MGF ‘steptronic’ auto, just how bad?
Discussion
Long story short. When my wife and I first got together, she had a Sienna Gold MGF which she loved.
We sold it many years ago and she would love another one.
Now, MGF’s are rare, Sienna Gold even more so. There is a car available which I would be happy to spend the money on….. but it’s an auto. I’ve never driven an MGF auto, how bad are they??
We sold it many years ago and she would love another one.
Now, MGF’s are rare, Sienna Gold even more so. There is a car available which I would be happy to spend the money on….. but it’s an auto. I’ve never driven an MGF auto, how bad are they??
I have never tried a Stepspeed, but I recall the general view at MG outings was they were a little faster than 135s on roads requiring a lot of speeding up and slowing down, despite having 120bhp, due to the CVT keeping them in the power band. Also they have a longer "top" gear ratio than the manual so lower revs on the motorway.
My fear would be serviceability of the gearbox; they have a belt in there, and belts wear. I wouldn't get one without locating a service manual and stock of parts for the gearbox. Try Rimmer Bros and Brown & Gammon to see what parts they stock, also Xpart seemed to be still alive (but not answering emails or phonecalls) when I last looked a year or so back.
The PG1 manual has a large body of knowledge, it was common to a lot of cars (Rover, Lotus, new Mini, Land Rover). It's a pretty simple, surprisingly durable gearbox. So is a less risky bet.
My fear would be serviceability of the gearbox; they have a belt in there, and belts wear. I wouldn't get one without locating a service manual and stock of parts for the gearbox. Try Rimmer Bros and Brown & Gammon to see what parts they stock, also Xpart seemed to be still alive (but not answering emails or phonecalls) when I last looked a year or so back.
The PG1 manual has a large body of knowledge, it was common to a lot of cars (Rover, Lotus, new Mini, Land Rover). It's a pretty simple, surprisingly durable gearbox. So is a less risky bet.
The Rotrex Kid said:
Long story short. When my wife and I first got together, she had a Sienna Gold MGF which she loved.
We sold it many years ago and she would love another one.
Now, MGF’s are rare, Sienna Gold even more so. There is a car available which I would be happy to spend the money on….. but it’s an auto. I’ve never driven an MGF auto, how bad are they??
We are looking at an MGTF for a cheap summer convertible, all of the buying guides that I have read either imply or say directly that they are terrible and to avoid.We sold it many years ago and she would love another one.
Now, MGF’s are rare, Sienna Gold even more so. There is a car available which I would be happy to spend the money on….. but it’s an auto. I’ve never driven an MGF auto, how bad are they??
If your heart is set on an mgf or tf I'd suggest stick with the manual unless there is a compelling reason not to, disability, licencing or price. The first two being self explanatory, the third from experience sometimes auto sports cars can be much lower mileage, better cared for and cheaper. To the point manual conversions make sense. I did an early eunos conversion about 2 years ago for that very reason, it was the best shell I'd ever seen.
But you would need to be willing to either pay a fair bit of money to somebody or get your hands very dirty to do a good job, generally I find a donor car is the most practical way to do an auto to manual conversion well.
In answer to your original question, you will lose a lot of the pleasure from the car with the CVT box. While technically interesting I do find cvts pretty unpleasant to drive.
But you would need to be willing to either pay a fair bit of money to somebody or get your hands very dirty to do a good job, generally I find a donor car is the most practical way to do an auto to manual conversion well.
In answer to your original question, you will lose a lot of the pleasure from the car with the CVT box. While technically interesting I do find cvts pretty unpleasant to drive.
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