MG will no longer screw cars together at Longbridge.
Discussion
SilverSixer said:
Similar to the way Fosters lager is marketed here. I have it on reasonable authority that it's considered utterly awful by Australians, although of course in true PH stylee someone will be along in a second to contradict.
It's just marketing.
Quite. Same goes for Stella - a premium beer over here, yet during my time in France it was laughed at as the cheapest pissy lager you could get in most places (and yes I know it's Belgian not French, and probably the fact the Belgians make much better beer was the source of Stella's ridicule in France)It's just marketing.
Toyoda said:
Quite. Same goes for Stella - a premium beer over here, yet during my time in France it was laughed at as the cheapest pissy lager you could get in most places (and yes I know it's Belgian not French, and probably the fact the Belgians make much better beer was the source of Stella's ridicule in France)
Lipton's Tea, only available in small bags in hotel rooms abroad as far as I can tell. 
I've been the owner of several MG-Rover cars but this Chinese brand are truly horrid. Economy, budget Chinese cars with what was an iconic British badge slapped on. Not seen many on the roads but the main version we have seen is the MG3. It just looks cheap and terrible and has a gutless engine. Why would anybody buy these cars when you can buy other budget range vehicles that come with far better quality and far better support network of dealers etc across the UK? Shame to see British jobs go but it is not a shock. It won't be long till they just shut the place down as I'm pretty sure Chinese engineers could do just as good a job, for less and within the Chinese domestic market. Really is a shame but Saic MG only have themselves to blame. Where is the marketing? Why are the cars so shoddy?
I echo the same words as many here, we need a proper UK car produced. Too many icons have slipped away.
I echo the same words as many here, we need a proper UK car produced. Too many icons have slipped away.
Toyoda said:
SilverSixer said:
Similar to the way Fosters lager is marketed here. I have it on reasonable authority that it's considered utterly awful by Australians, although of course in true PH stylee someone will be along in a second to contradict.
It's just marketing.
Quite. Same goes for Stella - a premium beer over here, yet during my time in France it was laughed at as the cheapest pissy lager you could get in most places (and yes I know it's Belgian not French, and probably the fact the Belgians make much better beer was the source of Stella's ridicule in France)It's just marketing.
As for the "MG's", its the first salvo of Chinese domestic market cars into the UK, remember when the Japanese did this with their comedy cars that become pretty damn good ? the Koreans have done the same and now the Chinese are doing it, my parents have an MG6, it was cheap and it does its job, not given any trouble, interior is a bit cheap, engine could do with a bit more power but its a perfectly adequate conveyance, not cool, no brand image, not premium but its probably better than people would give it credit for.
The Chinese will go from producing sub mainstream stuff and "not original artists" versions of X5's and Evoques to something fairly decent in a few years, after all the main objects of desire these days appear to be German cars, but really, prior to the mid seventies they just used to produce funny little things with the engine in the back and no radiator, not a patch on our Hillman Avengers, Morris Marinas, Vauxhall Vivas and Ford Cortinas.
The MG3 gets a fairly reasonble write up, 1.5 engine, 105 bhp or would you rather have a Polo with 60 bhp for 3 grand more ?
LandRoverManiac said:
You notice the difference when jumping from the Rover equivalent into the MG version - it's hard to describe them as being from the same company. The Rover 45 and to a certain degree the 75 were decent cars, but they don't like changing direction, have woolly steering and an unsettling ride the moment you attempt to attack any corner. Fairly okay as normal everyday cars - but not sporty.
The MG versions are quite different, they have harder sports suspension, better brakes and taught steering. Jump into a ZS or ZT of the same year/condition/ engine as a 45 / 75 - and it becomes rapidly apparent that they were much more than just a couple of spoilers bolted on (although they did do that as well). MG got hold of them and somehow managed to take some very boring, bland cars and make them handle way better than they technically should have.
Latterly for the 75/ZT, they had some help from BMW (the brakes on the ZT are interchangeable with BMW 3-series and I suspect the idea for a multi-link Z-Axle was possibly German in origin as well).
However none of that has anything to do with the company now - I suspect the people who made my car are long-since out of the car-design business and the next 'hot' Chinese MG will just have some spoilers fitted with none of the hidden engineering underneath. Happy to be proven wrong however.
I really agree with the ZT on handling. I owned a ZT and out on bendy roads it handled fantastic for being such a heavy car. In fact, I miss driving it sometimes on those types of roads. The MG versions are quite different, they have harder sports suspension, better brakes and taught steering. Jump into a ZS or ZT of the same year/condition/ engine as a 45 / 75 - and it becomes rapidly apparent that they were much more than just a couple of spoilers bolted on (although they did do that as well). MG got hold of them and somehow managed to take some very boring, bland cars and make them handle way better than they technically should have.
Latterly for the 75/ZT, they had some help from BMW (the brakes on the ZT are interchangeable with BMW 3-series and I suspect the idea for a multi-link Z-Axle was possibly German in origin as well).
