True to SAIC's word, the first MG6 has rolled off the production line today!!



Sky News Report

Excellent news! Turbo too! What a bonus

Yer, tis good, but thats only to get the power up because the N-series engine is essentially a refined K-Series, and the K/N-replacement isnt ready yet.

160bhp but only 8.4s to 60, so not stunning performance!

Dunno if its a low-pressure turbo like the one found on the 75 1.8T or a proper turbo?!

It's far too expensive and far too slow in my opinion.

I doubt it will sell very well but fair play to them for having a crack. £19,000 gets you a lot of car, with a lot of spec.

Bit of a letdown the performance considering my astras 150bhp standard with 0-60 8 secs.
I'd expect a lot more for the money

Yeah, they should have turbocharged the VVC variant instead, the 160VVC that is! Or at least offered a high-performance version in addition to the 160 1.8, with the 143 VVC and the MGF-S supercharger bolted to it for ~230bhp.

In truth though, they needed the diesel engine at launch (2012 is too late) and the next generation of petrol engines they are currently developing (which are just getting more and more dlayed, they were saying 180bhp from a 1.5, with fuel economy to match, shows how weak the N-Series is nowadays, though to be fair, its 24 years old!).

The N will sound sweet as a nut, and im sure it will offer acceptable performance, but as it seems they are trying to position the MG6 and MG as a whole, as the sports brand (with the Austin brand returning at some point to position as the family brand), performance is everything.

Having said that though, the reviews are positive, and the Chinese... well lets be honest, they will, in time, make a success of of the marque, guaranteed. In fact MG and Roewe already are proving quite successful, as to whether it will linger in the UK too long, who knows, but I guess we live in hope that NAC/SAIC have invested too much time and money in the UK/European division, to pull out now.

They really need to follow the 6 up quickly with a car based on the Zero concept, and Austin badged variants of the Roewe W2 and 550 (or their replacements) by the end of 2013 would probably be more mainstream sellers??

It's just the start, id rather they have kept selling the ZT and the TF, or at least kept marketing the MG brand in the "dark years", during which nobody outside the motoring/MG fold, even knew that MG were still building cars, the TF in Longbridge... now they are in the position whereby they have no brand awareness, and a distinct lack of a thorough-enough lineup to have any significant impact on the market... one of the many problems that resulted in the failiure of MGR all those years ago!

Something positive for the locals of Longbridge to look forward to though!

http://www.ford.co.uk/Cars/Fiesta/S1600

At £15.5k OTR and it's 1.6 134ps engine hitting 60 quicker than the above, it's kind of a no-brainer?

Not sure how large the MG will be?

Be interesting to see what happens anyhow.

Hate to say it, but it looks terrible and them wheels

Its built to compete in the Focus-sized arena to be fair... and all modern cars are slow(er) due to worsening (for us non-greeners at least) emissions regs.

I think it will end up a niche product tbh, unless they supplement it quickly, with more engine options and more models (the TF is hardly a credible model to call it a "line-up" lol, especially when the TF2 is nearing completion).

The Chinese are possibly entering the market cautiously at present, in 2006/2007 they were talking about launching with an MG3, MG5, MG6 and MG7 (even talk of launching the Roewe models in Europe - well western Europe as they have made it to Eastern-Europe), but then the recession hit in, the car industry went bang, and now we have just the MG6. Maybe they don't want to overdo it yet?

I think it looks nice, I saw a silver one being tested. Pity it's not badged a Rover, think it would've been appropriate (I know this can't be done now).
It's just an everyday car not built for power. K/N-series is decent enough though. Let's hope HGF problem is sorted out. I hope it does well, it's the closest we'll get to a UK production car at the moment, and for Longbridge as well.

Ive never heard of an N-Series suffering HGF, indeed it is one of the reasons they renamed it from the K-Series (as well as N being for Nanjing, and Rover never having had an N-Series previously), to lose the repuatation.

The last K'ers were generally HGF-proof, mainly thanks to Land Rover working out their MLS-orientated solution to the "problem".

I doubt the N-Series will last much longer anyway, it was years ahead of its time when it launched, with impressive amounts of power and a beautiful engine note to boot, but even 10 years ago, it just looked normal, not it is antiquated. As we know, its 24 years old, and they have had the replacements in development for some time. They best hope the general public don't hear too much about that though, else no interested parties will go near it, knowing a better engine is on the way lol. That's why the oil-burner should have been available at launch!!

Looks to much like a Vauxhall Insignificant for my liking

...which is a shame really, as I wanted to like the looks of it, and I like the fact Rover where being brave with the idea of turboing the engine...





Price wise I think they may also struggle, unfortunatly they dont have the best reputation, and they will be up against some well established competition.

Lets hope they build them better than the Indian built "CityRover"!