A more sophisticated chassis and easier usability are the focus of this latest update
ILLYA VERPRAET
TESTED 19.2.24, SOUTH WALES ON SALE NOW
M organ isn’t bound by the same pressures as most car makers to add bigger touchscreens and AI voice assistants in a mid-life facelift. No Morgan has either of those, thankfully. But in the four years since the current Plus Four and Plus Six were launched, there has been cause for subtle improvements based on press and customer feedback.
There was a round in 2021 and another last year. We’ll go into more depth when we road test the bigger-engined Plus Six in a few weeks, so let’s focus on the Four here (though most of the changes apply to both).
The CX generation, as it’s known, was launched in 2020 with an all-new bonded aluminium chassis and a pair of BMW engines. Since then, nothing much has changed on the outside, but returning customers will notice the revamped interior.
A new dashboard accommodates two airbags, a glovebox and a pair of USB ports. More daring modernity comes in the form of a slightly larger driver display and an optional Sennheiser sound system. The latter works like a Bluetooth speaker: you connect your phone to it and control audio from there.
The interior tweaks are completed by some seat upgrades. The lever for the backrest adjustment is now metal and no longer buried in a fingernail-busting crevice, and the optional Comfort Plus seats gain an adjustable thigh bolster. You still sit oddly high, but you get used to it.
The final interior change is a new button with an icon of a skidding Morgan. That turns off the new stability control or puts it into Sport mode. The ESC works with the revised AP Racing brakes, dampers and bushes to create a more sophisticated chassis.
Sophistication is still relative, right? Well, you might be surprised. That new stability control is nicely unintrusive until you need it. Sport mode doesn’t indulge and help you like the best systems, but I suppose Ferrari-style Side Slip Control might be a bit too much to expect here.
Without driving the refreshed Plus Four back to back with one from four years ago, I can’t make any absolute pronouncements about how much it has improved, but I don’t fully recognise our original criticisms of harshness and looseness.
Most of the time, the ride is compliant and body movements are well co
