import/VAT charge before, but as said previously, its all about the assigned value and the codes used. As per Richards post I also have had parts sent to me from all over the world for my old British motorbikes and had no issues with VAT and the carrier.. mostly as the parts fell within the lower value zone that HMRC are not bothered with.

I think a visit to Morgan Park needs to be arranged next year, or perhaps the year after; I like the conversion, but there's no way I would try it myself. Kudos to Dave for taking this on.

Amazing work Dave, the detailed write up confirms it's very faffy job, well done !

Interesting (and a bonus for you) to be able to correct harness routing and the central locking antenna

The following photo shows the autobox selector gate pattern, I had a small plate made up, as the Morgan Park selector upgrade no longer shows the gate positions. This is still work in progress and I am 50/50 if I will keep it as is, or if its needed. The plate looks larger than it is, its only 50mm in length and the visible area is approx 20mm deep..

Dave, you could have a fully cut through (pierced) version and backlight with an LED ?

Just thought, don't the CX models display gearbox mode on the dash module ?

Hello Jon, yes, you are correct the drive mode is displayed in the LCD in front of the driver.. The plate is more an experiment to see if the gate pattern needed to be displayed, as this was previously shown on the BMW selector.. The plate sort of works in the flesh, but to be honest I may just remove it, as I can remember the gate pattern.. At least the photo showed I need to polish the finger prints and smudges off the dash..

You don't need the sign Dave... my experience.