Talk Morgan Forums Thread Like Summary - Trad prices

I have been watching the Brooklands Roadster I traded into Central Morgan 10 months ago.
The price has fallen again and is well below the trade in price.
Sub 40k for a 2014 car even if they don't have the name right or the engine size. I fitted a walnut dash but have in my garage the original painted one.
Brooklyn Morgan

Absolutely

I'm not bothered about prices, the money is spent. Just happy that I have a Morgan. I don't want a newer or faster one. I love it for what it is and never tire of driving it. It's crude and simple but incredible fun. It's so low tech I can fix it when it breaks and can it keep on the road for beans. Just like me it will get rattier and tattier as time goes by so not expecting much return. I will drive it until I can't get in it, or they take my license away. After that the kids can dispose of it...

If the MMC were even half awake to the aspirations of the New Hipster customers they would already have been selling an E V version of both 3 and 4 wheeled cars.

This will be where the current CX etc will continue their lives as fast silent milk floats. Part of my reason for hanging on to my Plus 8, they can tax it like crazy and put the fuel price up but we will still be there annoying them all.

Positives:
(a) I enjoy reading this stuff;
(b) now in my mid-70's, I don't have that many more years left to worry about this;
(c) if the Dealers get it wrong, with poor descriptions and unrealistic pricing, they only have themselves to blame;
(d) y'know what, even if my car depreciates to zero, I have enjoyed the experience.

I've been a constant voice of doom, despondency and........realism........ on the future of MMC and outdated values for some time now.

The attitude reflected by several on TM of 'we bought it 'cos we like we're keeping it' is the right way to view the cars.

Don't mollycoddle them worrying about future values, which has traditionally been the mindset of many Morgan owners, DRIVE THEM...!
Get them dirty and wet, run up the miles, give them a good thrashing....!

The market is totally saturated with Morgans at the moment, anyone who really wants or needs to sell, need to make their cars the very cheapest out there to stand any chance at all of selling.
There being no buyers, is a problem though......🤷🏻‍♂️

🇬🇧🇬🇧

The values always generate debate, but quite honestly, we all use a different lens.

That's hardly surprising when there are 115 years, and the only constant was the titled "Morgan" .

Do the three wheeler cohort from per 1950 care about values? I doubt it. Do the current customer cliente worry about spending £120k of the latest model, or how much is the depreciation in three years....I doubt that too.

There are a lot of other cohorts in between. All have a lens. If you agonise over value over time, that is outside anyones control. Baling out only adds another car for sale, and maybe reduces values more.

I wouldn't change a thing over the last 17 years. Its only money and the joy that Morgan gives is way beyond that.

I know it's probably not normally the done thing to feel too much sympathy for dealers in the car world........

However......

The world of Morgan dealers is pretty small. The 'legacy' Morgan dealer network relies on a steady turnover of used cars as well as servicing and repairs.
The cost of stocking CX demonstrators when the cars are £100k is a whole different world to the price of stocking demo trads.
Crucially, in the days of the trad, the cars were actually selling and there was a healthy waiting list, not like today where the demand is dramatically lower.............!🤷🏻‍♂️

As has been said many times, lots of the cars in dealer stock are on sor, but even then the prices in many cases simply do not reflect the current demand or the 'new' values of these cars.

The Italians don't seem to have too much loyalty towards the dealer network and I'm sure many of them are feeling the pinch......

When they're gone they're gone for ever.....

Over the years on TM there's been countless threads of navel-gazing, self congratulating back slapping about the investment value of Morgan ownership. Pointlessly low mileages have been covered to preserve the resale value of the cars.....

IT'S ALL CHANGED NOW............get the dust sheets off them and get them out on the road.....drive them...... book them in for a service with your local dealer......use the cars.... because they're not worth as much anymore they don't need mollycoddling.......😆

🇬🇧🇬🇧

They are so engrossed with the cars and where they are going with tech and design in the future that they have forgotten that customers buy them, even worse should you want to keep, service and maintain the car the wallet opening induced smile when buying is clearly absent! Lets be honest, these cars are really akin to kit cars and sit in a niche marked sector, at least they could make sure spares etc. were easily available and AFFORDABLE, How the hell do transit wheel cylinders cost £160 from Morgan..... sorry, they have probably just gone up in the time it has taken you to see this! This when you think a classic Mini set cost about £20.00 for the two! They really do need to stop polishing their Mutley medals and consider the existing customer base as well.

