I don’t know about emotional attachments to ROVER (to me, it was a fairly mediocre marque), but MG? Wasn’t the MG name a pretty important thing to British motorists? Like the MGB-the first sportscar for the average guy-a reasonably priced, fun to drive car. Now the brand is owned by China-so are you Brits sad about this? Would you buy a Chinese-made MG? :mad:
Just a mile down the street from where I’m sitting is the original Morris Garage that gave the marque its name. The garage doors face out onto the street, and the building is as it was in the 1930s. The first bullnose Morris drove out of those doors, many years ago. It’s a point of nostalgia.
That said, the British car industry was in the toilet before foreign buyouts and intervention.
As for the nationality and provenance of the vehicles… Meh. It’s sad, but inevitable. Just up the street from me is the old British Leyland plant that is now owned by BMW, making Mini Coopers. Jaguar is American. Lotus is Malaysian.
So the Chinese make MGs in China? Well, then it’s just a Chinese car borrowing our design: the Indian car industry has been making Morris Oxfords for the past sixty years. Or in another way, it’s a British car made in China, and let’s be honest, that accounts for most of what we buy these days anyway.
So, yes, it’s a minor shame, but I would buy a Chinese-made MG if I could afford one.