MG

Longbridge’s first all-new MG for 16 years has drummed up over £3 million of business in just two weeks – with 180 cars sold. The MG6 has got off to a flying start since the official VIP launch in April, with buyers facing a waiting list of up to six weeks as dealers cope with a flood of orders for new MG model. Sales of the new MG6 follow the relaunch of volume car-making at the Birmingham car factory six years on from the collapse of MG Rover in April 2005, when 6,500 jobs were lost. MG Motor UK PR and Events Manager Doug Wallace said the Chinese-backed company was delighted with the response to the MG6, which sells for between £15,495 and £18,995. “The value of MG6 GT fastbacks sold or ordered is just over £3 million – we […]

On a recent Saturday, Blaine Benson sifted through a folder of documents, the remains of a road trip taken 40 years ago. Among the ephemera were Pan Am airline tickets, ferry receipts, invoices for car repairs and a mileage log, handwritten on white notepad pages. “It’s the family story,” Mr. Benson, a computer systems engineer, said of the archive. It is the chronicle of a continent-crossing journey, stretching nearly equator to pole, that his parents once made in a 1962 MGB roadster. “My dad had a thing for sports cars,” Mr. Benson, 41, said. “He had a Triumph TR3. He was a bit of a car freak.” Mr. Benson’s father, Skip, bought the MGB in 1967 for about $1,000 in Puerto Rico, where he and his wife, Barbara, were training Peace Corps volunteers. When their work contract expired later that […]

You may think of the French as producing the most strikingly streamlined cars of the 1930s, in lyric teardrop bodies hammered out with doses of Italian style and German science. But in his book “Art Deco and British Car Design: The Airline Cars of the 1930s“, Barrie Down reminds us that streamline design was the rage among car buffs everywhere in the ’30s, even in upright, country-house, Evelyn Waugh Britain. Mr. Down reminds us that at the same time streamline cars were going on the market, ocean liners and trains were being streamlined, the better to compete with the nascent airline industry. His book also reminds us that the automobile industry of the time in Britain had yet to embrace mass production. Cars were sold to the few, and the sellers were coachbuilders as much as chassis or engine makers. […]

Hagerty, those fine purveyors of classic car insurance, have put together their list of the top ten British cars that you should buy now – before their values go up even higher. While they are all fantastic, of course, I am not sure I totally agree with the ones they include, nor especially the ones Hagerty left off. Much like the earlier mentioned contest for the “Best British Sport Car”, this is a fun list to fight over more than anything. I don’t know of anyone who would actually use this as their shopping list. And if there were someone with that kind of money, they probably already have that list in their head anyway. So, what do you think of the list? What would you put on that isn’t listed, or take off that is here? 1968-2006 Morgan Plus […]

SAIC Motor Corporation, the owner of MG Motors, plans to develop several new models for the British brand in order to boost sales outside its home market in China. The Chinese owner of MG Motors has already spent £1 billion ($1.64 billion) to re-launch the MG and Roewe brands (former Rover) and intends to invest another £2.2 billion ($3.6 billion) to achieve annual sales of 700,000 by 2015. In 2010, the two brands sold 160,397 cars, most of which were delivered in China, with only 2,000 units exported to other markets. This past April, MG launched its new mid-size MG6 in the UK, the first new car to be assembled at the British firm’s Longbridge plant in 16 years. The company said that when it completes the development of a diesel version, it will offer the car to rest of […]

MG has shown the new MG3 supermini to UK influencers for the first time – in preparation for a possible 2012 launch of the new British-designed Ford Fiesta rival. Key UK customers, designers, suppliers and industry analysts were invited to a secret design forum at Prodrive’s Warwickshire test facility, to help MG generate initial opinions on how the new five-door supermini will be received. While not yet confirmed for UK sale, MG Motors is very hopeful the supermini will soon get the green light (with assembly over here a strong hope, too). Because of this, the firm has started gathering data, from as broad a cross section as possible. Furthermore, although the basic design of the car is fixed, MG is also seeking comments from UK motorists on what they would like changed. The Chinese-spec left-hand drive show car is […]

The opportunity to shape the final design of the next MG car which could be rolling off the Longbridge production line.

Just published are the clearest spy images yet of the MG 3, a new supermini that will go on sale in China next year and could make it to the UK in 2012. The small five-door hatch has neat, inoffensive styling – although it falls some way short of the racy Zero concept that was shown at the Beijing show. The MG 3 will offer a choice of four-cylinder petrol engines: a 1.3 producing 67bhp, and a 107bhp 1.5. The standard gearbox is a five-speed manual, although the 1.5 will be offered — in China, at least — with an automatic option. There will also be a diesel; MG owner SAIC is in discussions with a number of potential suppliers. The firm also has a turbocharged version of the 1.5 petrol; with 156bhp on tap, it could form the basis […]

The last genuine MG works rally car is up for auction, 35 years after it was retired from action competitive farewell, and is expected to fetch £90,000-£130,000 (R1-1.5-million) – more than 100 times the price of the road-going MGB in 1964. BRX 854B was one of two MGB rally cars built by BMC’s competition department in 1964, when the road car was priced at £850 (the equivalent of R1700 at the time). It made its racing debut in the Spa-Sofia-Liege rally in August 1964 and went on to compete a further five times as a works entry, in the Tulip, Acropolis, Geneva, Danube and RAC rallies, all in 1965. It was retired in 1975 and has since then had a meticulous restoration, overseen by MG historian John Baggott and legendary MG racer Barry Sidery-Smith with meticulous attention to detail. Existing […]

