SPY PICS: MG's next stage
Comeback continues with a new subcompact model joining the MG6 saloonFamed British sports car brand, MG, is gearing up for the next stage of its revival under Chinese ownership. The new phase of the company's history began last year when it launched the MG6 C/D segment model, in hatchback and sedan form. Sales in the UK market have been disappointing, for a variety of reasons, but the company is committed to re-establishing itself and expanding the model range accordingly.
These Carparazzi spy photos show a lightly disguised pre-production version of the company's next model for global markets, the MG3, a Ford Fiesta-size hatchback built in China and launched there by the giant Shanghai Automotive Industry Corporation (SAIC) last year. This facelift version is slated for introduction in Europe and Britain within the next 12 months.
The car was first seen as the MG Zero concept car at the 2010 Beijing auto show. Using an all-new platform developed in the UK and available in China as a regular five-door hatch or as the MG3 Xross mini crossover, complete with jacked-up suspension and stick-on “off-road” protuberances, the car is currently only built in China in left hand drive form, using naturally aspirated 1.3-litre and 1.5-litre petrol engines.
Carparazzi’s photographer says the test mule showed signs of a minor facelift, while also indicating the interior will get an extensive re-work.
Production plans are a little unclear: some reports say the MG3 will only be Chinese-built, while others say UK and European versions will roll out of the historic Longbridge plant in Birmingham, where the larger, recently-launched four-star Euro NCAP MG6 (already available in New Zealand and rumoured for Australia) is being assembled from Chinese-manufactured CKD kits.
SAIC-owned MG is a cut above smaller Chinese players currently represented in Australia – Great Wall and Chery - and the MG6 is reputedly in place to make a proper assault on European brands in terms of build quality, performance and safety. If the MG6 did come to Australia, it could hardly be expected to be an orphan model and a smaller (MG3) sibling would seem to make good sense. And, in between and yet to be introduced in the UK, is the Focus-size MG5 ...
— with Carparazzi
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