Classic Car Buying Advice (Morris Minor 1000)

Joe_Horner

Hi Esther,

There's no need to worry about being young or a girl when you approach most classic clubs. Certainly all the ones I' ve been near are always happy to welcome the next generation of owners, and gender really doesn't come into it!

The people to talk to are definitely the forumites of the relevent clubs, they tend to know their cars inside out and usually hear when good ones are up for grabs. When members cars come up you'll often find quite a detailed history of their recent use (including any problems there've been) on the boards because most people will start at least one thread about their cars.

forgotmyname

RUST, RUST and more RUST...

If you know nothing about cars you need a specialist to look over one before buying.
Spending £3000 on a shiny car and then finding out it needs £4000 worth of welding to repair the botched attempts to hide the RUST wont go down well.

Stooby2

Rust isn't the only problem. There can be any number of mechanical / electrical problems with a car that age. My sister bought a relatively sound one, but no end of problems with steering, electrical (needed a new wiring loom in the end), cylinder head (I ended doing a complete rebuild with a skim and new valve guides, springs etc), new cam chain & tensioner and so on.

Esther, your best bet is to find someone who knows about old cars and take them with when you go to look at one. And more importantly, listen and take heed to what they say. My sister took me and my father with her to view the car - it was a pile of carp. But she fell in love with it at first sight and eventually bought it, despite us both warning it was a pile of carp. And she ended up spending a fortune on it.

If you're looking to spend £3000 you may well get a good one. But you really need to take someone along who knows and can advise you on likely issues. The owners clubs are usually full of friendly people who may well help you or point you in the direction of a good one.

And learn to fix simple faults on it. As it will break down, usually down to a simple problem that can be fixed at the roadside - if you know what to do.

Good Luck!

pulliptears

£3k should get you a good one, when I bought mine I think I paid about £500 and she was a cracker. Insurance cost me £90 a year. Annual maintenance was VERY cheap because I did most things myself, certainly not £500, maybe £100 a year at most.

It's coming up for that time of year when a good Mog owner will slather the car in wax oil for the winter months as well so if you do buy one this side of next summer make that one of your first jobs.

Bear in mind that at 50mph EVERYTHING rattles. It's a fun experience once you are used to it.

Speed humps with backseat passengers are a source of hilarity, hit one at the right angle and you can bounce any child on the backseat into the car roof due to the very highly sprung rear seat (I never did that, honest **cough**)

Driving a mog in winter is marvellous if you add a decent sized breeze block to the boot for a little extra stability.

Driving a mog in snow is a pleasure, thin tyres mean it handles snow with ease and to this day I miss that car on a winters day when I'm sliding here there and everywhere in my modern car.

If you leave her outside beware you will have to deice inside the car in the morning....

If you go anywhere you will get old men reminiscing over the car. Add 15 minutes to any trip for this phenomenon

You can fit a full weeks Tesco shop in the boot if you pack cleverly
**proudface**

The clubs are welcoming of girls, most clubs now have a few young ladies as members. It's worth joining one for advice but be aware that a lot of them tend to be quite eccentric and hold great dislike to other clubs. I've been in a a few owners clubs through my different cars (Triumph, Morris, Chrysler) and all have been turbulent between members and other clubs. I found keeping my head down and staying out of the politics to be the best option there lol

In the end I had to sell mine due to a longer commute but I do miss her.

fivetide

One thing to add to pulliptears post - I'm sure the Morris Minor had a review where they claimed it was the first car that rear passengers got the same benefit from the heater as front seat passengers... i.e. none

Used to take one to uni many moons ago. It's a car from sedate driving but a great wee thing. Join the forum, I'm sure they won't bite and if you see a car you are interested in, someone might even come and look at it with you for some beer tokens.

pulliptears

fivetide wrote: »

One thing to add to pulliptears post - I'm sure the Morris Minor had a review where they claimed it was the first car that rear passengers got the same benefit from the heater as front seat passengers... i.e. none

Used to take one to uni many moons ago. It's a car from sedate driving but a great wee thing. Join the forum, I'm sure they won't bite and if you see a car you are interested in, someone might even come and look at it with you for some beer tokens.

Oh goodness yes the heaters are worse than useless! My OH bought me a heated seat cover for mine just to thaw me out a little on a winter morning.

One other thing I also forgot to mention was that they were prone to interior leaks, not a biggie on the seats as they are vinyl but the carpets can be quite stinky. I took the carpet out of mine because I just couldn't find the source of the leak. It transpired it's previous owner must have had the same problems because drilled into the floor on the rear passenger footwells were a pair of half inch drain holes :rotfl:

colino

My advice would be to get along to as many local "Moggie Meets" as possible and cadge a few drives of tip-top restored ones. After the rose-tinted glasses are off you will realise how awful, slow, noisy, uncomfortable and intrinsically unsafe they are for modern day use. Great as a fun, long-term hobby restoring them (doesn't sound like that's your thing) or for polishing and posing, but nostalgia just isn't what it used to be.

pulliptears

colino wrote: »

My advice would be to get along to as many local "Moggie Meets" as possible and cadge a few drives of tip-top restored ones. After the rose-tinted glasses are off you will realise how awful, slow, noisy, uncomfortable and intrinsically unsafe they are for modern day use. Great as a fun, long-term hobby restoring them (doesn't sound like that's your thing) or for polishing and posing, but nostalgia just isn't what it used to be.

I think a lot depends on what you are going to use it for. It's not a car for a motorway commute but if, like me, you are going 2 miles up the road to take the kids to school and do the shopping in the next town it's a perfectly decent car.

Yes, you need to actually drive them, you need to be thinking about every moment of your journey especially your braking distances but I personally enjoy the experience of actually having to drive a car rather than the car drive me which is invariably what happens in a modern motor.

myhooose

I have owned a few over the years. If I were buying one now I would look for a restored car with photographs/ evidence. My main prioriy would be to buy on condition of the chasis legs, floor, sills etc. The mechanical things, door, wings etc can be sorted more easily.

Stooby2

One thing you might want to consider is your personal safety. An old classic Morris will offer almost nothing in the way of protecting you in a crash. There's no crumple zone at the front, no airbags, no side impact protection, a large, solid, unpadded steering wheel in front of you, rubbish seat belts, solid dash and so on.

The brakes are not the best and often single circuit - which means all four brakes are equally applied and lock up together under emergency braking - the car spinning is major problem with classics.

Whilst you might be a great driver, if someone else gets it all wrong and crashes into you, you may well suffer much worse injuries than you would in a modern car.

It's a personal thing - you might feel the fun and experience of owning and driving a classic car outweighs the disadvantages of safety and the chaces of having a crash, but you ought to bear it in mind.