With the influx of cx series cars entering the used market trad prices can only fall. CX cars will soon be sub £50k any new morgan owner will be drawn to them for all the obvious reasons. I love my trad plus 4 I did drive a cx plus 4 it was very nice but to me it didn't feel like a morgan each to their own.The price of a car is only relevant when you sell it and as I have no interest in doing that it doesn't bother me.

Growing up, a good friend's father was from Texas. When we were over at his house, in our late teens and early twenties, debating like young men do about 'which cars', 'what band' or whatever else we could find to argue about, was the best, invariably, we'd hear the same words of wisdom (said in a Texan drawl) from the patriarch of the family:

"There's no accounting for another man's taste in whisky, women or horses!"

I like to think it was his way of saying 'quiet down' when we were getting too boisterous in our conversation; in other words, argue all you want but it rarely changes anyone because each person appreciates what they do for reasons that are unique to them.

I've always felt that whatever Morgan someone buys, I respect that they've put their money into something they love and appreciate... that in itself is good enough for me.

A little off piste but…The beauty of being brought up with the slide rule meant that you always needed to know the approximate result and where the decimal point needed to be.

The thing is, running a Trad, even an old one without a warranty is a breeze.

But running a CX without a backdrop, means that the complexity, along with Morgan build quality, has the a potential to make proper bills.

That will play out over the next few years.

I'm not really qualified to comment as I've never had a trad, coming in late last year with a CX. I've long wanted a Morgan, but never got round to it. In some ways I wish I had started with a trad, I "looked" at quite a few online, but each time I looked my price point went up to the stage where I could afford a recent low mileage Plus Six. It's not been without issues, but I love it (I'm now emotionally attached to it) and it would take a lot to let it go ... in any event my daughter wants me to leave it to her in my Will

Whatever it takes to keep MMC alive, I'm all for it.

For us, the 4/4 is a simple but beautiful and exciting vehicle, like a time machine. For more ‘modern’ driving with lots of dynamics, I have had my 245 hp Elise for 18 years. I think that covers everything for me. That's just me, but I don't need a Morgan that's becoming more and more like an Elise in terms of handling. Everyone can make their own choice. Back to the topic at hand, I don't care what our 11-year-old 4/4 is worth. A new Fiat 500 with a folding roof now costs over €32,000. I would only lose out if I sold the 4/4.

Think I spotted you in the distance at one stage Dave

As good as the CX's are (for a Morgan) they've lost the 'Morgan-ness', the something, the je ne sais quoi........... (IMHO)

As is said often on here, the sports car market has changed dramatically in what seems like a very short space of time.
Motoring, just for the hell of it is tricky in large parts of the country because of the roads/traffic/speed enforcement etc etc....

200mph supercars are totally pointless, low speed quirky FUN is the way forward.....

I think that trad values will firm up as CX's become more troublesome and complicated to work on.
The CX pricing will deter the target market which will gradually diminish.
The Italians will tire of it's it's loss making money pit in Malvern, the factory will go back to some form of low cost sports car after a management and crowd funded buyout.

***** just my thoughts for the next 3-5 years......😆

🇬🇧🇬🇧

Nope! ... leave them be 🙂 ... the charm of Morgans is their anachronism ... we have 'Restomods' ....but think 'Retromod' ... taking future unloved and overcomplicated CXs and giving them rubber mats, basic bucket seats, narrow wires, re-engineered fold-down screen and aeros ... and a decently tuned crossflow with a type 9 five-speed ... ditch all the electronics as now surplus and end up with a lovely balanced and sustainable car to last a lifetime or two and a proper engaging driving experience to boot. We can but dream! 😆

K

I think the Porsche allegiance and solid price retention is due to the fact that Porsche have and really still continue to be the only true super car that you can reliably drive on a daily basis. Nothing can get even close on practicality, reliability, and durability, this coupled to reasonable service and repair costs makes them king of the market by a huge amount.

'As a recent Trad buyer in Europe (Sweden) who did a fair bit of research on the European (mostly French/German/Belgian/Dutch and, of course, Swedish) market pre-purchase I can confirm that trad prices are actually quite robust "over here". I don't know what the supply/demand factors are that are driving prices significantly higher (esp. for LHD cars) on the continent than in Blighty, but it seems to be a thing. Maybe young European hipsters are clueing into the analog, craft quality of Morgans coupled with modern drive train -- or maybe we're just in the calm before the storm!