News : MG5 Official Pictures unveiled by Autocar

Words: Adam Sloman Pictures: Autocar/MG

UK weekly car magazine Autocar has unveiled these official images of the forthcoming MG5 in its latest issue and online.

The MG5  is due for launch imminently in China, with Autocar suggesting we can expect the hatchback here in the UK in 2013, though currently it’s unclear which will arrive first, the 5 or the smaller, supermini class MG3.

The MG5 continues the family look of the 6 and 3, with it’s large, prominent MG badge drawing the eye immediately and it’s altogether more interesting that the rather plain Roewe 350 upon which its based.

In terms of size it’s the closest MG have come yet to succeeding the brilliant but underrated ZS. Let’s hope it boasts the same rewarding drive the Honda-based hatchback offered.

 

The original Autocar report on the MG5 can be found here.

UPDATE: Over night official images of the car have been released online in China. We’ve updated the image gallery to include these pictures from Autohome.com.cn

78 Comments

  1. The more I see this car, the more I like it!
    Hoping the good looks, proportions and detailing translate in the flesh..

  2. Thats hope it has a good advert campaign to tempt the ex MG and the buying public, Regards Mark

  3. Top picture especially impressive.

    Why,though, are things taking so long? Next year before it hits the UK – will there be any dealers left by then?

    Are the Chinese at all serious about the UK and Europpean markets? It seems not. Not at this stage, anyway.

  4. 1.5 with 109bhp, can’t wait. Interesting that Autocar didn’t show pictures of the car’s rather unfortunate posterior. Yukio.

  5. Looks good, and the sort of marketing images that should be used.
    The AutoTrader app had the rear view, which looks fine, taken from the higher angle (quite suburu looking)

  6. @6 it’s not just a UK thing, it’s a European thing too. If you read one of the Auto mag interviews (the one with Cropley in it), they are very serious about the whole thing. CAB2 is being brought back into play soon, CAB1 has had a major dust down, and the level of engineering (that’s product mostly, not necessarily manufacturing) being done here (300 engineers here working very efficiently compared to the old days) is pretty much the base for what will effectively be a global brand. Believe it or not, a lot of these guys have been very busy since 2005, working under SAIC and NAC..

    Remember, though, where they will sell the majority of their cars. so a launch in China ahead of Europe obviously makes sense.. China buys more cars per year than Europe can only ever dream of. In terms of product development, management and marketing, every day is a sharp learning curve. Yet look back five years, it’ll make you wonder how far they will get in the next five as a global brand.

    As for the slow roll out of their products, I’m on the fence.. Where as the cars can be ‘ok’ for Chinese markets, the products have to be more than that for UK markets, and again, I think that’s something they’re try to get right. But again you have to bear in mind that this is pretty much a new car company with some big ideas. With £260m into Longbridge and double the amount to follow soon, and a much more broader brand base which the old firm could never achieve, if you ask whether they are serious about the UK and Europe, then you only have to ask the people that work there. -especially the UK MD…

  7. As the economy worsens, will there be any dealers left by then? Odds on that is a big fat NO! This car should have been launched last year. Proof once again that these Chinese clowns haven’t a clue what they are doing. For crying out loud, it will be over a year old when it hits these shores, and by then it will be seriously out of date.

  8. They aren’t fooling anyone with Longbridge. The cars arrive 99% complete in crates through Felixstowe (or not if Operation Stack is on), so they should stop fannying about, turn Longbridge into what MVI in Carnaby was for Lada, with the cars arriving 100% complete, but just needing ‘quality control’. This drip feed way of selling cars has failed, and they clearly don’t have a clue about how to run a company. I don’t think the brand is doing that well in China either, even though they are marketing to the hilt there. I also think the 3 & 5 already look dated, and very slab sided.

