Topic

Let me just reassure everyone that while i do indeed need to replace one wheel nut, i have absolutely no intention of breaking my car. However i have just read yet another "x" is wrong with my car, and one of the following generic excuses "i don't have the time, i don't have the money, it's time to move on, i have decided to buy an MX5/Audi tt, etc, etc,so i am breaking my car thread on another forum. Our cars have faults, our cars have problems, i knew that before i bought mine, and so would anybody else who has spent 5 mins on google or looking at our forums.

I find myself becoming increasing frustrated with such threads/posts and find myself asking why? What do people really expect from cars over 10, 15, almost 20 years + old? I think the over riding problem is simply the ridiculous price of our cars to buy now, and the rise of the internet. There are currently 207 MGTF's and 253 MGF's for sale on ebay at the moment 112 of these are currently under £1000.00. Before the rise of the internet (and i'm not knocking it), if you were going to buy a car you'd actually go and see it, you might even have got it checked over before you decided to buy it. Instead of now, where most people (i accept not everyone) are relying on 6 pictures and the honesty of the seller in their description. If you "get lucky" and find yourself having won an auction for an MG for xxx amount of £'s why are people then so shocked to find out it has some problems or faults? All to easy to blame the person selling the car instead of yourself for buying it, in my opinion.

Also because our cars so cheap to buy, inevitably some people will say why bother maintaining them properly? why should i pay xxx amount of £'s, i'll just run it into the ground and then buy another one! Again this isn't everybody, but undoubtedly there are some owners out there with this mentality. Is it any wonder then that so many people's first experiences of buying/owning an MG are negative one's? Or Is it just another sign of today's consumer driven disposable society. That instead of repairing things or taking care of them, we just throw them away? Except ofc we don't throw our MG's away we turn to cannibalism instead. If i take my own heart/sentimentality out of it then i get it, then i understand it, sure why not just sell the hardtop, sell the alloys, if your lucky sell the engine, sell whatever you can, when 6 or 7 parts sold later you can afford to buy another car i can understand it. Except that its self defeating and just a race to the bottom (my opinion) because it doesn't take into consideration how long it will take you sell these parts, how long you will be stuck with a non running car on your drive or in your garage. It's not as if spare parts for our cars are in short supply (UK only), and if you decide to break it, its not as if your the only person doing it. Regardless of these points you go ahead, sell what you can and buy another one. Maybe you get a newer one, but your still going to have the same problems sooner or later. Except now there's one less MG on the road, and the cycle continues buy it, break it, buy it, break it. Until you get fed up of it, you've got that "tick" in the box you've owned an MG and now it's time to buy that MX5/TT you always wanted.

I wonder how many people would be breaking there RHD cars for parts if they were similar in price to LHD ones? A £300 repair for a HGF failure on a car worth 5k makes sense, but not on one worth 1/5 th of that, and that's my conclusion, to many people motivated by price when either buying or selling. If you don't like the car then don't buy it, if your not prepared to accept that things go wrong with our cars and will need repairing then don't buy one, if you want an mx5/TT then why the hell would you buy an MG in the first place?

This post isn't aimed at any one individual or as a knee jerk reaction to any post, just an increasing frustration i personally have from seeing/reading all such similar posts on numerous MG forums. Hopefully it provokes some debate/discussion. These are my own thoughts if you have different ones then please state them.

I have broken several MGs (no F/TFs) over the years, not because I couldn't be bothered to fix them but because of the sheer ecconomices involved.

Take my mk1 ZS for instance, main fault was a serious oil leak that I didn't, at the time, have the time to fix. I was offered a bargin mk2, this perticular car had been in my sights from the day it arrived on the forums so at a silly price I couldn't say no.

I offered the mk1 for sale at a resonable price, decreasing it until the tax and MOT ran out. At this point I would have taken £200 but no one was willing to pay that so I was faced with scrapping it or breaking it.

Scrap man would give me £100, broken I made £800 and have an engine for my maestro.

I do currently have four other MGs that I maintain and enjoy, I have no plans to break any of they but who knows what will happen when the time comes..........

As I said - pure ecconomics - £100 scrap or more in parts.

massive agreement here, G. i am enjoying how your car build continues to flourish in time.
(i think this is important. my beetle speedster took months to finish, but that's a German story).

Denial wrote: wrote:

because our cars so cheap to buy, inevitably some people will say why bother maintaining them properly? why should i pay xxx amount of £'s, i'll just run it into the ground and then buy another one! Again this isn't everybody, but undoubtedly there are some owners out there with this mentality.
Is it just another sign of today's consumer driven disposable society. That instead of repairing things or taking care of them, we just throw them away?

i think that may be a yes, and a yes.
i love driving a depreciation free car that is different, and cheap to run. i love driving a 'talking point'
there are those who perhaps don't have the means, or skills, to maintain, and so the 'discard at first sign of trouble' and buy again can seem the easier (cheaper?) route.
as you say, in detriment to the marque and the remaining examples.
equally.. i know that if some dick shunts into me i'll get a few hundred back in spares. my F caught fire and the ultimate decider was the shell having been previously repaired - i would not have broken an original.
discuss..

I had to make the harsh decision to break the Blue VVC project. It required quite a bit of welding and a new gear box mount due to serious rust. The crunch time came when I won "Elsie" for £155 on ebay and body wise she was in better condition but had the Black and Green interior and a ripped drivers seat plus the rotten radiator so the Blue VVC became a donor with parts going on both my MGF's and the engine going to save a Freestyle that had a wrecked engine.

