Just seen on the news tonight, an announcement is expected tomorrow from the chinese owners of the MG Rover brand that production is likely to start up again in longbridge sometime early next year.

This is such good news for the people of longbridge and all the other companies associated with them.

Apparently the MGF is to begin production in the spring, followed by a 'powerfull saloon type vehicle' and an estate version of that - Hopefully be the V8 beast then!!

This is obviously good news for any owners of MG Rovers as well as it may hopefully inject some life into the market of said vehicles, and raise what are in fact artificially low prices! If you fancy an MG then now's the time to buy!!!

Good news all round really - well done the chinese for keeping production where it belongs too!!

When they say "powerfull", I hope they mean "bhp".

Always have sense of wonder, when it comes to Chinese->English translation. lol

I drove a MG ZS 120 the other day. If thats what they are continuing with they can keep it, was like stepping back in a timewarp, awfull IMHO.

Oh gawd.Its like a zombie.It just won't die.

Well, I dont see vast numbers myself. The place is like a ghost town, most of the machines have been boxed up and sent back to china.

Just kill it.

FFS it's been ailing for two decades just rehashing the same old crap - the 25 is still based on the 80's Honda Concerto but with slacker manufacturing tolerances on the bits that matter. There isn't a competent car in the whole range and hasn't been for years.

Poor management for several decades has run it into the ground, the badge is like an embarrasing rash, I wouldn't buy one and I don't know anyone who would. Shame about the job losses but if you sell old crap for long enough people will stop buying it. I predicted them going bust before BMW bought (and stripped) them.

Gosh, I'm ranting - sorry

SteVRS - you've gain a positive reputation point

Very well said.

As the years have gone on, Rover's loyal customer base have mostly died. Fancy paint jobs, daft body kits and leather everything do nothing to entice younger buyers.

Still all sounds a bit premature to me - all NanJing are doing is renewing the lease at Longbridge

I agree with all of the above re. MG/Rover models - the only half-decent one was the ZT/75. They couldn't even get that XPower SVR jobbie right - Rover 45 wing mirrors and door handles on a car they wanted to charge

Lets not forget the City Rover and Streetwise models.........

If the City Rover had been marketed at the right price (starting just over £4k) and NOT been called a Rover, maybe MG Rover would still be in business. The cars allegedly cost MGR £3k each from TATA, but as usual with Rover, they were overpriced.

Indeed the car supermarkets have taken delivery of the last batch of Cityrovers. These are the Mk 2 versions and are somewhat improved. Best of all they're selling them for £3995 - Perfect if you want something to run until it dies (OK you won't get owt for it when you sell but where can you get a brand new car for that).

As for the others (sorry guys MGR cars are another pasion of mine)

The 25/ZR & 45/ZS were old designs but there was no cash to update them. Instead money was wasted on developing the SV and getting Atomic Kitten and the Cheeky Girls to promote the cars (I kid you not :eek: ).

That said I had a ZS110 before the furby. Yes the car was poorly built and had a rock hard ride but for a standard car it really glued itself to the road. It also had good brakes - something VAG could learn from.

Then you have the 75 & TF. Both great cars and not too dated.

The greatest shame about MGR was that Honda didn't take them over in 1994 rather than BMW. Honda wanted to do this at the time but BAE (the then owner) flogged them off to BMW.

But that's my take on the subject.

The city rover was awesome - seriously though, the Rover 111 Kensington used to be ace in it's day. Reliable, small car perfect for the school run/shopping/small journeys. Was quite happy with it really.

SWMBO bought a Kia Picanto 1.1 LX pre-reg 05 and as mentioned, pricing was great on that, unlimited mileage warranty over 3 years, a simple but vastly better car overall, with parts that feel like they ought to last. Can't be sure on whether it will at this point as I've only driven it for a few hundred miles so far.

The 75 was a decent enough car, several styling elements I dislike but those things aren't enough to call it a cr*p car. It was decent, priced ok-ish, and with the right engines it wasn't too sluggish for what it was meant to be. One of my uncles has the MG version of that (never know if it's the ZT or whatever). Looks decent but the suspension is rockhard. He bought it very cheap and for what he paid it's excellent value. New price was totally and utterly crazy though and nowhere near what it should have been.

The worst thing is that Rover survived because of 'buy British' mainly (IMHO, I am a foreigner :P ) and not because of inventive new products. Real shame, true, but it's happened elsewhere too.

