Talk Morgan Forums Community The Malvern Arms Morgan Motor Company New Logo

Have the stock Roadsters got wider again? The brochures say 1610mm (63.75" the same as the laststock plus 8), That would make them much slimmer than the Aero. (BTW, try actually measuring your Aero front).

The wide-body Roadsters are based on the Plus 8 Widebodies..which I never got to love as much. Harder to steer, manouever and more wind resistance. However, there has been an inexortable move to ever wider Morgans in all models in the last 10 years. Obviously, an aesthetic choice of someone.

Of course, a wide-bodied trad is not as happy on skinny roads as a slim one. The most delightful trad and UK-friendly I have driven in the last few years (aside from my dearly beloved ) was the Bill Beck prototype Roadster that they had hoped to call the Super Six.

Bill wanted to use an adjusted version of the traditional 4/4 frame (pre-2004) body (you will remember the days when the 4/4 had a much lighter and slimmer frame than today). He had shaved the weight down to 1775 lbs. With the V6's horsepower the effect was astonishing! It can run circles around anything on a proper British country road. Our little design team at the Factory worked many of these ideas into my mog, built a year later.


You are a more adroit a driver than I!

However, have you ever looked at the left side rims on a Series Is at the Works (or anywhere)? That should make my point more poignantly. A glance would show that even the designers could use a bit less width as well.

It is simply impossible to deny that slimmer cars take less space in a lane than wider ones. I love slim British country lanes, (we do a couple of thousand miles on Worcersteshire ones yearly.)


On this we both agree! I loved the Aero's immediate power from the instant I tried one. When there is space, you can pass someone before you finish thinking about it.

I took that thought back with the car to Canada and installed a LR 4.8 that I prepared myself. Got the bhp and torque to 300+ and it sits in a 1855lb package. Electrifying fun..or a lovely tourer whichever you like at any moment.

There was talk at one time of using the UK Volvo V8 in a light trad. Wow! Low costs, easy fit, same supplier and 312bhp. It was turned down.

Lorne

Phil,

Read my post to Simon. It has nothing to do with Aeros or whatever. It has to do with peope. I know many Aero owners who angrily dismiss all other model owners as closd minded anoraks. As Julf noted, they ungraciously call us "flat caps", (a term I have come to enjoy!)

It's all silly stuff. A sadder part of human nature and best ignored. I admire and respect people before car marques and models.

Lorne

Yes - with the optional wheels see:

http://www.morgan-motor.co.uk/sales/roadster.html

Well well well - I keep trying to post on this but work gets in the way.

Firstly - it's a logo. It gets refreshed from time to time - what a suprise. Do you really think the Visa Logo is the same one you saw in 1970 (if you were born unlike me!)!!

Nope - it's been through about 10 different ddesigns since then, but they are all 'tweaks' and as such the change is more to keep the logo fresh in the modern advertising space, than change the image or perception of the company.

This logo seems liek a good idea. as others have said there are a multiplicity of logos currently and branding is not consistent across communications and products. When that happens in a company (and especially in a high value, limited market non essential luxury purchase like a Morgan) then you can have problems.

Company identity will be more important in the future, and having a logo that can sit on a trad and a lifecar is important. The 'change' (if you can call it that) is tiny, and probably more related to the manufacturing process envisaged for the badge than anything else. I think it looks fine, and I'd associate it with Morgan without requiring any re-education.

This all looks like a storm in a tea-cup. Morgan needs a single logo to represent the company for all purposes. It has an iconic design that just needs a little freshening up, it has done that inexpensively (the Visa change I presided over in various segments took over 2 years and cost, well it cost a lot more than Morgan, and probably more than BMW too...)

Overall I think they shoudl be congratulated for doing a decent modern interpretation, that is conservative and looks good, will be relatively cheap to produce, is simple enough to adorn ties, letterheads pens and dealerships at multiple scales as welll as the cars.

Most won't think about this in terms of a logo - but it's important, and I think it's a pretty decent job!

Anyone getting their unddergarments entwined over this really needs to find something else to do with their lives!

Hard words. Would it not be kinder simply to agree to disagree with all those undergarments? It would be sad if you believed that all these lives must become unfullfilled and their underwear compromised simply for opinions you don't adhere to.

Lorne

Okay, this thread is getting VERY close to being closed!

Not because I mind the healthy, constructive and lighthearted banter BUT because the thought of you all going 'commando' (in other words: without undergarments) is actually making me feel ill!

!!!!! Headlines - Talkmorgan in pants outcry. !!!!! (Sorry all!!!)

The ultimate question here would be what is the 'original' logo?

I ask sincerely, and I hope that Aeroman/Lorne or someone else with their historical hat on can help out? I'd be interested to compare the original 1907 logo, with the one currently adorning the latests roadster. If they are the same then I'd happily suggest sticking with it - UNLESS there is a pressing need (manaufature / supply etc) to change...

