Autocar - First for car news and reviews

What is it?

This is the reborn MG TF, fresh from MG’s Chinese owner, assembled at the Longbridge factory from parts largely sourced from China and featuring the lightest of makeovers.

The revisions consist of a new front bumper and grille assembly, a modernised main instrument pack, an engine that’s been cleaned up to meet Euro4 emissions and modified in (yet another) quest to cure this lightweight motor of its infamously weak headgasket.

Improved hood sealing is s...Read the full article

Far far too expensive!

As suggested in the article, if this car was pitched at around the £12000 mark (and even then I would require a discount) then it may find buyers.

A missed opportunity.

I agree too expensive but a warm welcome on my behalf back to the market.

Kind of nice to see it back though I just can't see them making a go of it.  It's an old design and bringing back a car almsot untouched from the 90s doesn't strike me as a recipe for success.  Will it really find enough buyers, and I reckon owners are going to have to be pretty understanding as I can see reliability and depreciation being issues.  Hope to be proved wrong though.

I suspect owners of the previous generation TF will be a little ticked off, especially if re-introduction of this updated model turns out to be a flop (which it sounds like it unfortunately will be).  Some things are best laid to rest and remember fondly of.

• No, no, no ,no!! Anyone who even contemplates buying this atrocious rubbish at this price needs their head examined.

It should of been allowed to die

Trying to work out which was older - the LE500 design or that pin-striped suit (I won't comment on the reporter's shirts!)

It's just too expensive. With rivals such as the MX-5 around for similar prices, the TF looks a little dated. Yes, it's a classic, but they needed to do more with the design - especially that interior. Let's hope their marketing is good and they try their hardest to shift them. It would be a shame for them to lose it AGAIN, so I hope there is some success here. I also hope MG's 'new raft of models' make more of an effort, and come along soon. I still welcome the little MG back though!

v8:

It should of been allowed to die

It did die v8, and the LE500 is a lingering ghost that the (non) buying public is about to exorcize.

I am Ling, the only Chinese new car supplier in the UK. So it is with interest I read about this new old Chinese/British car.

The delay getting this out for sale has been a joke, and the prices seem laughable. 

Several journalists I have spoken to say the quality has been terrible and if the parts are now sourced from China, why is it so expensive? Why assemble it in Longbridge? I will explain. Autocar are blinkered, they want to sell magazines in the UK AND China, so criticism would be bad for their sales there.

The Chinese market is hungry for ANY cars it can get, and having a Union Jack on their cars is a selling point (believe it or not, like Clark's shoes and Burberry). The fact the Chinese market cars will be built in China is best ignored and will not be emphasised.To them, this is a new model "British" car! Rule Britannia.

So, aspirational Chinese are the real market. The ones on sale here are to give the veneer of a British car and assembly line, and UK sales are a black hole. Chinese MGs are being sold with Tower Bridge, Big Ben, U2, Beckham and London Eye backdrops.

Pity the UK dealers who will not survive on these tiny sacrificial volumes, and give the British operation a veneer of credibility. Anyone buying the MGTF in the UK must be slightly demented, but then, we are talking about MG owners.

Proof is here, the MG websites in China

http://www.nacmg.com/mgtf070918/ ...and http://www.nacmg.com/range

Take a look!

Wo ai MG - NOT!

Ling

Ling, you are bang on the money with your comments.

What concerns me, is that it isn't going to be long before the Chinese market wake up to the poor quality of these products, especially considering the investment of other manufacturers such as VW.

When they do realise there will have a two fold effect. 

1.  The Chinese will start to associate poor quality with British products.

2.  NACMG will soon head the same way as the company they bought, hence Longbridge will close - again.