Important - Midas 2+2 Windscreens - Cortez & Excelsior

[ACourtney]

As you may have heard in the news, Autowindscreens went into receivership in February.
This is important news for owners of 2+2 models as they were the manufacturer of the unique windscreen used on these models.
Just to compound the issue, I sold the last stock windscreen last year.

I have been in touch with Deloittes, the receivers for Autowindscreens, but the news is not particularly helpful: The contents of the Chesterfield factory have been sold off and are being shipped abroad. It is likely to be five to six months before the new owners are ready to manufacture anything. Deloittes were unable to tell me whether the Midas tooling is among the equipment going abroad or has been scrapped.

I have been in contact with several windscreen suppliers and have come up with a number of options to keep the supply of windscreens alive.

My prefered option is to get new tooling made and get a batch produced. I would need to get 20 to 25 screens made, but would own the tooling outright so future supply could be guaranteed (GTM didn't buy the tooling outright, but paid for exclusive use on the Autowindscreens tooling).
This option would only be a commercial proposition if I could interest a sufficient number of owners in buying new screens to help fund the tooling. To this end I have been talking to a supplier who could produce heated screens and would be prepared to make a mixed batch, i.e. some of the screens could be heated and some not heated. I would need to sell at least ten screens outright and the cost would be around £200 unheated and £230 heated. The cost would reduce if more screens were sold from the initial batch.

The fallback is to go to a small specialist who will make the screens in batches of two or three using temporary tooling. Unfortunately, the screens would cost over £500 each.

There are other options at costs in between these two extremes, but my feeling is that the first option would be the best for all Midas 2+2 owners.

If you are interested in a heated windscreen, or a non-heated windscreen as a spare, please contact me either by a PM or directly at alistair.courtney@midascars.co.uk

I shall be asking the MOC to include this news in its next newsletter.

Alistair