“This trunk is huge! My golf set would fit in it just fine.” These were the first words a Romanian businessman, Viorel Catarama, said when he first laid his eyes on the Morgan Aero model. The British car sports a thirties look, but is fresh out of the assembly lines in UK, where such vehicles are manually put together at a pace of less than 550 units a year.
The charm was quick to show in contracts, as four Morgans were sold in the first few days of the Auto Show in Bucharest, according to Pro Auto Industries, the company that officially introduced this brand in Romania.
“We’ve sold three 4/4 4 Seater model cars, which cost 26,000 sterling pounds (more than $42,000) tax exclusive each and an Aero 8, which costs 47,000 pounds ($77,000) thus far. We’re in talks over selling another Aero 8, but no firm contract has been signed yet,” Pro Auto Industries representatives say. They added the sales target for this year is 10 units. “The two models on display at the auto show were bought by us, and we’ve already recovered our investment due the orders we’ve got so far,” Pro Auto Industries officials added.
The waiting period from the moment the order is placed until the actual delivery of the car is three to six months. The procedure is simple: the client makes a down payment and then personalises the car, the price of which may therefore go up by several thousand pounds. For instance metallic paint cots 500 pounds and the leather interior costs 2,000 pounds.
“Furthermore, cleaning the car with anything else but the fluids and products recommended by Morgan voids the warranty. The two models we’ve displayed at the auto show have just left the plant and no cleaning product may be used on them for three weeks, so that we had to dust them off with suede cloth.” Who bought these cars anyway?
“Businessmen and generally upper class. A British citizen came by and was surprised to see our cars because he thought nobody in Romania had heard of this brand. Unfortunately, he did not buy one of cars displayed because he had just signed a contract to buy another car from a different brand’s stand,” the representatives of the Romanian importer say.
Moreover, the first Romanian show room of the British brand could be opened soon. The show room will be located somewhere near the Cercul Militar National (National Military Club). “We sent some of our employees for training in England, because this is one of Morgan’s requirements,” the representatives of the Romanian importer said.
The Morgan cars are handcrafted at the plant in UK, with 540 units turned out every year. The average period of time it takes to build a Morgan is 23 days, but the production plan is set six months before.
ionut.bonoiu@zf.ro