  9. Wooww, it’s just an Auris! More seriously, it’s the car of yesterday to answer the market of tomorrow. Next!!!

  10. A very bland car indeed. The main problem is that all the talented designers from Rovers design studio set up by Roy Axe now work for JLR and it shows. Would Gerry Mc Govern be designing boring porridge like the MG 3, MG 5 and MG 6- I think not! Even Peter Stevens was far more talented – Williams Kenny – Time for your P45.

  11. Looks like a rejected facelift for the old Lacetti, or something Kiaundai would have turned down 5 years ago.

  12. This is essentialy a redesign of the Toyota Auris, a car launched (in Japan) in 2006… When it goes on sale in 2013 in the UK it will be a 7 year old design… Not to mention the European market where it will probably be launched even later…

    I guess the Chinese don’t take the European market(s) serious AT ALL…

  13. This is not MG, none of these cars are; we are looking at a badge glued onto a car with no heritage whatsoever. It’s less convincing than calling a Lancia a Chrysler – watch how that pans out too – and we must accept that MGR died in 2005, its carcass ripped apart by scavengers, who threw aside what they didn’t need, and adorned themselves in the skin of their prey – or, at least, the attractive octagonal beauty spot. It sits upon the face of this beast, with its lumpen arse and its failed origami panels, doing nothing to detract from its universally abject hideous vulgarity, and sadly means nothing.

  14. @ MartyB ‘Proof once again that these Chinese clowns haven’t a clue what they are doing.”

    Honestly – the level of hubris that statement displays is unbelievable. They know exactly what they are doing ie. concentrating on markets that will actually make money for them. All this is is some window dressing by the few people employed by them in the UK to give them something to do, They aren’t doing what you want because frankly they don’t care and they don’t need to care. UK plc is in massive negative equity and our currency is being devalued by the day so they don’t need us.

    When we all realise that, stop moaning, stop thinking what we think matters and stop peeing what talent and value we have left in this country away on politically motivated projects such as ‘green energy’ then we might start to make up the ground again.

  15. I can’t believe the degree of intense negativity of the above comments!

    Absolute piffle

    Wait to see it for real, feel it, drive it, know the real performance, emissions and economy figures before making such absolute judgements

    Please!

  16. It`s okay i guess. But it certainly has that special “Asian” blandness…What`s interesting with the frontal styling i how much it emphasizes on the “MG” logo, even the bonnet has lines that draw attention to the octagon. If anything it does fly it`s marquee with pride! If it in doing that flies the marquee down the toilet, well that`s another story…

  17. Still looks very like a Hyundai i30/ Korean Chevvy etc but maybe that’s not all bad? At least the MG badge is prominent. I like the twin spoke alloys but it will take more than nice wheels for this car to succeed… Hope it sells better than the “6” Last one of those I saw was July last year!

  18. MG really needs to pull it’s finger out in the UK. The MG6 is a lovely car, drives nicely and handles really well. The 3 is not expected to hit showrooms until when……2015??? As above the 5 maybe 2017??? The poor sales of 6 is due to what? When is the Diesel engined cars coming out? What is MG UK waiting for, how the hell can it survive with it’s extremely slow release of different models. By the time the 5 comes out the 6 will need a facelift. How long will the Chinese continue to pump money into a loss making factory?

  19. It looks ok but why such a delay for the UK. Surely it can’t make much differance to stick a couple of hundred in boxes and send them here.

  20. Also you have to wonder, wouldn’t it have been better if they’d have carried on production at longbridge. They might have had a premium product then to push in china.
    Just look at the profits JLR are making there.

  21. The reason many of us are being negative here is that MG deserves so much more. Although not premiumin price, MG should have performance and glamour with styling at least as good as JLR are achieving or Alfa at a lower price point. I havedriven a 6 and would not consider one even second hand – very poor interior, materials are cheap and styling is bland.

  22. I think the front looks stunning, but it starts to go astray at the A pillar. I could say the same about the Focus and Astra too though, except the Focus and Astra don’t look as good at the front!

    a 1.5 with 109bhp, in something that size it should go like a rocket. So i don’t think performance will be an issue.

