News : 5, 4, 3, 2, 1, it’s the MG6 sales drive

For November, MG is offering all new MG6 GT and Magnette models with the new ‘54321’ offer which includes five months free fuel, four years Road Tax (worth £630), three years AA European roadside assistance and two years extended warranty. Well, it’s a financial inducement equivalent to the benefits in its ‘OMG’ offer…

On collection of your new MG6 the dealer will provide customers with two cheques, one for £564.70, equivalent to five months of fuel costs, and one for £630, to cover three extra years of VED, (the first year Road Fund Licence is included in the on the road price).

In addition to the standard three year warranty, the extended warranty provides cover until the car is five years old or has reached 100,000 miles. Prices start at £15,495 for the entry level MG6 GT S five door hatchback. All models come with a 1.8-litre turbocharged petrol engine that delivers 158bhp and 35.6mpg.

The offer is valid on all MG6 models until 30 November 2011. For more information visit www.mg.co.uk

Keith Adams

32 Comments

  1. So that’s a new MG for around £14,300 (tag price minus those two cheques), and a five year warranty. That’s really not bad. Still won’t sell without a diesel and a more professional marketing strategy – and more dealers. I’m still living in a connurbation of 600,000 people where the nearest dealer’s 50 miles away.

  2. This sounds like a good inducement to buy and a 5 year warranty is tempting. However on the downside it sounds like MG are desperate to drum up business and resale values on this car still worry me – that’s why I didn’t rush to buy.

  3. cant see them rushing to make a euro 5 compliant diesel for such a low volume model its hardly a insignia is it?and its a myth if people think diesels are cheaper to run than thier petrol counterparts in terms of the private motorist maintaining thier diesel be it at dealer level or otherwise,too much emmisions equipment goes wrong i.e delta pressure egr systems,dpf systems clogging and needing forced regeneration or replacement just ask a mazda 6 diesel owner or A4 owner.petrol for me please!but look,with a car in warranty you maybe ok but if like me and you keep the car years……….

  4. Still won’t sell without a diesel, still won’t sell without a diesel, still won’t sell without a diesel. Yawn…

  5. “its a myth if people think diesels are cheaper to run than thier petrol counterparts”

    Regardless of whether it’s a myth or not, it’s still a popular belief and they’ll need diesels to shift them in large numbers.

  6. To be fair, if they had done this from the start folk would have said “Where’s the catch?”

    This is no different from what other companies have done in the past. Yes, they are starting from a poorer market position than, say, Ford or Vauxhall but have to be applauded for at least giving a decent warranty, something that everyone had been moaning about – loudly.

    I agree about the diesel though, perception is key and until it is out this car is in danger of sinking without trace

  7. Lets hope the money for the 54321 offer is kept in an escrow account, as the chances of MG being around in 5 years in the UK is 0, so the freebies will be worthless.

  8. Unless you make people aware of it, this campaign won’t have any positive impact on sales. Surely you realise that MG UK, SAIC. Even a few bill board ads would help – just think of the Octavia driver, about to trade in, on their way to work!! Etc,etc,etc.

    I don’t think the lack of a diesel option is preventing a soft launch, at least some ‘on the road’ presence. Even before this latest offer the MG6 was a damn good deal financially, a sound car and different. Enough encouragement for those preferring the petrol option to get a good few on the road – if made aware!!!

  9. I agree Diesel is not such a big thing as far as I am concerned. In NZ you have to pay extra road tax for diesels. and apprently they require more servicing and so not. 35MPG (as long as it does do 35MPG) isnt too bad. when I bought my DISCO v8 I thought about buying a TD300 I was told my several people that unless im doing high milage stick with the V8. alex

  10. After what happened with MG Rover last time, I reckon that people are very nervous about buying a new MG, especially in a recession. After all, what use is a five year warranty if the company no longer exists? I would hope that the warranty will be insured against that, but people won’t look that far into it – they’ll just got to the nearest Hyundai/Ford/Vauxhall/Fiat/Citroen/Skoda dealer, which will be a lot nearer to them than the MG one.

    Plus, people want diesels these days (apart from me!)

  11. Steve Bailey, comment 12

    Again it’s down to advertising, making people aware. People won’t be so nervous if they know that MG is supported by such a huge company as SAIC.

    As for the diesel option or lack of it. I still think too much is being made of this. The petrol model alone is enough to get far more on the road than we are currently seeing. There must be another, more significant reason for the extremely low sales.

  12. i think the car looks ok,but its down to perception i guess and anything you associate with china in terms of quality is not always good- ive seen chinese built motorbikes that i wouldnt let my worst enemy ride!furthermore lack of parts and back up may well be a misplaced perception,alas a shame because everyone wants to see longbridge building great cars again.

  13. @David Dawson

    “People won’t be so nervous if they know that MG is supported by such a huge company as SAIC.”

    You might be onto something with this. I seem to remember Daewoo really going to town on the “we are a massive company, we make supertankers, cranes etc” angle when they launched. Nobody had heard of them, yet they sold very well despite the fact that they weren’t exactly desirable, being heavily based as they were on the Astra mk2 and the Cavalier mk2. MG are basically in the same situation with the advantage of a well-known and still well-loved badge and should be doing better than they are.

  14. @Steve BaileyBut Daewoo were cheap, full off kit and had quite a large dealer network, unless SAIC are willing to throw some money at dealers to get them to sell MG’s they won’t stand a chance, and look at the competition nowadays, Kia and Hyundai are now making some very good cars, far better built than the MG and longer warranty and lots of dealers, back when the Daewoo launched the Koreans were rubbish, skoda was rubbish, and lada a joke, now the  budget brands make very good cars, skoda’s are now excellent due to being pure VAG, I would never touch an MG with a barge pole, I had a new rover 200 once when I worked for BAE Systems as we got them cheap on a lease from work, got it home and realised the rear seat covers were Paisley and nothing like the ones in the front. From that day on I would never touch another Rover again.

