Morgan will bring a four-wheeled model to the US for the first time in 20 years

il y a 5 jours, 14 heures - 17 Novembre 2024, Autoblog
Morgan will bring a four-wheeled model to the US for the first time in 20 years
The Morgan Plus Four will bring back pure, hand-built, British roadster goodness to American roads

If you've been hunting for a pure British roadster driving experience but a Mazda Miata is too mainstream, you're in luck! Morgan, the British automaker best known for their unorthodox Three-Wheeler will return to the U.S. in 2025 with their Plus Four model. The last four-wheeled Morgan model to be sold en masse in the US was the Morgan Aero 8 in 2005, making the Plus Four the first four-wheeled Morgan to be sold on our shores in almost 20 years.

Morgan's cars are among the last remaining survivors of the hand-built automotive era
The Plus Four, along with Morgan's other contemporary models, remains one of the last hand-built cars on the market. Morgan still uses a wood frame, ash timber in this case, with a hand-formed aluminum body wrapped over it.

It will be powered by a 2.0 L BMW TwinPower Turbo four-cylinder engine producing 255 hp. The engine can be paired with either a 6-speed manual transmission for 258 lb-ft of torque or an 8-speed automatic transmission for 295 lb-ft of torque. The model was also recently refreshed in 2024 with a number of design and technological improvements over the 2020 version.

For a car that weighs just under 2,250 lbs, that is a healthy amount of power. For comparison purposes, the newest Mazda Miata ND is powered by a naturally aspirated 2.0 L four-cylinder that puts out 181 hp and 151 lb-ft of torque. A manual transmission Miata ND also weighs 2,332 lbs.

The Morgan Plus Four carries a hefty price tag, naturally
The MSRP for the Morgan Plus Four will be around $84,995. It's a hefty price tag, but this isn't your run-of-the-mill mass-produced car so a premium is to be expected. Given that the Morgan is technically a replica of a classic car, their 12 U.S. dealers will be limited to selling 325 cars per year due to the FAST Act (Fixing America’s Surface Transportation).

Being approved as part of the FAST Act also meant that Morgan was exempt from the modern safety standards that regular cars have to abide by. The company did have to create an onboard diagnostics system for the engine that could meet Californian Air Resources Board (CARB) requirements.

Final thoughts
This is a big move for boutique automakers looking to import their cars into the US. Morgan is the first company to navigate our complex web of draconian laws that keeps fun cars out of our country so hopefully, other companies will be encouraged to follow suit. Think of the possibilities!

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