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ReprintsMG cancels plans to bring TF to North America
Richard Truett
Automotive News
August 26, 2008 - 12:31 pm ET
MG's plans to return to North America with a revamped version of the TF roadster are dead. Again. "The U.S.A. isn't on the short-term radar as an anticipated market for us, but with the right product, it would be good to return there," Gary Hagen, marketing director of NAC MG, told a reporter for the British Web site Austin Rover Online. Hagen also confirmed that plans to build MGs in Oklahoma from kits shipped from China also have been killed. Not long after China's Nanjing Automobile Group Corp. bought most of the remains of MG Rover in September 2005, the company told of plans to set up an r&d center and factory in Ardmore, Okla. "The deal fell through," Hagen told Austin Rover Online. This month, production of 500 MG TFs started in MG Rover's old Longbridge, England plant. The cars will be sold in Great Britain and are a run-up to a restart of regular production of the two-seat roadster. Nanjing has since been taken over by larger rival Shanghai Automotive Industry Corp., or SAIC. Although MGs were last sold in the United States in 1980, the iconic British sports car retains a large and loyal following here. Numerous attempts to return MG to the United States have been hatched over the years, but none has come to fruition. NAC MG plans to replace the TF with a roadster and several sporty sedans in the coming years. |
You can reach Richard Truett at rtruett@crain.com.
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