Everything about Mg Cars totally explained
MG is a
British sports car brand founded in 1924.
MG is best known for two-seat open sports cars, but MG also produced
saloons and
coupés. More recently, the brand has also been used to designate sportier versions of other models belonging to the parent company.
The brand was in continuous use (barring the years of the
Second World War) for 56 years after its inception. Production of predominantly two-seater sports cars was concentrated at a factory in
Abingdon, some south of
Oxford. The BMC competition department was also based at the Abingdon plant and produced many winning rally and race cars. In the autumn of 1980, however, the Abingdon factory closed and
MGB production ceased.
Between 1982 and 1991, the MG marque was revived on faster versions of
Austin Rover's Metro,
Maestro and
Montego ranges. After an interval of barely one year, the MG marque was revived again, this time on the
MG RV8 — an updated MGB Roadster with a
Rover V8 engine, which was produced in low volumes.
The "real" revival came in the summer of 1995, when the high volume
MG F two-seater roadster was launched. This was an instant hit with buyers, and sold in volumes which had been unthinkable on affordable two-seaters since the 1970s.
MG became one half of the
MG Rover group in May 2000, when
BMW broke up the
Rover Group. This arrangement saw the return of MG badges on sportier
Rover-based products, but production ceased in April 2005 when MG Rover went bankrupt.
The assets of MG Rover were bought by
Chinese carmaker
Nanjing Automobile in July 2005 who themselves were bought by
SAIC in December 2007.
In 2007 pilot production of the
MG TF resumed at
Longbridge. Production of the
MG 7 large sports saloon also started in China, and in 2008 the range is set to expand with the arrival of the smaller
MG 3 and
MG 5 hatchbacks.
History
References -
MG got its name from "Morris Garages", a dealer of
Morris cars in
Oxford which began producing its own customized versions to the designs of
Cecil Kimber who had joined the company as its Sales Manager in 1921 and was promoted to General Manager in 1922. Others dispute this and believe that MG only properly began trading in 1925.
The first cars which were rebodied Morris models using coachwork from
Carbodies of
Coventry and were built in premises in Alfred Lane, Oxford but demand soon caused a move to larger premises in Bainton Road in September 1925 sharing space with the Morris radiator works. Continuing expansion meant another move in 1927 to a separate factory in Edmund Road,
Cowley, Oxford, In Europe it still stands for "Morris Garages".
Nanjing restarted production of the MG TF and ZT ranges in early 2007. The TF is being built at
Longbridge, while the ZT (now the
MG 7) is being assembled in
China.
On
11 July 2006 Nanjing announced the development of a TF sports coupé . A new plant was to be built in
Ardmore, Oklahoma to build the car, accounting for roughly 60% of TF output worldwide. A new development center would also be opened in the
United States, located at the
University of Oklahoma. The Longbridge plant in the UK was to continue to build TFs as well, and a third plant in Pukou, at
Jiangsu Province in
China, would produce the ZT and ZR. According to
Nanjing, MGs were to go on sale in the United States in the early summer of 2008.
The MG range should be relaunched in Britain during 2008, with the TF being identical to the original model. The new MG 3, MG 5 and MG 7 ranges will be updated versions of the previous MG ZR, MG ZS and MG ZT ranges. Nanjing plans to revive the
Austin badge (discontinued at the end of the
1980s) on some cheaper cars over the next few years, although it hasn't been confirmed whether these new Austins will be based on the current range or on the next generation range.
NAC entered talks with SAIC supported by the Chinese government about a merger. Their cars, MG 7 (NAC) and Roewe 750 (SAIC) share mechanical features. The takeover was completed on
26 December 2007.
Car models
The earliest model, the 1924
MG 14/28 consisted of a new sporting body on a
Morris Oxford chassis.
2003-2005 MG Express Further Information
Get more info on 'Mg Cars'.
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