News : More images of new MG GS SUV released in China / Updated

Clive Goldthorp

SAIC Motor MG GTS.1

A number of first official images of MG’s new C-segment SUV were released by SAIC Motor in China last month (shown above and below). The production version of the CS SUV Concept, which was originally unveiled at Auto Shanghai 2013, is scheduled to be launched at Auto Shanghai in April, 2015 and will reach Chinese showrooms the following month.

The new model, which will now reportedly be badged as the GS, is based on a new SAIC Motor-developed scalable architecture dubbed SSA (SAIC Scalable Architecture?) and not, as previously rumoured by some Chinese sources, a modified version of the current SsangYong Korando’s platform. The dimensions of L: 4500mm, W:1675mm and H:1675mm will pitch MG’s new SUV against competitors such as the Honda CR-V and Kia Sportage.

SAIC Motor MG GTS.4

The MG GS will debut in China with an SMTC UK-developed 2.0-litre four-cylinder petrol engine delivering 217bhp and 258lb ft of torque through a standard six-speed, dual-clutch automatic gearbox. Front-wheel drive and four-wheel drive will both be offered – SAIC Motor claims that the four-wheel drive version will accelerate from 0-62mph in “around eight seconds.” A turbocharged 1.5-litre four-cylinder petrol engine producing 168bhp and 184lb ft of torque should also become available in China next year.

SAIC Motor has indicated that a UK introduction is scheduled for early 2016 – the UK range is expected to include a turbocharged 1.9-litre four-cylinder diesel engine based on the unit already found in the MG6.

SAIC Motor MG GTS.3

More pre-launch images of MG’s new SUV have been released in China this weekend – take a look at a selection of the new shots in the gallery below.

 

Clive Goldthorp

40 Comments

  1. That’s actually a nice looking car. With a strong interest in local manufacturing industry (that’s why I’m here)I still cant bring myself to buy A Chinese built 4×4, not while Land Rover are designing, manufacturing, sourcing components and assembling a competitive product here in the UK!

  2. The 2 litre power output sounds impressive for the market sector.

    Even though the front end is a little too stylized for my taste that’s a pretty neat looking design. I actually think it looks better from the rear and it looks streets ahead of the MG6 hunchback.

  3. Looks fine, but very similar to the Qashqai & Hyundai iX35? I do wish it well, but it will need to achieve better sales than the 6 & 3. Time will tell…

  4. Mg needs to be more interesting and even more positive with their Press releases, the one above could have been so much more if they did what others do, and get very creative, I am looking forward to seeing the interiors of this new GTS, I am surprised that no interior shots have been officially released yet.

    This car will sell, as long as they price it well, like teh MG3 is, in its segment, if it can be well equiped and well priced, it will fly off the shelves, but by leaving it until 2016, they are shooting themselves in the foot once again, they need it out by Q2 of next year, followed by the MG5 and the Zero, if they could get all three next year, it will give MG a uber boost, and will, at long last have a full range of cars to fight with.

  5. MG’s are no longer built in the UK. They are built in china and assembled from CKD kits. Tis car will be the same as the MG6 MG3 and soon to be released MG5. But I will gaurentee that the fit and finish and the noise/vibration/harshness will be the same extreme low quality as all other Chinese MG’s. This company has no hope of survival outside of China

    • There was a time when a very small amount of final assembly work was done on the MG6 (though never enough to come close to qualifying as CKD kit assembly). With the MG3 this amusing little farce was dropped and Longbridge simply became another importer of Chinese manufactured goods. I have seen no evidence to suggest that the SUV will be any different.
      Still, at least it has the badge of a defunct UK manufacturer and that, for many, is enough to bring it column inches here. It’s no more British than a Kia, but at least Kia make no pretence.

      • The “idiotic hearsay” has been drawn almost entirely from editorial from this website and information released directly from SAIC/MG via their advertorials, also on this site. Far be it from me to criticise either of those sources but, if you feel the need to, you might want to take it up with them.

        By the question “have you drove any Chinese built MG product” (sic), I assume that you mean “driven”?

        Out of curiosity, I did look at an MG6 in some detail at the showroom in Plymouth in Plymouth around 18 months ago The poor sales chap was so pleased that I was looking at it; sitting in it was quite enough thanks, nothing that I saw made me want to drive it.

