News : MG6 wins first major award

ADAM SLOMAN

MG Motor UK was celebrating its first major award since the company’s rebirth last night, as the MG6 won the 2012 Security Award at the What Car? awards last night.

The award relates to the 6’s security features, with the panel of judges being particularly impressed by MG’s efforts to make the 6 as secure as possible.  They said  ‘This year, we were looking for a manufacturer that has demonstrated the greatest effort to improve security, either through a particular innovation or a sheer determination to design out crime. The MG6 has been bolstered with the industry’s highest-rated alarm and immobiliser system, complete with perimeter detection. It’s impressive work, and gratifying to see a newcomer in this price bracket achieve the top five-star rating from Thatcham for resilience against theft of the vehicle, and four stars in the ‘theft from’ category.’

Chas Hallett, Editor of What Car? said: ‘MG is a well-known brand to British buyers, but its engineers had to start from scratch on many of the security features of its latest model. A top five-star rating from Thatcham is as good as it gets, so MG deserves real credit for achieving that from a ‘standing start’.’

David Lindley, who heads a 300-strong team of engineers and designers at the MG Birmingham plant, accepted the award. He said: ‘What Car? honours are not given lightly so that makes this award extra special. We worked really hard on all aspects of safety and security for the MG6. It’s great to see that this has been recognized by the experts at What Car? who are very tough judges and set very high standards.”

41 Comments

  1. The MG with the red-and-White paint job looks very attractive. Without the huge MG badge on the bonnet. However, without the company advertising their award win publicly, nothing will come of this.

  2. I doubt the 6 will be regrouped, as it would have had this alarm at launch, and would have already been taken into account.

    MG need to capitalise on this and advertise the award and the car, otherwise this will mean diddly squat!

  3. Ironic that about the only thing the MG6 has going for it is something it will never need! Who would want to nick it?

  4. so close the doors use the blip and be secure ,but dont tell the public saic u mite sell some more, advertise the product and the success u comics

  5. Maybe I’m missing something here, but anyone who’s gonna nick your car is gonna first take the keys. Theyre hardly gonna steal the radio.
    How does this push things forward?
    It isn’t 1992 any more.

    Fair play for winning something, but it’s hardly a selling point. Buy an mg6 and nobody will nick it. The styling kinda covers that base anyway.

  6. What’s sad is that anyone thinks this award means anything. I love mgs and rovers but this is akin to winning the ‘car with best auto reverse tape deck’ or ‘most cup holders’ award. It’s not relevant in 2012.

    People want passive safety, active safety, fuel economy, vw style interiors, long warranty, good resale value.

    Whether a car wins a what car award (despite not even having the highest thatcham sting for security) isn’t going to persuade buyers to ignore established rivals.

  7. I’m tempted to say that if I was one of the judges I would also award MG UK a car security award for the MG6 because no-one is buying them, therefore no-one will steal one as there aren’t many to steal!!

  8. 10. Two R8’s:

    He’s got a point. A thief has to go to a lot of trouble and take large risks to steel a modern car. Why pick on a car that’s almost proving impossible to sell on, even when it’s a legitimate sale?

  9. It’s all good for publicity. Even if MG UK don’t themselves make the most of this award, publicity will be achived through people reading What Car? – surely they’ll have a feature in their latest issue?

  10. right lets start on the right foot then we can progress, 2011 award for the biggset failure to promote there product is SURPRISE SURPRISE NO NOT CILLA BUT SAIC MG and unless they promote future products with vigour then it mjght become repetitive ,so come on you deadbeats lets get it on

  11. Colm’s right; in an era where car thieves are more likely to burgle your house to get the keys to the car they’re after, (and they probably won’t be after a 6 anyway) what relevance does this award have?

    All the security in the world can’t stop those sorts of thefts, and won’t stop a little scrote bricking the window to nick whatever you’ve left on the seat and have it away.

  12. I saw an MG6 the other day driving along and it looked good – far better than expected. Looked quite ‘nickable’ to me.

  13. Added to the Avis order the little successes are adding up.
    The award implies attention to detail and quality. We have perhaps undersestimated the work that has gone into this car.

  14. Added to the Avis order the little successes are adding up.
    The award implies attention to detail and quality. We have perhaps underestimated the work that has gone into this car.

  15. Great for MG getting an award,also good security in cars is a must these days,as already mentioned with help of Avis,this will help to start to get the MG brand foremost in the market place. Regards Mark

  16. One day, it might even get an award for getting its monthly sales into double figures.

    Yesterday’s car, yesterday’s brand. Forget it.

  17. Why are so many people discrediting this?

    While I read it my respect for the 6 actually went up a little.. And THAT’S why this is so good…

    Don’t all you “They won’t steal it anyway” people see? It makes the 6 look far more grown up, well built and solid, it’s not about if it would actually be a target… That’s why this is good news.. and yes MG, FFS, Use it on some advertising already!

  18. John, I found Magnus’ comment 25 needlessly critical and defeatist. My reply of “b*ll*cks!!!” was simply trying to convey my sense of total disagreement.