  23. If it’s had to be fashioned from lumps of lead and old pig iron like the 6 has then 109 BHP isn’t going to be enough. Not when the basic Astra wades in to battle with 120 horses.

    Are they going to be dropping the N-Series turbo motor into this?

  24. Bean – comment 24

    Exactly! You’ve said it in a nutshell!

    The situation prompts the comment ” What the hell are you playing at SAIC, MG UK?”

  25. Looks good in those outside shots.

    Seeing the 6 in one of the photos again made me think “What the hell are you playing at?” These two cars and the 3 could become common sights on UK roads if the company got its ar*e in gear!!!

    The rear of the 5 looks pretty OK too in that distant shot.

  26. Waiting a little while before a UK launch makes sense. First, the car will be proven by the time it arrives. Second, Chinese sales will mean money in the bank for a proper sales push.

    The Japanese started slowly, then built up speed like a turbine. This strategy is also far better than what our beloved BL did, letting the customers do the final development in many cases.

    Think of the current MG’s as paratroopers behind the lines before the main attack force. It’s going to be interesting!

  27. The real pictures look great! I really like it. Those who say this looks like an Auris are wrong IMO, the Auris is much more upright at the rear, whereas this looks a lot sleeker and great in alll of those colours. It has a MUCH nicer front end than anything from Vauxhall/Ford/PUG etc….much, much nicer indeed.

  28. Typically Asian, tiny little boring looking wheels… Could be any Hyundai, Kia etc…. Even Protons are more individual than this thing…

  29. indeed, this car is a nice try but its not gonna work, i think maybe thats why al the smoke is around the car… 🙂
    nobody is waiting for such an MG I think, a pity

  30. @ Steve McGill – You’re probably right, and given that Kia and Hyundai are gaining so much ground in Europr because they’re actually making nicer looking cars that the established players I would imagine MG want to be seen in a similar light. The lastest i30 and C’eed are great looking cars to me and much nicer and more interesting than the Astra/Focus. The MG5 looks like it would be in good company next to the C’eed/i30 and i’d buy it simply as it would have an MG badge on it rather than a Kia/Hyundai…

  31. 2012 – 1.5 litre MG5 @ 109hp (rated)

    1972 – 1.7 litre Sunbeam H120 @ 107hp (rated)

    Such progress it takes my breath away.

    Forgive me, but isnt MG supposed to be a sporting marque?

    If you take this lump of junk as a benchmark – in 30 years we’ve managed to drop 200cc & gain 2hp…

    Selling this as a sports/sporty car is like shooting an innocent Syrian in the head, while his body (or whats left of it) is 30 yards away – aka pointless in the extreme.

    Why on earth the Chinese think this is going to sell is beyond me.

    If the cynical branding exercise was any more transparent they could use it for the windows on the Constellation class Enterprise.

    With such products as the iPhone – which is just as much a ‘build em cheap,sell em high’ exercise as the MG5 – there is a ‘halo’ effect. Yes, as a smartphone its so far behind the curve its the phone equivalent of an A35, but its an ‘iPhone’. Its something people want, not because of its abilities, but because it *is*.

    Where is the halo effect with the MG5?

    You cant even say ‘at least its not a Kia or a Hyundai’ any more – since arguably they’re producing a better product. When Kia are building products and selling them upmarket – you know you are in trouble…

    “…We could show it driving through a strangely empty metropolis, but we decided not to, because we didn’t want to give BMW any more reason to sue our asses off…”

    “Park the Cliche, Drive the Wanna-BMW”

    MG is dead and gone – and this is the time to admit it, before all the happy memories people have of ‘proper’ MG’s are tainted by these monstrosities.

    Ironically it would have been a better choice to have taken a nameplate like Woseley – for which most young people have no preconceptions – than chose to take MG – a name that will be familiar to most people.

