Morris: Quality first

[Sidney'61]

An article in practical classics this month is testing a few random classic cars and it also stated how many are left on the road in the UK. It said:

Triumph Dolomite: 1261
Ford Escort Mk11: 3203
Jaguar 240: 956
Rover P5B: 2004
Austin A30: 6402
Morris Minor: 15,767 !

I know its a very random list and there are probably other cars that will beat it but it really stood out to me and showed just how robust they are and how well loved they are as people have kept so many going for so long. That's only in the UK aswell.

[ssnjimb]

Hi

I wish it said how many were sorn'd as well

James

[Kevin]

An article in practical classics this month is testing a few random classic cars and it also stated how many are left on the road in the UK. It said:

Triumph Dolomite: 1261
Ford Escort Mk11: 3203
Jaguar 240: 956
Rover P5B: 2004
Austin A30: 6402
Morris Minor: 15,767 !

I know its a very random list and there are probably other cars that will beat it but it really stood out to me and showed just how robust they are and how well loved they are as people have kept so many going for so long. That's only in the UK aswell.

I wonder where they get the totals from especially as regards the Moggie as that is only about the same as the MMOC membership total and when you consider that many owners have more than one car and there are quite a few owners that don't belong to the club.
As for some of the others I do see the Rovers now and again but rarely see A30's apart from occasionaly at shows and I certainly see Mk11 Escorts fairly often.

[stag36587]

Yes and I'm surprised that the Dolomite number is relatively low

[d_harris]

I think WPR has that many in his field

[Peetee]

I think WPR has that many in his field

Shhhh!

[WPR678B]

I think WPR has that many in his field

Then i can tell you have never seen said field in person then!
It is now sadly Minor free

[bmcecosse]

PC just make it all up! They don't let facts spoil a good story. There are far mor Mk II Escorts than that - there are whole Rally series dedicated to Mk I and II Escorts !

[FrankM83]

and thanks to some Maltese they're increasing in nos. as they are exporting them from here to the UK!

[IaininTenbury]

Does seem a very low number of Minors. A discussion on here a while back came up with the theory of:
14,000 MMOC members (ish) Each person has one car. Nearly half may have another one (21000), a 1/4 may have another one still (24,500) and tenth of the membership may have many, say averaging 4-5 so thats another, say 1500 (26,000). Then theres everyone who are not members of the MMOC, say half the MMOC memebrship (guess work now!) so thats another 7-8000 assuming more than one car, perhaps even 10,000. So that gives a theoretical number of surviving cars at 32-36000.
I know a lot of that is really guess work, but its a bit different to 15,000.
I assume PC get the numbers from the DVLA of how many are actually taxed and on the road, which could well be right.

[Sidney'61]

Not all of those 14,000 members are in the UK though.

[ASL642]

There are a lot of moggy owners who are not club members, but like coming to rallies, and as Iain says many have more than one car (guilty as charged)!

[Judge]

I personally think that the original figure could be about right, and I believe that unfortunately the number of MMOC members may have been a little optimistic.

[Judge]

PS I personally had 5 Morris Minors on the road, but have now seen the light and only have 3

[IaininTenbury]

I was basing the membership number on the previous discussion, about 3 years back when I think it was about right. I understand that its lower now. Still points to more than 15000 cars left though, though yes not all would be in the uk. The prev. discussion was how many cars left worldwide if I remember correctly.

[Cam]

I would tend to agree with Iain's rough figure as a few years ago the estimate was roughly about 30,000 but I don't know the source of that exactly.

I think it was quoted when the number of surving Marinas/Itals (only several hundred) were discussed in the press as roughly the same number (1.6 million) were produced as Minors.