        • Maybe you should try one, you might be pleasantly surprised, or not as the case may be, you seem to just want to knock it regardless, you also seem quite happy to comment on others errors, well, i was always told that if you cant do any better, then keep quiet, or is there a Plymouth, within a Plymouth, 18 months ago, that no one else is aware of ?

          I have driven both MG3 and MG6, quite a bit, and was impressed with both, unfortunately there is no auto option so i chose to buy something else, but with new models along with new engines and gearboxes coming on stream soon, next time around an MG will be at the top of my buy list.

          I do find it funny that people that do nothing but deride something, continues to frequent a website thats devoted it, whether it be AROnline or MG-Rover.org and so on, there are a few people that do nothing but slag the site, its members and the products, well, if you really are not that interested, why bother coming here, spilling bile and pith that no one really wants to read.

          Constructive criticism is fine, if your happy to have a decent discussion, but just nastiness, constant critiscism, put downs and more are not what this site is all about.

  6. Nice looking car.
    Needs to be manufactured in Longbridge to gain interest in Europe and in the UK. And strong power units too!

  7. Yes, it looks good and I too was impressed by the 2 lire power output.

    Overall, I’m still almost mystified by the minute sales in the UK. I’ve seen no more 3s on the road than 6s.

  8. The images do not seem to be photographs, they may well digital renderings of cad/cam files, such images often prove to be caricatures of the final product

    • The first three are renders, but the images in the gallery look smoggy enough to be real Shanghai photos, I still think it’s a cute car, and would probably sell Stateside at the right price point.

  9. Excellent apart from the under front grill bit which is a disaster.also to be a step above the others it needs to have a 2500 kg towing capacity. Alex

  10. There has been a pattern over a number of years now for SAIC to develop new MG models for the Chinese market and then launch them in the UK, as what appears to be a token gesture, a year or two later. I’m pleased that SAIC employs engineers in Britain to develop the product. However, many of the people visiting this site are interested in the present and future UK car industry — development and manufacturing. If you’re that sort of person and you want this sort of car, really, depending on your budget, you should be looking at a Juke, a Qashqai or a Land/Range Rover. The Honda CRV is built here too, but is more of a Japanese-developed world car.

  11. Personally I think it is very bland, it could be any Kia, Hyundai, Nissan, Vauxhall etc.
    Ill not be joining a queue at the dealers.

  12. Like the further pictures.

    I may not be going “oh yes, I must have one” but it is perfectly likeable, attractive. Can’t see why it would not sell in reasonable, as opposed to tiny, numbers if everything else about it is up to standard. It also has the advantage of being a more fashionable, popular type of car compared to the 6.
    However, if only a few are aware of it and your nearest dealer is still many miles away the sales will again be tiny.

  13. Car News China has real photos of 3 GS’s – they still reckon it’s Ssangyong based (certainly the wheelbase is identical) but with a VW Tiguan back axle. Shame it’s late to market compared to the other small SUV’s due out this year – it’s getting very competitive in that sector.

  14. No, sorry, these types of vehicle do absolutely nothing for me.

    As for it being an MG pleeeease. It is a vehicle manufactured in China using a name that the company bought.

    Think of the food industry, think of chocolate and in particular Cadburys. Kraft took over Cadburys and said, basically, things would remain the same. They have now changed the formulation of Cadburys Creme Eggs such that they are no longer the established Cadburys Creme Eggs but essentially Kraft Creme Eggs. The same with MG, they are not MGs but SAIC but with an MG badge slapped onvto woo the punters.

    • I like the analogy, Paul, but to the vast majority of shoppers who haven’t paid attention to the news (sadly, these days, that’s half the population unless it’s gossip about celebrities or who’s going to win X-Factor), the Creme Egg is still a Creme Egg. Is, therefore, an MG still an MG?

      Also, to the same point, VW bought Bentley. But to most people who buy Bentleys, a Bentley is still a Bentley… Okay, so they still build them in Crewe, but how much of the car is really local content?

      Personally, I won’t be buying a Kraft Creme Egg or a SAIC MG any time soon, but I do think a brand is still a brand, regardless of who owns it or what they do to it…

      • Disagree about Bentley and JLR. The majority of the employees at all levels will have been employed before the takeovers therefore no change.

        With SAIC the manufacture is not by the previous employees.

