Rover MG TF to be revived?

Roadster plans continue brewing

By PH Staff / Wednesday, 1 March 2006 / Loading comments

MG TF: rising from the dead?

Is there room for two more roadsters? One company plans to revive the MG TF while another is plotting to buy and re-engineer the Smart Roadster. Both plans were announced independently this week.

The first story comes from Nanjing Automobile, which has signed a 33-year lease on a apportion of the old Rover factory. Armed with the space and a local workforce, it plans to restart production of the MG TF roadster.

However, the catch is that the Phoenix Consortium, the company that originally bought Rover from BMW, is claiming £2 million for the part of the TF's tooling that it still owns. The Chinese company has six months to get over this and the other hurdles before its get-out clause expires. We watch with bated breath.

The second is from the failed MG Rover bidder, David James. He has, according to Autocar, signed a tentative deal, called a memorandum of understanding, which expires after six months. It would allow him to buy the Smart Roadster from DaimlerChrysler; ailing DC has watched cash leach from its Smart division and would probably be glad to be shot of the car, which has not sold as well as it hoped.

If the deal goes through, the Roadster would be redesigned by his Project Kimber group. However, where to build it and what to call it remain among James' major challenges.

Backdrop

On 8 April 2005, MG Rover at Longbridge went into administration and car production ceased. Only a small group of skilled car workers was kept on at the plant over the summer to complete a number of unfinished vehicles, before the company was sold on to the Nanjing Automobile Corporation of China.

James suggested to Nanjing that it get together with Project Kimber to help revive MG Rover but the Chinese company rejected the notion.