Discussion
Okay, so the pound-per-horse ratio is worse than a Magentis, but please find me another carbon fibre car (chassis, not just the panels) that is cheaper than £65000.
I don't care what you think of the SV but I LOVE THIS CAR! Have you seen any other car that gives Jeremy clackson real bashing on his head? I don't think so!
Priceless moment, that.
I don't care what you think of the SV but I LOVE THIS CAR! Have you seen any other car that gives Jeremy clackson real bashing on his head? I don't think so!
Priceless moment, that.
There was one in the Telford shopping centre the other week. Have to say it loked fantastic in the flesh altough I didnt like it in the pics I saw.
But £80k + your having a laugh MG £40 k tops.
anyone thougt about depreciation? all the other motors you could get for that price. Interested to see how many they sell.
But £80k + your having a laugh MG £40 k tops.
anyone thougt about depreciation? all the other motors you could get for that price. Interested to see how many they sell.
Personally I rather like it.... Yes, they ARE having a laugh at 80k.... but think, at that price it'll be very exclusive and in a few years maybe that exclusivity will actually mean decent resale value.... I think MG are on the right track with it, just ned to adjust their realism goals a bit. I think this is omre of an exercise for them rather than a realistic commercial project and at 80k+ they should recoup their investment on it and the R&D gone into it might help MGRover in the design of their next gen of saloon/sports cars, which let's face it is ALWAYS going to be their bread and butter.
johnny senna said:
Oh come on. These cars are 20 grand over-priced AT LEAST. They will sell very badly. 80 grand? A GT3 is a far better buy, full stop. Or a C4S. Or a (slightly) used 996 Turbo. Or a used 550. Or a newly reduced Mazzer (just 50-odd grand now). Or a Merc SL 500.
If the car is so appealing, how come no one on this forum likes it? People on PH are exactly the sort of folks MG should be aiming at. But we all think it is ugly and over-priced.
Assuming everyone hates it is taking things a little too far. Not everyone hates it and certainly the first 20 or so have already been sold to paying customers. First deliveries have started.
As I mentioned before - not everyone wants a 911 or a Merc pose-mobile (aka SL). There are plenty of people out there who are prepared to put their money where their mouth is and go for something different. Why not? I somehow doubt that someone looking at a 996 or second hand 550 (I would actually argue that you wouldnt find someone who would consider a 996 vs 550 in the first place) would even have the MG on the radar..... its a completely different beast to these cars and almost certainly the third car in a household.
MG arent stupid and if they feel they can get away with this price tag then so be it. But to start shouting away saying that its £20K too expensive somehow misses the point. Dont forget that its got a lot of additional "tuning" elements included in the price - like roll cage, fully adjustable suspension, four point harnesses etc.... it sets out what it is to be used for - a 996 rival it certainly isnt.... come to think of it, take a brand new 996.... however, its easy to loose sight of the real costs.... lets take a brand new 996 then shall we?
List price - £56,000 (Carrera model)
18" wheels - £1,300
Carrera performance pack - £6,600 (upto 345BHP plus engine cooling)
Sports suspension (Porsche supplied and only part adjustable) - £1,300
Roll cage (non-Porsche supplied) - £1,500
Four point harnesses and seats - £1,000
TOTAL - £67,700
I havent mentioned sports exhausts, diff locking systems or fully adjustable suspension yet either - so factor in those elements and you are well into £70,000 territory..... is the MG so overpriced now? You may think it competes, but I somehow doubt it.....
Same argument works for the TVR Typhon too - people accuse it of being overpriced and irrelevent. But factor in what you get its a positive bargain....
pbrettle said:
Oh come on. These cars are 20 grand over-priced AT LEAST. They will sell very badly. 80 grand? A GT3 is a far better buy, full stop. Or a C4S. Or a (slightly) used 996 Turbo. Or a used 550. Or a newly reduced Mazzer (just 50-odd grand now). Or a Merc SL 500.
If the car is so appealing, how come no one on this forum likes it? People on PH are exactly the sort of folks MG should be aiming at. But we all think it is ugly and over-priced.
Assuming everyone hates it is taking things a little too far. Not everyone hates it and certainly the first 20 or so have already been sold to paying customers. First deliveries have started.
As I mentioned before - not everyone wants a 911 or a Merc pose-mobile (aka SL). There are plenty of people out there who are prepared to put their money where their mouth is and go for something different. Why not? I somehow doubt that someone looking at a 996 or second hand 550 (I would actually argue that you wouldnt find someone who would consider a 996 vs 550 in the first place) would even have the MG on the radar..... its a completely different beast to these cars and almost certainly the third car in a household.
MG arent stupid and if they feel they can get away with this price tag then so be it. But to start shouting away saying that its £20K too expensive somehow misses the point. Dont forget that its got a lot of additional "tuning" elements included in the price - like roll cage, fully adjustable suspension, four point harnesses etc.... it sets out what it is to be used for - a 996 rival it certainly isnt.... come to think of it, take a brand new 996.... however, its easy to loose sight of the real costs.... lets take a brand new 996 then shall we?
