MG Buyer's Guide
MG is the classic market's entry gate, and our records show why: 31 sold results, most under £10,000, for cars whose every component, including the complete bodyshell, can be bought new. No other marque makes classic ownership this forgiving.
The story, briefly
Morris Garages began badging sporting Morrises in the twenties and settled into its role as Britain's volume sports-car maker after the war: the T-types, then the MGA in 1955, then the MGB in 1962, which stayed in production to 1980 and sold over half a million. Rubber bumpers and raised ride heights arrived in 1974 for the American market; the market has never stopped preferring the chrome cars, and prices say so consistently.
Which MG, for what money
MGA money. Two sales, £7,400 and £42,750: the spread between a project and a restored car in a single pair of results. The MGA is the marque's styling high point and now prices accordingly when finished.
MGB money. Thirteen roadster sales, £2,640 to £17,719, median £6,469; five GT sales, £3,000 to £15,638, median £9,800. Chrome-bumper cars (pre-1974) set the top of both ranges. The GT's slightly higher median reflects how many good coupés survived garaged winters that the roadsters did not.
Midget money. Eight sales from £620 to £5,635, median £3,600. The cheapest usable classic sports car in our entire dataset, sharing its mechanicals with the Austin-Healey Sprite and most consumables with a parts catalogue that has never gone out of print.
What goes wrong
Structure, not mechanicals. Sills are the MGB's chassis; a car with plated or filled sills is a body-off job waiting to be priced. Castle rails, spring hangers, floor pans and rear arches follow. The B-series engine and its gearbox are agricultural in the best sense and rebuildable indefinitely. British Motor Heritage manufactures complete new MGB and Midget bodyshells, which sets a hard ceiling on restoration economics: no MGB is unrestorable, but plenty are uneconomic at purchase prices above £5,000 if the structure is gone.
Our view
For a first classic, our data offers nothing more sensible than a chrome-bumper MGB roadster bought on sill and floor condition at £6,000 to £10,000: weekend-usable, club-supported in every county, and liquid whenever you sell. The Midget at £3,600 median is the same ownership in a smaller parcel. Pay the chrome-bumper premium; the market always has.