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Most Online1,046 Aug 24th, 2023
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by Jono |
Jono |
Three years , plus 6, 30 plus thousand miles, drop dead gorgeous looks, insanely fast, eats tyres on rears, no LSD. Most days winter or summer, enjoy the fast drive, and you can make your own drama, hitting the ton up every day you drive it, thanks to living Rural. One radiator replaced, brakes sorted, nothing else mechanically went wrong. Never used any oil. Trip to South of France twice, aircon a godsend.
Hard top and soft top leaked, under carpets front and back regularly had to have mould wiped off. You catch pneumonia from the side door draft in winter. The heater only keeps your left knee warm. The windscreen had also been replaced, and a few times the wiper arms flew off . The inner plastic wing protectors all fell off. Apparently these bad things were due to me driving it to much.
The ugly bit was, I couldn’t sell it easy. The factory told me they didn’t want it. 3 Morgan dealers said too many miles, chipped paintwork, few scuffs on Black wheels. Petrol cap and door surrounding all pitted. The full service history meant nothing. Even experimental talk , saying I’d be interested in a Supersport, but I need a PX price yielded nothing. In the end, as I wanted out of it, as I fear the body is falling apart, I took 42k. It’s gone, I won’t have another. They are just not built for the stick I want to give it. They are just not good enough yet for a daily.
I admit that driving it all year, 10k per year maybe could have been foolhardy. But I don’t, and can’t afford a 80k car just to sit around in garage. It was a main car to be used. Gone back to a robust German sports car now, for all year use. I’ll miss the Morgan for sure. But owning one is to much hard work for me going forward.
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by JohnHarris |
JohnHarris |
I've just sold my Morgan, the clutch was just becoming too much for me especially in traffic, sad in one sense but I don't think I will miss it. I spend most of yesterday in the wife's SLK roof down, air con on, even in E mode it was a blast around Lancashire countryside and then found myself inching my way thru Blackpool rush hour traffic in the low 30c temps, which would have been hard work in the Morgan.
I did .consider long and hard whether to go with an auto CX, but the more I read the less inclined I became. The CX is a massive improvement in many ways over the Trad, but unfortunately the Morgan engineering is IMHO it's weakness and invariably lets it down. It's something that not unique to Morgan other manufacturers have major flaws in vehicles in the same price range. The only difference for me is some of the fundamentals (some might consider it character or charm or part of the Morgan experience) eg the hood that still struggles to keep the cold and wet out, fasteners snap and its not even double or triple lined for comfort and to lower noise when up. Not really acceptable in todays world and to add insult to injury the water ingress may spoil all, that lovely leather work. Ok back in the days of rubber mats but not in nicely upholstered interiors they fit these days. For me the most fundamental change the CX bought about was not having to find somewhere for the grease gun and rug to lie on every time you went away on holiday.
I understand exactly why so many are enjoying their CX, with a new reality that values will fall and potentially longer term like with the Aero's, fixability and spare support may pose a problem, then again some may not worry too much and just keep trading in for a new one every 3 years or so, so it becomes someone else's problem not theirs. further down the line..
I'm also sure that many would enjoy open air motoring as much with other marques as I have for over 50 years of motoring roof down. I had just as much fun within a very low performance envelope in my Midgets and TR7's back in the 70's and 80's as I have ever had in my Morgans and those BL basic crude hoods never let rain, draughts or snow in. Fun is not the sole preserve of Morgan, and that's why I always buy convertibles.
I did wonder where Hammond had put the driver's side screen as he had filled the boot with his luggage, not a problem or even a consideration with wind down windows.
I'm sure Morgan will survive, but it may become more low volume, more exclusive, niche and upmarket, where residuals and maintenance costs don't feature in the buyers equation
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1 member likes this |
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by Clipper |
Clipper |
I tend to keep cars for over 20 years because I chose carefully, and I'm from Yorkshire. I know plenty of people who are never happy, and chose badly. One friend changes more than my underpants, and doesn't care a jot about depreciation, and if you keep a car for 20 years plus, it doesn't matter either. Let’s face it, most of us on here in 20+ years time will have wings so won’t need a car!
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1 member likes this |
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by Paul F |
Paul F |
In our 2014 4/4, the water ingress can be such that, eventually, I cannot hear the engine over the complaints from the passenger seat. I usually use this as a stimulus to stop the car and put the roof up. Then the car is almost leak free.
A chum bought a new +4 in 2007. That didn't leak at all. He should have rejected the car as not being of Morgan Merchantable quality - because a lot of other things went wrong with it.
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1 member likes this |
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