News : MG3 prices revealed – starting at £8399

Clive Goldthorp

MG3 (1)

MG Motor UK has confirmed the prices and specifications for the new MG3 supermini, which will be in the company’s dealerships from next month. The two key points are that all four models in the range are available for under £10,000 on the road and that their predicted Insurance Group Rating will be 4E – according to the company, that should be less than half the rating for the MG3’s main B-segment competitors.

All four versions of the MG3 are powered by the 1.5-litre 104bhp VTi-Tech engine coupled with a five-speed manual transmission. They also feature LED daytime running lights, six airbags, ABS, electronic stability control, corner brake control, traction control and Zero fabric sports seats as standard. The entry-level 3Time version adds to that a CD player with MP3 compatibility and Aux-in facility and costs £8399 on the road.

The mid-range 3Form costs £9299 and includes air conditioning, DAB radio,  Bluetooth and audio streaming, a leather MG-design steering wheel with red stitching and steering wheel audio controls as standard while the 3Form Sport, which costs £9549, adds 16in Carousel alloy wheels and a sports body styling pack comprising a rear boot spoiler and side sill extensions to that specification.

The MG3 3Style sits at the top of the new range and comes with 16in Diamond alloy wheels and a sports body styling pack in addition to cruise control, automatic lights and windscreen wipers and reverse parking sensors as standard for an on the road price of £9999.

MG Motor UK pitches the MG3 as being ‘fun to drive, fun to buy and fun to own’ and the company reckons that the key attraction for many potential customers will be ‘how much fun you can have creating your own MG3’ – the car will be offered with a range of 10 colours together with a wide range of exterior graphic and interior finisher colour packs while Tech part-leather upholstery will be available as an option on the 3Style version.

All four versions of the MG3 are in VED Band E and return 48.7mpg on the combined cycle while emitting 136g/km of CO2. The VTi-Tech engine gives the MG3 a 0-60mph time of 10.4 seconds and a top speed of 108mph. 

MG3 (2)
Photograph: Adam Sloman

Clive Goldthorp

65 Comments

  1. This is a very encouraging pricing structure that really does give the MG3 a realistic chance against its real rivals from Hyundai and Kia. It isn’t making any false assumptions that the perceived desirability of the MG name or its heritage card is strong enough to take on premium Superminis from MINI or Volkswagen – at the moment the image definitely falls way short of this. Instead the company is being realistic in a very competitive sector of the market.

    It also enables MG Motor UK Ltd to review the situation and, subject to sufficient demand and commercial success, they can potentially adopt an onwards and upwards approach by introducing higher specification or more performance-derived variants to act as ‘halo’ derivatives.

    All in all, a sound move by MG Motor UK Ltd.

  2. Sounds much more promising. Now launch it in Australia at similar pricing and as a 3-door and I could be well tempted. But please make sure it’s assembled in the UK before shipping it out here or else I won’t touch it.

    Funny how the smell of my old ’82 SD1 was similar to my ZT-T. If an MG3 doesn’t have that aroma and important indefinable something, then the temptation will subside…

  3. Dacia are not a direct competitor, I would not be too concerned. I was impressed by the 3 when I saw it at Silverstone, feels a better product than the Dacia by some way. I see it more as a Kia/Hyundai rival.

  4. Looks good and well priced. I particularly like the interior, simple and stylish.

    I’d have a red rose w/trophy stripe (black).

    Can’t wait to see if anyone specifies the emoticons roof…

  5. Very impressive but they need to be advertising. I asked a couple of motoring friends who had forgotten that MG was in business due to lack of publicity – they thought it was all wound up when Rover was shamefully allowed to go bust.

  6. Pricing sounds spot on, but totally agree with MGBmarvel about the need to advertise. I wish it well.

  7. A mid-1990s price for a mid-1990s car. 136g/kg is horrific for such a small car with such limited performance (0-60 in over 10 secs). That’s way above the CO2 benchmark for full-size exec cars these days. Even a 200 bhp Jaguar XF Diesel is almost as clean!

  8. CAR Magazine quotes MG UK as stating the sales target of 2500-3000 cars a year – no need to moan, it’s pragmatic.

    Well done MG UK – sensibly priced, this isn’t a competitor to a parts-bin Dacia (not a negative comment) and I hope it sells well.

  9. It will be interesting to read a comparison test between the MG, Dacia Sandero and something like a basic Fiesta at some point.