However none of that has anything to do with the company now - I suspect the people who made my car are long-since out of the car-design business and the next 'hot' Chinese MG will just have some spoilers fitted with none of the hidden engineering underneath. Happy to be proven wrong however.
I wonder if they've just been given too good an offer to turn down for the land. It's a decent sized site and with the "Longbridge village" plus the massive numbers of houses built on the former Rover works they might have received a decent offer for it....
Then again there is still a good old chunk of the ex-Rover site they've still not even started building on (including knocking down the iconic and historic "flight shed" but as yet still not built anything in it's place) so maybe I'm reading more into this than there actually is.
Then again there is still a good old chunk of the ex-Rover site they've still not even started building on (including knocking down the iconic and historic "flight shed" but as yet still not built anything in it's place) so maybe I'm reading more into this than there actually is.
Rich1973 said:
All those deriding MG as a Rover with tat added presumably treat S-Line and M Sport and AMG badged cars with the same disdain.
There's a far bigger difference between a Rover 45 and an MG ZS than between a normal and M-Sport BMW. In terms of suspension calibration it's more like the difference between a normal 3-series and an M3. ALL MGs will be imported from China.
Did you mean 'both'?
The ZT was an impressively handling FWD car I must admit. I wanted one when I bought my Skoda vRS, but the dealers just wouldn't do a deal at a sensible price, so I bought the Skoda and was very happy with it, but the MG was certainly an impressive car of its type and time.
M.
Did you mean 'both'?
The ZT was an impressively handling FWD car I must admit. I wanted one when I bought my Skoda vRS, but the dealers just wouldn't do a deal at a sensible price, so I bought the Skoda and was very happy with it, but the MG was certainly an impressive car of its type and time.
M.
Edited by marcosgt on Friday 23 September 16:49
kambites said:
Out of interest, do you actually know anything about the MG6 from an engineering perspective? I struggle to understand how someone who does could consider it to be a "cheapo Chinese car with MG badges stuck on". If anything the engineering is more German than Chinese but it's more British than either.
The assembly and material quality may be shoddy, but the underlying chassis is based on the Rover 75 and is actually very good.
In all honesty, no I don't. The facts I know about the MG6 I could probably count on one hand, so I'm not the best expert to ask about the engineering behind it. I remember watching a Top Gear a while back when JC and JM went to China and drove some cars native to that market, I remember May saying the car he was driving would eventually be sold in the UK as an MG, so I assumed it started life in China. I hadn't realised it was related engineering-wise to the 75, which I do consider a reasonably good car. The assembly and material quality may be shoddy, but the underlying chassis is based on the Rover 75 and is actually very good.
Edited by kambites on Friday 23 September 13:29
My assumptions are made only based on what I recall from JM's road test of the Chinese car and the fact I've seen barely half a dozen on UK roads.
TooMany2cvs said:
Rich1973 said:
All those deriding MG as a Rover with tat added presumably treat S-Line and M Sport and AMG badged cars with the same disdain.
Audi and BMW don't pretend they're separate marques.Amazing to think its 11 years ago that it went to the wall, still a fair few thousand on the roads if How Many Left is to be believed, amazing really considering how poorly regarded and supposedly dire they were, all are now 11 years old or older, I am amazed there are still so many out there, must be dropping like flies though now.
Still listing a few thousand of those funny Streetwise jacked up 25's, not seen one for a while.
TooMany2cvs said:
kambites said:
TooMany2cvs said:
Audi and BMW don't pretend they're separate marques.
Alpina claim to be a "manufacturer". If you discount the importance of non-structural body pannels, there's loads of cars from different brands which are just as similar as the MG/Rover products.
As someone said above, I don't thnk they're really trying to fool anyone into thinking they're unrelated models any more than the Toyota GT86 and Subaru BRZ are. The important bits (at least the bits which are important to me) are very different between the Rover and MG variants.
Edited by kambites on Friday 23 September 17:37
Rich1973 said:
All those deriding MG as a Rover with tat added presumably treat S-Line and M Sport and AMG badged cars with the same disdain.
There are levels. AMG can be a full on monster, or a set of wheels. Let's not kid ourselves it was a pretty desperate piece of marketing without much substance. I love the old MG's, but from the Metro onwards it was a bit queezy IMO. If we're talking about full on M cars and AMG or RS then you are well wide of the mark.
kambites said:
Out of interest, do you actually know anything about the MG6 from an engineering perspective? I struggle to understand how someone who does could consider it to be a "cheapo Chinese car with MG badges stuck on". If anything the engineering is more German than Chinese but it's more British than either.
The assembly and material quality may be shoddy, but the underlying chassis is based on the Rover 75 and is actually very good.
I thought the 6 was an upgrade on a Chinese designed & built thing called a Trumchee or something.The assembly and material quality may be shoddy, but the underlying chassis is based on the Rover 75 and is actually very good.
Edited by kambites on Friday 23 September 13:29
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