What Does MG Stand For?
In China, the MG initials now stand for Modern Gentleman,
but luckily MG Motor, as the company is now called, doesn't dare besmirch the
octagonal badge in that way for its European buyers. The MG6 is part of a
growing range which now includes the MG3 super mini and the MG5 mid size
hatchback, due in the UK later this year.
MG6 Front View
A compact SUV is also in the plan, with a flavour of what it
could look like demonstrated by the MG Icon concept car at the 2012 Beijing
motor show. Purists might cringe at the Icon, because it looks like the
troubled offspring of a union between a chrome bumper MGB GT and a Nissan Juke.
The links between today's MG Motor company and past British MGs is indeed tenuous:
just the thread of the badge, a piece of the factory that made the final MG
Rover era cars and a few mechanical genes, but the current company is very keen
to keep the link going. Which is why the saloon version of the MG6 is called,
yes, the MG6 Magnette while the hatchback is dubbed GT.
These MG6s haven’t exactly set the British sales charts
alight. Partly this is because the official CO2 ratings (but not their real world,
honest economy) aren’t very good, partly it’s because the buying public is suspicious
of what it sees as a strange Chinese car, even though that's only a part of the
story. And partly it’s because the MG6 is a curious looking machine with odd,
high tailed proportions and a disjointed interior.
The dials seem too small for their huge cowling, and the
handbrake is one of the most awkward to use of any car anywhere. That's because
the front end of the lever moves into a console recess as you lower the lever,
trapping your thumb if you’ve left it there from habit, and the release button
is on the lever’s underside where it's very difficult to squeeze while
simultaneously pulling the lever up to release it from the ratchet. Too many
words to describe a simple, daft, handbrake? Not when it’s reason enough to
kill a sale, once a potential buyer returns from the test drive with a sore
hand.
MG’s Interior trim has been revised, and parts relocated
It’s easy to take an instant dislike to the MG6, but you’d
be wrong to do that. You need to drive it with vigour on some twisty, undulating
roads, after which you'll be converted. Under the skin is a platform derived from
the Rover 75s and MG ZTs, developed by ex-MG Rover engineers for the MG6. And
they have made a brilliant job of it.
There’s a light footed, deft precision about the way the MG6
devours roads that’s rare in a new car. The steering is sharp, and the
suspension manages to smother bumps while keeping the MG perfectly poised. The
1.8 litre, N series engine isn't quite so hot, needing to be worked harder than
its 160bhp warrants, but the 1.9 litre turbodiesel with150bhp and much torque
really brings the MG6 alive. Great cars, shame about the details.
Best Of Three?
Which brings us to the MG3, a crisp, taut, square cut design
available with various extrovert graphics on its roof, tapping into the
personalisation idea popular with the Fiat 500, the Mini and the Citroën DS3.
Its roomy five door body is on the large side for a notional super mini, while
inside the design bears almost no family resemblance to the MG6 at all.
That's a good thing, helped by cheerful detailing.
Everything works as you’d expect it to, with no handbrake daftness. It's not
very fast, with 106bhp to pull a portly 1150kg, and the engine feels fl at
unless worked hard, but like its bigger sibling the MG3 has a terrific chassis,
steering crisply while telling you what's happening. The MG3 offers a lot of
simple, no frills fun for not much money (prices start at $14,133.07).
This is a special edition; ordinary models weren’t quite
so plush but all are roomy, comfortable - with great gear change!
What it really needs is more power, which could happen given
that the MG5 is to include turbos in its line up. A turbo MG5 with, say, 150bhp
would make an excellent warm hatchback. It would be a modern day MG 1300 to the
regular MG3's inheritance of the MG 1100’s role, you might even say.