  10. Hi Paul

    Agreed on the CO2 – my MINI First 1.6-litre Petrol has 127g/km, and it’s hardly cutting edge.

    But the performance comments puzzle me. Could you post a list of quicker new hatchbacks at the same price please? And the 1990s comment – could you post something to back that up, please?

    As I say – just out of curiosity’s sake really.

  11. @12 That is a valid point about emissions, However not much worse than say a Poverty model Polo, 1.2 = 128g/kg with only 60 or 70 Horses, from £10,650 . 1.4= 139g/kg with only 85 Horses, from £13,360 http://www.volkswagen.co.uk/new/polo-v/which-model/engines/overview Have driven both and you cant help thinking (Sh^t…. am gonna save up for a proper car !).

    Despite the old Engine relic up front I would much prefer this than say the VW lumps… at least it should pull up hills ok with a Decent amount of Torque! Infact if MG does Advertise it should be a runaway success at those realistic prices…. In Theory.

  12. Got a real chance here.
    To back all this up, they will need a decent finance/insurance offer.
    If the maths stack up to offer the basic one on a PCP at say £500.00 down and £125 per month, they will shift.

  13. Once again,the meaningless CO2 brigade are out, if this car was zero CO2 you would find an excuse not to buy it.

    This is no fleet or business car is it? its aimed at the private individual given the sales projections by MGUK,is the potential owner really going to be bothered about scratting for a few extra bob for VED? is it possible he may like this car so much he cares not what comes out of the tailpipe?

  14. There are still a lot of ZR drivers out there, many would love to trade into anoher small MG and this seems ideal, cheaper than the older ZR was well I suspect.

  15. If this car doesn’t sell at that price MG will have done something seriously wrong. A base spec Chevrolet Spark costs £300 more at list price and has no more kit. A 5-door Fiesta/Corsa/Polo will liberate you of £12,000 for 60hp of abject misery. It will sell if people know about it.

  16. Francis, I totally agree. It effectively costs you £10 to tax. I hear so many people say, Id buy that car if it cost £0 tax, but when the car costs you £2-3k more to buy only a brainless moron would use CO2 as a selling point.

    Paul, as for the 1990’s comment? where on earth do you drawn that conclusion? This car is perfectly contemporary with todays market, not stand-out, but then what is?

    The tone of your post suggests you have a passionate dislike of the MG3, you aren’t alone but I do have to wonder what makes people so viciously anti-something they have little knowledge of? and more to the point, why they bother commenting.

  17. Oh, and as for the article itself:

    Spot on MG, perfectly priced, more than competitive, nice trim names, good spec.

  18. Insurance group 4E is good news for young drivers.

    Or could it just be that even if you left the keys in the ignition, the engine running & the doors wide open, that NOBODY would even bother to nick one?

  19. Come on down… “The Price is Right” isn’t it? Hopefully with a bit of decent advertising the sales of the MG3 should be much better than the 6 and that shouldn’t be to hard to achieve.

  20. How does this compare to what the ZR used to sell for?

    However, at these prices I’d still rather have a Suzuki Splash or Swift. Any more news on if there is any UK/Longbridge build content on the 3 or is it finished in China with dealer option fit?

  21. At risk of getting my head bitten off here, I really could not give a flying t*ss about Co2.
    I’m sure many others think the same way as me.

  22. Well I’ll just say when I bought new a couple of years back, CO2 didn’t play a factor in my purchasing decision. Depreciation, and the deal did. And the fitness of purpose within my budget. The MG3 could well be on my shopping list next time round…

    I can only speak for me, but the cost of the annual disc on any of the cars at this level is going to be less than £170 a year – a drop in the ocean compared with the other costs involved in buying and running a new car.

  23. Surely the next excuse not to buy will be there are not enough twists in the filaments of the sidelight bulbs.

  24. At those sort of prices, you can see a market for the MG3, but they’ve got to promote it, and if they’re just intending to sell a pathetic 3000 a year, then clearly they’re not interested in decent sales.

    This isn’t a niche product in a declining sector, but rather a mainstream product in a massive part of the market, surely they should be aiming for 20 to 30,000 with the right promotion?

  25. @ Chris C

    10 years ago a base ZR was £10k and that had an airbag and keep fit windows and that was about it.

  26. I’ve never really considered this as a rival for the Sandero, that’s just a bog standard budget car. The Fabia I think is for a more ‘grown up buyer’, so I’d compare it to the Corsa or Fiesta. And at these prices there’s no reason why they shouldn’t sell.

