Morris Minor Owners Club

Hi All,
Been thinking about this for a while.....

With the increasing cost of fuel and my obvious liking for Morris Minors, I'm starting to think that perhaps a standard (ish) Minor is the best and cheapest way for me to have everyday transport.

I know many of you use your cars everyday BUT how practical and reliable a daily drive is a Minor saloon???

I travel about 8 miles a day to and from work with a 200 mile weekend round trip every 2-3 months.

I have enough projects and don't need another at the weekends

Your thoughts and advice much appreciated.

Ta! as usual

Martin

8 miles isn't far, have you considered a moped or a push bike?
A standard Minor should be fine but will barely warm up on such a short journey.

This question has been raised many times, so try a few searches. You'll get a few people who say that they wouldn't think about, but loads more who DO use their Minors every day. My wife and I have only Minors, and don't think twice about them. Utterly reliable. I used ot do 18,000 miles a year commuting to work, now down to about 6,000. We've taken the cars from Essex to Inverness, Cornwall, IOW, IOM, and every in between. Yes, you need to service the car, particularly greasing trunnions, but a few minutes doing that will pay dividends. A colleague at work spent as much on a service for a "modern" as you could spend picing up a tatty Minor. Another chap commented on how, in the snow, our Minor was a reassuring feature in the car park, never failing to make it in. Go ahead, get a good Minor and enjoy life.

Hi

A minor will be fine as everyday transport. As said by others, just keep up with the service intervals. Mogs can be as reliable as you want them to be.

It may be worth using a heavy duty battery if using throughout the winter - your call really.

Yep, daily driving isn't as scary as some people may have you believe. Ok in my personal experience i end up doing something to mine every other weekend, and every six months or so it coming off the road for a week. But that's normally my own silly fault (like swapping engines for what turned out to be an equally bad one, rather than just fitting a good one or fixing the existing one!). If you keep on top of everything, service when you need to and park it on a slope for the innevitable bump start one day... i do 8000+ miles a year, and in the last 3 years i've only had to get towed home twice!

You can always suck it and see. You may innevitably find the first few weeks are spent fault finding, and will probably make you think you made the wrong choice, but if you decide you can't cope, you could probably sell it on for what you paid. What's to loose?

Surely a 2.0 zetec pickup would be a lovely everyday driver. Better economy, quicker than most modern traffic, ample carrying ability...

Until this last July my traveller was my every day transport for the previous 3 years, about 30 miles a day. The mogs was very reliable and lots of fun! It was in a car accident so is being repaired, I hope to carry on using the mogs when it is mended!
So my advice is yes, use it, it works out cheaper to run with a regular service than a more modern car, but fuel will be more pricey!

I use mine everyday with no problems, 25 mile round trip to work, 40 miles to imo and that includes a trip down the a5! Not once have I struggled with the pace of traffic or had wblems sitting in traffic. It's been a dream..baelyhad to fix anything to

Dad used Minors every day for about 12 years. With the first one the dynamo packed up but it got us home. Otherwise they were utterly reliable. The dates? Between 1958 and 1970.[frame][/frame]

I've been using my Traveller every day since I got it over 15 years ago, 40 mile round trip for work and occasionally longer trips at weekends - it doesn't even live in a garage. It does need more maintenance than a modern car but it's quite manageable and fitting electronic ignition helps there. I do think twice about long journeys but that's just because it's more tiring and noisy than a new car rather than reliability worries. It also struggles on hills when loaded with two people and all the gear for for a weekend's scuba diving so I tend to blag a lift with my buddy for that.

It's certainly cheap motoring as the odd parts bill is more than offset by 40-45MPG, free road tax and negligible depreciation.

Buy a good one, give it a thorough service and waxoyl etc. and start using it. I've no regrets with mine.

Stig28 wrote:I've been using my Traveller every day since I got it over 15 years ago, 40 mile round trip for work and occasionally longer trips at weekends - it doesn't even live in a garage. It does need more maintenance than a modern car but it's quite manageable and fitting electronic ignition helps there. I do think twice about long journeys but that's just because it's more tiring and noisy than a new car rather than reliability worries. It also struggles on hills when loaded with two people and all the gear for for a weekend's scuba diving so I tend to blag a lift with my buddy for that.

It's certainly cheap motoring as the odd parts bill is more than offset by 40-45MPG, free road tax and negligible depreciation.

Buy a good one, give it a thorough service and waxoyl etc. and start using it. I've no regrets with mine.

I agree with this post except for the need for electronic ignition. Provided you don't get parts from a dodgy batch then conventional ignition can be reliable if properly serviced - and we'll all heard of people being let down by their "electronic ignition".

At least with conventional points and condensor, if they do go wrong, it is a matter of minutes to repair and be on your way again.

chickenjohn wrote:we'll all heard of people being let down by their "electronic ignition".

Really? I have heard about lots of people saying 'what if it breaks?' but nobody saying 'it broke'...

I've heard of those 'points booster' kits failing, but not the Pertronix/Lumenition contactless type. I prefer electronic on cars that do a lot of miles because adjusting the points gap is such a faff.

alex_holden wrote: I prefer electronic on cars that do a lot of miles because adjusting the points gap is such a faff.

Exactly.

Same here, i keep the points and condenser in the boot 'because electronic ignition always breaks and i'll be stuck when it goes' and in the boot it has stayed ever since!

Points can break, these left me stranded on the side of a busy main road for a couple of hours. No I didn't have a spare in the boot! I would still prefer points etc to electronic ignition if only because I understand them better. Spare points, condenser etc are now permanent additions to the on-board tool-box.

i use mine all the time
perfect for every day use

SGTBILKO wrote:Dad used Minors every day for about 12 years. With the first one the dynamo packed up but it got us home. Otherwise they were utterly reliable. The dates? Between 1958 and 1970.[frame][/frame]

That is such a good photo! Which one of the children in you?

My Minor is my only car best thing I ever did was get shot of the modern.
These cars are more than capable of daily driving, just keep on top of it and it will be fine.

I've just made the switch. Not looking back.