Sincerely hope some jobs will come out of it for those who lost theirs and have not been able to find new work, and that some jobs will be more secure as a result of this, but only time will tell.

Have you guys slating MG Rovers ever driven one?

I've driven an MGTF and thought it was great, like a refined elise, My brothers got one too and its never had a single problem since the day he bought it (new), not many elise owners can say that. (or skoda for that matter)

A 75 diesel which had the BMW engine and box, thought that was really good too.

And a 75 V8 (not sure wether zt etc) and that was fantastic, handled beautifully, went like **** off a shovel, sounded sublime.

I do agree that the 25/45 models are an old design though, not sure if they date back quite as far as the concerto though?

There is no way that the MG Rover name will ever be allowed do just die off, we should be supporting them, not slating them, its a great traditional british name - no matter who owns them, that doesn't mean you have to buy one, or even like them, but saying things like they should be left to die etc is just wrong. think of all the people out of work that will benefit hugely from this! We need to get behind the chinese and support them in trying to resurect the once great MG name, It can only be a good thing for the british and our economy - wait till we see what cars they are producing then you can start the childish slating, you might be suprised!!

If the money had been spent in the right places to begin with (rather than the directors pockets) they could have done great things because people were buying the cars despite them being old designs, hopefully the chinese will rectify this and spend money in the right places so that we can all lust after MG's once again, my money says that finally the right people have bought in, I bet they wont just be after a quick buck and actually develop the brand properly as it deserves to be - lets just hope the former owners haven't done to much damage.

Time will tell I guess, i'll be watchin the news tonight though as the press conference was due to be held today.

I used to have a ZS120 and i had numerous problems with it. I have always said, even when I owned it that it lacked many of the now expected toys and feel to it of a modern car.

However I quite liked the look of it, and condering you could buy a brand new ZS120 for just a shade over £12K it would wipe the floor with a standard Fabia vRS round the twisties.

Which of the two do I prefer, 99.9% of the time the furby of course. That 0.1% of the time I wanna really give it stick round a country road I have to admit I do miss the ZS a bit for that.

I will agree that through very poor management they were trying to keep a brand alive with cars that, in the majority of fields, couldn't compete with the competition.

So many people blame clarkson for some odd reason for the demise of MGR, rubbish years and years of bad management caused the inevitable.

Had an MG Metro Turbo.Not reliable but fun.Also a Rover 216.

The only MG's that are interesting are pre 1970's.Nothing has ever recreated that 'something'.Certainly not my metro

Love the fact that other companies have RS 'Rally sport' and the like.MG is ' Morris Garages' or something:) .

Resurrect Austin Healy's

Resurrect Austin Healy's

Ahem..... cough...... dum de do.........

Phil (currently working with assembly robotics for a mystery car )

Ahem..... cough...... dum de do.........

Phil (currently working with assembly robotics for a mystery car )

So Phil what do you know about project kimber and the sale of the smart roadster line to said company...

I know nothing.

Please just let it die off quietly. The last REALLY good Rover was the SD1. The 400 series was a decent car in it's day (i.e. 1996) but doesn't stack up at all compared to the competition in recent years. The 75 is a big comfortable cruiser, seems very popular with old people, and whilst I was surprised at how refined it was, it's nothing that hasn't been done better and cheaper.

As for the MG brand, it used to be a great British marque but has been cheapened by the ZR, ZS and ZT. All the ZRs and ZSs round here have big alloys and small engines, are bright yellow and driven very badly (to McDonalds) by 15 stone **** queens.

EDIT: Why is C H A V not getting through the swear filter FFS ?

The last REALLY good Rover was the SD1.

That's "REALLY good" as in having live axle rear suspension and rear drum brakes when the competition was on independent suspension and discs at the back? :confused:

Let's not forget the fact that the build quality was so poor that the doors actually DID fall off on some of them!

What I can't deny is the sweet styling that still looks credible even now, 30 years after it first came out (especially the 82-on facelift models). The design really was streets ahead of the opposition, as shown by the below piccies:

vs

They really are amongst my favourite cars looks-wise; it's just a shame they couldn't put the darn things together properly. They got type approval for the US too - just imagine how good it all could have been if circumstances with the management and workforce had been different...

Didn't the SD1 also have a modular dashboard? where it could be made left or right hand drive depending on which side they bolted the steering wheel, clocks & pedals! quite inovative for it's day really!

I really really hope MG Rover prove everyone wrong and build some stonking cars so you can all eat your hats!!!