G'day from New Zealand

Kia ora to you MG aficionados out there from the Far North of this lovely land where the men are real and the sheep are fast on their hoofs.

Long story short, I'd like some advice, but I'll give you a bit of background first.

The wife owns a 2003 MG TF 160 which she purchased when we were living in Blighty, and brought it 'downunder' when we moved. It lives in the garage and she pampers it and only takes it out at weekends. I drive a brute's ute full of fish guts, outboard motors, aeroplane parts, bags of cement etc etc.

Alas I am not much of a car enthusiast however my part of the deal is to wield spanners and swear at the machine when things need fixing. So far, it's been pretty straightforward, and I've only had to replace brake units, ball joints, clutch master/slave, brake servo etc etc.

But then it happened - a failed WOF (NZ equivalent of MOT) due to a binding handbrake cable. I know it was the cable as I had recently stripped the calliper to repair some binding (then wife told me to replace both units with new - arrrgh!).

The nightmare that is handbrake cable replacement. To get at the bulkhead where the cables pass into the cabin I tried to drop the front of the rear subframe, Four little bolts that had not been touched since 2003. Guess what - two of the bolts were much shorter than the other two!



Jobs that I have been avoiding - cam belt(s) change. Being a beer-drinking steak-eating Kiwi bloke for many years, I don't have the physique of an Olympic gymnast. Quite the opposite. I like space to move around in at the glacial pace at which I work and a cam belt(s) change on this little monster for me is akin to having to redecorate the living room with a long stick through the front door key hole.

Sparing you the gory detail, I now have the vehicle canted on blocks in the garage with the rear subframe out. So I'll take the opportunity to tackle the cam belts and do a bit of preventative maintenance.



The wife rocks up to see her dismantled pride-and-joy and suggests that a shiny new stainless exhaust would look cool and make the thing sound more like a sports car than a sewing machine. She glanced at the rear shocks and decided that the car didn't ride as well as it could because said items weren't pretty enough. Sod it, its only work, right?

To the point (finally). I know that this road has been trodden many times here, although from what I have seen much of the material is a decade or so old. Could the enthusiasts amongst you relay your recent experiences with after market stainless exhausts and suspension units that are available to Johnny Punter in 2022? I am cognisant of the fact that these items are quite personal choices, but the wife can't race out to a local MG meet to check out her options - hers is probably the only example of type in the Far North. I have seen Satur's website but read that doing business with this company can be haphazard - or have I misread?

Thanks in advance for your advice.

Kiwi

In my experience dealing with Satur’s from Oz was extremely haphazard, maybe the
Pomgolians get better treatment but us colonial types don’t tend to fare well. Who knows how poor ol’ jonnie foreigner with little English would go trying to deal with them!
I suspect that it’s a case of can’t be arsedness when it comes to dispatch and organising freight rather than any form of discrimination.
And the same can’t be arsedness seems to rear it’s ugly head when it comes to answering emails, something else that they’re crap at doing.
The suff they make seems Ok and they do seem to be able to answer the phone, but I’d save myself a shit load of time, trouble, pain and suffering by trying to source elsewhere.

As far as I can tell: They couldn’t ran outta sight on a dark night, let alone run an export online order business,

Thanks Cobber. I'll drop the bloke a query through the ether and assess the response. Maybe you hit the nail on the head - organising shipping is all too difficult for them. That said, buying TF parts from other vendors in the UK has been an absolute breeze and I have found the usual culprits to be very helpful indeed.

We get a bunch of stuff from Blighty so can organise carriage from this end - maybe that will help. In any case, if they give the impression that they are doing me a favour taking my money then its swivel time - I'll simply go elsewhere.

Cheers

Kiwi

I’ve only had good service from Rimmers, Brown & Gammons and others

Cobber, you have to understand that when the bonehead revolution cut us adrift from European red tape, We got bigger better and more BRITISH red tape so exporting anything is now a right fuxxing hassle. I sent a toy to a Friend in France. Three websites and a form to fill in with numerous cross references, none of which were appropriate. These days, I wouldn't send you an iron lung if you were my mother so I understand the difficulties of the UK retailers. I'm dreading moving my tools over to France in eighteen months' time. I will probably need profeessional help to do so.

Yeah I understand dealing with the EU is now a total shitfight, but nothing has changed with dealing with us colonials and the other UK based suppliers seem to be able to achieve acceptable results when dealing with us.
Having a Jag, 2 Triumphs, and a Landrover as well as the MG, means I deal with quite a lot of UK suppliers…. Big and small!
The only one I’ve had any trouble with is Saturs
And no amount of red tape, should impinge on their ability to answer a bloody email!

Maybe my one experience, so far, with Mike Satur is uncharacteristic. Ordered one of his TF Bellcranks 3 October, sent 4 October, received in Christchurch NZ 16 October, fitted and working well 20 October.

I'll happily use his firm again.