Talk Morgan Forums Morgan Sports Cars Morgan Plus Four, Supersport & Plus Six (CX & CXV Generation Vehicles) A very gentle reality check

Dropping Sue's Car off this morning at Mercedes for it's most likely 3rd nox sensor in less than 12 months and under 4k miles, covered since the first sensor replacement, hopefully this one is under Mercedes warranty, otherwise a potential £1k bill. Just the investigations alone which is plug into diagnostic tool is £199, refundable if found it is the nox sensor.........

Well, a young chap parked his new C class next to the Morgan and he joined us in the service receprtion, he was waxing lyrical about seeing such a rare car locally, knew everything about them and the price tag.....spent a good 15 minutes chating across service reception desks, over all things Morgan,

Made me appreciate that all mechanical things are prone to misfunction and become an often frustrating, annoying and extra expense to their owner, no matter what their make. Listening to that chap wax lyrical made me appreciate how fortunate I am to own such a car as the Morgan, that he clearly desired to own.

If it is like VAG the parts are all guaranteed when fitted and any costs incurred subsequently if they fail early no costs to the end user..

John, such seems to be the cost of running a modern ICE..?

Should one have a fault indication showing up on the dash my OPC (Official Porsche Centre) automatically charges £200 for a diagnostic session, to determine the likely cause of the fault.. My 991 is covered by the Porsche extended warranty scheme, which reads as comforting, but is an insurance policy with an annual premium, that only covers mechanical failure relative to manufacturing defect, and not wear and tear, which seems understandable up to a point..? However when I first bought my 991 I had read of a possible issue relative to the drive belt tensioning system that could show up on occasion, the drive belt driving alternator, water pump, and air con. Thus when I had my 991 in for the required 111 point inspection, for it to be accepted on to Porsches extended warranty, I had them also replace the drive belt tensioner as a preventative maintenance exercise...

The tensioner is no more than a bolt on sealed unit spring loaded piston that is oil damped and acts on a pivoting arm which has an idler whell that puts pressure on the drive belt to maintain the appropriate tension.. simple enough..?

The replacement tensioner was perhaps £200. The next service came due on a time and not mileage basis, as I had only covered circa 5 or 6k miles in that time, it was pointed out to me that the drive belt tensioner required replacement.. Hmm..? I wrote to Porsche cars GB explained the situation and it seemed that the tensioner was not covered under their extended warranty, though they suggested that they could arrange a good will payment for me.... I declined any idea of good will as I had paid a premium to have mechanical failures covered.... End of story..!

Other than I suspect the service advisor at my OPC likes to have 10 out of 10 feedback, and in this case got no points, as the feedback window ran out of time waiting for PCGB to deal with the issue, thus I suspect my service advisor is likely to be somewhat miffed as points make prizes in this modern world...? So what kind of service am I left to expect at my OPC...Hmm..?

Seems to me that it is all a bit of a lottery these days. I have spent more on my 991`s maintenance and repairs in five years and circa 10k miles, than I have on my old Mog in circa 24 years and 30k miles, all be it I have done all the work on my Mog myself.....BUT..?

JLR performance on my good lady`s Evoque circa 4 years back, was no better..Hmm..?

Well, it's all this Euro 6 emissions clean up act, which clearly the manufacturers are struggling with. It appears that if you use the car regularly for short urban journeys, even if it gets upto to working temp, the first long distance journey and it throws everything out of accepted parameters and a bright red engine management light glows for all to see.

I can live with that upto a point, but the last nox. sensor was nearly £600 for the part, then another £150 to programme it and make sure it has the latest software update and then fitting it, really is extracting the Michael.

Sue likes the car, so thats that. However, it was in the garage on Sunday when a neighbour and his motorcycle friend (ex Mercedes painter) came to see the Fatboy........and the friend fell in love with Sue's car......it is in the most desireable and rare colour combination and he was lusting after it. especially as it was a coupe.......maybe we might once its fixed pass it on.

Coincidently,as it was raining I gave a friend a lift home in the Morgan after badminton this morning, and their VW diesel and its only 6 years old. is in the garage for the 4th time in as many months with siimilar issues, having had the Diesel Particalate system apart and decarbonised/ Their regular short journeys is now killing the sensors, even though they also do regular long journeys very often towing a caravan.

If it wasn't for the potential for rust I would be buy another 90's Mercedes cabriolet or coupe for Sue to be knocking around in.

Don't mention JLR! I have a hybrid range rover. My sunroof was only part opening, then giving up. If it was due to the car battery, that's £1400 and no warranty cover! Thankfully it wasn't. But there's a cloud over my continued ownership. How long before it does need a battery?

That said, I replaced my 1959 TR3a with my Morgan, because the TR was a dripping tap. I was steadily replacing everything, about £1500 / year in mainly parts. Anything mechanical is ultimately an expensive hobby. My hope is 10 years of mainly servicing costs only on the Morgan. Maybe naive!

There are rare older cars out there from an era with less finacial intrusions. SiL picked up a W12 Audi A8 LWB, with about 20,000 miles on the clock. Ok the service was juicy having 12 plugs, but he's also capable. He had the control unit on the rear window blind (yeah, really), throw a fault code. He's the man with the full laptop setup for VW, so not a big deal. So to get a new control unit it has to be programmed in at the dealer. So he bought one off E Bay. Identified the component at fault, (no idea how), and bought a solder sucker, so he could remove the faulty component from the circuit board and add the one from the second hand unit, This worked.

And have you seen the cost of a service on a Plus Six. The TR costs may end up looking good value!

Service costs in the UK are yet another example of treasure island at work, check out a main dealer service cost in the UK for the same in Spain or France.

I agree. Any trads unlucky enough to be near to me don't have any service costs [/b]. But I am not unaware that skills have precipitously disappeared among owners and professionals everywhere in the developed world.

I am of two minds about this. 1. We took advantage of competent mechanics for SO long..a disheartening tragedy to watch. For example, we did not pay for much diagnosis time for ages and diagnosis is often 90% of any problem. So I don't blame these good mechanical people for playing catch up now. If I had to start over again, and was money-hungry, I would be a mechanic. 2. Service costs, or the perception of them, have risen to the point where they deeply effect residuals (aka used car prices) with all classic. And I do not point a finger at the change in direction the Company has taken. The developed world population has chosen a path and the MMC is merely following it, something new.

I am delighted to see that so many of the newest buyers of used Morgans in the UK now want to do their own work, though that is not possible, even with trads, when their engines and that engine management go beyond a point And what can one do with a no-longer-made-model after the expertise needed for it and its parts have disappeared? I muse that Morgan residuals will keep dropping until we are again left with a small tight trad community..much like the super sweet Three Wheeler gang. Fully interacting with an automobile is too much fun to die forever.

L

Well at least the NOX sensor has been replaced under warranty, but apparently under Mercedes rules if the new part fails, then it's not longer covered under warranty...in effect no warranty on warranty work/repairs or spares.....staggering. Having clarified it further, only the remaining balance of the original part (replaced under warranty) 2 year waranty applies. So still got a balance of just over a year under the original 2 year warranty, but not 2 years from the new fitted part.