  15. I wish they would hurry up and bring them to Australia. Having had a good look at them in China and spoken to owners over there they seem to be made as well as anything else is these days. All the dealers in China also have the words ‘Morris Garages’ under the MG sign with lots of English flags and memoriblia around the showrooms.

    It seems SAIC know what they have purchased but still don’t know what to do with it. Should have brought this car out as a Morris and then built a performance version and called it MG. I run a fleet of 14 cars for work- a mix of Fords, Mercedes, GM, Toyota, Land Rover, Mini, Mitsubishi and Great Wall.

    There really isn’t that much between them these days when you take into account what you pay for them. The Mercedes have proved to have the most break downs, Toyota the most difficult to get fixed and the current best of the fleet is a 2010 Discovery 4 HSE. As for diesel vs petrol it really does depend on how you use the vehicle but like reliability and quality a lot is based on perception.

  16. I follow the 5, 4, 3 and 2 but what exactly is the 1 ? I suppose the first years tax? but that’s already in there and this would be another year, year 1, to finish the sequence. Bit pedantic i know but it kinda sums up the marketing efforts of the Chinese MG; rather poor, must try harder, C- .

  17. Richard: “I follow the 5, 4, 3 and 2 but what exactly is the 1 ?” The projected value, in £’s, at then end of year 5….

  18. MG probably are all too aware that they don’t yet have the infrastrucuture to over promise, thats why they arent ramming the car down everyone’s throat at every opportunity because they know they cannot yet make enough of make the right variants (ie diesel etc). If it was as simple as advertising then why on earth didn;t MGR’s last gasp full on advertising campaign work, such as the “eau de leather” or the Autoexpress “full brochure insert” ? It isn;t that simple. I drove past an “eau de leather” billboard for at least 6 months after MGR was dead. MG UK are taking this at a pace I think is right, the production  line staff will be busy enough given they are only a few and so they will be fine until MG3 comes, the rest of the staff are working like the clappers to create lots of new models which is more than could ever be said in MGR’s day. Leave these people alone if you don;t want the car, I fail to see what good can come of attacking them continuously other than to help push the prospect of a proper comeback over the edge. Did rambling on and on and on about how perilous a state MGR was in help things in the eyes of the British public? or did it instead fulfill the prophecy that little bit quicker? Don’t think that one needs answering…

  19. @ Richard “it kinda sums up the marketing efforts of the Chinese MG; rather poor”I strongly suspect that in MG UK there isn’t a Chinese marketing person amongst the team so I rather think the poor reflection is on us!

  20. They should have pushed this from the start, lets face it, with stiff competition from Hyundai and Kia they need too, two well established brands that appeal to the same market the 6 is going to sell to with good prices, and a cracking warranty backing them up, the older generation are quite savvy when it comes to these things, and they are and will be the main buyers, I can’t see many thrusting upcoming executives getting shot of their VWs Audis or bmws for one

  21. Greg – Comment 17Interesting point – Bread and butter versions badged as Morris and sporting versions as MG. Does SAIC own the Morris badge? In fact, which badges do they own?  I know ‘Rover’ is now with Tata after a brief spell with Ford.

  22. I might be wrong, but I think BMW kept a lot of the badges – I seem to remember seeing an article saying that the Phoenix consortium only got the Rover and the MG badge (or the license to use them in Rover’s case?)

  23. I’d be interested to know what the current owners (37?) think of this new deal as it seems them about £1800 worse off (I have assumed figs of £300 for the AA and £400 for the servicing). Bearing in mind the current demographic seems to be old people with money, I can see a fair few letters being sent to the Daily Mail or if they are really posh, The Times!

  24. Don’t SAIC own the Austin and Morris marques? I thought NAC acquired them when MGR went bust and then SAIC bought NAC.

    I do think people are getting MG UK (and the MG6) wrong. At the moment they are establishing themselves in the marketplace, but with one model and limited dealer network there’s no point in launching a massive advertising campaign at this stage. Equally dealers aren’t going to rush to sign up when there’s only one car on offer. This, I think, will change when the MG3 (and the MG6 diesel) arrive with the MG5 on the horizon behind them. I think the 6 will be. relatively shortlived given that an MG7 is in the pipeline. For the time being the MG6 carries the flag for MG. Better it sells in small numbers and impresses people than it sell ten thousand and fail. Look at how Hyundai/Kia have quietly developed their market over the years to the point now where they score highly in customer satisfaction and have lengthy waiting lists for some models.

  25. @ Steve Bailey

    BMW Group still owns the Riley and Triumph brand names, and they gave Phoenix Venture Holdings (PVH) a licence to use the Rover name, albeit under a restrictive agreement. This was done so as to prevent PVH from using the Rover name on an SUV. The licence became void when MG Rover Group went into administration in April 2005.

    The Rover name, as with Jaguar, Land Rover, Daimler and Lanchester is now owned by Tata.

    SAIC, through their merger with NAC now owns Austin, Morris, MG and Wolseley.

  26. @David 3500

    I thought it was Ford / Land Rover that owned the Rover name at the time, licencing it to PVH on the understanding that no SUV will come of it.

    Hence, when Tata bought Land Rover (and Jag), they also bought the Rover brand.

    Was there some dispute, however, over the potential future usage of the longship shield?

  27. @Alex (#11): I worked out the same thing a little while ago. I’m currently keeping a weather eye out for a good Disco 2 V8; even though I’m no SUV man I just love the way they drive.

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