    A poverty spec 5 door Fiesta starts at £11.3k with a 1.25l engine, and a 5 door Corsa starts at £12 with a hopeless three cylinder engine. Think you’d be daft not to consider a ‘3!

    Just needs some PROPER advertising, and some dealers!

    If they throw in some decent finance deals, possibly free insurance too I wonder if they could tap into the same sort of market Citroen did with the Saxo…?

  27. 4E insurance!!! That’s ludicrously low.. very few cars are lower than this in this sector. If you want lower you need a Citroen C1 or Ford Ka.. much smaller. In a big city urban environment where insurance costs are sky high, this will be welcome relief. Perhaps they should do what Citroen did with the Saxo and offer free fully comp insurance for over 25s in the price.. A car ready to go out of the box!

  28. I like the MG3 it looks better than the Suzuki Swift which is probably its most direct rival – it will be interesting to see if it is a better car. I’ve always liked the Swift apart from it being just a little too cramped on the inside and I don’t like the Swift lights on all four corners – but the MG3 looks damn near perfect (compared to the Swift) for a small car I think. Alex

  29. It’s a fantastic package for the money. There is nothing like it for the price. This is the car that will turn around the sales figures.

  30. It looks good value, certainly.. but they could do with a model with more poke. It’s an MG after all.. but then I suppose base model ZRs had a similar power output. Perhaps better options will come if people actually buy this one!

  31. I wonder if a bunch of 3s will eventually turn up with the larger K-Series… oops – I mean TCi-Tech engine (not unlike the odd Metro fitted aftermarket with a 1.8K series). Now you’re talking 🙂 Have a look at this link. Alex

  32. Is there a good reason why SAIC haven’t produced smaller capacity TCI-Tech units? A range of engines from a 1.1 up to a 1.8 could be offered to suit customers needs. Is it just the case that the TCI-Tech is no longer a competitive engine?

  33. @Paul: MG3 meets 6R4? You might need to take out the back seats.

    @Craig: It’s a mystery innit? The K-Series lump was one of the things the Chinese really wanted to get their hands on in my opinion. But little engines with turbos seem to be popular at the moment, perhaps that is an option too?

  34. I like the look but think maybe there should be more engine options , I’m sure more will follow. . Seems the emissions are not that high from what others are saying and the pricing is attracting me so id say that with good marketing this might have a chance . Personally speaking I’d forget the heritage or seemingly trying to cover its china involvement and push the fact it is designed here . Ie be more open as talking to people they just think its a Chinese fake ( I’m talking mg6 here ) so they don’t even give it a second look . I for one am interested in road testing one with a view to purchase as we need a car upgrade next year .as a note my brother paid 10k for a fiat UNO turbo with extras in 1990 !

  35. This could prove very tempting to many buyers as it has a larger than average engine for its class, yet can return 48 mpg and undercuts its rivals by two grand. Even the top of the range MG3 is cheaper than a poverty model Fiesta and I’m sure this will be a selling point.
    All MG need to do now is advertise aggressively, take on more dealers, pay close attention to quality and offer a diesel option and the 3 could take off.

  36. I’d actually, seriously consider one of these for my next car (I had no strong opinions about the MG6, too big for my needs), and the price is a good start.

    Outside of the car enthusiast fraternity, who really cares that much about where their car is built? History shows us time and time again that they don’t. Did all the thousands of people who bought 25s and ZRs just buy them because they were British?

  37. Very best of luck with this new car, MG. Looks good in pictures. I still cannot understand why so many were not impressed with the MG6. I have driven it on a couple and found it to be resonable in its class.

    Alot of comments about so called quality of German cars. I cannot understand this, as I have lots of experience as I am responsible for a large fleet and the only cars I can describe a relatively “bullet-proof” would include Mazda, Honda, Hyundai, Volvo and Jaguar(especially the much maligned X-Type which from my records has proved over exceptionally high mileage to be the most reliable cars we have used) and interestingly the Fiat Panda(except for front shocks). I seem to spend most of my time sorting issues on “premium” German brands.

    I love reading everybodies comments on this site. Keep it up.

  38. Well priced and well kitted out. With all the personalisation thing, a bit of an image too!
    All that’s needed now is some clever advertising to further the image and make people aware of it. The dealer network can build on the back of much better sales at the existing 29.

    The equipment tally seems both sensible and useful – just thought I’d say so after my comment the other night about much of the kit on modern cars being rather useless. I do still think this to a degree but bear in mind I had just returned from the local when I had a bit of a “huh, modern times!” rant!!!