  32. Styling is neat and inoffensive, anodyne? Maybe that’s the problem for me. I still think MG’s are affordable sportscars, not A to B hacks. Should be a Roewe, Morris and Wolseley are just too twee for 21st century UK, although….maybe an ‘iWolseley’ could work? 😉

  33. I’m liking the bright colours. I think that the MG5 is a better design than the MG6 too. Will it sell? Hopefully…

  34. Dull photoshop images that just don’t set the pulse racing, much like all the other cars in this segment.

    Move along, please. Nothing to see here.

  35. What a waste of time. Looks like a toyota auris meets a lacetti. Should sell at least a dozen of these. Yawn.

  36. Try saying Wolseley with a Chinese accent.

    Looks are subjective and this is better than the 6. I’ve seen one 6 in the metal and it could be Anycar. That is: it is so like everything else it has nothing in shape or form to distinguish it. Nothing particularly wrong with the looks but nothing to write home about either and that’s the problem. Can’t turn heads if there’s nothing to see. (And, being “fashionable”, unlike, say, a 75, it’ll date quickly – already has to many commentators here.)

    Starting from scratch, as they are with the MG brand, this company needs to make an impression.

    The 5’s going to have the same problem to a slightly lesser degree. To sell, it needs to stand out BIG TIME in just one area. It isn’t going to be looks. In that department it is good but nowhere near outstanding.
    So, it’s got to be one (or more) of: Really Plush Comfort (unsuitable if we still believe in MG as a tradition), World-beating Economy (I have no idea if it will be extremely economical but I doubt it, which leaves Performance.
    If these cars, in these skins, are given Power then they will sell. Go for a real Driver’s car. What chance? None, I think.
    Love the Purple pic. Smoke on the Water for me!
    That’s all I’m writing…has anyone managed to stop saying Wolseley yet?

  37. @41 we are not talking about holbay headed 1725cc sunbeams with carbs are we?this is the age were emmision control saps power,look at a typical petrol cat never mind the derv cat/dpf,fuel injection was always about precision,remember fuel stand off from side draughts?spitting petrol back out a wide open throttle?always good for power!and before you quote the 1.0 3 pot eco boost that may find its way into even the mondeo where is the torque coming from?in a car that size?well,looks like petrol is making a rennaisance after all does it not?forget the past,the enviro nazis won long ago.

  38. its funny how this car and the MG look ok in some colours, and not good in other colours. the purple not good and not even the red looks good, and the white MG5 looks good but the white MG6 doesnt. well i havent seen one in real life yet. alex

  39. @Jemma “You cant even say ‘at least its not a Kia or a Hyundai’ any more – since arguably they’re producing a better product”

    How do you know that, what have you got to quantify such a statement? Kia/Hyundai are a well established global brand with plenty of money. It would be a crying shame if they were not, in 2012, able to produce class competing models. Which they now are, however, it has taken them decades to get to this point – hasn;t stopped them being popular or successful.

    MG are still a fairly newly established business, their team and infrastructure is new, SAIC are an old hand…. at making other people’s cars to other people’s plans. So SAIC/MG are making a cracking job as a first effort. Put the MG5 next to the newly-launched C’eed and i30 models and it stands shoulder to shoulder IMO. The rest is speculation because none of us has seen one or driven one.

    And as for the ridiculous comparisons with cars of 40 years ago… well some people would see a 1.0 Litre Focus as somewhat of a comedown from a 1.3 litre Escort circa 1972 wouldn’t they? it all depends on what your own personal measure is. BHP is one for sure, but I have driven many cars, some powerful, some not so, and the way they drive in the real world has very little to do with out and out BHP. Some of the nicer cars I have had have been at the lower end.

