Jalopnik
These renders of an all new MG TF come courtesy of AutoExpress, so of course that means they should be taken with a grain of salt. Still, based on the success of roadsters over the past decade it's not too far a stretch to think MG's new Chinese owners would want to build upon the MG tradition — leaky seals, fussy side draft carbs and pre-rusted rocker panels, we kid, we kid. But really, according to the Express, the new car will be built off of the Roewe 550 platform and be available both as a convertible and a coupe — interesting.
Power supposedly comes from a 1.8 L turbo four and 2.5 L V6 and drives the rear wheels. If they can manage to keep the weight down this could prove to be a very interesting little car. Production may start as early as 2010, but that's only if this isn't all a big made up farce. [AutoExpress]
Comments
Side vents on front fender/wheel well! What a novel idea! Gold, Jerry! GOLD!
Ugly, scowl-faced mess.
I remember reading in a book about alternate histories, about the hero driving off in sunset in a cute red sports car made by the Russians. This is, of course, after having saved the future. I wonder if he didn't have the wrong formerly-communist country in mind.
Whatever happened to their plans to build a factory in Oklahoma?
"available both as a covertible and a coupe"
I'm assuming this is the John LeCarre version.
"but that's only if this isn't all a big made up farse"
Bad spell-check. Bad!
@PeteJayhawk: The choreographer quit. ooooooklahomaaaa
The back end doesn't thrill me, but I don't dislike it.
The front, however, I cannot condone. I am trying really hard to convince myself to like it, but the hood, grill, and odd little headlights just turn me away.
Perhaps it's a good thing that I don't like it, since it will never make it to the US. At least I won't be lamenting that fact.
When they snagged MG, they moved the entire TF production line including tooling over to the East with the intention of fixing the faults and re-releasing it. They even bought the rights to the TF Coupe concept, even though the styling left no actual room for an engine ;)
@Kuang:
Not exactly. The MG TF production line is still in place at Longbridge, such as it was. In the MG Rover era, the TF's bodyshells were produced off-site by Stadco, which controlled the tooling.
Under Nanjing, Stadco subleased space at Longbridge between 2005-2008 to produce the bodies on-site. That deal has now collapsed due to delays, but the equipment is all still in place.
The Roewe 550 is built on a cut-down Rover 75 platform and is based on the RD60 midsize car project MG Rover wasw developing with SAIC when the company went bust. There were two parallel Rover 75/MG ZT production lines at Longbridge, one has been packed up and moved to NAC-MG's plant in Pukuo, China, the other is still in place at Longbridge.
SAIC, on the other hand, reverse-engineered their own all-new production line for the Roewe 750 and 550.
Wow.
When they sold MG to the chinese, it was a very dark day.
That is one ugly car.
(I never thought I'd ever be saying one negative thing about an MG, but here we are)
@PeteJayhawk: @boosted-lego-wagon:
Finances dried up when Fanny Eubanks backed out of the deal. Isn't that right, Ruprecht?
Ruprecht: Oklahoma! Oklahoma! Oklahoma! Oklahoma!...
@Evil-Jeremy: You have to be careful to not to say a negative thing about an MG in the same breath as a positive thing, otherwise your sentence will have an electrical failure.
I always thought that they could do worse than 'going retro' and basing the new MG on the looks of the B (or even the A).
And it appears they have. (Done worse, that is.)
I'm driving up to Ardmore today to camp out and wait.
@ranwhenparked: Ahh gotcha, cheers for the correction. I thought the TF line had gone rather than the ZT one. I miss the ZT, I'd be far happier to see that back..
Quite a lot of weight in a modern car is a result of safety requirements by the EU or United States.
China...hasn't got any of those.
If they manage to keep it stiff enough, this could be a fun car to drive - albeit a potentially lethal one.
That's dog ugly. It was sad to see what became of MG-Rover latterly, but this stuff is just insulting.
COMRADS, THIS IS A TF!
@boosted-lego-wagon: Good one!
MG is one car line that should go retro in its style--hard to argue with those simple beauties.
The real question is...Will it have the oh so desirable qualities of crappy electrics and lead based paint? Or will they just choose one needlessly dangerous design flaw, other than the instant death caused by the carnage of hitting a pot hole.
Oh sorry, I love Chinese products. Please no Chinese secret police. I will never ever speak ill of a Chinese product again.
Just can't beat this. Try harder, MG. [i218.photobucket.com]
@snarktastic: Sure you can! Here: [www.comp.co.uk]
:)
I kid; I love them both (and have 2 GTs!)
it looks like the Azurover 75ntly (that combining car names does't work all the time). IT LOOS LIKE A ROVENTLY AZURE-75, if the chinese waned to copy a classy car and make it look wierd, it might sell pretty good in the US (Escalade, 300C, Solstice).
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