      • Your analogy is flawed in so many ways!

        1. The Chinese protect their home market much more than we do our own. If LR did what SAIC do to the UK by importing finished, or as good as finished, cars to China, then the import tax would be crippling and virtually none would be sold. If LR want a slice of the Chinese home market, they have no option but to set up proper CKD and some manufacturing locally. The Chinese wouldn’t be fooled if LR were to “do a Longbridge” and pretend to do CKD assembly.

        2. The LR products are almost entirely developed and tested in the UK, whereas SAIC contract a small team in the UK to top up their main effort in China. I expect that SAIC will learn fast and, like Honda, will soon have “little that we can teach them” and we may even loose the small UK input to design.

        3. The cars assembled in China are for local consumption, not for import to the UK. Would I buy one if they ever did import to the UK (in much the same way that Triumph bring in some of their bikes from their own assembly plants in Thailand)? No.

    • A 2.0 litre petrol, conventional full size family 5 door hatchback, or 4 door saloon, from a non-prestige manufacturer? Does anyone buy those any more?

      Even with a competitive diesel engine, that’s now a tall order to sell in anything other than penny numbers. Unless, for some inexplicable reason, it’s a Skoda…

      • The answer to your question is yes the 5 door hatch and four door saloon do sell, and sell extremely well, just wander over to JATO and you will see that in black and white.

      • The power output from that engine would be a bit greater than anything in the Mondeo line up, or any of the four cylinder Insignias. For someone who wants something a bit sportier than a Ford or a Vauxhall at a reasonable price, a two litre MG6 would make perfect sense.

        The MG line up could do with a couple of sporting models to create a halo effect. It would also help them to turn the reasonably successful return to the BTCC into sales.

  15. Another vomit inducing bland, anodyne, style free SUV in an overcrowded market.

    Might well be a Toyota from the front and a Honda CRV from the rear and more or less anything else from the side (Kia, Nissan, Hyundai etc etc).

    If the fit & finish are as good as the MG6 that I sat in a few months ago then it will depreciate like a 3 week old M&S sandwich. Never mind that MG don’t have a competitive diesel or petrol engine in terms of economy.

    Won’t sell to the hire companies because they don’t do SUVs in quantity, won’t sell to the yummy mummys because of the fuel consumption & road tax, won’t sell to anyone else because the competition is so fierce in this sector.

    Hopefully this cynical piece of “MG heritage” [haha] will totally bomb in terms of sales and disappear without trace.

    • Agreed.

      I could get excited and go, “Hurrah MG is back, a splendid British marque. I’ve owned many of their old cars. Maybe I could have a brand new one.” but then I notice their range consists of a drab saloon made of plastic, a 4-door hatchback with a rubbish engine, and soon… an SUV.

      Not a sports car in sight, or even a hot version of an already half-decent up-market model. So brand ruined.

      “But at least they’re made in Britain!”

      “Oh, they’re not?”

  16. No axes to grind there, then Tony.

    After years of hating these kind of cars, I am coming round to them, mainly because ageing leads to cars that are easier to get in and out of.

    I think it’s a good first effort from MG, though tbh I prefer the much more divisive ICON, as it is it makes good use of MG’s design language, esp at the front end, the rear reminds me of the MG GT.

    The current MG6 and 3 both had interiors as good as most rivals last time I looked.

  17. It looks shocking just like the Mg3 and 6 where’s the nice looking MG’s gone the twin headlights and sporty mesh grill’s and seats that look sporty and not like a cheap sofa its sad to see we will never see a good looking mg again
    Its mad jaguar got took over and have gone from good looking cars to amazing looking cars now
    But sadly I don’t think the same about mg and this is coming me a person that’s owned at least 25-30 Longbridge cars

  18. It looks ok and good luck to it, but I think we must accept that serious manufacturing will not happen at Longbridge again. For a start the majority of the site and factory has gone.
    I went on the factory tour last year and when we were shown what was supposedly the end of the line all there was were a few registered 6s parked up, presumably returned daily rental cars back for sprucing up, hardly convincing that any assembly was going on. It was very quiet and no-one was about. However, the design office was full of folk hard at work. This is what Longbridge is now, a design and import centre.

  19. Completely off message, but saw my first MG 3 in Durham this week, in the colour of the SUV above. Looked ok too! Not had a poke around one yet, must try.

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