    For those of us who are simply obsessed with MG being a “sporting brand” and anything the Anglo/Chinese team come up with is not worthy(though drive anything pre f/TF/Z-series and it’s arguable they drove like porridge on a lake of custard…) then you might be better simply to jog on…

  40. I want to see this brand to succeed, as already noted they have very long lead times for cars to be made ready for the market place, they really need to get things moving, also get the 550 and 750 badged perhaps as Morris for sale to enhance and suplement the MG brand. It has also been noted that MG should be a sporting brand, it can be if an sportier spec engines were made available with the lesser spec engine and diesel to cater all tastes for the buying public.Regards Mark.

  41. 47 & 49.

    To be blunt the comparison is pretty good, both are supposed to be sporting. Both are mid range cars. both have about the same MPG rating (I managed to get an average of 32mpg out of a Sceptre with the same motor as the H120).
    MG is supposed to be a sporting marque – and this thing just isnt. It barely compares with a ‘hot’ model from 40 years ago.

    Seeing my point now?

    Sporting models nowadays – Megane 225hp

    Best ‘MG’ can manage apparently – 109hp

    Fantastic. My grandmother will love its scintillating performance, after all her Austin Princess is getting a little long in the tooth…

  42. True to its genre, the rear is very short.

    To paraphrase a television advert, “small boot -like a Golf!”

  43. 109 BHP isn’t the best MG can manage, it’s simply what will be available from launch. There is a 1.5 turbo variant in the works, there would be the opportunity to fit the 2Ltr turbo NLE if they decide to also.

  44. @Jemma 51

    I honestly have no idea what point you are trying to make with that post. What have you driven? what compares to a Sceptre? (a Sceptre??) What’s a H120? and what has an Austin Princess go to do with anything?

    Oh, and how many 225bhp Meganes do you see on the road? I suspect the 225 hbp Model is not responsible for keeping Renault afloat. In fact, I suspect it’s the lowly powered petrol models that are because joe public can actually afford to buy and run them – much like the best selling Astra/Focus/Golf yadayadayada….

    I don’t know how old you are, and TBH it’s really rather irrelevant, but I do wonder at what point in the past your view of the motoring world was Frozen because some of the cars you repeatedly refer to haven’t seen tarmac this side of 30/40 years. Might be worth actually looking at what the real world of cars consists of these days because MG will not survive if it is turned into some kind of a 225bhp+ only marque because frankly no-one can afford to run those cars much less insure them.

    Just my IMO of course.

  45. Hello! Why can car enthuaists not realize that the great factory that was demolished was Austin. Not M.G. or Morris. The great Austin factory was built up by Lord Herbert Austin.T

  46. I am a member of the U.K. Why do M.G. enthuiasts not realize that M.G. is dead. The great factory that was demolished was the Austin factory that Lord Herbert Austin founded in 1905. It is a pity that U.K. doesn’t now have a person of the calibre of that great man. The reliabity and quality of construction disappeared in the ’60’s. Yes there were many stupid mistakes made but a lot of this was caused by militant unions who were determined to strike for the silliest reasons which of course drained the company of finance to properly develop new models. The best car I owned was a ROVER 75 (2003) I now drive a HONDA CRV which is made in Britain. If the workers had worked as well as they now do at Jaguar/LR, Nissan,Toyota and Honda things would have been a lot different.

  47. Well, it’s good to see that a hint of racism and tastless references to current humanitarian disasters are still the order of the day for some folk…..

    @ cecil keys 58 & 59

    So by that logic what are we to get into our heads about Cowley, BMW and MINI?

    @ James 56

    Thanks for that post, saved me a lot of time! Sometimes folk get desperate when running out of any sort of ammo to try and shoot someone or something down with.

  48. Looks a nice enough effort (apart from rear view!)
    The sad reality is that MG is no more a sporting brand. Its simply a case of a Chinese car firm buying a recognised badge to stick on the front of their cars.
    Tried a 6 a few weeks ago, nice enough but as sporty as trifle tbh(though I wasn’t in much of a position to give it too much wellie as the roads used were pretty busy).
    Buy one if you like it and are happy to risk it but don’t expect an MG of old.
    I suspect that you’ll be very lucky to ever see anything like a 3 litre fire snorting MG – more likely a range of Kia clones / competitors

  49. I am still not sure why a very plain looking Chinese car, wearing a defunct British badge, continues to generate so many column inches on a site dedicated to the products of the old BL empire. Meanwhile, other remnants of that empire (that are hugely more significant and successful), such as Jaguar – Land Rover and MINI, continue to generate relatively little interest here.