    MG need not be yesterday’s brand. Managed and promoted in the correct fashion it could succeed.

  19. @24 John Morris

    Spot on. A lot are saying that this award means nothing, however if this award had been the opposite as you mention they would all be carping on about crap build quality, cheap rubbish etc etc or any otehr excuse to attack the car (yaaaawwwwwnnn…)

  20. Yes, Paul there does seem to be a certain group who seem intent on finding any reason to criticise the MG6. I find this slightly bizzare. Whatever happened to ‘Metroesque’ patriotic support? OK, it’s hardly totally British but the heritage most certainly is, as is the design and final assembly.

  21. Ah, but the Metro was from a completely British Company, designed here, manufactured from the ground up, involving mostly UK sourced components and the employment of a serious number of Midlands workers depended on its success.

    SAIC might like to see this repeated, but the MG6 is, in comparison to the Metro, virtually irrelevant to UK manufacturing.

    What really concerns me is that, under the disguise of a defunct British badge, we are seeing the arrival of direct Chinese competition to proper UK based manufacturers. I would be very satisfied to see this project fail, but only to protect the interests of much more valuable (to the UK economy) UK based manufacturing from the likes of Ford, GM, Toyota, Nissan, Honda, JLR and BMW. And we are meant to feel a patriotic buzz about this?…

  22. Oh, the irony of Post 33. Am I the only one to see that 3 of that list arrived from Japan in the 70s as direct imports undercutting the British (as in British owned, not foreign owned British marques) with no infrastructure apart from a dealer network. To top that they then got subsidies to set up operations here in the UK that gave them the edge over Longbridge with modern, sophisticated plants.

    And as for the others, having asset stripped or down-sized by cutting back on car making we should feel a patriotic buzz? About the only one there to feel patriotic about is Tata who, in my opinion, had no choice but to leave things as they were.

  23. “I would be very satisfied to see this project fail”

    Why are you even bothering to comment, really? Have you considered going to Longbridge, standing outside with a placard, maybe a loudhailer? Sending individual letters to each UK-based MG employee?

    From little Acorns, I believe the saying goes. It may well fail. The Chinese are coming to the western automotive marketplace, whether you like it or not, and at least SAIC have some connection to the UK. We WANT this to succeed, otherwise it’ll be Geely, Brilliance, etc. who are wiping out the other marques without even a token presence.

    The firm that should worry is BMW. Lower presence in China than VW-Audi, who have immense skill in global manufacturing (look at VW’s Brazil, Argentina, South Africa, Mexico etc. presences), and largely a single marque operation given that MINI is still quite heavily tied to the UK.

    n two decades, BMW could have been supplanted by a lower-cost, highly aspirational Bentley range, as Bugatti takes the role of sports GT and four-door tourers for the wealthy. All it would take is for VW to gradually introduce smaller engined, sub £100K models – then the £60K entry price point of the new, SWB Spur with W8 or similar. We know they can do it, technically – they have done, with the Phaeton, all it needed was a Bentley grille and tweaked metalwork.

  24. @33 Why would anyone want MG to fail. It is a first class product that provides jobs in the West Midlands. We should be pleased that ths first Chinese car to be imported has such a significant British heritage.

  25. 35 and 36:

    Perhaps you should have quoted the rest of the my original paragraph to help to understand what I was trying to say.

    But, let me put it like this: the introduction of cheaply made Chinese imports which, by the merit of having a very limited UK input, are able to claim to being EU built, might just be the biggest threat to genuine UK car manufacturing over the next 10 to 20 years.

    I do not wish to see anything that would jeopodise the much more substantial employment at places like Cowley, Dagenham, Bridgend, Halewood, Reading etc etc for the sake of a handful of people employed in unpacking and very final assembly of Chinese built SAIC’s.

  26. Richard Kilpatrick I have spent the last 35 years reading articles in the motoring press how BMW are doomed; yet they are stronger than they have ever been.
     
    BMW will survive in the world by doing what it does best, building well engineered high quality products, with the halo effect of having the class benchmark M series cars. VAG by sticking a badge and grill on a  VW Phaeton from a “BRICK” factoryand calling it a  Bentley may win them sales to WAG’s; but VAG will need something better to break the aspirational value of someone owning a thoroughly well-engineered car which customers feel has been made by Bavarians in chamois leather shorts even when it has not.
     
    I have never owned a BMW preferring my metal to be British or Italian, but I have enough experience of their products to know they do the job properly (for a premium) and would choose an M5 every time over any current foreseeable Audi or Bentley offering.

  27. @Richard and Graham…
    Richard does have a point though Graham, not that you don’t mind! However, if one looks at the current BMW range we see probably the ugliest line up of cars from any of the ‘prestige’ marques… that seems to be a widely held and increasing view point. I will certainly go further and say many of the back ends of many of their range are simply butt ugly. Compare them to Jags?…. when the replacement for X type launches let alone all the other badges, we may very well see BMW starting to take a hit in sales numbers. All my own opinion of course. Did i not hear that the XF is already the best selling car in its class here in the UK?

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