The MG6 hatchback will be the first all-new MG model to go on sale in the UK since the 2001 MG ZS and ZT, according to sources at Chinese car maker SAIC, which owns the MG Roewe and Ssangyong brands. Both the hatchback MG6 and its saloon sister car (which is currently being sold in China under the Roewe 550 badge) will be launched in the UK and Ireland. Both versions will use the MG badge say sources, and the most popular engine is expected to be the N-series 1.8-litre turbocharged engine, an updated version of Rover’s K-series engine. The cars are expected in the showrooms by early 2011. Stringent EU crash test standards have proved to be the downfall of previous Chinese-made cars, but the MG6 is actually based on a re-engineered version of the robust Rover 75 platform. […]

I just got this message and thought it appropriate to post it. Dear BCF Member, Most of you who frequent the British Car Forum know our MG forum moderator, Tony Barnhill. Some of you already know this, but for those who don’t it is with great sadness that I much inform the members of BCF that Tony was killed in a head-on collision near his home in Gurley, Alabama on Monday, 25 Jan 2010. His wife was seriously injured as well and remains in ICU. The accident occurred Monday morning, 25 Jan 2010. Tony had been a dear friend and one of my Moderators for over nine years. In that time he helped countless enthusiasts from around the world solve their MG and other British car problems. Many of you knew him personally; some only knew him from the internet. […]

A detailed electronic service and repair manual known as the MG TF RAVE disc is now available to MG TF owners from all XPart AutoService centres and wholesalers. MG TF owners can now access valuable service and maintenance information for their cars with an electronic workshop manual, available from all XPart AutoServices centres and wholesalers. The first disc of its kind to go on sale to motorists, it offers extensive technical advice for owners of MG TFs manufactured by MG Rover between 2002 and 2005. It contains a greater depth of technical detail than can be found in paper manuals, together with comprehensive search and cross-referencing functions, and the option to enlarge diagrams and print pages of interest. “Modern cars have a great deal more complex mechanical and electronic features than cars built even ten years ago,” explains Barry Smith, […]

Shanghai Automotive Industry Corp (SAIC), China’s number-one automaker, has just launched its MG6 in China. The new model faces off against the Honda Civic, Toyota Corolla and Volkswagen Sagitar in the highly competitive mid-class auto segment in China. The MG6 hatchback, equipped with a 1.8-liter turbo engine, will be produced by SAIC Co at its Lingang plant. SAIC will also start production of the MG6 in a plant in the United Kingdom next year as it tries to revive the 85-year history of the British icon globally. The company said the MG6, which was unveiled at the 2009 Shanghai Auto Show last April, is specifically designed for Asian and European markets. In China, “There will be market potential for the MG6 if SAIC prices the car competitively,” said Ye Sheng, an auto analyst at automotive consulting firm B. Thinking Management […]

According to Nanjing Automobile, it bought the rights to the MG trademarks and logos when it bought the assets of the firm from administrators. It told High Court judge Sir William Blackburne that MG Sports and Racing Europe, based in Tenbury Wells, was using the famous octagonal logo and name on its MG X POWER supercar. Nanjing is now seeking an order to stop the company. Iain Purvis QC, who is representing the company, told the judge that Nanjing “have made great strides” in reviving the MG brand in the UK, with the Longbridge plant manufacturing again and a major new car launch planned for next year. He added that the British company admitted this was likely to cause confusion but claimed they are entitled to use the mark because they had bought the rights to it from liquidators of […]

The first all-new MG for 14 years has gone on show in China and by the end of next year the new car will be built on a production line at Longbridge, it was revealed today. Based on the Chinese-made Roewe 550 – which itself is based on a shortened version of the old Rover 75 – it will be called the MG6 when production starts in Birmingham. The new model will be produced in saloon and hatchback form and will complement the two-seater MGTF being built at Longbridge. Early production models have been revealed at the Guangzhou Auto Show which opened yesterday. The launch in China, the world’s largest automotive market, begins the international roll out of sales of the MG6 which includes the UK. Sales in China will begin in January and plans for the UK and other […]

Directors Peter Beale and John Edwards of the vilified Phoenix Four are in line for a massive multi-million pound Christmas bonus from the remnants of the Longbridge empire, it was revealed today. The two former Longbridge bosses, who with fellow directors John Towers and Nick Stephenson have already enriched themselves to the tune of around £9 million each, will be entitled to another huge cash windfall next month.

Shanghai Automobile Industry Corporation (SAIC) is set to revive the famed Morris Garages (MG) name when it reveals a production version of the MG 6 at this month’s Guangzhou motor show. The five door fastback, previewed in concept car guise at the Shanghai motor show last April, is the first new MG model to appear since the sale of the former British car maker to Nanjing Automobile in 2005 prior to a subsequent takeover by SAIC two years ago. Up until now, Nanjing Automobile and SAIC have been content to sell re-badged versions of former Rover models as well as a lightly re-fettled version of the TF roadster in a bid to keep MG afloat. However, the planned appearance of the MG 6 at Guangzhou signals a new beginning for the company founded in Oxford in 1924.

It may be owned by China’s Shanghai Automotive Industries Corporation, but MG Motor still has British blood running through it. The proof: The company is getting a new design studio at its factory here. The new studio will serve the 200-strong design and engineering staff of the company for the MG and Roewe brands, both of which are owned by SAIC, China’s largest car producer. Roewe is the relabeled Rover, since Land Rover retained the rights to the Rover nameplate. The studio will be the lead engineering center for SAIC’s own-brand products worldwide and for all MG and Roewe products. The team has already contributed substantially to the development of the Ford Focus-sized Roewe 550 and is creating an MG version of the same car. Roewe already sits atop the J.D. Power China Sales Satisfaction Index, which has been in […]