If you’re an American and you like your automotive Britishness like you like your romantic partners – archaic, concentrated, shockingly traditional, having a partially wooden skeleton, and usually topless – then boy do I have good news for you. After an absence of 20 years, there’s a new Morgan Plus car that you can buy in America. It’s the new Morgan Plus Four, and I’m excited these will be for sale once again here in the land of bottomless breadsticks.
Yesterday, the Morgan Motor Company announced via ex-Twitter that the Morgan Plus Four (really, any four-wheeled Morgan) is finally coming back to the United States after an absence of 20 years. The freshly-updated yet still wildly traditional car has been successfully homologated and meets US requirements, at least those specified under the Low Volume vehicle Manufacturers Act of 2015, which will limit the number of cars to 325 per year, but for Morgan, those are high volume numbers.
These new US-bound Morgans will have their steering wheels on the left side, as Lady Liberty demands, but otherwise appear to be identical to their UK counterparts.
Having successfully met all homologation requirements, Plus Four will represent the first Morgan Plus model available in the United States for more than 20 years. (2/4) pic.twitter.com/AEmiGS0EYL
— Morgan Motor Company (@morganmotor) November 7, 2024
The new Morgan Plus Four is the latest update to a car that was introduced in 2020, but was heavily based on the original +4 (with the + symbol instead of the word “plus,” you see) which entered production in 1950. The Plus Four still uses an ash wood frame, but also has a bonded aluminum structure as well.
The styling remains stubbornly and gleefully archaic, though this latest iteration does make some subtle changes. The fenders have been reshaped ever so slightly, the separate front turn indicators are now integrated into the new headlamps (which are still round but no longer old sealed beams), the taillights have been cleaned up from dual off-the-shelf round lights to single custom round units per side, there’s a new front diffuser, new mirrors, and I think that’s about it. It still, thankfully, looks like how Morgans have looked for about 70 or so years.
I’m not really sure what those louvers are on the round trunk lid/spare tire holder, but I assume they have some sort of important purpose? Maybe they vent rich leather smells to the atmosphere.
The new taillights are quite simple and elegant and fit the car better than the old dual Lucas-parts-catalog lights the previous version used. They seem to illuminate amber in the center for the turn indicator, and red for brake and tail. I don’t see any reverse lamps!
The Plus Four is powered by a BMW 2-liter four and you can get it with a six-speed manual or ZF 8-speed automatic, but come on, you want the manual here. It still hardly weighs anything so it’ll get to 60 in about five seconds, which is plenty fast, especially if you’re doing what these two are with that umbrella:
I bet you can get that umbrella to rip out of her hands pretty easily. Also, this picture doesn’t give me a lot of confidence in what Morgan thinks of their own convertible top?
Our pal Alex Goy is doing Morgan’s look-at-all-the-new-stuff video! Look! He’ll show you a Morgan with a color LCD screen in front of the driver and you won’t even be mad:
Want another Morgan Plus Four video? Maybe the one where that umbrella pic came from? Sure you do!
Overall, this is good news, not just for the 325 people with around $80,000 to spend on one of the most delightfully archaic cars on the market, but for everyone who gets to encounter them as they drive by. The carscape of America needs to have cars like these Morgans sprinkled all over it.
I mean seriously, at 80k it seems like this thing offers an experience that very few others could. This thing is rad.
If you have, objectively, too much money to spend on cars, if you drive a Morgan configured with everything people will be so pleased to see you, no-one will think, “Look at that posh git, showing off”, even if you are posh, a git, and showing off.
Yep. The Morgan is expensive (though not insanely) and exclusive though it looks so cute, happy and archaic that it doesn’t come across as a showoff vehicle like a Ferrari or Lamborghini
Who wants to buy me one?! 😛
If you buy one for me, I will buy one for you. Or, more likely I will take my car from you and then claim that yours is delayed due to some ‘shipping error’.
Wow, that’s a great deal! lol
Now that we can all agree speed alone is kind of a pointless measuring stick in an age where every EV is faster than you anyway…
I would so much rather have a Plus Four than a Supra or BMW or fancy Mustang or whatever else for the same money. The Plus Four is much more unique and interesting, with so many more quirks to make it entertaining. Who cares that it’s not the fastest thing in its price range, it’s by far the most charming and lovable! I like a car with personality, and eccentric British is just one of the best personalities.
Fantastic little car. We need more cars like this.
Just curious – how do such manufacturers handle the protection of parts and elements that come straight from other manufacturers ?
That shifter for example – clearly a BMW one. On a BMW, it’s likely meant to never see a drop of rain. On this one – it might. Or do they source it from convertible BMWs (supposing BMW or anyone else would do anything about extra weather protection for their cabin hardware, which might or might not be the case ?)
TVR’s turn now.
Oh, wait…
If I had around 100k to throw at a new car, I would totally consider getting one of these.
Also, why isn’t every auto maker’s online configurator this brilliant? It has beautiful graphics, it’s quick and responsive, and it does an extremely good job at showing you the changes you are making to the car.