The smart thing to-do if you can afford to and have the space is to hang on to your future classic.
That is exactly what i did with the mini. I could of sold it for a grand in the late nineties, but could see the future value. That wasn't so difficult given that it's one of 1000 relauch RSP Coopers. So now it's worth what I paid for it in 1994, and as they become rare they become more valuable. It'll have to rise in value quite a bit more to get close to paying back what i spent on it though.
When I was looking for a TF I was buying with the future in mind (as well as the driving fun in between) which is why I sought out a 160 and why it had to be a special, in this case a Sprint. It's worth less now than what i paid for it, and I've indulged the same value again so that it will last well into my dotage.
So don't lement the demise of so many examples of a great car.
Instead enjoy it. Appreciate the low cost of used spares you currently enjoy, and do not feel guilty of that inner smile you have in realisation that one day you will be the owner of a rare classic car that some how everyone remembers owning or being driven in.
For it was cool when it was new, it's cool now, and if the small queue of teens that want to experience a blast in the cooper is any indication it will be cool when you and it are very old.


Sent from my GT-I9100 using Tapatalk 2

I fully understand the passion. However, for many, cars are like white goods now.

Its like the green goddess fire engines sold off by the army...............i saw loads sent to the crusher in great condition..............get them in the chrusher and send em to china hailed the scrap metal merchant .............To some there is no sentimental feelings when it comes to vehicles............cash in the back pocket rules the brain.......lack of mechanical knoledge can render a mg scrap............especially when the novice mechanic hails the words THE HEAD GASKET AS FAILED...........ill stick it on ebay...................

All good constructive points so far, ofc there will always be a time when its beyond economic sense to keep trying and breaking the car makes sense, off the top of my head, rust, an accident, a fire, a change in personal circumstances. Like i said this post wasn't directed towards anyone here now. Certainly not @talkingcars whom i often to find has some really good insight on many topics, and certainly not @pelzier i don't think anyone who has seen the amount of work you have put into your cars could ever level that accusation at you. @Argen69 i whole heartedly agree with what you had to say, short of my car going up in smoke or being stolen i certainly have no intention of ever selling mine, your subframe renovation post remains one of my favourite posts although i am still not sure i will be able to this myself. @Really i'm not sure "flourish" is the word i would describe to my own efforts, time will tell. On the subject of "original" when i started out on my project i deliberately chose a 115 because it was the only model i felt comfortable attempting to mod. @Leigh i really think that you have to have a passion for MG to own one, if you (people in general not you personally) don't get a smile on your face when you see one, or drive one, or even after fixing something on one, then MG's will never be for you and you should stick to your golf/micra/bmw/mini. My post was more aimed at the "one post wonders" those individuals whom you have never heard of. The first post they make is one that says there breaking the car, i'm sure you know the type. I have just got back from a walk and was thinking whilst i was out what the most expensive repair to an MGF/TF would be? Forgetting labour costs i couldn't think of any repair that would cost over £500 anyone else think of anything that would? I also had to time to come up with a few jokes about me and my car (apologies in advance) things me and my TF have in common:

when we take the hood down we both have nothing ontop

we have both had Major head failures (PTSD joke)

when we start in the morning we both like to smoke

we have both seen better days

we both have to be careful not to boil over

I could think of a few others but i'll leave it there

For my three pennorth.....

Last week we picked my wife's new car - an Audi A5 Sportback. (OK hold the Audi jokes )First new car we've ever owned and she is lovely, very nice to drive and covers the ground quite quickly.

On Thursday I took the F out to pick up some timber because Mrs wouldn't let me put it in her new car. Result, a massive smile on my face within 100yds of driving off.

Audi -£32000
MG - £1200 two years ago, maybe £500 spent since

Enjoyment factor and value for money - MG all the way
Reliability and peace of mind (because of warranty etc) - Audi I guess but at a cost!

The mgfs mgtfs are going through the rich tapistry of vehicle life which was at first fashionable desirable back in the mid nineties ,moving forward to 2004/2005 a bit of topless summer motoring at a reasonable price to where we are now and have been for the last couple of years A cheap run around for some who probably havent got the time inclination or finances to fix them when they inevitably go wrong.
What are there choices leave them to rot on the drive,weigh in for £80 to which they get the cat removed if a genuine one,alloys removed and then crushed.
Advertise them as in need of mechanical repair calling all enthusiasts to buy and repair to which the response will be nil.
Seems like a no win situation so the solution to some.Cut your losses and sell for scrap or
Break them up to try to maximise there finances and for enthuisiasts keep the endless 2nd hand supply cheap.

Back in 2006 when bonnets was fetching £300,TF front ends £1500 i am sure most wouldnt want a return to that.
At least as this site proves some are in the ownership of enthusiasts,but to some bloke who is skint with bills to pay i wouldnt begrudge him breaking his car to recoup a few quid. To some folk cars are not the be and end all of life.

Again some more good points made and ty to all those that have responded so far. @cairnsys i think your post sums it up nicely. @gt mg spares ty for your insight, i realise that as well as being your passion this is also your business, my aim is to hopefully get my own car up to the same high standard as yours one day. Just another thought but does anyone know how F/TF's are still on the road today?

Back in the mid-80's I worked for an MG specialist. We were regularly buying MGBs for parts for around $200. I still have the VIN plate off #4779, a pull-handle MGB we scrapped. "$200. thank you we'lll have it towed out of your yard."
In the early 90's, after I had left they moved shop and rather than move them the owner sent a truckload of MGB heads to the scrapper. He certainly regretted that move years later when MGB heads became scarce and their value was hundreds of dollars each,
Living in a country where the cheapest MGF goes for $5000.+ it breaks my heart to see decent cars getting scrapped for a head gasket. Mind you it costs thousands to have one shipped here so what can you do?