I'm certainly not trying to provoke an argument here - lets be clear. All I'm suggesting is that logos change all the time, and 99.9999% of folk don't notice. They change for simple reasons - practicality, ease of production, fashion or as often as not the whimsy of the marketing team(!)

Perhaps thats the issue at heart here? Change?

Some can cope with it (new logos, new models, new markets) and others cannot or will not, whatever their reasons?

Personally as a fan of Morgans of all shapes and sizes (I love the 3 wheeler and envied the father of my firend with the PLus 8 as a kid) but I want the Morgan company to survive anothe 100 years, not fade out gradually over the next 20 while 'keeping it real' as pandering to a group of user who resent change, but already have a Morgan and won't be bying another new fangled one. Such a policy would spell the end of the company surely?

I know none of the posters here feel that the Trad cannot survive without the iron ladder chassis, however I ahve met those (rarely) that will say that if Morgan change the Trad it will be tantamount to heresy etc etc etc. Surely it's had various engines, flat rad configurations etc?

Of course a Morgan more than most retro classics is seen as a 'genuine' piece of yesteryear, but standing Canute like against the tide of the future forever crying 'They don't make em like that anymore' isn't going to see Morgan grow succeed and continue to make cars.


Sure if you don't like it fine say so - it's a free world - but it's such a small thing? Surely the car the logo is attached to is the key? Not the logo itself....

You can stick a Morgan badge on a Ferrari 355, but it'll still have a flat plane crank V8... (to paraphrase the bard...)

The stage is empty for you Gomog on the topic of MMC logos.

On the subject of logos mr-tony, we have also been involved with quite a few changes over the years but the one that seemed the most pointless was the Johnnie Walker striding man. The original was drawn in 1909 on an napkin over lunch, and Johnnie was then walking right to left. The image changed slightly over the years to take into account the current norms, and when Diageo was formed a company was brought in to give the brand a new look-over. A new 'Johnnie' duly emerged, but shortly after this there was another major change made. Apparently, JW had been walking backwards all these years and so, at enormous expense, it was decided to have him walking from right to left, i.e. the marketing consultants thought he should be walking forwards.

And so at enormous expense, the change was made. Did anyone really notice, I very much doubt it - maybe the new more modern image, but the flipping of the actual logo?

What is even more interesting that the following images of the Striding Man, taken from the Company website, show that he apparently never did walk right to left in the first place.



As Henry Ford famously said: "History is more or less bunk. It's tradition. We don't want tradition. We want to live in the present, and the only history that is worth a tinker's damn is the history that we make today." (Chicago Tribune, 1916).

Love the Johnny Walker story - exactly what I was getting at.

A typically uncompromising quote from Henry, but if you're pushed to agree one way or the other I have to side with him.

If the company are that keen to rebrand, then surely they ahve their reasons. Has anyone heard them clearly articulated?

That's easy. The original 4 wheeler logo was designed by HFS and Peter Morgan for the first 4 wheeler in the 1935/36 (from memory). Aside from different model designations (4/4, +4, +8 etc. stamped on it) it changed only once. That was when casting was lowered a tiny bit in the 50/60s.


Actually, experts indicate that only reason to change a logo on a successful product is to incorporate tiny refinements (only if necessary) to make it more suceptible to today's media reproduction methods. That happens as subtly as possible and is NEVER announced.


I don't think so. I didn't think that the Aero owners here recently bemoaning the fact that the Aero keeps changing every few weeks was an antipathy to change per se. I believe they were concerned for the marque and their car's value.


Quite right. And some are willing to accept any change whatsoever as long as it supports any MMC decision.

Most of us pick and choose. Some we like and some we don't. You like this one, and I respect your opinion. Many read an disquieting attitude into this decision. They should be respected as well.


I don't think so. The highest profit margin (by far) on anything at the MMC was spares for owned Mogs..the older thr car, the higher the profit. I am surprised they abandonned this in 2002/3. Additionally, as a group, previous owners are the biggest buying group. I will buy anything that the MMC makes that suits. Sales show that this is true of most morgan owners everywhere.


You should look in on eMog. Everyone knows that the trad chassis cannot survive (beyond a legally restricted UK distrubtion) in 2-3 years.) They also know that 90% of Morgan sales are trads. EVERYONE is praying for a moderized chassis with a trad body. Dealers on other continents need it to keep (aka re-open) their doors and survive. A moderized trad would sell out in unprecedented numbers if it could again be sent to the most affluent markets in an un-altered exterior form.

However, the fear amongst all of them is that the MMC will not produce it. They feel that the MMC, for whatever reasons, wish to walk away from that task regardless of how that exact body style and dimension sells now or will then. Look at the decisions since the last Chairman departed.

That makes this logo switch more scary to them..and to the waiting potential buyers.


Thank you!


Agreed. But watch this space.

Lorne