  50. @62 good point

    JLR making some of the best cars in the world, the Land Rover Defender still has Morris Marina indicator stalks…BMW building a car called MINI at Cowley.

    I think that MG is the most tangible link with BMC/BL DNA albeit very very tenuous, and do most BMC/BL lovers like the underdog?

  51. @ 63, I had wondered about the underdog idea too.

    My first thought was that it was the iconic Longbridge address that SAIC will be importing the Chinese built MG5 through but, if it were simply the address that mattered, then people here would feel just as loyal to the products coming out of the Cowley plant.

    Then I thought it might be the badge, but then Jaguar, Land Rover and (probably) MINI are more iconic than MG.

    But, on reflection, I think you’re right. MG has been the underdog for years. Ever since the Abingdon closed around 1980 and (arguably) since the MGB abd Midget became uncompetitive from around 1972, MG has been seen as the classic underdog.

    However, what seems to be happening, is that whilst most of the enthusiasts that visit this site are very keen for it to succeed, the badge is now pretty meaningless (or, at worst, tainted) to the general car buying public.

  52. sigh, why do you persist in missing the point?

    Renault are what a holistic person might call the ‘whole body experience’. So you get every level in every range. For example Safrane RN for the management pauper to the Biturbo Quadra for the KCMG with a deathwith (KCMG “kindly call me God”).

    They do a batguano nuts version of practically every platform they do – 3 litre Clio anyone? Or the new Clio Raider. The 225 Megane is another. Its even possible, should you want to, to shoehorn the 225 engine into the Scenic, since its basically a Megane in a minibus’ clothing.

    But here is the difference and please TRY TO KEEP UP this time…

    MG started as sports cars only, continued in sports cars only, and arguably died as a sports car manufacturer.

    They didnt, and shouldnt, make underpowered bargain basement naffgasms like this. It dilutes what little there is left of the brand.

    MG stood for something, the performance side of engineering, that little bit of sporting spirit. Can you imagine the uproar if the ‘new MG Metro’ had come complete with the spavined 1.0 litre last seen gracing the Morris Minor?

    As anything else, was I looking for a car, I might look at it – for all the headlights look like someone royally screwed up the panel gaps and needed a cheap fix and the behind looks like a baby Vel Satis. As an MG, just no. Because it isnt.

    A single model with that 2-litre turbo someone mentioned. That would be more like it.

    A soft top version – or maybe a nice coupe based on the 6 – even more so.

    But even then its not an MG. MG died when Mandelson gleefully rivetted Phoenix-MGRs coffin irrevocably shut (ironically of course, just as they were finally getting somewhere). The ‘Z’ cars were the final flowering.

    In comparison this car is what you put on the roses to make them flower.

    Austin – dead
    Morris – dead
    Wolseley – dead
    Riley – dead
    Rover – dead
    MG – dead

    They’re dead Jim…

    They’re all playing the part of the python parrot.

    They are deceased! Get over it.

  53. “MG started as sports cars only, continued in sports cars only, and arguably died as a sports car manufacturer.”

    BMC and Morris did make a lot of MG badged saloons during the 50’s and 60’s……..BL did in the 80’s and MGR in the 00’s..you could argue it’s heritage

  54. MG’s were Morrises tuned by a mechanic called Cecil Kimber, not necessarily with William Morris’s blessing. It’s in the history books.

    No points missed.