List price - £56,000 (Carrera model)
18" wheels - £1,300
Carrera performance pack - £6,600 (upto 345BHP plus engine cooling)
Sports suspension (Porsche supplied and only part adjustable) - £1,300
Roll cage (non-Porsche supplied) - £1,500
Four point harnesses and seats - £1,000
TOTAL - £67,700
I havent mentioned sports exhausts, diff locking systems or fully adjustable suspension yet either - so factor in those elements and you are well into £70,000 territory..... is the MG so overpriced now? You may think it competes, but I somehow doubt it.....
Same argument works for the TVR Typhon too - people accuse it of being overpriced and irrelevent. But factor in what you get its a positive bargain....
Sorry. What a load of old rot.
1) So you want a car with built in roll cage and harnesses etc?......get a Noble. Or a 996 GT3 (OK, not built in but sexy enough).
2) You said, "I would actually argue that you wouldn't find someone who would consider a 996 vs 550 in the first place."......again, total rot. I would consider both these cars for my next wheels after my present Boxster S. I reckon a 996 Turbo will be the one though. Not this terrible Rover.
3) You do a price comparison with a 996. But come on, play fair, the Rover/MG-thingy will quite simply collapse in value compared to the Porsche. You would have to be very rich or out of your mind to consider buying the ugly MG instead of the German product because the 911 loses less money than most other sports cars out there.
The MG cannot compete with anything Porsche have at the same price level.....simple as that. It is doomed to fail.
...and I guess the Ford V8 accounts for nothing? Here in the states upgrade parts are a dime a dozen. Hell, throw on some underdrive pulleys, a paxton supercharger, uprated injectors and tweek the ECU and your on your way. I would rather listen to superb exhaust sound from a V8 than a flat six any day. I wish they would ship 'em over here. At least with ownership of an SV you won't blend in with the lemmings in their 911's. And as for the Ferrari thing, it wasn't that long ago that the GT40s made the Ferraris look like a bunch of old dilaptdated Fiats running around LeMans. 
At least they've got a new base car for X-Men 3 now!!
I think one of the biggest problems is that a lot of people with £80K spare are not the kind of poeple that spend they're time playing with suspension and diffs etc.
When you spend that sort of money your buying and image too and this car just doesn;t cut it in the looks or savvy department. The MG badge just does not hold it's head amongst the likes of Ferrari and Porsche yet.
I too would like to see it be a sucess and help MGR on the road to recovery but I just cannot see it with what has been shown so far. And all these power quotes etc?? Will these 'actually' ever make production though? There have been a lot of claims come from MGR over the last few years and not a lot has materialised.
I think one of the biggest problems is that a lot of people with £80K spare are not the kind of poeple that spend they're time playing with suspension and diffs etc.
When you spend that sort of money your buying and image too and this car just doesn;t cut it in the looks or savvy department. The MG badge just does not hold it's head amongst the likes of Ferrari and Porsche yet.
I too would like to see it be a sucess and help MGR on the road to recovery but I just cannot see it with what has been shown so far. And all these power quotes etc?? Will these 'actually' ever make production though? There have been a lot of claims come from MGR over the last few years and not a lot has materialised.
Actually I've just been reminded of another car, which might change the way we look at the SV:
-It was based on a less aggressive design, the addenda, many observers thought, made it look silly.
-It was criticised for lacking refinement and pedigree alongside Ferraris and the like.
-It used a V8 straight out of a box, and tuned by a specialist, rather than a bespoke unit.
-It's handling was deemed dangerous, it's power unusable at the time and, even in racing form, it wasn't the fastest thing in the world.
-It had a reputation for unreliability - overheating, destroying gearboxes and falling apart at speed.
-It was the AC-Shelby Cobra. Replace AC with MG, Shelby with Xpower-Lola, and Cobra with SV.
I'm beginning to see it in a different light - this isn't a supercar, or even a British-style sports car - it's a transatlantic hybrid muscle car! Put it alongside the 'new' Cobra, Corvette and Viper for a real comparison!
And yes, I think it is overpriced, but IMO it'll come down.
>> Edited by v8thunder on Saturday 6th March 12:40
-It was based on a less aggressive design, the addenda, many observers thought, made it look silly.
-It was criticised for lacking refinement and pedigree alongside Ferraris and the like.
-It used a V8 straight out of a box, and tuned by a specialist, rather than a bespoke unit.
-It's handling was deemed dangerous, it's power unusable at the time and, even in racing form, it wasn't the fastest thing in the world.
-It had a reputation for unreliability - overheating, destroying gearboxes and falling apart at speed.
-It was the AC-Shelby Cobra. Replace AC with MG, Shelby with Xpower-Lola, and Cobra with SV.
I'm beginning to see it in a different light - this isn't a supercar, or even a British-style sports car - it's a transatlantic hybrid muscle car! Put it alongside the 'new' Cobra, Corvette and Viper for a real comparison!
And yes, I think it is overpriced, but IMO it'll come down.
