Yeah but you can't replace Steve Cropper or Duck Dunn.
Posted on 07/12/2006 5:51:45 AM PDT by aculeus
DETROIT, July 11 — Can the mystique of a British sports car be recreated by a Chinese company in America’s heartland?
That’s the bet by Nanjing Automobile Group, which plans to resurrect the fabled MG marque in a tricontinental demonstration of how truly global the automotive industry has become.
Nanjing, which purchased the assets of the bankrupt MG Rover Group last year, aims to be the first Chinese carmaker to open a factory in the United States. The company has scheduled a news conference for Wednesday in Oklahoma to announce plans to build a newly designed MG TF Coupe there, starting in 2008. It said the coupe would compete with cars like the Mazda Miata, which sells for $20,000 to $25,000.
It also will assemble a convertible TF Roadster version at MG’s now-shuttered factory in Longbridge, England, and three sedan models in China. American and European operations for MG Motors will be based in Oklahoma City, 90 miles north of the new factory in Ardmore, Okla.
MG’s rebirth under Nanjing, which said it had $2 billion in financing for the endeavor, comes as several Chinese companies are setting their sights on the United States, the world’s largest car market.
Several Chinese carmakers have said they are two to three years away from exporting vehicles to the United States. One, Geely Automobile, displayed a $10,000 sedan at this year’s Detroit auto show, although the car fell short of American safety and emissions standards.
Geely and Chery Automobile, a state-owned company that has sparred with General Motors over the similarity of its name to the Chevy nickname for the Chevrolet brand, plan to sell cars in the United States in 2008. Nanjing, said it intends to build vehicles outside China, where it will face higher labor costs than in its home country.
(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...
"Well, at least it probably won't have 'Lighting by Lucifer'"
LOL!
but let's not confuse the youngsters in the crowd.
This is a reference to the "Lighting by Lucas", the troublesome electrical system
of British cars.
This earned Lucas the nickname of "The Masters of Darkness"
What about airbags? No way one could be put in the beautiful wire-spoke steering wheel.
On my TD, I took out the original vinyl covered plywood dash and installed one I made from a mahogany plank out of an old piano.
Dang. At first I thought MG meant machine gun. That's a relief.
Heck, at first glance I thought the headline said:
Chinese company to build MIG's in Okalahoma.
Your eyes are better than mine, I thought they were going to build MiGs!
Yeah but you can't replace Steve Cropper or Duck Dunn.
It'll be a cold day in hell before I buy a car made by a Chinese company.
2006 Morgans are still made the same way!
I hade the same thought MG = Machine Gun. If that were the case, I might end up moving to OK to get a job at that place, so I could do the old Johnny Cash "I got it one piece at a time, and it didn't cost me a dime" routine.
Are they going to be marketed and sold by Wal-Mart?
Then came the months of having to shovel the snow out of my front seat every time it snowed because of those damn sliding windows.
Then, towards the end of the winter, I rolled it.
In the mid-seventies I worked with a young knothead who bought a new Triumph TR7. Talk about the pure pits, he was constantly having to take a day off from work and drive 125 miles or so one way to the dealer to get something fixed. I think that, on at least one occasion, it was undriveable and had to be hauled in. I wouldn't have paid five hundred dollars for one of those rolling junkpiles.
First I saw "MIGs", then I thought "Motor Generators."
Sunbeam Tiger-sold and serviced by Chrylser ,but powered by Ford. what a wacky deal.
Alright! Parts for my 70 B! Soon to be available at K-Mart!
nobody should have ever thought of British cars as everyday transportation
but they make great Sunday afternoon cars
assuming you can do all the repairs yourself, LOL
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