75ZT Community

The new MG6? I quite like it. Thinking about maybe getting one when I put Bingley into semi-retirement (a little while from now you understand). I've not seen many on the roads but the ones I have seen have had quite a bit of presence. Good looking cars, and I particularly like the shape of the saloon. And the diesel engine they do now appears to be rather good on paper (in reality I have no idea as I've not heard any reports yet). And after seeing Plato using the Honda boys to wipe the floor at Thruxton a little while ago, I was particularly impressed and want one a little more. My partner took me to the British Touring Car day at Thruxton, fantastic day out. Would have been better had I not got sunburnt but oh well. So, yeah, opinions/horror stories etc? I'd quite like a Magnette TSE DTi in black...

I had a half hour test drive the 1.8 petrol version last year. Comfortable front seats, brilliant handling, plenty of leg room in the back, well laid out dash, overall a very competent modern family saloon. The only thing I didn't like was the hand brake handle but one could learn to live with that.

They seem to have a few for sale at the factory http://birmingham.mg.co.uk/deal-of-the-day

Had one last year whilst the ZT was in for service. I quite liked it if I recall, the handbrake was a pain; literally, kept catching my hand when ever I applied it. Was not too impressed with the finish - seemed cheap? Good handling, though not far off my ZT.

Gary M.

Oooh all good so far, apart from the handbrake, but in all fairness it's more than likely a better deal than the electric thing in my mam's Vauxhall Meriva. My god it's stupid. I don't get why anyone thought it would be a good idea to make it automatic on a car without hill start assist. And you'd think it'd let go when you get to the bite point. But noooo, it comes off when you're nowhere near the bite point. The number of times she's rolled it back on hills because she's not thought to override the automatic release is shocking.

There was a positive write up in the Sunday Telegraph a couple of weeks a go, although the writer included the usual clap trap about MG Rover.

Cheers

Mike

Have to say most of the write ups I've seen have been positive.

The Clarkson review, as usually a very objective and unbiased evaluation based on facts and nothing but facts ...





There's more than one not gone missing.

Jürgen wrote:The Clarkson review, as usually a very objective and unbiased evaluation based on facts and nothing but facts ...

Sounds spot on to me and is the reason why MG Motor UK, have only sold a few cars as demonstrators and Hertz Hire cars (and even then, they were on guaranteed buy-back!)

Typical Clarkson review. Wish I could get paid for talking mountains of crap, most of which in this instance is entirely contrary to all other reviews I've read and my own experience.
As for "Hard to book a test drive". I was driving one within ten minutes of making a request.

I think he should stick to doing jokes about his his penis, he does seem to have a strange fascination about it and relating same to all and sundry.

The easy mistake to make, is to think that Clarkson actually has any influence at all on car purchasers. Everyone knows he's a dick of the highest order.

Sorry, did I say that out loud?

It's a shame as I had real high hopes for the diesel, but it seems that the new team at MG Motor at times don't help themselves. When providing a car to Clarkson - arguably the biggest sceptic there is, you would have thought they'd have made sure that the car was faultless and had it gone over with a fine tooth come, having one break down on him is embarrassing.

Sadly it's not a one off, I recall another occasion where to celebrate International Women's Day, they had a thread on Facebook titled, 'To celebrate IWD, we'd like to know which female celebrity you'd like in the PASSENGER seat of your new MG6!'

Now I am the first to admit that I'm no marketing Guru by any stretch, but some of the faux pas they have made are truly amateur. Their sole success seems to be in the touring cars, but even that is, and wrongly so, only followed by a minority. Reports are floating about that Vauxhall dealers are being made to take on the franchise, with dealers not wanting to go near them.

Part of me thinks that if they'd called the cars anything other than MG they may have done better, but to me it's all wrong, the brand name doesn't match the cars. I personally don't think they're cheap, nor would I buy one new when looking at how quickly they are depreciating.

I really hope that I'm proved wrong and that it does work out, because otherwise I sadly cannot see it doing so.

MG has one big problem.

It is far too obvious to the public, that the new MGs are Chinese cars. For now cars from China have a really bad reputation, most of them reaching catastrophic failures during the Euro NCAP safety tests. Even if the new MG6 may be build to better standards, the public will see it as a product from China. And that it is, because putting the engine in and fitting the wheels in Longbridge isn't what you would call manufacturing a car.

Although Tata Motors, the Indian company, don't have a good reputation related to cars either, they did a far better job than SAIC. In the public eye Jaguar and Land Rover remained British. These cars are build in Britain. Tata in India is just backing JLR, staying in the background. This strategy does work.

So for MG it's a lost opportunity. The damage to the famous brand has been done. It will take decades, if at all, to rebuild the image of MG. It's sad.

the mg6 was ok to me , very bog standard modern inside , i like the look which is just a bit more interesting than most Euro boxs, i would like to have a go with a diesel

Having taken a petrol 6 for a test drive it has its good points but a few bad pints. As mentioned above I'm not a fan of the hand brake, seems a bit silly and not well thought out to me. The engine is smooth and responds well, but I don't like the exhaust note when sending it on a bit. The gear change for me was a bit wishy washy and felt a lot like the gear change in my mk4 Astra. The interior is spacious and things laid out well but the finish is a bit cheap and doesn't really give the car credit.

I believe as a company the biggest mistake they made was stopping production in the uk. If they continued producing the z range until they had developed a true replacement they would have still had a larger customer base. Instead they are now starting a fresh when the public generally have forgotten about MG and only know the marque for the wrong reasons.