Morris Minor Owners Club

Hello all,

I am currently at university and I am thinking about buying a Morris minor. I really need some advice about the practicalities of classic motoring and reliability.
I am a keen walker and Mountain biker and currently rely on scrounging lifts and using public transport to travel. I would love the freedom of owning my own car. Millage wise, I would mainly use it at weekends to travel from Lancaster to the Lake District but would hope to travel up to Scotland about once a month. Is this sort of use reasonable in a cheap Morris minor? And what are the options for bike racks, can you buy minors with towbars or get them fitted and can you fit a sturdy roof rack?

Being a student I haven’t got huge amounts of money to spend a car. What sort of budget would be required to buy a reliable minor needing only very basic repairs. I not concerned with cosmetic condition purely functionality and reliability. Is £600 pie in the sky?

What is insurance like for someone under 21?

If anyone can offer any advice it would be brilliant.

John

Welcome to the messageboard John, you've come to the right place for advice

Minors are perfectly capable of daily use, and long journeys, providing they're well maintained. You can buy Minors with tow bars fitted, or just buy a tow bar and have it fitted, and you can fit bike racks and roof racks to them (mine has a roof rack and tow bar fitted). With regards budget, it might be a bit optimistic to hope to find a good reliable Minor with a long MOT, which is sound underneath and requires little work, for £600. It's not impossible though, as they do come up from time to time, but you might have to wait a while, or travel a distance, to find one. A figure of around £1,000 will give you a bit more choice. A sound chassis is more important than cosmetic items so you should aim to get the best car you can afford. Buying something too cheap can be a false economy if you end up with big repair costs within a short time of buying. With regards to insurance, from posts here it seems that the MMOC club insurance scheme offers good rates for young drivers but I'm sure someone will be along soon to advise as it's been a while since I was under 21

If you join the MMOC you can get very favourable Insurance Rates through Footman James. Judging from what i read recently - it seems to be the only way to get reasonable price insurance these days for a young driver.