Morris Minor Owners Club

Friends, I’ve been out of Minor circles for a while. Now they’re either restored and commanding often five-figure sums, or needing a full rebuild. I don’t see the ones that are safe, legal and driveable, needing work but usable while you save and get it done £500 at a time. Is this so?
cheers
Ian

If you're looking to pay 3k or less, you're no lomger looking at 'fixer uppers' unless you get rather lucky!

Minors developed an image problem that they were owned by tight-wads who never spent money on maintaining and repairing their cars. As a consequence these cars went to the bottom of the pile pretty quickly and were scrapped. Whilst Minors were still superabundant the tight-wads just bought another for a hundred quid and repeated the cycle. Now all the average daily driver cars are gone and all that's left is rotten scrap, expensive restored cars and the odd reasonably priced example cherished by someone.

JOWETTJAVELIN wrote: ↑Sat Apr 10, 2021 8:56 pm ...the tight-wads just bought another for a hundred quid and repeated the cycle...

You just described my grandad to a T. He had a new van each year from the auctions, always ex post office or BT. Mostly Bedford beagles if I remember rightly. Then MoT time a new van would appear and the older one sold to an even tighter tight-wad, that would do the bare minimum and that would be seen driving around for a year... When they were utterly knackered they usually ended up on the allotments as metal sheds or kennels.

The 70s were great!

A quick browse of carandclassic.co.uk does suggest the price floor for usable cars is around £3500 now, and even those are quite shiny!

Mine was of that kind of condition with a poor interior for £2500 in 2014, perhaps prices are finally creeping up and/or the market has taken on a rather bimodal distribution.

Friends, I’ve been out of Minor circles for a while. Now they’re either restored and commanding often five-figure sums

Here's one for you:
https://www.carandclassic.co.uk/car/C1311994

Jowett javelin Morris Minor owners tight wads never ! . Dealers come on the forum and snap up most of the cars and then restore them and ask £24.000 for a traveller

Dealers come on the forum and snap up most of the cars and then restore them and ask £24.000 for a traveller

And this is a problem that I've touched on many times before: GREED!
Asking well over the odds also gets those interested in investment and speculation buying our cars and putting them away for their financial gain in the future.
And these are the last people we want taking notice of our cars, as all they do is price them out of reach of the ordinary man on the street for their own profit.
These are not enthusiasts and should not be encouraged.
Best wishes,
Mike.

Agreed, Mike. But I don't know what can be done about it in a society that increasingly values money and hyper-materialism above anything else.

Is the price inflation people are experiencing now not just part of the lifecycle of a classic marque.

I seem to remember reading jag E-types not worth next to nothing in the mid 70s. I can remember one of the scrapyards I frequented in the late 80s had a Lagonda in it and I’ve seen a Rolls-Royce on my scrap hunts too.

Maybe Morris Minors are the new bitcoin for us ‘ahem’ more experienced persons

I bought a '67 2 door about 5 years ago which had an MOT and was in reasonable condition. I knew when I bought it though that the MOT was dubious as it needed some welding that hadn't just appeared in the previous 2 months and lots of bushes and gaiters were deteriorated. I've owned Minors for over 30 years though and thought it was worth a chance as a bit of a project.

I'm not a welder or painter so got a quote (from photos) and was told minimum of £10k.... That alone is a good chunk more than the finished car would be worth. Its fair to say I'm quite a good welder now and hopefully will be able to paint by the end of this year too. I'll have saved £9k alone on bodywork and when I've finished I will have a useable car with sensible modern mods to make it viable for daily use.

I'm sure a lot of the price increases we see are due to labour costs of rebuilds. Everyone needs to make a living somehow though.

I'm sure a lot of the price increases we see are due to labour costs of rebuilds. Everyone needs to make a living somehow though.

Not all (or allot) of it by any means, as it has long been known and accepted by classic enthusiasts, that you never get back what you will spend on a classic car.
And no one except the 'loadsamoney' types I mentioned above would expect to.....
It's a despicable gravey train for a certain type of person.....
Best wishes,
Mike.

As the saying goes 'It's only worth what someone is willing to pay for it'. Someone must have a lot of money burning a hole in their pocket to pay some of the prices being asked. However, the asking price on the advert and what it actually ends up selling for can be two different things. I'm not convinced Minors will ever be rare enough / sought after enough to be investments like E-Types or Bentley's. I think most owners just enjoy the pleasure of owning and driving them

That said, if a company has spent £10k on parts and labour restoring a Minor, then it's understandable they need to make a decent profit. If I was spending 'new car' level of money on a professionally restored Minor, then I'd expect an exceptional car with some sort of warranty. For less than £20k you can get a brand new car with a seven-year/100,000-mile warranty, but of course it's not a Minor

I think most owners just enjoy the pleasure of owning and driving them

Currently I'd like to believe that you are correct.
Best wishes,
Mike.