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Company History:

 

Although the simple letters “MG” – the official name of the motorcar company for decades – have been used for years, the letters “MG” initially stood for “Morris Garages” – the original name of the marque (as in Buick, Chrysler, Nissan, Kia, Fiat, Mercedes-Benz, etc.).

 

The company was started as Morris Garages in 1924 and was headed by Cecil Kimber, a former salesman for Morris Motors (Morris Garages was an auto dealership selling Morris Motors cars; the same company that, separate from MG, ended up making the Morris Minor and other models); Kimber’s success in designing the cars led to the company’s early market acceptance.  Early on, it changed its name to, simply, MG Car Company.

 

Some of the earliest Morris Garages cars were the 14/28 of 1924 (based on a Morris chassis) and the 18/80 of 1928 which had a purpose-designed chassis and the first appearance of the traditional vertical MG grille – it is considered to be the first of MG’s cars that was truly an MG rather than a modified Morris.

 

Originally owned personally by William Morris, the company was sold to Morris Motors (itself part of the Nuffield Organization) in 1935; a change that was to have serious consequences for the company, particularly its motor-sport activities.

 

Over the years, a combination of extremely poor management, stupid decisions that always invested the most product R&D into poor-selling marques (such as Triumph) instead of its best-selling one (MGB), and major labor problems, resulted in numerous reorganizations and sales of the company.

 

The next several decades were turbulent: 

 

·         From 1952-1965, the parent company was British Motor Corporation (BMC);

·         BMC merged with Jaguar in 1966 to form British Motor Holdings (BHC);

·         BHC in turn merged with the Leyland Motor Corporation in 1968 to form the British Leyland Motor Corporation (BLMC);

·         Following partial nationalization in 1975, BLMC became just British Leyland (later it changed its name to just BL).

 

Amidst a mix of economic, internal and external politics, the Abingdon factory – which was the “home” factory and which symbolized the company to employees and customers alike – was shut down as part of the ruthless program of cutbacks necessary to turn BL around after the turbulent times of the 1970s. Though many plants were closed, none created such an uproar among workers, dealers, clubs and customers as this closing did. 

 

Things continued to change:

 

·         After BL the company became the Rover Group in 1986;

·         Ownership of the MG marque passed to British Aerospace in 1988;

·         Next BMW took over in 1994;

·         BMW sold the business in 2000;

·         The MG marque passed to the MG Rover Group based in Longbridge, Birmingham.

 

The practice of selling unique MG sports cars alongside badge-engineered models (by now Rovers) continued. The four investor/executives who were running the Group were heavily criticized for taking gigantic multi-million dollar salaries while asking for yet another government subsidy. 

 

The MG Rover Group went into receivership (bankruptcy) and then final administration (similar to dissolution) in 2005 and car production was suspended on April 7, 2005.

 

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Recent History:

 

After the MG Rover Group went into administration (what Americans call bankruptcy) in 2005, many attempts were made to sell the company to various European and international takers.

 

·         After several almost successful attempts of another buyout, negotians fell apart;

·         The company’s assets were sold to a Chinese company, Nanjiing Automobile Group for 53 million pounds.  This was NOT an acquisition, which would typically have brought a higher payment, but a simple sale of assets – including all as yet still owned facilities, manufacturing rights, manufacturing dies, logos, the MG name, all other product names (Triumph, Austin-Healey, Morris, Rover, etc.), all product designs, etc. for Rover Group and all its marques, including MG.

 

In mid 2006, Nanjiing announced the development of a MG TF sports coupé. Plans were immediately made to build the cars in China, England, and the US. 

 

The US plans were based on a consortium model combining Nanjiin-owned rights and designs and US capital and smog modifications & other marketing refinements.  A new plant was to be built in Ardmore, Oklahoma to build the car, accounting for roughly 60% of TF output worldwide. A new development centre would also be opened in the USA, located at the University of Oklahoma.  Manufacturing was to have started in, first, 2008… then 2009… then 2010. 

 

Unfortunately, a combination of what appears to have been over-optimism on behalf of the US investors and executives and difficulties in working with the slow-moving Chinese executives and investors ended up killing the plan. 

 

In an interview in August, 2008, NAC MG UK's Sales and Marketing Director, Gary Hagen stated that the Oklahoma deal had fallen through. He also said that there would be no immediate return to the US market as they would first be concentrating on the UK and Ireland followed by the rest of Europe.

 

There are still some hopes of a US-based manufacturing facility sometime in the future.

 

Changes continued:

 

·         In 2007, NAC entered talks about a merger with Shanghai Automotive Industry Corporation (SAIC), supported by the Chinese government;

·         The Shanghai Automotive Industry Corporation (SAIC), takeover was completed on December 26, 2007.  SAIC manufactures the Roewe 750 (pronounced “roh vuhr” in Chinese) Roewe 550 (which, like the MG 7, is derived from the Rover 75 and MG ZT.

·         Cars are now being manufactured by both firms, with NAC being subsidiary to SAIC.

 

Its new Chinese owners, stated that the brand would stand for something new in China, as MG general manager Zhang Xin said: "We want Chinese consumers to know this brand as 'Modern Gentleman' (get it?... MG = Modern Gentleman – no sexism in China!). To see that this brand represents grace and style."   

 

NAC (Nanjing Automobile Group renamed) restarted production of the MG TF and ZT ranges in early 2007. The TF and the ZT (renamed the MG 7) are assembled in Pukou, Jiangsu Province in China.  The MG 3, a rebadged Rover Streetwise, also entered production at Pukou.

 

The MG range was re-launched in Britain during 2008, with an updated limited edition of the TF built at the former Rover/MG Longbridge factory (acquired with the other MG Rover Group assets by Nanjiing in 2005) by NAC MG UK, called the MG TF LE500.

 

All product lines of the company, including the MG TF sports car, have proven extremely popular in China.  In England, they have gotten off to a slower start – after all, they’ve only re-introduced there the same model that had already been sold five years ago and which represents a failed company.

 

In November 2008 MG returned to the Americas, when the SAIC Roewe (pronounced “roh vuhr” in Chinese) Roewe 550 (much like the former Rover 50 and Roewe 750 (much like the former Rover 75) were rebadged as the MG 550 and MG 750 respectively by the Chilean importer, SKBergé.

 

In January 2009, NAC MG UK was renamed MG Motor UK Limited and continues to manufacture the MG TF in Longbridge, Birmingham, England.