The MGA was a British roadster-style sports car produced by MG from 1955-62. As was the case with most English cars like this, the vast majority were exported to the U.S. and beyond. This ’61 MGA has been in the same family since new and kept in a garage and off the road the past few years. Located in Bellevue, Washington, this classic car is available here on craigslist for $13,000. Thanks to MattR for fielding this tip for us!
Over eight years of production, there were adjustments to the MGA along the way, such as small increases in engine size. The Mark II edition, sometimes called the MGA 1600, had an inline-4 with a displacement of 1622-cc. Horsepower was bumped up to 90 and the car had a higher rear axle ratio of 4:1 for more relaxed high-speed driving. Out of more than 101,000 MGAs built overall, just past 8,000 were produced for the years 1960-62, making them fairly rare in the U.S. today.
The seller has had this ’61 MGA since 1996, no doubt having been passed along from one family member to another. The car was used mostly during the summer months for weekend drives, but funds have been short in recent years and it’s mostly stayed put. The fluids (we assume gasoline) were removed, and the batteries (more than one?) are dead, but the seller has new ones to go back in the car. It will also need a tune-up. The body, paint, and interior look to be fine, so perhaps the work mentioned above is all that will be needed to get it rolling again. The car should be a blast to drive. Road & Track tested one in 1961 and managed to get it to do over 100 mph.
Already deleted, not surprisingly from what we see here.
I am just about to post mine. Very Similar condition Beautiful sporty red 1960. Was in garage for 31 years, had an off frame refurbish before I bought it. I showed it a few times but now its just been parked in my garage for almost 10 years.,,too many others cars & too disabled to enjoy or work on it. Located in Oregon PDXGoGirl at gmail dot com I will gather some pics & get membership to post this car. Also have sporty little 1968 White MG Midget Moving need to sell also.
Wow that went quickly, looked like a decent buy, plus two new 6v batteries!
I don’t even that was up for more than 4 days from what I recall. It shows there are still gems on CL at a nice price, but you better not hit snooze too long.
I think I’ll start saving local copies of these ads before I submit them so I can upload them as comments later if need be.
FWIW, MattR, you obviously called it right on this one too! 👍🏻
@Russ: This is not a 1600 Mk II. It’s an MGA 1600, which was the model before the Mk II. The 1600 had a 1588cc engine, not a 1622cc. 80 hp, not the 90 of the Mk II.
With MGAs, you first had the MGA (no extra badging) with 1489cc engine, followed by the MGA 1600 (this car) with the 1588cc engine, front disc brakes, “1600” badging, different taillights and front turn signal lights and finally the 1600 MkII which had a recessed grille, horizontal taillights, “1600 Mk II” badging and the 1622cc engine. (I left out the Twin Cam, but it’s not really relevant here).
The 1961 R&T test was of a Mk II, not a 1600, though the 1600 also topped 100 (103) when R&T tested it in 1959. The earlier 1489cc cars had a 95mph top speed.
This is a true roadster, with side curtains and all, so no “roadster style” qualifier needed in the description.
Agreed. No grill photo, no 1600 badges on the front shroud, and the tail lights are not Mk 2 tail lights. You would think that someone would put in at least a bit of effort to list their car accurately. Sure not in this case!
I wonder if this was for real..Different cars, different paint? Has dead batteries?Like it would be a real chore to charge/replace them? This ad was fishy from the get-go.
One pic was in the sun, with a film camera. The other was 25 years later, in a dim garage with the light source in front of the camera. It was real and someone got a nice car.
Looks great value. Car may be a 1600 MGA, but I think the MK2 version had horizontal rear lights?
1600 Mk1, 1960 only, great car, bought mine for £100.00 in 1973, still have it,
Nose photo shows a grille with sloped vertical elements; a Mk II had more vertical bars which created a shelf in front that many people filled with driving lights. A Mk II is a rare find; a nice clean 1600 is also pretty desirable and the price looks right.
I misread the headline. I thought to myself ‘How in the world would you fit one family in that little thing?”
They made a lot more than 8,000 MGA in the last three years of production. The US export market received 19,850 MGAs of model years 1960, 1961, and 1962, and few thousand were sold in other countries.
https://www.mg-cars.org.uk/MGA/mgaprod.html