>> Edited by v8thunder on Saturday 6th March 12:40
, given the choice of a SV-R and a similarly priced Porsche.......I'd take the MG every time 
, although it wouldn't get a look in against a Typhon.forrestgump said:
Okay, so the pound-per-horse ratio is worse than a Magentis, but please find me another carbon fibre car (chassis, not just the panels) that is cheaper than £65000.
Difficult now that Westfield have dropped theirs but the MG does of course have a steel chassis developed from the De Tomaso not a composite chassis..
The top gear test was conducted with an unfinished SV with a faulty gearbox but Clarkson neglected to mention that, also the handling has been praised in every test bar none so stop making things up.In addition, no test has been done so far with a finished car, not one, any claims to this are rubbish. No finished test cars will be available until the first customer cars have been delivered. The price is high theres no denying that but the production run is very low and they are not having problems shifting them. The idea is that people buying these cars already have a 996 or somesuch and will buy the car not as their sole vehicle. At this price range 10-20 grand isnt that important because if you have 60 to spend you'll have 80 (at least in enough cases for the modest production run). This car is not a revenue generating model but a halo model, a technical demonstration and we can expect lessons to be learned here for future models. In the course of this project MGR has aquired an excellent facility in Modena which acn only benefit future high performance models as with the experience of working with carbon fibre. The next SV is likely to be a higher production model at a better price to challenge the 911 more directly but until then we have an unusual an striking musclecar which will sell because of its low numbers and exclusivity to people who buy British and want to make a statement. The more extreme SVs will sell to trackday fans as well on the basis that it is fully customisable in terms of setup and powerfull. reserve your judgement until a real review appears in a respectable mag like Evo and NEVER listen to Clarkson, he is a tit.
johnny senna said:
People on PH are exactly the sort of folks MG should be aiming at. But we all think it is ugly and over-priced.
Well it is hopless overpriced, but about the looks? When I first saw it I thought it was ugly, butthe more often I see it, the more I like the looks ... I think it needs some time to get used to it, like the BMW 5-Series.
Still, I would prefer buying a Cerbra ... without even loosing a second thought on the MG!
How sad, MG should have made something more like an MG-RV8 (for the styles) ... or maybe a max. Power 'F ... keep the louse interier, I don't care ... work a bit on the steering, balanc of the little Toy is just fine ... give it more Power ... alot more ... and sell it for twice the prize > MG'F GT ... and we would have a Boxter eating car for half the money. Then I might would buy another MG 
cathalm said:
The top gear test was conducted with an unfinished SV with a faulty gearbox but Clarkson neglected to mention that....... NEVER listen to Clarkson, he is a tit.
Total agree. The SV that JC drove was a pre-pre-production model. Since then a number of changes have been made and the build quality has been dramatically improved. Pity JC conveniently forgot to mention this. If it had been a Porsche, Ferrari etc he would have said "this is a pre-production model so I assume these faults will be rectified before the car is put into production."
By the way, MG Rover have just release this press release:-
"SV Waiting List reaches 6 months...
Following the reveal of a more powerful ‘R’ version of its high performance MG XPOWER SV at the recent Geneva Motorshow, MG Sport & Racing reports that the waiting list has now reached six months on certain specifications.
Deliveries are now being made of the carbon fibre bodied, 4.6 litre V8 XPOWER SV, priced from £65,750. Every SV is individually built to its owner’s personal specification and customers are offered a wide range of equipment choices to tailor a basic vehicle to their own requirements.
The extra performance of the SV-R comes from a 5.0 litre XPOWER version of the all aluminium, 32 valve, quad cam V8 engine, built in conjunction with V8 tuning specialist Sean Hyland. The car accelerates from standstill to 60 mph in less than 5 seconds and top speed is in excess of 175 mph (284 km/h).
The modifications to the engine give a significant increase in power output from the 320hp of the SV to 400hp in the SV-R. At the same time, the extra engine capacity gives a massive increase in torque from 410Nm to 510 Nm at 4750 rpm for awesome mid range performance.
To keep the extra power under control, the SV-R is fitted with larger diameter Brembo brake discs. Unique detailing includes new alloy wheels and aerodynamic modifications with a distinctive rear wing.
Priced from £82,950, the SV-R naturally retains all the best features of the SV. The high tech vehicles feature F1 inspired carbon composite body construction and double wishbone suspension, security tracking with remote telemetry and dual mode full harness inertia seat belts.
An automatic transmission option will be available later in the year.
To ensure owners receive the best possible support a new XPOWER network of 14 dealerships has been appointed in the UK to sell and service not only the MG XPOWER SV but also an expanding range of XPOWER performance cars, parts, accessories and merchandise.
Numerous orders for the XPOWER SV and SV-R have now been received from overseas markets and a full export programme to Europe and beyond will be underway by the end of 2004.
Recently appointed Managing Director of MG Sport & Racing, John Parkinson said: "The SV-R is the next step in the evolution of the SV range and represents a tremendous increase in power and performance which makes it a thrill to drive."
So a two finger salute to those who said it wouldn't sell....
>> Edited by mgcrazeee on Tuesday 23 March 09:51
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