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Fans of the vee-dub in China have been chomping at the bit for their very own, super special people's wagon. And while the Volkswagen Lavida may be just a longer version of the Jetta/Bora, it gets a visual treatment more in-line with Chinese tastes. These photos from AutoHome show that this A-class luxury sedan will be ready to compete at the Beijing Motor Show with new cars such as the 2009 Buick Excelle, which moved further up-market this year. More »
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If only the Brits could hold on to their car companies. The moving of their formerly great/adequate/tolerable brands around the world is continuing to create confusion. We know that Tata owns Rover and Nanjing/SAIC owns the MG Rover designs.... or at least we think we know that. We just learned a company in Britain is producing a handful of MG's every month with the MG badge. How? We explain below the jump. More »
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Yesterday we commented on the merger between Shanghai/Nanjing Auto and what it might mean for the Chinese market. What we didn't comment on is what this means for the ongoing MG Saga. Nanjing owned the MG badge, and markets the MG7 while SAIC markets the Roewe, which is based on MG technology. More »
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China's Shanghai Auto released photos of its newly re-released Rover 75, which it's calling the Roewe 750E. Created for the increasingly status-conscious Chinese market, the Roewe features a 2.5-liter V6 and a plush, leather-filled interior of questionable build quality, according to the marketing imagery. [Gallery] – Mike Spinelli More »
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Having lost the rights to use the Rover name via some deft trademark swappery between BMW and Land Rover, Shanghai Auto is changing its brand strategy. The new owners of rights to build the erstwhile Rover 25 and 75 in China will do so under a new name and logo: Rowr! Roewe or, in Chinese, Rong Wei (I kid you not). The company made the announcement ahead of the Bejing auto show next month, where it will unveil a car derived from the 75, dubbed 750E, which it plans to export to Europe and the US. Sure, it's sutiably British sounding, but will buyers outside China consider a near decade-old luxury platform sporting a weird, faux olde English name? And is Nanjing Automobile, the new owner of MG Rover, which has possession of the car's tooling, ready to make a deal? So many questions, so little interest. – Mike Spinelli More »
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In Bee-Em's purchase of a pantsful of Rover holdings, they walked off with the rights to the Rover name. Post-selloff-debacle, they shunted the Land Rover bits to Ford, but held on, rather inexplicably, to the rights to the Rover name, giving FoMoCo the option to purchase it. Word's just come down that Ford finally picked up. Now, with Shanghai Auto doing the MG thing, and despite the fact that nobody besides aging Brits care about the brand, Ford's saying that they think it's a good thing to hold onto, despite the fact that they're not going to turn and burn it. Our take? Either they're gonna include it in a package selloff to rid themselves of Land Rover, or they'll sell it to Nanjing, just to piss off SAIC. More »
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