My First Post

Hi. My name is Scott. And this is a blog about my MG Midget. For this initial post, I think it'd be appropriate if I told you little bit about the events leading up to the purchase of my MG Midget.

I first recognized my love for Midgets when I was in my teens. I never had much interest at all in cars. In fact, I was very disinterested in them. They were merrily something to get me from Point A to Point B and I even waited a whole year after I was 16 to get my license. But anyway, I accompanied my dad to a community car show one year and there was an MG Midget. As it was the first time I've ever seen one, I immediately fell in love.

Why do I love these old, impractical, relatively slow cars? Well. They're very small. They're easy to maneuver in parking lots and on streets. I'm disgusted with the number of SUVs I see on the roads these days. I won't get into it now, but it's quite ridiculous. Secondly, Midgets have a very unassuming appearance. I get smiles and waves anytime I take it out. It just seems to make people happy. Third, they are simple in function and design. Under the hood and in the cockpit, it possesses only the essentials. Nothing more. Nothing less. The exterior's lines are straight, clean, and simple. My favorite view is from the front. The two round headlights perfectly complement the subtle smile of the grill. At its core, it is a classic and simple sports car.

As the years went by, I still hadn't much interest in cars, but I would periodically get MG books for christmas or look up pictures of the mighty Midget on the Internet. I was driving a Plymouth Sundance Duster during my late teens and early twenties which I shared with my brother. This was an awesome car. I don't think I realized how great it was until my brother and I had to start using different modes of transportation from one another. I was out at college for an extra semester, and he was home. Thus, my parents bought a 1991 Chevy Lumina for $800 at an auction, and I ended up eventually using this car instead of the Duster (at my own decision). I absolutely HATED this car. It was big. It drove like a boat. And the left turn signal often didn't work. I hated it.

It was during this time that I realized how much of an impact what I drove had on me. As a result, I started keeping an eye out for used cars. Since my dream car at the time, a new Mini Cooper S, was way out of my price range, I thought I could attain the same thrill from owning a MG Midget, at the fraction of the cost. So during the summer of 2005, I actively looked for one, mainly through the automotive classifieds. I stumbled upon a few that summer. There was a rubber-bumper Midget in red that I went to check out with my dad. Since I didn't yet know how to drive stick, my dad took me for a test drive in it. This was the first time I sat in one. I couldn't believe how small the cockpit was. I LOVED IT! I remembered my dad saying the brakes were very weak, having to push them all the way to the floor to get the thing to stop. I sat in the driver seat to make sure I would fit. I did. However, I wasn't crazy about the rubber bumpers, the color, and I thought they were asking too much for it. Although the seller (a fellow about my age) was very nice and seemed anxious to get rid of it, I passed on the car.

I happened across a few other Midgets that summer. They were either too rusty or too expensive.

Then one day I saw another one for sale in the paper. I asked my dad to call (since he is more knowledgeable about cars and would know what to ask). He said it was a yellowish color; it sported the desirable chrome bumpers AND rear wheel arches; but that it didn't run. We went to look at it anyway that afternoon. We drove up to Emmaus and as soon as we saw it sitting in the driveway I had a really good feeling about it. I think I commented to my dad how the color was nothing that I imagined it to be and that I thought the car looked awesome. We talked with the seller for a bit and looked over the car. The body was in great shape (with two minor surface rust spots). The interior was worn but intact. The car had been sitting for 18 years in a temperature-controlled garage and the seller never took the measures to bring it back to life. My dad checked to make sure the engine turned so we knew it wouldn't have to be rebuilt. Dad informed me that it would take a little work to get this baby running, but I've been told you should try to find a car with a good body over a car with good mechanicals. Way too many of these cars have rusted away over the years. When the seller went inside to get something, I told my dad that this was the one. $2,000 seemed extremely reasonable and I knew if I didn't buy it then, it would be sold before the end of the day. So I gave the seller a $100 deposit, until I could arrange to have it towed home.

We asked David, my mom's cousin, if he would transport my new car home with his flatbed trailer. I was beyond excited during the title transfer and the drive home. I kept looking back at the car to make sure it wouldn't fall off.

We got it home, and I was so eager to get started. My dad and I started looking at some spare parts the seller gave us, none of which I could identify. In my next post, I will get into more of what we did to the car from September 2005 to the present day.

My brother's and my 1994 Plymouth Sundance Duster.

My acquired 1991 Chevrolet Lumina.

My first ride in a MG Midget. This is a rubber-bumper Midget from the late 70s.

This one I saw at the Das Awkscht Fescht at the Car Carrol. It was a '75 Midget with a great stereo setup. They were asking around $5,800 which was WAY too much.

The winner. Even with the missing grille, the tacky stickers, the questionable square fog lamps, and the tire lettering it doesn't even compare to the two other Midgets pictured.