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MG MGA - Thinking of purchasing....

Chaps

I come to you from the midget BBS having had an extensively modified 73 RWA for few years and enjoying - almost - every minute. I am however seduced by the beautiful lines of the MGA and am very tempted to buy. Clearly prices are on a different level to Midgets, and as such, I would very much welcome your views on the following.

What can be reasonably expected from an outlay of 25K?

Best place to buy from? I dislike trade...MGOC is an obvious port of call...anywhere else... I prefer an enthusiast seller...

Any particular areas of concern to watch out for when buying - apart from the usual bodywork, chassis, sills and electrics.

What are your thoughts on MGAs holding value? My priority is NOT to buy as an investment, but on the other hand, I would not care to lose money should I have to sell.

May be tempted by a mild resto project. Is this wise! Relatively easy or hideously complex?

Many thanks

Mark



M Ogden

Mark

Welcome aboard. The MGA Newsletter for this month has just been circulated. There is an article and a table compiled by Howard Quayle that may be of interest to you and others. The article is below and the table (PDF) I have converted to an image. If you can't read all the detail in the table let me have your email and I will forward it.

Steve



MGAs For Sale: Pricing Review- January 2016
by
Howard Quayle

In recent years, prices of MGAs have risen rapidly, but I am not aware that any detailed analysis has been carried out, or of any in-depth look at pricing variations between the various models. This article sets out to provide helpful information on this topic, although, as always, 100% accuracy can never be guaranteed.
Where did I get the information from? The sources were probably not exhaustive, but came through a reasonably wide variety of advertisers. The majority of the MGAs were taken from the website:
http://www.carandclassic.co.uk
- which is generally a good barometer of the state of the classic car market. I also searched E-Bay for other MGAs for sale and not on the Car & Classic website, and finally augmented the list from classified adverts both from Safety Fast! and from Enjoying MGA. I am sure that I could have cast the net wider, but am happy that the base list contained enough entries to produce useful results.
How many cars did I include? Using the above sources, on 6 December 2015, I found 82 MGAs for sale and qualifying for inclusion. 61 were on offer in the UK, with most of the remainder for sale in continental Europe. For various reasons, I did not include MGAs for sale outside Europe, as (for example, in the USA) these did not display registration plates, although single examples from Canada and New Zealand are included because their plates could be seen in the photos.
In the five weeks between 6 December and 12 January 2016, a further 12 vehicles came onto the market, although it must be assumed that some of the original 82 MGAs had been sold in the meantime. In the next three weeks, another 14 vehicles had appeared, so it appears that 3-4 new MGAs come onto the market each week. This is not very scientific, but it gives a good indication.
The attached tables therefore analyse 105 records. (Three were discounted for pricing purposes, as they were imported vehicles requiring complete or substantial renovation. The asking prices were sufficiently low to have skewed the data). You will see that six records are classified as Unclear: this is where advertisers had incorrect data (e.g. a 1955 1500 Coupe, 1967 1600 Roadster, etc), and so I have excluded these from the pricing analysis.
I will let the pricing data data speak for itself. It is based on average prices for each model, although the low numbers of some of the variants on offer will not have provided results with a high degree of confidence- samples of one (e.g . the 1959 1600 Mk1 Coupe) are not ideal!
On the volumetric data, it is not surprising that around half the vehicles for sale were 1500 Roadsters and Coupes. Three-quarters of the MGAs on offer were through dealers, with presumably a large percentage of these being sold on a commission basis is this because dealer sales realisations are likely to be higher than prices obtained through private sales?
I hope that readers will find this analysis enjoyable and interesting.



Steve Gyles

Mark
Have a good drive in an A before committing yourself. They are not as nimble or as light to drive as a spridget and I found that takes a bit of getting used to. Long fast roads with sweeping bends has the A on top but narrow winding lanes suit the "more chuckable" sprogs in comparison. I think the two are quite different cars and the A isn't just a slightly larger, faster version of what you have.
But, assuming you are keeping your Midget, you don't want two cars which drive the same way.

Steve
Interesting table! The comment I would make is that with such small samples, the spec and condition would have an over-riding influence on prices to a much greater extent than age and even lh/rh drive.

Isn't the generally held feeling is that dealers will ask and obtain higher prices than private sales? This is probably down to the belief that the dealer offers some sort of security and warranty although on a commission sale that may well be misplaced. Don't most sellers try to get an idea about what a dealer will offer, what his forecourt price would be and come in somewhere in between for a private sale?

In a private purchase you have the advantage of dealing with the bloke who has looked after your next pride and joy. You can try to make that judgement as to whether he has cared for it properly, which, at the age of the cars we are talking about, will be significant. A garage purchase by comparison is "blind".
Graeme Williams

Chaps

My thanks for this. Fully appreciate the different driving characteristics, and sadly I may have to sell the Midget simply to make room. I would not otherwise. I just think the lines of the A are devine though. Dealers and garages I steer well clear of. I agree that the amount of information that can be believed from an enthusiast is far superior, and that in most cases, the care and attention is palpable.

M Ogden

Is this the sort of thing you are looking for. I was waiting for spring (nearly there) to advertise.
1960 1600 and it does look as good "in the flesh" as in the picture.


A J Dee

A point about the MGCC price table is they are asking prices rather than sale prices. I would be interested in what the difference is.

As someone else said do try an A before going further. As well as the reasons already quoted As don't fit all bodies. In particular legs can be either too short or too long, and you are relatively close to the steering wheel.

Paul
Paul Dean

This may sound like heresy but a 1962 MGA feels far more "dated" than a 1958 Frogeye, but then the A was designed in 1953(?) probably 4 or 5 years before the Frog.
But to many that look and feel is what attracts.

Don't worry too much about not fitting the car. It is easy to block up the clutch pedal and increase the rake on the seat backs or make the necessary adjustments the other way (see recent thread). I am set further back from the wheel now than I can get on the Frog.
Graeme Williams

Graeme

Indeed. I am confident that my Midget would run rings round an A on any B or C road - and easily keep up on a A, but then it is somewhat modified. However, that is not the point. Aesthetically, an A wins hands down.

M Ogden

AJ...sent you a mail...

Mark
M Ogden

Mark

Appreciate that entirely! That is as good a reason as any. And you can breathe on the A of course.
Graeme Williams

This thread was discussed between 24/03/2016 and 25/03/2016

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