MG-Cars.net

Welcome to our resource for MG Car Information.

Recommendations

Parts

MG parts spares and accessories are available for MG T Series (TA, MG TB, MG TC, MG TD, MG TF), Magnette, MGA, Twin cam, MGB, MGBGT, MGC, MGC GT, MG Midget, Sprite and other MG models from British car spares company LBCarCo.

MG MGA - EARLY Car No. Plate, Original Details

Please see first two pictures here: http://mgaguru.com/mgtech/restore/rt107.htm
Notice the word in lower left corner of the pate may be either "Guarantee" or "Warranty". I would like to determine when (how early) this change of the plate occurred.

So I am calling on everyone who has an MGA with chassis number between 10225 June 1955) and 36897 (August 1957) AND has the ORIGINAL plate. Could you check to see if it says "Guarantee" or "Warranty", and respond if you have one that falls in between the chassis numbers that will appear here? I am posting this in a few different venues for best coverage, but there should be no need for the responses to be duplicated.
Barney Gaylord

Chassis 1935x says Warranty. That eliminates about 17500 cars
Chuck Schaefer

My roadster which was built in Jan/Feb 1956 and dispatched in Feb 1956, chassis no.11563, engine no.1623 plate reads"WARRANTY"

Rgds Trevor Burnett South Africa
t burnett

This is getting narrowed down pretty fast. The range remaining in question is now between 10979 and 11563. Less than 600 to go.
Barney Gaylord

I have 11019 and has warranty
C Tarr

Wow. That brings it down to a range of only 40 cars, unless maybe there was some overlap in usage.
Barney Gaylord

After looking at your web site and my plate I beleave I have a repo plate. I have 2 plates that came with the car. Both with same numbers but one is new in bag and the other is same style but in bad condition. Both are smooth and leter stamping is the same. SEE INGINE is painted on.
C Tarr

Drats! Back to the span of 584.
Barney Gaylord

Could they have been different for different markets?
Dave O'Neill 2

Sort of a guess, but probably not. The plates were in English language wherever the cars were sold. If they didn't change the language for different countries I doubt they would have been fiddling with the "dialect". Apparently there is a subtle legal difference between a guarantee and a warranty. Perhaps that legal development happened right around end of 1955 calendar year.
Barney Gaylord

My Twin Cam Roadster sent to South Africa in CKD format and assembled locally by Motor Assemblies body no.68666, tag reads "WARRANTY"

Rgds Trevor Burnett
t burnett

Barney,
I've collected pictures of about 120 different original MGA number plates. (Unfortunately no between 10979 and 11563).
I cannot believe that they've changed the etched plate.
The only difference was in the engraved engine numbers (number or "SEE ENGINE"), not in the etched parts of the plates. The plate itself was always the same from first to last MGA. My plates pictures are from car number 10130 to 105304, no change, always "WARRANTY" as far as on the pictures visible.

Robert
Robert Mueller

Sacré bleu! I was afraid that might happen. There is no denying that both forms of the plate exist. It is equally unbelievable that a "different" plate would be produced by some non-factory entity for or during this particular range of production.

So far verification of the word "Guarantee" on these plates only applies to a range of the first 1000 cars. Now I wonder if there may have been perhaps a batch of 500 or so plates produced with the word "Guarantee" (perhaps in error), and someone thought it didn't matter and subsequently tossed them in with later corrected plates to be used in final assembly.

If I want to pursue this farther I suppose I would have to start tabulating every available original number plate, record which word is on it, and insist on a photo to verify that it is real and likely to be original. Eventually some pattern might emerge out of the data. I suppose I need to start with any plates that Robert may have within production of the first 1000 cars, since I have yet to see a picture of one of those that does not say "Guarantee". What say, Robert? How many of those do you have?
Barney Gaylord

the plate on the TF similar to the mga plate, only on the top it reads " series tf " instead of "series mga" has also have the word guarantee on it.so probarley they changed the word tf i mga for the first batch, and lateron they changed guarantee in warranty

serge
serge

Serge is right. Normally MG started a new model with chassis number 251 (their telephone number before WW II), but when the last TF with chassisnumber 10100 rolled of the line, for some reason they just continued with number 10101 for the first MGA. So it makes sense that the first MGA plates were hardly changed.

Rutger
Rutger Booy

First evidence!
I found one picture of a plate on my other computer:
Car number HDR43-10721 with the word "GUARANTEE" in the very left bottom of the picture!

Robert


Robert Mueller

A second plate I found was an Australian CKD car number plate: 7 57121, also with "GUARANTEE".

Robert


Robert Mueller

... and here is a TF plate.
Robert


Robert Mueller

I do agree with Serge and Rutger. When the first plates were made, they just changed "TF" into "M.G.A" and left the complete word sequence as before.

Later on (maybe after 1000 cars) they changed "Guarantee" to "Warranty".


Giovanni
Robert Mueller

Barney,

I saw on your website that you write, I have the 10130 plate. I have to say that I only have a photo of it in my collection and unfortunately the photo only shows the VIN and some area around. I think I collected this photo on an internet auction of the car some time ago.
So I cannot confirm if on this particular plate is WARRANTY or GUARANTEE. I can only confirm that on the plate 10721 is GUARANTEE and on the 13085 is WARRANTY. You see on the bad 13085 plate only the "Y" of WARRANTY-

By the way, can anybody of the british guys explain the legal difference of GUARANTEE and WARRANTY?

Robert


Robert Mueller

Robert

There is a lot about the difference between the 2 on the internet. Nevertheless, I did pick-up on this sentence in one description: "A guarantee is generally given by manufacturers whereas the warranty is provided by most of the retail sellers or distributors."

I just wonder if it was a move by the motor trade to make its dealerships take more responsibility and force them to handle customer issues, instead of the motorist continually taking his complaints to the factory.

Steve

Steve Gyles

Robert, -- Note acknowledged. I was about so ask you for a picture of that plate, as it didn't fit the pattern. It makes more sense that the 30th car plate said "Guarantee". Now the list shows all cars so far verified below 11000 to say "Guarantee".
Barney Gaylord

My 56 MGA is #13423 and it says 'warranty'
N Wessely

This thread was discussed between 17/09/2011 and 10/10/2011

MG MGA index

This thread is from the archive. The Live MG MGA BBS is active now.