Talk Morgan Forums Community Vehicle Talk (non-Morgan) The Decline of Car Dealers?...

My friend and I had Y model Fords purchased for £10-£15 we kept a spare in a lock up opposite Fords of Dagenham which we robbed for parts as we broke them. They would hit 50 mph flat out downhill emitting clouds of smoke from the exhaust. When racing we would carry a passenger and getting around corners involved opening the relevant door and leaning out one foot on the running board. Great fun.

Had a pal with an old Austin 7 convertible. Your post reminded me of this car - when going round a corner a bit vigorously, the chassis flexed and my passenger side door, held closed only with a toilet door bolt, opened. I fell out onto the grass verge - no harm done. In that car "vigorously " meant something like 20mph!!

And since we are talking of 1960s driving my first business trip by car was with one of our salesmen. The owner / MD of the company saw company cars as a waste of money ( apart from his Rolls of course) so the reps has morris minor travellers. The one I rode in had clear visibility of the road surface through the floor but the MD wouldnt replace it.

Morgan dealer bankruptcy in Swabia. I would guess that the already high German price level and the newer, more expensive CX models could play a role in the bankruptcy. Added to this is the generally very difficult economic situation in Germany. Many a medium-sized business owner is thinking about closing the factory and, if he is young enough, about emigrating to rebuild his company elsewhere, but not about a new Morgan at the moment.

https://verbraucherschutzforum.berl...-vermoegenssicherung-eingeleitet-347873/

Sorry to read that Heinz they go way back to at least 1971 as they are on the back of the catalogue Peter Morgan posted to me in Canada.

I guess we older folk have to marvel at and love the way the Traditional cars have survived and realise that the World has moved on, we don’t have to like it but just keep on putting petrol in and enjoying them whilst we can 😎

Merz & Pabst has already been bankrupt once before in 2017. At the time, they had allegedly carried out a corporate core sanation and found new investors. Therefore, it cannot be said how much of the new bankruptcy is ‘homemade’ when it is already the second one. In any case, our economy is not helping. Yes Richard, M&P was there for a very long time. Supposedly they want to continue somehow, I wish them the best.

Was having up-market high-roller dealers like the mainstream luxury brands a hiding to nowhere? (How the London one keeps going with their overheads and attitude I don't know.!)

They're in a pickle ... they've moved on to cars that need specialist dealers to maintain and repair without the volume to support such a network ... with the older trads they could have handled sales direct from the factory and had owners rely on any general garage to service and repair .... is that viable for CX cars and above? .... maybe one service/repair centre per country with a few discrete covered transporters for pick-up and drop-off ala Rolls? ... and sales from the factory sold as 'bespoke' and developed as an experience in itself along the lines of being suited and booted in Saville Row ?

K

Many of the Morgan dealers are multi franchise usually teaming up with Lotus, unfortunately if 'toys' are in a cyclical decline at the moment whilst that may help spread the overhead load, its not looking good for the future with reduced volumes and less maintenance intensive cars generating workshop revenues. Obviously those that also have other main stream car franchises will most likely be in a better position to survive.

It must be lean times for many of the dealer network at the moment.

With the US market opening up which most likely be taking a fair chunk of the current production, under the 400 units a year import allowance, it questions unless production volume overall is being significantly increased, whether there's enough profit in the remaining new car units to service the current dealer network.

I did think that when the experience centre was opened in Malvern and with the works owned London dealership, that Morgan might be reducing it's network to control distribution and the second hand pricing of Morgans, and all new Morgans being returned to works for servicing etc, give control over everything relating to total revenues and subsequent profits. Would allow Morgan to lift prices and reduce volumes to increase exclusivity of the brand and control the entire customer interface and experience.

Very similar to Swiss watch brands are doing with owned single brand boutiques, reducing dealer networks and in some instances buying into the second hand market jewellers to control pricing. and take more of the grey market profits. Morgan must be disappointed that it latest models are not attracting grey market speculation and higher prices as with many other exclusive brands.

I think that in the medium term, the traditional dealer will disappear. You will be just as likely to buy your new car via Amazon as via a local garage in the same way that you buy any other domestic appliance. Maintenenace, what little is needed , will be at multi brand maintenance depots because the complexity of modern vehicles plus government restrictions will mean that backstreet services wont be practical or allowed.

In any event it is likely that there will be far fewer brands of cars and that the process of the merging together of designs will continue. One fridge looks just like any other. So do the 3 and 5 door hatches.


TalkMorgan is a club of motoring enthusiasts. In the early days of motoring, the huge majority of motorists were enthusiasts. Nowadays we are a minority and a shrinking one at that. After all , when you are driving your standard 3 door hatch in a queue of other such cars down a potholed road with a 20mph limit and speed traps all over the place how much enthusiasm can you raise?

Buy a boat. There at least there is freedom and variety. No jams. No scameras. At least for the moment.

Howard, not too sure about old folks in boats, unless to sail off into the sunset to avoid the nursing home bills... ? (-:
Having experienced the new Tesla purchase method and having only covered approaching 6k miles in the 2 years I have owned it, from the outset I viewed it no more as an up to date (at the time) basic transportation device
In my ownership the Tesla has proved it`s self worth in terms of convenience in numerous ways I had never considered when in the process of deciding which EV, though like so much around today it`s usage dumbs down what were the much needed driver skills and inputs required of the fifties and sixties cars, I was involved with in my early days of repairing and maintain my first owned and many subsequent old cars which was an additional skill set that was hard won over many a year requiring a bit of discomfort and determination at times... (-:

I have nothing whatsoever to grumble about relative to motoring enjoyment a few years short of becoming an octogenarian.. in that i can still drive my Morgan and on interesting backroads that start outside my garage doors, all be it sometimes busier than they were in times past more so in the tourist season, though in the warmer months getting up with the larks and heading out while most sensible people are still slumbering can equate to access to traffic free interestingly twisting Tarmac for a circa 80 mile round trip in great scenery...with other options available. So still very much a motoring enthusiast..(-:

I occasionally help a pal with maintenance tasks on his Nicholson ketch thus as a reward I get to sail with him a few times in the year, having sold my old Moody 30 some years back..

I suspect we baby boomers have had the best of times with freedoms unlikely to ever be repeated...

Seems best to enjoy what you can and for as long as you can, and my Morgan has played a very large part in such processes over many years and in very many ways, that it still can, makes it stand out from the other sports cars I have owned over the period of more than 50 years...(-: