Thursday 7th October 2010

Longbridge Gears Up For Crucial New MG6

First all-new MG for 15 years will be 'comparable to small BMWs', says SAIC

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MG's Longbridge plant will start building the first all-new MG for more than 15 years when it starts final assembly of the MG6 family towards the end of the year.

Chinese manufacturers, despite massive domestic market success, have scarcely managed to gain a toehold in the US or European markets but MG's owner, SAIC, seems confident that its new family car will change that.

SAIC has somewhat bullishly told the Financial Times that the new MG6, which is expected to cost between £16k and £20k, has been compared in customer clinics to the likes of the Ford Mondeo, Skoda Octavia and even some of the smaller BMWs. Which does seem rather optimistic.

The success of the MG6 in the UK and Europe will be crucial to the future of the Longbridge site, which employs 300 engineers and around 30 design staff. Currently, only a trickle of MG TF sports cars have found their way out of the Birmingham plant and the company admits it has sold hundreds rather than thousands of the ageing roadsters - and the car's original (Chinese) producers, Nanjing Auto (now part of SAIC) originally envisaged selling 50,000 models a year.

But David Lindley, head of SAIC's technical centre, reckons that Birmingham's engineering and design expertise is crucial to the Chinese, who still lack ground-up engineering experience. "There's still a lack of capability in Shanghai, and probably will be for years, to design a new vehicle from a clean sheet of paper, " Lindley told the FT.

[Porkis]

Yeah all sounds very good, and rather familiar, but how many people on here would buy one??

[HellDiver]

I would.

If it was built as well as a Ford/Vauxhall, and had decent engines.

[kambites]

Porkis said:

Yeah all sounds very good, and rather familiar, but how many people on here would buy one??

If it's any good and I was in the market for that kind of car, I'd consider it. Why wouldn't I?

[Accelerated]

Well people seem to love Kias and Hyundai's etc so if its keenly priced and built as well as those then why not I suppose

[Jaykaybi]

That car looks out of date already.

[Munter]

Jaykaybi said:

That car looks massively overpriced already.

EFA

[skilly1]

Please update the MG badge. Does not help help the whole outdated feel of everything new I see it on.

[kambites]

The MG badge is what sells it in China though, I would imagine.

[Munter]

I like the MG badge. It's been the same since the dawn of time. It IS the brand really.

You wouldn't change the Ford blue oval because it looks a bit old.

[skilly1]

Munter said:

I like the MG badge. It's been the same since the dawn of time. It IS the brand really.

You wouldn't change the Ford blue oval because it looks a bit old.

Yes they have

[kambites]

I think if it's gong to sell here, they have to find a way to convince the public that the build quality and reliability issues of MG of old have been sorted out. I wonder what warranty they'll offer - if they go for a Kia style seven year jobby, I think it would go a long way to reassure people.

[odyssey2200]

I will reserve judgement until I have seen the quality.

[r11co]

skilly1 said:

Please update the MG badge.

What a stupid comment. The BMW badge has remained almost exactly the same since 1918. The Mercedes star is even older.

[Caddy93]

Am I the only one that thinks this car looks ok? (The front atleast..) IMO that's one thing ticked off, need decent engines & smaller price and I think it'll be a winner. Although I can see it competing with the likes of Kia & Hyundai rather than Ford & Vauxhall..

[AndrewW-G]

Unfortunately, no matter how good a car it is, unless it’s a: stupidly cheap b: has a cast iron lifetime warranty c: has daft finance and free insurance deals, to tempt people away from the competition, then it's going to get clobbered on the strength of its badge & forecast residuals . . . .

[Accelerated]

Ford seem to have stuck with the same font since 1909, interesting

[Accelerated]

r11co said:

skilly1 said:

Please update the MG badge.

What a stupid comment. The BMW badge has remained almost exactly the same since 1918. The Mercedes star is even older.

Yes but BMW and Merc have built up one hell of a rep in that time, and MG have ruined theirs

[kambites]

Despite the fact that their cars have been inferior for some time, I actually think the MG brand probably still has a better image with the (non petrol-head) car buying public than Ford or Vauxhall.

[odyssey2200]

Caddy93 said:

Am I the only one that thinks this car looks ok? (The front atleast..) IMO that's one thing ticked off, need decent engines & smaller price and I think it'll be a winner. Although I can see it competing with the likes of Kia & Hyundai rather than Ford & Vauxhall..

The Chinese are very good at making things the "look" OK.

On closer scrutiny these things often are not OK, very far from it.

[r11co]

I think the real killer for this model will be the lack of a diesel option.