  55. The factory that most MG enthusiasts of a certain age shed a tear for when it was destroyed was the one in Abingdon.

  56. Apparently SAIC/MG motor have decided to put a1.3L mini “A”series engine into the new MG5! With a 4 speed manual gearbox and an SU carb!! And there”s a 1.8L petrol engine coming from India”s hindustan(morris oxford)to boot aswell!!

  57. Statement “MG were tuned Morris cars.” = true. otherwise known as making a sportscar out of a sows ear.

    Statement “MG were tuned models of normal cars – aka the M & Z series et al” = true. Otherwise known as making torquesteer out of a sows ear.

    Both points are valid, both support my point. MG was always the sporting choice. That was the point of its existence. In some cases on a shoestring they managed medium sized miracles – aka the Rover 45 conversion into something worthwhile.

    109hp did not a sports model make in 1981 when my dad bought a Cavalier SRi. It doesnt make one now. I learnt to drive on a car with more power than that.

    I’ve not even mentioned the A, B, C series. A twin cam in the 50’s no less! Or a nice V8 and enough room to drop a 300hp reboot + 5spd LT77 in? That’ll be the MGB then… Then theres wonders like the EX cars… Can you see that sort of project happening now?

    Merely pasting an MG badge on a car does not an MG make – even if that car happens to be a BMW M5 – because the design concepts are utterly different.

    MG as the MG concern is dead and gone, this is a cynical marketing exercise – and the sales figures for the 6 make it clear its been seen as such.

  58. There’s a difference between a ‘sporting car’ and a ‘sports car’ as far as people’s perception is concerned. A sports car in general is perceived as being a 2 seater/2+2 rag/tin top. Doesn’t matter what YOU think, Jemma, ask almost anyone and that is the answer they will give you. (In case you wonder why I brought this up, re-read your posts and you will see you have conveniently switched between the two to try and make your argument sound more credible.)

    A Sierra Cosworth is a ‘sporting’ or ‘sporty’ car, a GT40 a sports car. MG ZS ‘sporty/sporting’, MGF/TF sports car.

    If people are going to shoot folk down, it is better to keep the content of their arguments consistent.

    Modifying bog standard cars has been the MG way for decades, as well as the production of roadsters side by side. The ADO16 MG’s & Farinas, to quote a couple of examples, were not built at Abingdon so MG also has a history of being a pseudo-lodger in other factories to get its products out.

  59. There is a lot of what Jemma’s written that I agree with.

    There is one point I’d raise though:

    “Austin – dead
    Morris – dead
    Wolseley – dead
    Riley – dead
    Rover – dead
    MG – dead

    They’re dead Jim…”

    With the MG badge currently being (mis)placed on a range of unremarkable Chinese cars, is it possible to re-catergorise the MG as being amongst the “undead”?

  60. @Jemma – 71
    Statement 1 = “MG was always the sporting choice. That was the point of its existence. In some cases on a shoestring they managed medium sized miracles – aka the Rover 45 conversion into something worthwhile”

    Statement 2 = “Merely pasting an MG badge on a car does not an MG make – even if that car happens to be a BMW M5 – because the design concepts are utterly different”

    These being in the same post only seek to exemplify just what a contradiction your ramblings are becoming. So MGR can slap an MG badge on an ageing and unpopular warmed over Rover badged Honda…..but they couldnt get away with sticking the badge on something like an M5?

    At the moment the badges are being “stuck on” to cars that are fairly fresh out of the box,have a lot of British skill and input into their engineering and styling and are not known to have been driving the streets as something else for years and so therefore I would argue that the latest range of MG’s is as close to pure that MG will ever get (having never really been a self-sustaining brand or desigin house in it’s own right anyway)

    The final piece of the puzzle, as with any car, is whether you like them. And that I’m afraid will always be subjective and bleating on about this and that and how the good old days were this and that changes nothing. If you do not like them, move on to those Renaults you so avidly observe and talk about…

  61. Cannot see this car reaching Britains shores before spring 2014 and by then it will need a big facelift.Fronts not bad but the rear end needs serious rework.

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