From China, With Love: MG6 Comes Home To UK
Next year, the UK will get back a long lost son, who has found adoptive parents in China: The MG. Gasgoo reports that the MG6 Saloon will enter the British market in 2011. That was announced by Chen Zhixin, Executive Vice President of SAIC Motor and General Manager of SAIC Motor Passenger Vehicle Co., at the UK Pavilion of Shanghai Expo, while Ms. Carma Elliot, Consul General of the United Kingdom (UK) in Shanghai, was watching. Just Auto thinks the Chinese car with a British name will be shown to the UK public at the Top Gear Live MPH motor show at London’s Earls Court, on 4 November.
The MG6 Saloon will come with a 5-speed manual or Tiptronic automatic transmission. It will be powered by a 1.8-litre turbocharged gasoline engine, with a 1.9-litre turbodiesel to follow about a year after launch. According to Global Times, “SAIC Motor will start production of its MG6 model at its Longbridge plant in Birmingham. The company will make the plant an overseas production base to promote its own-brand models.”
Bertel Schmitt comes back to journalism after taking a 35 year break in advertising and marketing. He ran and owned advertising agencies in Duesseldorf, Germany, and New York City. Volkswagen A.G. was Bertel's most important corporate account. Schmitt's advertising and marketing career touched many corners of the industry with a special focus on automotive products and services. Since 2004, he lives in Japan and China with his wife <a href="http://www.tomokoandbertel.com"> Tomoko </a>. Bertel Schmitt is a founding board member of the <a href="http://www.offshoresuperseries.com"> Offshore Super Series </a>, an American offshore powerboat racing organization. He is co-owner of the racing team Typhoon.
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Last I heard they're already selling the MG-TF in England for the past year or so. Possibly assembled at a British factory (memory is a bit short). Where this is important is that it's the first Chinese new design (with no MGR antecedents) being sold in England. It'd be kinda fun someday to look back and realize that the MG was the first Chinese car successfully sold in the west.
I like that quality workmanship. Is that light leaking out where the front bumper panel joins the front fender?
Autocar had an early drive in the UK and said the chassis tuning is good enough to keep up with a Focus (high praise indeed in the UK) but that the interior, the five speed gearbox and engine still lacked behind the class average. The fact that it's a saloon is also a bit of a burden for Europe but who know - priced attractively it might suffice, till a hatchback on the same basis can be developed from the proceeds (ala Logan / Sandero).
Britons are deluding themselves if they consider this a British car - it is merely a Chinese import with an MG badge slapped on. The fact that that NAC and SAIC bought the former remnants of MG Rover and Longbridge means nothing at all, neither does the use of British expertise in car building.