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Are MGB reliable daily drivers?

To: "MG Digest" <mgs@autox.team.net>
Subject: Are MGB reliable daily drivers?
From: "N" <twobees@sprynet.com>
Date: Mon, 25 Feb 2002 22:11:22 -0500
Tyson Sherman & many others have already given lots of good advice.  I too
concur.

After you get the cob-webs out of a hardly-driven MGB, and you upgrade the
odds-'n-ends, you can drive it just as you would any car.  Just remember
that is antique in its design.  While they are reliable, occasionally,
"stuff" happens.

I drove a new MGB as a daily driver in '65 & '66, and have been diving them
since Spring '93 - first a 51,000 mile '80 that had lots of little niggling
things go wrong because it had NOT been used regularly.  But, it was a tight
as a new car.   And, since 1997 my '66 multi-purpose MGB (fun car, pickup
truck, vintage racer) has been my daily driver.  In those 11 yearsof driving
MGB's, my major problems have been: fuel pump in the '65 B at 3,000 miles;
blown radiator hose in the '80; ripped up radiator when I stopped too fast &
the fan chewed into the radiator on the '66.  But, actually, none of them
left me stranded.  I fiddled with the pump enough to get to a garage where
the mechanic jury-rigged it to get me back to New Jersey from Vermont.  For
the blown hose - I released the radiator cap to its first detent, wrapped
the hose with duct tape, re-filled the radiator & drove to & from work that
day.  The ripped up radiator happened about 3 miles from home.  I nursed the
B home & replaced the radiator with a spare one from a parts car I had
dismantled.

I do drive my MGB's as I would any other car.  Last year I drove the '66
11,000 miles and that was low because I worked in Manhattan for 6 months and
only used the B nights & weekends.

Follow the sage advice of those who responded earlier.  But, most of all -
enjoy driving your MGB!

Norm Sippel
'66 MGB - my 4th B & counting

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