RE: MG to reinvent sports car

[Kolbenkopp]

renrut said:

I can't see that going well for them - its not like you see a lot of foreign cars in other european countries - france its mostly french cars, germany mostly german ones (or german owned at least) and italy mostly fiats and Lancias. They're less likely to warm to a british designed, chinese flatpack car than they are to agree on their debt problems.

Not that sure really. There's always been a demand for more leftfield cars for people that do not want to drive the usual VAG stuff. Bit of a niche but there is not much available for "individualists" at the moment. SAAB is dead, the French stuff is pretty boring, Alfa the same.

Key is value/quality really IMO. One thing has changed here is car wise I think -- the status part of ownership is a bit less important, especially for younger urban types. Twenty years ago no German would have considered buying a car based on an old Renault and built in Romania of all places. Dacia is selling well though and is not getting bad press because of quality -- the people just appreciate the value. Everybody loves a "bargain". Rover actually did not do that bad under BMW tenure here, people liked the styling of the 75 and the connection to BMW was reassuring.

Say they achieve Dacia level of quality and price. They have one advantage and that is the more interesting badge.