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Showing posts with label MG. Show all posts
Showing posts with label MG. Show all posts

MG6 Finally Gets Much Needed Diesel Variants in the UK

Thursday, December 20, 2012


It's no secret that diesel engine options are necessary for any carmaker looking to succeed in the European market, even more so in mainstream segments.

Chinese-owned MG has been building and selling its MG6 in the UK since last summer, but up until now, it only offered a petrol engine in a category that's dominated by diesels, which in some models, make up for more than 80 percent of sales.

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New MG6 BTCC Edition Celebrates Brand's Return to British Racing Series

Tuesday, December 11, 2012


The reborn MG brand has whipped up a new special edition of its mid-size liftback model to mark its return to a major motorsports event and in particular, the British Touring Car Championship (BTCC).

The new MG6 BTCC Edition made its first appearance at the final round of the 2012 MSA Dunlop BTCC at Brands Hatch, where MGKX Momentum team driver Jason Plato finished third after taking the chequered flag six times during the racing season.

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MG Sets Kia as its Role Model to Achieve a Quick Rise in Europe

Monday, November 26, 2012


If you want to steal, steal from the best. It’s an old adage that still applies to the automotive world many times over, although no one is willing to admit it. The infamous Chris Bangle? Watch his “flame surfacing” on a large percentage of new cars around you right now.

Probably the best automotive “rags to riches” story in recent years is that of Kia. Having been around since 1944, it went belly-up during the Asian financial crisis in 1997. For most companies that would have been the end but not for the Korean manufacturer.

The Hyundai Motor Company acquired it and, investing heavily on European-based R&D facilities and plants, while also hiring former Audi designer Peter Schreyer who gave the cars a modern look, the carmaker's sales rose year after year to the point where production can’t keep up with demand.

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Scoop: MG 3 Supermini Filmed Testing in Europe

Monday, July 30, 2012


A little over a year after MG confirmed plans to offer the new MG3 supermini in Europe starting with the UK at the end of 2012, company engineers were spotted testing a prototype of the five-door hatchback in Spain.

The MG3 is the production version of the 2010 Zero Concept Car and is already offered in China in two body styles, a regular five-door hatch and a mud-loving faux-crossover version with a hoiked up ride height and plastic moldings named MG3 Xross, which may or may not be offered in Europe.

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Futuristic MG Midget Concept Created by Design Student During Internship at SAIC

Friday, May 18, 2012


More than six years after China's Nanjing Automobiles acquired the once-famed MG brand only to be incorporated itself in SAIC Motor's portfolio a couple of years later, the British carmaker is still struggling to find its way and re-enter the global scene.

At last month's Beijing Auto Show, we saw MG providing a glimpse into the future with the Icon, a study for a small crossover coupe.

Another proposal for a future MG model comes from a design student of the Coventry University in the UK, who created a sports car concept during his internship at SAIC Design.

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MG Icon Scoops Best Concept Award at the Beijing Motor Show, Do You Agree?

Friday, April 27, 2012


Neither the sharp lines of the Lamborghini Urus SUV nor the sculptured body of the Mercedes-Benz Concept Style Coupe managed to convince a panel of judges at the Auto China 2012 in Beijing when it came to picking out the 'Best Concept' of this year's show. Instead, most votes landed upon the new MG Icon small crossover.

The awards were announced by U.S. car magazine Autoweek, which plans to present MG with an engraved trophy at a later date.

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MG's Beijing Show Icon Concept Previews a Small Crossover that Could Enter Production by 2014

Monday, April 23, 2012


Shanghai Automotive Industry Corporation (SAIC), the Chinese owner of the MG Motors brand, is eyeing the Nissan Juke and the small crossover segment with a new concept study named the Icon that was officially revealed today at the 2012 Beijing Auto Show.

The British company's first ever SUV concept was created by the MG global design team headed by British director Anthony Williams-Kenny who says he took inspiration from some of the most well-known MG models of the past such as the MGA and the MGB GT.

“The MG brand has a unique set of values and heritage and allows us to offer individual design values to our products," said Williams-Kenny. "The MG Icon represents our vision of a modern MG and we feel that the small SUV canvas demonstrates MG’s capacity for progressive design with respect for its long heritage."

