Start with what the Morris Six MS is: a 4-door saloon with 2215 cc Straight-6. overhead cam, built from 1948 to 1953, in a decade split by war, when civilian production stopped and restarted. What it meant takes a little longer.
The background
The Morris Six Series MS is a six-cylinder midsize car from Morris Motors Limited which was produced from 1948 to 1953. Announced with Morris Motors' Minor, Oxford and Wolseley ranges on Tuesday 26 October 1948, it was Morris's first post-war six-cylinder car. All the new cars were of integral construction of chassis and body and rode on independent front suspension with torsion bars. At launch, the car was priced at £607 (including tax) on the UK market, though the price rose to £671 on 1 March 1949. Under the old system, which was dropped that year, its engine rated at just over 20hp. With a clear external likeness to its pre-war 25hp predecessor, the car was also very similar to the Issigonis-designed Morris Oxford MO, sharing the Oxford's body shell from the scuttle backwards, and was also similar to his Minor MM.
The bonnet was longer than that of the Oxford to accommodate the overhead camshaft, 2,215 cc (135.2 cu in) six-cylinder engine, which produced 70 bhp (52 kW) at 4800 rpm. The whole car was longer than the Oxford, having a wheelbase of 110 inches (2,800 mm), compared with the 97 inches (2,500 mm) wheelbase of the Oxford. The suspension at the front used independent torsion bars, and at the rear there was a conventional live axle and semi elliptic springs. The steering did not use the rack and pinion system fitted to the Oxford, but used a lower-geared Bishop Cam system. The 10-inch (250 mm) drum brakes were hydraulically operated using a Lockheed system. Production was delayed until March 1949 because of difficulties with metal fatigue in the link of the bulkh
The engineering
The engine is 2215 cc Straight-6. overhead cam. Drive goes through a 4-speed manual. The layout matters: a front engine drives the rear wheels, the classic proportion — long bonnet, cabin set back — that most people picture when they picture a sports saloon or a grand tourer. The wheelbase is 110 in. These are manufacturer figures carried by Wikipedia and Wikidata, not road-test measurements.
Where it sits
In the British Motor Corporation line-up the Morris Six MS has a clear place: it replaced the Morris Big Six; it handed the line to the Morris Isis. The cars a buyer would have weighed it against include the Porsche 356, the Citroën 2CV, the Chevrolet Bel Air. Its British Motor Corporation stablemates include the Austin 10 and the Austin 12.
Owning one today
There is no federal ownership record for the Morris Six MS — it predates the complaint database or was never sold in the United States — so MotorJury publishes no running-cost figure for it. For a car of this age the price is set by the collector market and the condition of the individual example, not by a formula.