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MG Midget and Sprite General - Here's a good game

Just watched last night's TG. Here's a site to check out your favourites...

http://howmanyleft.co.uk/

Hours of fun!

A
Anthony Cutler

someone else on here mentioned that site a couple of weeks back (sorry to pee on your bonfire!).

I found out my 55 plate Rover 25 GLi is rarer car on the roads than my Midget 1500 or an Aston Martin DB9.

Cheers,
Malcolm
M Le Chevalier

that's clearly due to the rise of the K midget :)
Rob Armstrong

yeap I did but I stole it from PistonHeads anyway :)
N Atkins

been discussed on many other fora - and shown to be wildly out (or misleading) for some specific models and versions, so treat with due care and suspicion..
David Smith

yeah, I think it relies on owners taxing or SORN-ing their vehicles, so the numbers of Astra GSi and early model Imprezas are probably way out ;-)

Malcolm
M Le Chevalier

Hi David... pls tell us more...

A
Anthony Cutler

This evening I'll check my database of UK registered Mk1 Sprites (which I know to still exist) and see how it compares with those registered 1958 to 1960 only. Obviously it doesn't take into account those cars built for the UK market and subsequently exported to Japan and Europe.
Gary & Gaps

Ant - there are big proven errors with certain models of Porche 924, also with Maestro / Montego Turbo, and again with ZT and ZTT. It seems dealers and DVLA were sloppy in recording model details correctly at point of first registration. Further illustrated in the 90s and 00s when they couldn't make their mind up whether it was Rover or MG.
David Smith

It looks like an average of 205 1500 Midgets disappear every year. At that rate, they'll be gone in 11 years.....
Paul W 1976 1500

Does a graph help?

Some trends interesting... A and A-H Sprite numbers stable; Midget-1500s reducing approx 2x rate of Midgets. Midgets increased from 1995 to 1999... was this result of SORN, restorations, imports, ...?

Over period, the number of AH Sprites and Midgets increased.

Are AH Sprite numbers stabilised because Frogs are being preserved? Similarly, are A Sprites being preserved due to rarity?

A

Anthony Cutler

Quite fun to speculate, but I wouldn't try and read too much into the stats. My late model Austin Sprite is simply registered as an "Austin" so presumably isn't even on those records. The numbers of Austin Sprites on their records seem high given that only 1022 were built. But would their records distinguish between the "Sprite" badged version of the Austin Mini?

Typical of government collated statistics - they are always so full of errors or spurious records. And yet it is statistics of just this sort of "detail" that are then used to formulate government policies by people who have little understanding of the real truth behind the numbers!
Guy

Guy, If you drill down on the model name it gives you the data by year of original registration. So for Austin Sprites (spridgety ones) we'd be looking at 1971 and poss 1972 - that gives you 112 still licensed and 35 on SORN. Sounds a bit more realistic, but then I wonder how many Austin Sprites were registered as Austin Healey Sprites? :-)


Harvey '71 Sprite

Given the rarity of the Austin Sprites we seem to have quite a few up here in Yorkshire.
Mothy

This thread was discussed between 27/06/2011 and 30/06/2011

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