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New MG Icon Concept Crossover to be Unveiled at the Beijing Auto Show

Tuesday, April 17, 2012


These are the first official sketches of a new concept model from MG named the Icon that will make its world premiere at next week's Auto China Show 2012 in Beijing.

The Icon is said to preview an upcoming compact crossover model that will be launched in China within the next two years. Some of the car's styling elements are loosely inspired by the fixed-roof MGB GT built between 1965 and 1980.

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MG Returns to Racing, will Participate in the 2012 BTCC Series

Wednesday, January 25, 2012


After restarting production in the United Kingdom last April, MG is now getting ready to return to racing as the Chinese-owned automaker announced today that it would enter the 2012 BTCC Series with a pair of MG6 GT racing cars.

This will be the first time since 2003 that MG will have an official entry in the championship. The brand's two racing cars will run in the all-new MG KX Momentum Racing team piloted by double BTCC champion Jason Plato and former Team Aon driver Andy Neate.

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Last MGB Roadster Ever Made Returns Back Home Through the Window

Friday, December 2, 2011


The MGB Roadster was an open-top British sports car that was launched by MG in 1962 and was followed three years later by a 2+2 GT Coupe. It had a very long life span, surviving until 1980.

At the time, the company changed hands from the British Motor Corporation to British Motor Holdings and then to British Leyland Motor Corporation. The decay and eventually, the fall of the British car industry began during that period.

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UK Insurer Parts the Most Unreliable and Costly Car to Fix

Tuesday, July 12, 2011


In an article on a BMW-faced Honda Accord we found for sale on Craigslist back in 2008, we wrote that in a perfect world, our ultimate car would be “designed by Italians, engineered by Germans, built by Japanese and marketed by Americans”.

So, what’s the worst car one could imagine? Well, if we played around with the above statements, we’d say one designed by Japanese, engineered by Americans, built by Italians and marketed by Germans.

But UK insurance firm Warranty Direct had something a little bit different in mind. Instead of playing the origin card, the company decided to check out its database of 50,000 live policies on cars aged five years on average to part the UK’s most unreliable vehicle that would break down every other month and cost an average of £2,050 (equal to US$3,270 - €2,330) to fix each year.

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Silverstone Organisers Ask: What is the Best British Sports Car of All Time?

Saturday, June 18, 2011


The fifteen finalists in the Silverstone Classic’s, “Best British Sports Car of All Time” vote-in have been announced, and boy is there some choice picks. Before we get to that though, can I just point out a misnomer in using the, “of All Time” qualifier?

This assumes (prophetically?) that Britain will not be making any more sports cars in the future, whereas, “Best British Sports Car So Far” would be a far more accurate description. But enough with semantics: who are our lucky finalists? Read on….

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MG Preparing an Array of New Models to Conquer Europe

Wednesday, June 1, 2011


SAIC Motor Corporation, the owner of MG Motors, plans to develop several new models for the British brand in order to boost sales outside its home market in China. The Chinese owner of MG Motors has already spent £1 billion ($1.64 billion) to re-launch the MG and Roewe brands (former Rover) and intends to invest another £2.2 billion ($3.6 billion) to achieve annual sales of 700,000 by 2015.

In 2010, the two brands sold 160,397 cars, most of which were delivered in China, with only 2,000 units exported to other markets. This past April, MG launched its new mid-size MG6 in the UK, the first new car to be assembled at the British firm’s Longbridge plant in 16 years. The company said that when it completes the development of a diesel version, it will offer the car to rest of Europe. "We will not go into mainland Europe without a diesel," UK managing director, William Wong, told Autonews.

