MG Enthusiast Magazine Vo.44 No.6 Bargain Basement Back Issue

I’VE HEARD IT SAID in the
past that the cheapest car to
own in the long run is a Rolls
Royce. I believe the reasoning
was that a well-engineered and
well-built car would not need
many repairs, and that if you
kept it through the initial savage
depreciation, then eventually its
value would start to soar again.
Personally, I think that is utter
nonsense. Not only would you
have wallet-wilting fuel and
servicing bills to pay even if
nothing ever went wrong, but
the rising value argument would
only really hold water if you’d
bought the Silver Ghost in 1908
and still owned it today!
However, that claim does have
relevance to those of us mere
mortals who get our kicks from
MGs. Essentially whatever model
you want, if you spend more
money initially and buy one of
the best examples available,
then it will cost you less money
in the long run than buying a
cheaper and shabbier example.
Unfortunately most of us get
seduced by low sticker prices
even though we know that once
bought, a cheap car will demand
continual investment of fresh
funds for as long as we own it.
Still, fixing and improving a car is
very often all part of the fun.
I raise this point here because
there is something of a cheap
theme to this issue. Both Adam
Sloman and myself went looking
for an MG for around £1000, in
many ways a ridiculously small
amount for a sports car.
However, we both ended up
buying one! I rather suspect that
Adam was the more sensible
when he settled on an MGF, but
sometimes you have to go with
the heart which is why I ended
up with a BGT. You can read
those stories by turning to pages
26 and 34 respectively.
There is also an update from
Iain Ayre on p78 regarding the
cheap TA that he bought a while
back and detailed in the May
2013 issue of MGE. Iain has now
had time to assess this ‘bargain’
rather more fully and while still
remaining upbeat, it is fair to say
that the cost is starting to rise...
And readers have been
getting in on the act too.