Configured one to 92,000 US. I had to have the two-tone paint. Not that I can afford it, but was curious to know.
Sad to say you can’t get a new Morgan in Australia at the moment since recent changes to our Design Rules means the current cars don’t comply, and unless any changes made to achieve legality in the US make them legal here, we probably won’t see them again down here since the market is too small to justify the factory going to the effort to make them legal here.
And the lack of new cars means the values of used Morgans here are always going to stay well out of my reach.
Were money no object, I would love to take an Aero 8 and fit as many of the Aero 8 GT race parts as I could legally get away with on a road car, since the idea of a Morgan with carbon hardtop, cage, carbon front splitter and big carbon wing and sequential 6 speed sounds like ludicrous fun.
Don’t you guys have some sort of single vehicle type approval program the way the UK does? Could you import one privately and then jump through some hoops? Years ago I was contacted by a guy from there trying looking for assistance with getting approval for the Koenigsegg CCR. I wasn’t able to help much and he ended up having to get the factory involved and I think it took him a couple years so maybe never mind… but he did get it done in the end.
We do have a similar low volume import rule that allows for a simplified compliance process. And in fact, up until relatively recently, that’s how the Suzuki Jimny remained available.
But regardless, any new car must still comply with the current Australian Design Rules. And the Morgan (like a number of other high profile cars like the Alpine A110, Mitsubishi Mirage and a Lexus somethingorother amongst others) fell foul of recent requirement for a specific side instrusion bars in the vehicle’s doors.
Maybe the want of money is the root of evil because I would do bad things for one of these
Thank goodness this one isn’t cross eyed!
These are so stupid and so unapologetically British…and I would have several of them if I could because they’re perfect in every way.
I can’t imagine that these have Toyota-like reliability… With that said, I want one so bad, but can’t really explain why. Must be the lizard part of my brain taking over.
Growing up in Northern California, I listened to the epic San Francisco rock and roll station KFRC, AM 610. At some point, my exact age at the time eludes me but I think I was still in junior high school, they had a contest where they were giving away Mick Jagger’s Morgan. All you had to do was guess where they were going to do that. I told my friend “Oh that’s easy. The London Bridge at Lake Havasu, Arizona.” He told me I should submit that. I didn’t.
Guess where it was awarded…
KFRC had loads of giveaways. There was always a promotion going on, and they kept their ratings very high in a competitive market. KFRC bumper stickers were everywhere. It was rather annoying, but they were extremely creative. That was a radio time and place that will never come again, unfortunately.
But KSAN had that bus poster.
A personal favorite, though I prefer the S3 as a pure driving experience. Those louvres on the trunk lid are actually a grater. You know how the Brits love their cheese.
You get the boot.
Cheese, Gromit?
And crackers.
This is a vehicle that makes zero sense but if I was wealthy (or even borderline wealthy) I would totally buy one. I would love to go bombing around in one of these.
This is one of the few vehicles I think I could use to convince my wife to replace the Mini Cooper. Just need to jump a few tax brackets.
Growing up a dentist in town had a Morgan. That and someone’s brand new S2000 were my favorite vehicles in town.
I’d like to see them bring back the Plus 4 Plus, you know, take the design into the 1950s. It could be a roadster version, even.
Or the 4++, which adds the increment operator to the standard library and is considerably less clunky than the 4 += 4.
On the other hand, the 4x is AWD.
Or the 4☐, from seven years ago.
“The new Morgan Plus Four is the latest update […] heavily based on the original +4 (with the + symbol instead of the word “plus,” you see)”
Could be worse, they could’ve gone with something like MORGAN PLUS FOUR, à la what Audi is doing in China https://www.theautopian.com/audis-new-ev-sub-brand-is-called-audi-which-isnt-confusing-at-all/
$80,000 and you have to supply your own bumpers?
Just ask Torch if he has any spare ham bumpers…
Hi Jason, i don’t see anything about a stick being available on Morgan’s US website. where did you see that info?
I saw the stick, but couldn’t get the configurator to load.
I only saw it available on the British website, not the US.
At least 9 years for them to figure out how to do this? Or for some reason they didn’t want to until more recently. Either way hard for me to understand.
I think it was more the NHTSA dragging their feet and the Low Volume Vehicle Manufacturers Act being a legal labyrinth to negotiate. As far as I know, thus far only Moke International and Morgan have successfully brought a product to market via this avenue, and it was passed nine years ago. Don’t forget the powertrains used in such vehicles still need to meet full EPA muster.
Power train is so easy that they even use the stock BMW auto shifter. I do believe the legal bullshit was not easy.
As auto enthusiasts we should all consider ourselves blessed that against all odds, reason and sense, Morgan somehow still exists.
Right? If you’re a car enthusiast and you don’t like these you should consult with your physician.
One might even say that the Plus Four is a welcome addition to the American carscape.
Thanks for a joyful take on a joyful vehicle!