Looking to purchase soon!!

[Joyce]

Hi everyone. My name is Joyce and lm a member of the mmoc. l thought lt was a good idea to join 1st, before purchasing a morris minor. lm very interested in the minor 1000 saloon. Preferably 4 door but that's not essential. Looking forward firstly, to learning all l can about these fabulous cars . lm in Scotland so something local (ish) would be brilliant. Any advice would be wonderful! Thank you

[brucek]

Welcome to the Forum Joyce - good luck in your search. How about this one in Glasgow? Might need a bit of work

Have a look on the for sale part of the forum or e-bay for other cars for sale

[welshrat]

A warm welcome from the Welsh contingent!

[Joyce]

Thanks welshrat and brucek. mmm brucek, that one may be a bit beyond me!! Should have added to my inital post that l was looking to maintain one rather than reconstruct

[brucek]

OK

Nothing to do with me and no recommendation implied but here's one in Bathgate. Might be worth a look?

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/1958-Morris-M ... 20c1e5dacf

[Joyce]

That car ad is spot on and bathgate is seriously accessable! Finding it hard to see a contact for seller?!? Gosh, it's difficult not ti get excited about a purchase! And it is totally in my price range. Any idea what the insurance usually works out as? I've over 9 yrs no claims and have been driving since 17 (now 33!! God that looks old when it's written down! )

[LouiseM]

Welcome to the messageboard Joyce There's some useful info regarding buying a Minor here: http://www.mmoc.org.uk/viewtopic.php?f=1&t=37815 The most important thing is to inspect any potential purchase very thoroughly so if you haven't bought a Minor or classic car before take someone with you that has experience of older cars. As for insurance, there are so many variables it's difficult to give a rough idea as it will be based on value of car, annual mileage, whether it's garaged or not, area you live in etc etc. Best to ring round and get a few quotes. Good luck with your search!

[brucek]

Let's be clear - 33 is NOT old OK

As for the car, well, first of all, I would make contact with the Scottish branches as they will have lots of people who know the ins and outs of minors very well. You can find contacts in the branches part of this website. Here's the link http://www.mmoc.org.uk/viewtopic.php?f=30&t=30242 . You have not indicated where in Scotland you are but there will be a branch near (scottish near that is) to you.

Whilst this car looks nice from the outside, there are manyhidden dangers that lurk beneath the surface of many cars . From the pictures it look like it is in quite good condition but it is alway very hard to tell from a picture that is taken by the seller who wants you to buy the car!

You've mentoned that it's your first purchase so It may be safest to see if you can find a local member, a good mechanic or friend who knows cars and you trust, or contributor to the Forum, who would be willing to meet you to have a look at the car. The seller can be contacted by e mail so that would be the best way to set up a viewing. NEVER buy a car without viewing it first.

Insurance is, like everything, variable depending on age, your driving history, your location, how the car will be stored, how many miles you will drive etc. The club has its own insurance scheme so might be worth enquiring with them. Use the car in the ad as a test so you can get a reasonable quote.

Be assured there are still a lot of very good cars around for reasonable prices so if this one goes, there will be others. Good luck and let us know how you get on

[Joyce]

Thanks Louise, good to know. Brucek thank you so much for all your info. Not going to rush into anything. Will keep u all posteef!

[Joyce]

Meant to add, lm in North Ayrshire.

[Chock]

With regard to insurance, you have the advantage of MM Owner's Club membership, which means you could get a discount from brokers who offer them for stuff like that, notably these lot: http://www.footmanjames.co.uk/

Obviously insurance quotes will vary depending on age, location, and of course the vehicle and its usage, but to give you at least something to go off as a ball park figure: I am 46, got no claims, convictions or crashes in the past ten years and will not be using my car to commute to work, my Minor (an A reg 1960 two-door) was valued at approximately 3,000 quid and that was just insured fully-comprehensive this Saturday with Footman James, for 190 quid. A comparable quote from one of the mainstream places was nearer the 350-400 quid mark, which goes to show that a, shopping around is worth it, and b, a specialist insurance broker is often a better choice.

Al

[mike.perry]

beware of fresh underseal!
You should be looking for Classic car insurance which can arrange agreed value cover which ordinary companies will not do.

[LouiseM]

There was a problem recently with the Footman James 'on-line quote' system which meant that it didn't calculate the club member discount. I don't know if it's been fixed yet but probably best to ring them if looking for a quote using the dedicated phone number: 0844 875 0596

[autolycus]

The cost of insurance can vary a lot according to whether or not it's your only car. Classic policies can be very cheap (I pay £57 for a Midget and around £90 for a Mk VI Bentley) but may require you to have an everyday car available too. They often don't offer an NCD, but the downside of that is that if you have carefully built one up over the years, then insure just a classic for a couple of years, you may find that you have to more-or-less start again with NCD if you go back to a modern car. Having read some classic policies very carefully indeed (my job was writing contracts for a few years), they can be full of get-out clauses over agreed values and retention of salvage in the event of a write-off Norton Heritage's policy is appalling in relation to retained salvage, for instance.

Do also remember that Minors are not "drive, polish, MoT" cars - they need frequent maintenance. The great thing is that most of these jobs are quite straightforward (like oil changes and greasing) and very cheap compared with almost any other classic.

Kevin