Re: Aesthetics, a matter of choice.
Posted: Wed Jul 27, 2016 2:21 pm
Does anyone else find the motoring press talks up a good review, when the opposite is true? I have been reading about the modern MG F & TF, it's often referred to as "The Last Proper British Sports Car." And what a jolly good car it is. You should speak to owners, better still, look at remarks about it on internet forums, but, you know, it carries that famous octagon badge, so it has to be good. Really? If you know anything about the K-Series Engine,like it's aluminium block, damp liners and stretch bolts, you will know, and understand, that unless you are extremely gifted with internal combustion knowledge, you stay well away from the K-Series engine.
The head gasket on the MG is notoriously unreliable, and if you cannot do it yourself, you face a bill of around £750 to replace it. That's just the start, those liners, they move, what a headache that causes. And the problem that those stretch bolts cause don't bear thinking about.
If you are talented enough to sort all those problems you can easily buy an MG TF for just a few hundred pounds. The advert will almost inevitably say: "Blown head gasket."
Yet for all it's problems, publications like MG Enthusiast, talk a good war. They put a great deal of spin on the aesthetics of the car's appearance and just gloss over the wallet busting, pain-in-the-arse, mechanical troubles.
My missus wanted to sell her Scala and buy one of those TF's, after I took her to the garage that looks after the old MG and the garage that services my Merc Sprinter, both garage owners explained to her the TF's problems, she decided to hold onto the VW. But if she does want a change, the Merc SLK is far more reliable although rather bland.
The head gasket on the MG is notoriously unreliable, and if you cannot do it yourself, you face a bill of around £750 to replace it. That's just the start, those liners, they move, what a headache that causes. And the problem that those stretch bolts cause don't bear thinking about.
If you are talented enough to sort all those problems you can easily buy an MG TF for just a few hundred pounds. The advert will almost inevitably say: "Blown head gasket."
Yet for all it's problems, publications like MG Enthusiast, talk a good war. They put a great deal of spin on the aesthetics of the car's appearance and just gloss over the wallet busting, pain-in-the-arse, mechanical troubles.
My missus wanted to sell her Scala and buy one of those TF's, after I took her to the garage that looks after the old MG and the garage that services my Merc Sprinter, both garage owners explained to her the TF's problems, she decided to hold onto the VW. But if she does want a change, the Merc SLK is far more reliable although rather bland.
