China Car Times

This picture was first posted by the user Windy at the MG Rover Forums but we feel it deserves a proper airing on China Car Times. The picture shows a new MG 7 with no plates, entering the Xuan Wu Hu tunnel that goes under Xuan Wu Lake in Nanjing. Only a rear picture at the moment. Nanjing seems to like releasing news a bit at a time. Click the below picture to see a bigger picture, leave a comment and tell us what you think!

Rather than translate all of the speech from the Nanjing MG conference word for word (its a good 3000 words, with very few periods/full stops - that speaker must have had Olympic class lungs) we thought we would summarize the opening speech for you. There were further speeches by various Nanjing MG top dogs.
Nanjing MG Conference

1. Introducing MG - Where is MG from, and what does it represent. Oddly MG was introduced as a charming, elegant man that embodies 100 years of British auto culture and engineering skill. The host then asks the audience to feel the speed, glory, dreams, and passion that the MG brand brings with it
2. Nanjing MG declares itself to be the first fully international Chinese auto brand.
3. Nanjing MG talks about its acquisition of MG Rover, and how other Chinese auto brands should follow Nanjing MG’s lead in innovation, and fostering home grown talent to further the Chinese auto industry.
4. Host talks about brave English knights in the days of old, the perfect gentleman and scholar. The host then compares a stereotypical character of a knight to the MG brand. The host talks more about MG’s history, how MG holds 40 of the previous land speed records (editors note: Is this true?) The host compares Nanjing MG to a beautiful diamond that has come to China.
5. The host introduces the new tagline/slogan for MG ‘Let your heart beat faster’ ‘让心跳加速 rang xin tiao jia su‘
6. The host tells how Nanjing MG is reinterpreting classic designs.
7. The host declares that MG is reborn, and is a top class brand, with top class technology and top class workers.
8. The host hopes that the MG medal will become the pride of the Chinese people.
9. The host hopes that the whole words automobile industry will applaud Nanjing MG for its efforts.
10. The host thanks everybody for attending.

The Chinese website, Sohu.com has a nice section on Nanjing MG, but as of yet they don’t have any pictures either. Some of the comments left on the Chinese news story over at Sohu.com are interesting:

1. This piece of rice already has blight.
2. To rely on Nanjing MG, Ive already lost hope.
3. Originally it [Rover] was an international brand.
4. The decline of the British Empire, the decline in the name of MG, if we don’t inject new ideas into MG, Nanjing MG will be short lived.
5. Nanjing are international car profiteers, they don’t have the technology.

What we find strange about the whole affair is the lack of cars, and the lack of coverage by the Chinese media. There are only a few articles about the even that we could find via the Chinese search engine Baidu.com.

Update: This is probably old news to some, but Nanjing MG are planning four platforms, similar to the BMW series of cars. There will be an MG 7 series, a 5 series and a 3 series range of cars, of course the MG-TF coupe will be in the line up as well.

Tomorrow, January 30th, Nanjing MG is expected to unveil its first Nanjing MG car since purchasing bankrupt British car manufacturer Rover in 2005. What can we expect? Well, theres lots of rumors floating around, and perhaps some concrete news, such as:

Nanjing MG will bring out three series of cars, these are…..

Wait until tomorrow!