Morris Minor Owners Club

stupid, stupid question alert:

do certain ages of minor come up for sale more often in specific sales locations (e.g. auctions or classics sites), or are the chances of finding a car of a specific age down to the following factors:

1) how long it's had to rust
2) how many there are left

in other words, am i going to have more luck finding a later car, as more of the earlier cars have rusted away.

obviously 2) follows on from 1) but i seem to be noticing far more late 60s/ early 70s cars up for sale in a sad looking state than 15 years ago when there appeared to be more late 1950s/ early 1960s cars around in a similar condition. would i be correct in assuming that those older cars have now just gone the way of all flesh, or does fleabay tend to turn up more later cars than specialist auctions and classic car sales sites who have a better range of all the ages including the older 948cc minor thousands?

end of stupid question.

There should be a fair selection of most variations in most conditions except for the early Series MMs which are getting quite rare and generally appeal to a specialist market.
Some models such as Travellers, LCVs and convertibles attract a premium and obviously the condition should be reflected in the price.
If you are looking for a Minor decide which model, body style, age and condition you want and keep looking. When viewing take someone along who knows where the horrors are hidden.

Mike, thanks for your response. this'll be my third (and hopefully fourth) minor i am looking to buy, so i am ok with looking them over. my first traveller (YYJ 439) was bought as an MoT failure off the unscrupulous step- Dad of a college friend, and that thing was shot, totally, from front to back, so it was scrapped. thankfully i pretty much ripped it to pieces working out where the rust started and stopped (it didn't) so i learned from that where they go.

my second (VNK 652J) was also a lash- up, but one with an MoT which i manage to sort.

i really want a late 50s as original as possible traveller, or at least model up to 61- 62 with the trafficators and a later traveller to muck about with.

believe it or not i love the pootling about aspect of the earlier 948cc cars (my day- to- day car is an MG ZT 260, so i can go quickly in that if i need to), but i also really enjoy the upgraded vehicles. there seem to be loads of the early 70s pre- adderley(sp) park travellers around, so that's not a problem. it's the late 50s traveller i'm struggling with.

i'll keep looking

a early 60's (to 61) are not rare, compared to a 56 series 2 traveller ( split screen) the split screen travellers you will be paying more for, but I imagine that a 60's car would be cheaper. there was a 61 rose taupe traveller on here recently, for about £4850?. it had more modern seats which can be removed if you wish. It was in good condition throughout so that gives you an idea of prices.

This one- http://www.mmoc.org.uk/viewtopic.php?f=7&t=42266
It may have sold though, and it had modifications.

i had seen that one. i'd prefer an original one tbh. i can't view any cars at the moment either, got an ankle in plaster from breaking it in two places

i'm sure one'll come up sooner or later.....

Rarity often leads to desirability but it's not a simple connection between the two.

the split screen travellers you will be paying more for, but I imagine that a 60's car would be cheaper.

I advertised a split screen traveller with new MOT in club mag about 6 years ago and didn't get a single phone call from that.

Personally I'd pay more for a rare Minor, but I'm not t'the average' buyer. On the whole, most buyers are new to the scene and I guess they tend to buy buy the later cars. Therefore average prices for the early/rare cars usually don't reflect their rarity value.

Personally I've found my early Minors to be more solid than the later ones. Steel quality may be one factor, but also the early cars were (on average) better looked after. In the 50's a car was still a luxury item and was far more pampered, and the roads had less salt etc.. Many of the early cars fell out of regular use in the 70's and 80's whereas often the later cars were in more regular use - salty, mud and water will seriously affect any classic, and as many are without internal protection (waxoyle etc..) they rot to pieces.

My perception is that mid sixties 2 doors are the commonest Minors around, I guess more were made in the first place.
I'd agree with Ray that the earlier cars do seems to age better probably for the reasons he suggests.

MarkyB wrote:My perception is that mid sixties 2 doors are the commonest Minors around, I guess more were made in the first place.
I'd agree with Ray that the earlier cars do seems to age better probably for the reasons he suggests.

I've heard that there are more '68 cars, than all splitscreen models.

Do we have production figures broken down by year?
That would give a good idea were we started from.

MarkyB wrote:Do we have production figures broken down by year?

Yes, approximate figures only though, as shown in Paul Skilleter's book:

Minor production figures (saloons, convertibles & travellers)

Year & Number produced

1948 -- 1,172
1949 -- 20,747
1950 -- 48,435
1951 -- 48,290
1952 -- 48,062
1953 -- 57,847
1954 -- 72,837
1955 -- 88,058
1956 -- 70,083
1957 -- 106,680
1958 -- 113,699
1959 -- 105,759
1960 -- 95,316
1961 -- 61,473
1962 -- 57,914
1963 -- 45,801
1964 -- 41,899
1965 -- 38,969
1966 -- 38,352
1967 -- 37,382
1968 -- 32,213
1969 -- 28,279
1970 -- 22,830
1971 -- 3,421

There are separate figures shown for LCV's and I could maybe post these up tomorrow if I get the time and anyone's interested? (Have been using a computer for most of the day and my eyes need a rest!)

On the basis of Louise's post (and assuming they haven't all rusted away) I should have no trouble finding a late 50's traveller

AntB wrote:(and assuming they haven't all rusted away) I should have no trouble finding a late 50's traveller

Well production figures are one thing but survival rate is another! A club member Nigel Harrison produced an interesting article for the club magazine in 2010 based on information he had obtained from the DVLA. He produced a table showing the number of Minors by year & body type that were registered on the DVLA database either as taxed or on SORN. The figures for late '50's travellers are as follows:

1957 -- 73
1958 -- 70
1959 -- 133 (out of 17,482 built. Production figures for '57 & '58 unknown)

These were 2009/10 figures but as you can see there aren't that many late '50's travellers about in the UK. If you don't mind settling for an early '60's traveller your odds of finding one are a bit better:

1960 -- 148
1961 -- 185
1962 -- 266

Going by body nos.,approx end of prod. figures; 1970 2drs were reaching 512xxx's, whilst contempory 4drs + Travs were approx
265xxx + 215xxx resp.

Pommreg
Dept. of useless info!