MG Design HQ returns to Longbridge

[indiaman]

Just read this new item:
Wednesday 16th June
MG DESIGN HQ RETURNS TO LONGBRIDGE
£5m design and engineering centre to be built at Midlands site


MG's return to the motherland continues with the company's announcement that it is to open a new £5m design studio and technical centre at the former Longbridge plant.
The MG Motor UK complex near Birmingham will become the company's design headquarters, employing 300 designers and engineers.

Cars designed there will be sold in the UK and China. The firm said it is a "major new investment in UK automotive engineering and design".

The move is the company's biggest investment in the UK since MG collapsed in 2005 and was bought by two Chinese car companies.

"These two centres of excellence sit at the heart of the MG Birmingham plant where a new family of MG models are currently being designed and engineered," an MG spokesman said.


"The designing of new cars and the engineering and technical aspects of the cars is all happening here in the UK. SAIC could have gone anywhere in the world for this but they chose Birmingham and Longbridge. It's an important endorsement."
The new MG6 will also be built at the same site and a new supermini, the MG Zero (right), which was revealed at the Beijing motor show in April.

 

[herb]

the thing is they are building crap and inferior cars again at longbridge! so this is a short term thing imho!!
i live in the west midlands and would honestly love to see people getting jobs, people buying the car but this just wont happen cause the cars are very poorly designed and just dont compete with whats out there already yet again!!!
give me a korean car over a new mg any day!! (im honestly sad to say this, but crap cars dont sell even if they are from your home land!!)

 

[HDi fun]

The Roewe 750 is China's take on the Rover 75. Not a bad car, by the look of it.

Sadly British industry had taken a bashing through years and years of flaky management and ineffective nationalisation.

It's a shame, what happened to the brilliance of Harris Mann and Alec Issigonis? Presumably all designed out by committee.

Addendum: David Bache's was another creative talent that was diluted and hitherto lost.

 

[indiaman]

It is a pity, really, that the British do not buy British cars produced in Britain.

 

[jarrus]

Simply because they were crap, the only reason we bought BL cars were because that's all we could buy at the time, once the rest of europe bought there cars over then that was it, game over....

 

[T9 man]

the thing is they are building crap and inferior cars again at longbridge! so this is a short term thing imho!!
i live in the west midlands and would honestly love to see people getting jobs, people buying the car but this just wont happen cause the cars are very poorly designed and just dont compete with whats out there already yet again!!!
give me a korean car over a new mg any day!! (im honestly sad to say this, but crap cars dont sell even if they are from your home land!!)

This is so true Herb! when Longbridge wasn't turning out bad cars they were taking a few days/weeks out on strike! several of the workforce always seemed to have the wrong work ethos in my opinion!!

I was in Paris this week doing a survey for a client and what amazed me about the place, was the fierce loyalty the French have for their own French cars! I found this quite moving actually, will this country ever go that way? i'm not so sure!

Oh! it's nice to see you back with us again after a long absence indiaman!

 

[Yugguy]

Give them a chance before writing them off.

They could do a treat by making a modern TF, the original was a well-balanced mid-engined rwd roadster that was a good drive, I know, we owned one. Fast enough to be fun, not too fast for nervous drivers. And IMO a nice looking car even with the hardtop on.


When they started making the TF again a while back they should have sold it at cost price, to get the badge back on the road again.