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Canadian Man Throws a V12 into a 1967 MGB GT

Friday, May 13, 2011


If you are a car guy like Mark Sawatsky of Winnipeg, Canada, and you happen to have a Jaguar 5.3-liter V12 and an old 1967 MGB GT lying around in your garage, it doesn’t take too long to come up with an impressive project. For Mark it was the creation of racecar to compete in the modified class of the SCCA (Sports Car Club of America). Read more »

MG6 to Start Production at Birmingham site on April 13, Prices Start from £15,495

Thursday, April 7, 2011


The fastback version of the all-new MG6 will soon become MG Motor’s first all-new model to pass through the gates of the firm’s Longbridge factory in 16 years. The last time MG showed a brand new model was in 1995 with the MG F, a mid-engined, rear-wheel drive roadster. According to the British automaker, the first series production model will roll off the assembly line on April 13, 2011 at precisely 11:00 am.

MG Motors, which now belongs under the umbrella of China’s Shanghai Automotive Industry Corporation (SAIC) group, will follow up with a sedan version of the MG6 this summer. Both the four-door saloon and the five-door fastback will be offered with a 1.8-litre turbocharged four-cylinder gasoline engine that’s good enough for 160 ponies and 215Nm of peak torque at 1750-4500 rpm.

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New MG6 Saloon First Photos, Goes on Sale in the UK this Summer

Thursday, February 17, 2011


Having been delayed for a couple of months due to some negative consumer feedback, the MG6 four-door Saloon model has now taken over the social media scene. The first photos of the ₤17.000 Focus rivaling MG have been posted on the British firm's facebook page. The MG6 Saloon is scheduled to land in UK showrooms this summer, a few months after the first batch of MG6 fastback's reach their owners.

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MG to Build First All-New Model in 15 Years at its UK Plant

Wednesday, October 6, 2010


MG Rover's old Longbridge car plant is set to comeback in a big way when SAIC / MG begins building its first all new car in 15 years at the end of the year. The plant will start producing the MG6 mid-size model from knocked-down kits imported from China, preceding the UK relaunch of MG as a "value brand" in 2011.

The all new car will be available initially as a five-door fastback, with a four-door saloon to follow later on. The automaker optimistically told the Financial Times that customer clinics have compared the MG6 with the likes of the Ford Mondeo, Skoda Octavia and even with small BMWs. Prices in the UK are said to range between £16,000 to £20,000 (US$25,425 to US$31,780).

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Rover 55 Sedan: A Proposal for a British-Flavored Chrysler 300 Than Never Was

Thursday, August 12, 2010


Once upon a time, back in the days when the MG Rover Group was alive and fairly hopeful for the future [...] in the hands of BMW, the Bavarian carmaker was dreaming up a new lineup for the British company. Among the plans was one for the development of a replacement for the outdated, fifth-generation Honda Civic-based, 200/400 series, later called the 25/45, positioned under the 75 in Rover's car lineup.

We remember many proposals and concept sketches for the car from the period, but the folks from "Aronline" managed to secure some exclusive photos of a full size clay model that we've never seen before. Named the R55, it's a design proposal for a compact sedan slightly larger than the BMW 3-Series said to have been completed back in the Spring of 1997.

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Last-Known MGB Works Rally Car Going Under Auction

Thursday, May 20, 2010


An extremely rare 1964 MGB which is said to be the last known genuine MG works rally car is being offered for auction, 35 years after bidding farewell to the world of motorsports.

One of two only official MGB rally cars built in 1964, the specific example made its racing debut in the Spa-Sofia-Liege rally in August 1964. It then went on to race another five times as a works entry, at the Tulip Rally, The Acropolis Rally, Geneva Rally, the Castrol Danube Rally and the RAC Rally, all in 1965.

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MG XPower to be Well-Represented at UK's Historics Auction

Tuesday, May 18, 2010


Set to hit the block at the UK's Historics at Brooklands event are these two MG XPower SVs.

The carbon fiber-bodied MG XPower Sport Veloce, based on the less aggressive X80 concept, was designed by Peter Stevens (responsible, among others, for the McLaren F1 and Jaguar XJR-15) and is underpinned by a platform from Qvale's Mangusta.

Powered by Ford's 4.6 liter 4-valve Cobra V8, the standard SV made 320 horsepower with an advertised top speed of 165 mph when new.

Roughly 82 of the rear-wheel drive MG coupes were built and sold to consumers before a lack of sales forced MG to stop production. At around £75,000 when new, it's easy to see how that could happen.

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