  39. I think that most people buying this class of car buy autos nowdays so like the MG 6 you shoot yourself in the foot if you dont offer an auto ??? I hope they get this sorted !

  40. Very few small automatics are sold in the UK, still. I spent a lot of time trying to find the right ones when I had to drive an auto.

    (I do think autos make more sense in small cars destined for urban driving, but British drivers still like to roll their own gearchanges. I figure if you gave them the choice they’d like a pull and twist choke control too).

  41. @ dontbuybluemotion: I appear to have a similar opinion of the Polo to yourself. We have had them as courtesy cars on a couple of occasions & yes they look more modern than our 25 & the doors shut with a more resounding clunk but the ride is firm, the engine harsh, performance sluggish, fuel consumption poor & all round visibility dreadful. None of these criticisms cable levelled at a Rover 25 so eve if the MG3 is only as good as a 25 (& I use the word only considering the original came out in 1995), with its competitive pricing the car should be a very good buy.

    @tom People did buy 25s & ZRs because they were buying British. Sales were at their strongest just after MGR bought the company as people wanted to see a British success story on the automotive front although sales slumped after the Phoenix Four raided the pension fund, partly out of protest at their grotesque actions but mainly as it he company was going down the pan.

  42. MG have got the pricing right and the specification and the car looks up to date and ready to fight Fabia etc. just to win the day why don’t MG include 2 years VED in the price? That overcomes the co2 issue? I hope they also have a low cost finance offer at launch – keep it to 120 per month and it will sell. It should also encourage more dealers to sign up now that MG have something to sell in volume. It would have thought 5000 a year would be more like it. That is still only 160 per dealer a year or about 3/4 a week. Must be marketed.

  43. It’s a great looking little car at a fantastic price all it needs as has been said before is a decent advertising campaign and maybe drop the 130bhp turbo version of the same engine in it ,at last after so many false dawns i’m beginning to feel optimistic go for it MG .

  44. @56, At this price the car should sell itself,why throw in tax? MGUK’s sales projection is 2500-3000 a year, hopefully this car will move the metal.

  45. @54

    How I yearn for a pull and twist choke. I happily pulled and twisted with an Allegro and a couple of Alfasuds.

    I look forward to driving once again (5yrs off road/restoration) my Alfa Spider. In true Alfa niggle style no pushing, pulling or twisting ever held the choke in place!

    Wind-up windows and doors that can be locked/unlocked only by metal sticky-outy key on a key fob. Great optional extras on any new car – inc. am MG3!

  46. hi im a proud owner of a rare mgzt special supercharged…im so happy to see mg start making cars again. however theres a problem..ive phoned on several occasions longbridge and asked why are you NOT advertising on tv?? there comments are that the Chinese WONT fund it…so whats the point of wanting this car to take off if the owners have no intentions. yet in china they throw big coin at national ads. also you need to be worried about the build quality. its built in china by cheap materials and sent to us in a airfix box for us to build. the mg6 has faults…silver rubbing off after 20.000 miles. door cards coming lose. door glass dropping. wear on the steering wheel. and on and on. don’t be sucked in. these Chinese robbed rover from us and they don’t give a hoot what happens in longbridge as long as we design a good car they cant design but will use cheap materials….so use your heads us brits we DONT have good mgs anymore.

  47. @61,How did the Chinese rob Rover? Who else was was queuing up to buy Rover? What build quality issues? I have spent hours looking around for any faults minor and major and i have wasted my time.

    If you could elaborate on these issues it would be welcome.

  48. @61 richy mgzt: I think you need to back up your statements with, at the very least, some photographic evidence. I’ve been over the 6 with a fine tooth comb, and the materials are no worse than the common crop of its Japanese/Korean competitors.

  49. @61

    I also dont believe that they have told you ‘over the phone’ that the Chinese wont fund any extra advertising.

    You need to come to terms with the fact that MG and Rover were mismanaged by the British for many years until eventual bankruptcy.

    The Chinese didnt rob the brand – they have kept it alive.

  50. This little car is growing on me, especially at this price range. All it needs are a few more engine options, how about:- a 1.1 16v with 80hp as a basic model, the 1.5 16v already offered with 108hp, a Turbo charged version of the 1.5 offering at least 150hp for the racers, and a diesel-ised version of the 1.5 with a peppy 90hp or so… This little car should sell

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