Bill S. wrote:
<<< You are right about the so-called LE version - they made more of these
than the total production of just about every car I own. Limited indeed, but
only by the number of gullible shmucks willing to pony up the dough for a
badge engineered wannabe in order to feel 'exclusive' (I'm referring to
original buyers, not current owners here, so don't get your knickers in a
knot). >>>
Keep one other thing in mind - in 1980, that was the only way to buy an MG in
black in North America. When I first acted on my long attraction to MGs, it
was by going into a Chicago MG dealer and looking after seeing the rebates
being offered at the time on MGBs. I went into Lee Calan's dealership on the
north side (which I later found out was an historic MG address as an S.H.
"Wacky" Arnholt showroom in the 50's). Now the salesman read the situation
quickly that I was freshly out out college, new in town and newly in the
workforce and had minimal credit history so you can imagine how enthusiastic
he was about dealing with me rather than a "real" up. The real attitude
showed when he inquired what color I was interested in. I wanted black and
had no idea that black had been forced out of the BLVC spectrum long ago in
favor of hues like Limeflower, Aconite, Tundra etc. So specifying black
elicited a major eyeroll and a strained explanation that black would add
$1000.00 to the pricetag as the only black car available was the LE. And at
that point, he was not even interested in processing a credit app. Thank you
very much. That put a damper on my MG enthusiasm. It lasted a couple days. I
then went to another dealer on the west side, Howard Orloff's, and was
treated more like a customer and put a deposit on an LE. Couldn't swing the
financing though. About 6 months later, my roommate spotted a '79 Midget on
Orloffs' used lot and told me about it. I called the salesman who had been
decent to me previously and ended up buying the car. Brooklands Green rather
than black. That was 18 years ago last week. I still have that car. It has
75,000 miles more on the clock and a ton of memorable trips to its credit. I
still have the deposit receipt with VIN # on the LE I tried to buy and am
going to see if I can track down the car in the LE register.
Kim Tonry
Downers Grove, Illinois, USA
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