Topic

Announced today that there will be no further assembly of MGs at Longbridge, due to the weakness of the pound making it uneconomic.
That really is end of an era, although they are keeping design staff on.

i thought longbridge had been flattened

i beleive that new mg's( MG3 MGCS-MG6 is discontinued) will not be assebled in the old factory any longer -but the design centre is staying

Mike

Most of the factory has gone but there is a small plant where they were putting together part assembled MG6s that came over from China in kit form, the MG3 and GS come over fully built.

Well MG ( UK) have only themselves to blame . They just haven't any idea about the brand , it's sporting heritage , or indeed marketing . They are using Brexit as an excuse. That's 11years wasted since the company collapsed.

The moment the MG6 was stopped the minutes were limited, there is no real logic in half building a car and shipping it in bits half the way across the world, either build it complete in the UK or complete in China, drive it on the ship and drive off at the other end.

Yes I agree but , what a woeful model line up . The dealers must be scratching their heads! Coupled to that you have no engine choices for the current two model line up.
Kia came from nowhere years ago and look at them . Dacia are another example .

Back in 2013 they made a huge mess of setting a dealer network and an even bigger mess of setting up their import operation here in Oz.
They imported a heap of cars they weren't allowed to sell due to non compliance with at least 3 ADRs (Australian Design Rules) concerning the child restraint anchorage points, among others.
They actually sold less than 50 cars before the non compliance came to a head. They still have over 600 unsold cars!
Only now are some of these cars are being sold off as brand new cars through trade auctions at whatever they can get for them, after 3yrs on the grass.
They've supposedly restructured and are going to have another crack at the market.
I'd be a brave dealer to take on a MG franchise, after that abysmal effort!

They'd be better off pulling one of the old names out and rebranding, Wolseley would work well in Australia.

They'd need to blow a lotta dust of it, Wolsleys haven't been sold here since the early 60s. The last Rileys sold here were in the early 50s.
Morris, Austin and Leyland were last sold here in 74. Triumph lasted until 82. MG sales ended with the MGB in 74,until the brand returned with
MGF in 97 and Rover stopped in @ 88 unil the 75 came out in 97. Jaguar and Land Rover have always been on sale. The Moke soldiered on here until the eariy 80s.
I don't think they have the rights to any of the old BMC/BMH/BL names, I think BMW ended up with them all. I know BMW still own Triumph.
They only sold off MG, Rover & Land Rover

We had a test drive in an MG3 at the local dealership in Penryn after visiting the MG stand at a local motor show, nice as new cars go but nothing special for the money.

The sales guy said it was assembled in the UK (obviously not) I would still be dubious about having a Chinese car on the drive even though it has an MG badge on it.

Nice to see Jaguar and Land Rover doing well in the UK, but not sure what connection Ford and Jaguar have; as we installed some line equipment some years ago at Fords in Halewood and they were pressing Jag panels in the factory.

I wonder what impact Brexit will have on our car imports especially the French and German marques as the UK must be one of their biggest markets in Europe, and how will the Japanese car market fair, especially with the models manufactured in factories here in the UK?

Cobber wrote: wrote:

They'd need to blow a lotta dust of it, Wolsleys haven't been sold here since the early 60s.

I picked on Wolseley as they were making sheep shearing equipment in Australia until they came to the UK at the start of the 20th century before starting to make cars.