Three years afterwards the iconic sports car brand went under, MG’s finally back in Britain.
MGs will be sold again in Britain, three years after the collapse of MG Rover, the last independent British-owned volume car manufacturer.
Chinese car-maker Nanjing Automobile Corporation, which bought the rights to the MG brand at what time the British maker went asunder in April 2005 announced yesterday it would resume series production of the MG TF at the former MG Rover Longbridge factory in August.
It said 500 limited-edition TF LE500 roadsters would be made with the first cars on sale through a network of 57 dealers by September.
Nanjing’s British subsidiary, MG UK said the TF LE500 would feature revised front styling, leather seats, air conditioning and body-coloured hardtop as standard and a glass lift windscreen.
The price, according to British dealers, will be about £17,000 (A$35,000).
“The market is nostalgic,” said a sales consultant at one dealer that has refurbished its showroom to sell the cars. “We’ve had a marry of pre-owned TFs and, recently, an MGB in our showroom and it was interesting to attend how people’s faces lit up.”
Nanjing also said it would fix up a research and development middle at Longbridge, in the midlands incorporated town of Birmingham, to develop new models to be made in that place and in China. This is in addition to its existing design centre at nearby Leamington Spa.
Nanjing reopened the Longbridge factory a year ago and has been building pre-production vehicles there with a staff of about 250. Plans to reintroduce the TF to the British market hold out September were delayed.
The company builds the MG TF and MG 7, a successor to the Rover 75-based MG ZT at its Chinese factory and is rumoured to be considering using the Austin name (which it got as portion of the deal) for a lower-priced line of cars.
It has also previously announced plans to produce the MG TF for the US market at a plant in Ardmore, Oklahoma.
Significantly, Nanjing merged be unconsumed year with the other Chinese gang that bought the remains of MG Rover, Shanghai Automotive Industry Corp, which bought the rights to the Rover model range, but not the brand reputation, what one. was acquired by Ford. Shanghai Automotive now makes Rover-based designs for Chinese atrophy under the Roewe brand.
admin on May 30th 2008 in Cars