I've had nothing but two MGBs for the past seven years; a V8 GT as a daily
driver which for about three years was doing about 140 miles per day; and a
roadster used for pleasure including trips abroad of around 2500 miles. In
that time the roadster has stopped once, it was the fuel pump, I was
carrying a spare and changed it at the roadside. The V8 has stopped twice -
once when the fan-belt started to delaminate and a piece of loose material
wrapped itself round the coil wire and pulled it off (30 secs with a
pen-knife to cut the loose material off then replace the belt when I got
home), and a burst lower hose where I did need to call out the AA and they
made a temporary repair.
So they can make very reliable daily drivers, but it is all down to the
owner. They do need a lot more care and attention than a modern car - they
need more frequent routine maintenance and things will wear out which will
need restoring or replacing. You will have to be prepared for the
occasional breakdown, particularly while bringing a neglected car up to
scratch. One piece of advice I came across many years ago was "Listen to
your car, it is talking to you". Which means get used to how your car
looks, sounds, smells and feels, and investigate any departure from the norm
immediately. Which leads me on to the most important point:
Unless you are prepared to get down and do a lot of the work yourself (and
there is a huge amount of free advice and opinion on this list and at
http://www.mgcars.org.uk/) you had better have deep pockets. Not
neccessarily because of the cost of parts but the cost of labour if you go
to commercial organisations for all the work.
----- Original Message -----
From: "Daniel Silverman" <dans@cox.net>
To: <mgs@autox.team.net>
Sent: Sunday, February 24, 2002 11:27 PM
Subject: Are MGB reliable daily drivers?
> I live in Arizona and someone is selling a '77 MGB...
>
> I was wondering if a '77 MGB is a reliable daily driver...
>
> And if the car needs repairs/parts where do I go to?
///
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