MG Midgets losing out in the generation game...

If you were looking for a very good Seventies/ Eighties MG Midget, February was your month. Anglia sold a really lovely Inca Yellow ’79 with just 29,000 miles, bills going back to the Eighties and a long run of Mots for £4752. In the same month, Mathewsons auctioned another ’79, in Pageant Blue, completely restored and needing nothing for just £6200. Six grand is a fraction of what had obviously been spent on the bare-shell resto and it looked a decent buy.

Midget prices have been steadily weakening and last year Hampsons sold a timewarp 1980 in Sandglow with a warranted 4000 miles for £10,125 – although it took two sales to find a bidder – while Mathewsons sold a lovely 1980 in red, also fully restored and beautifully detailed for £6600.

There’s also a lot of slick modern competition in the small sports car sector with Z3s, SLKS, S2000s, MR2S, MX5S and MGFS all easily buyable for less than five grand, which makes the cart-sprung Midget seem a bit of a relic. Even the earlier, more desirable chrome-bumper/square rear-arch cars have weakened. In June last year, Anglia sold a nice Tartan Red ’69, an older restoration with 45,000 miles for £4320, while in May Brightwells offered a fully restored ’67 MKIII, also in red and looking very nice indeed with wire wheels and a guide of between £4750 to £5750. But it only drew a provisional bid of £3250 from the trade and went home unsold. Midgets may be uncomplicated, easy to own and cheap to run, but I think their once-evergreen appeal may be fading for generational reasons. A Z3, SLK, MR2 or an MG Midget? For most young, aspiring classic car owners, that’s not a difficult question.