Morris Minor Owners Club

This weeks Saturday Guardian ran a new advert for a modern way to pay gas/electric bills with an app.
And which car did they choose to be involved?[frame][/frame]

I wonder why?
The people who recognise what an icon it is and those that use apps regularly doesn't strike me as a very large demographic.

The parent company is British Gas, maybe its the Brit link.
Or maybe this is a real "cool car"
Or perhaps thats the whole point, old tech/new tech.
I noticed the Morris badge has been airbrushed out, who owns the rights to the Morris logo now?

Is it really a cut down Convertible -or have they just squashed the picture?

It actually doesnt look like a low rider in the ad, I think I must have angled the phone camera when I photographed it.
The seats are moderns and as I said for some reason they dispensed with the bonnet badge.

moggiethouable wrote:The parent company is British Gas, maybe its the Brit link.
Or maybe this is a real "cool car"
Or perhaps thats the whole point, old tech/new tech.
I noticed the Morris badge has been airbrushed out, who owns the rights to the Morris logo now?

I think it's BMW still

dp wrote:

moggiethouable wrote:The parent company is British Gas, maybe its the Brit link.
Or maybe this is a real "cool car"
Or perhaps thats the whole point, old tech/new tech.
I noticed the Morris badge has been airbrushed out, who owns the rights to the Morris logo now?

I think it's BMW still

Think you may possibly discover that the MORRIS name and 'brand identity' and all the rights to this was aquired by the giant Shanghai International Automotive Corporation (SIAC) Chinese state backed, and the same organisation that are now producing the vehicles that are badged 'MG' ! (A whole different world to the old days of Morris Motors Cowley)

dp wrote:

moggiethouable wrote:The parent company is British Gas, maybe its the Brit link.
Or maybe this is a real "cool car"
Or perhaps thats the whole point, old tech/new tech.
I noticed the Morris badge has been airbrushed out, who owns the rights to the Morris logo now?

I think it's BMW still

When I said parent company I was referring to the parent company of the advertiser.
The Morris name as suggested previously by another may well be owned now by the chinese I suppose.

moggiethouable wrote:

dp wrote:

moggiethouable wrote:The parent company is British Gas, maybe its the Brit link.
Or maybe this is a real "cool car"
Or perhaps thats the whole point, old tech/new tech.
I noticed the Morris badge has been airbrushed out, who owns the rights to the Morris logo now?

I think it's BMW still

When I said parent company I was referring to the parent company of the advertiser.
The Morris name as suggested previously by another may well be owned now by the chinese I suppose.

Who would have thought, all those years ago that now the Chinese (Shanghai International Automotive Corporation) in 2014 ( and if they ever really wanted to could actually be in the position to be able to 're-introduce' a present day 'concept' of a vehicle badged a 'Morris Minor' !!)
Oh dear, Sorry if this could be a rather sensitive point to some!
Wondering now if I should have actually mentioned it ??

Don't worry we have been there and done that already.
Although iconic the Minor clearly isn't thought as attractive as the Mini or beetle.

According to Wikipedia the Morris name as well as other BMC/BL marques was bought by Nanjing Automobile. They merged with SAIC in 2007.
As regards a new Morris, still plenty of time yet!!!!
Who would have thought that the Fiat 500 would phoenix like reappear. Always fancied an original Fiat Arbarth 595 which is an Abarth tuned Fiat 500.

philthehill wrote:According to Wikipedia the Morris name as well as other BMC/BL marques was bought by Nanjing Automobile. They merged with SAIC in 2007.
As regards a new Morris, still plenty of time yet!!!!
Who would have thought that the Fiat 500 would phoenix like reappear. Always fancied an original Fiat Arbarth 595 which is an Abarth tuned Fiat 500.

Aye, but then who would have thought Fiat would buy Chrysler outright?
Funny thing though, Chrysler thanks to public money are back in the black and profitable, Fiat on the other hand are up to their eyes in debt.
Heres a prophesy, Fiat/Chrysler goes to the wall by 2020.http://www.reuters.com/article/2014/01/ ... FK20140102

Yes Fiat (Fabbrica Italiana Automobili Torino) finally finally bought out Chrysler after a convoluted journey on the 21st of Jan 2014 upon which FIAT Group shares rose by 15.2%
Having read the Reuters report it does make for a pessimistic view but Fiat Group interests are spread far and wide (see Wikipedia for details) so I am sure that the FIAT Group will survive and the recent rise in the value of the FIAT Group shares shows that some people have a positive view of the company. Time will tell.

With this kind of leverage Reuters and every other interested party in investments is pessimistic.
Fiats intent is to raise enough capital to bail themselves out, I see the logic in badge engineering, or shared technology to quote Fiat, that in this case means fiats produced in Italy will be badged Chrysler in the States,but the U.S. market wont stand for badged Fiats.
Similarly Italians are one of the most parochial nations around,they wont tolerate job losses in Italy so products can be produced cheaper in the Sates, or Asia for that matter.
Common rail could save them, but the Italian unions will insist on Italian production,the Italian plants have been propped up way beyond any sensible level by the government who will soon bail out when production is moved offshore,secretly they will heave a collective sigh of relief when that happens,nope, I stand by my statement,a bloody confrontation between government and Italian unions will result in collapse of Fiat and the sale of or collapse of Chrysler.