Yesterdays news of the SAIC takeover of NAC is probably great news to NAC and SAIC shareholders, but what the average automotive nut really cares about are the brands that SAIC and NAC both own, Roewe and the all important MG.
NAC owns a fistful of British automotive brands that it purchased from Rover in 2005, will SAIC with its massive money sacks revitalize the likes of Austin, and Morris Minor from their bankrupt deathbeds? We at China Car Times would like to think so. However, we have been made aware by a certain NAC MG insider into the dislike between NAC and SAIC employees, we’ve been told that in early 2005 when both SAIC and NAC were touring Longbridge, SAIC and NAC representatives refused to have anything to do with each other, and also refused to stay in the same hotel. Our insider says SAIC believes that Roewe is a superior brand, and the MG is a lower model - every MG driver aspires to be a Roewe owner one day.
With the sale of Landrover to Tata, and the high possibility of the Rover name going along with Landrover, will SAIC dare to push the Roewe brand outside of China (in case TATA relaunch Rover), or will SAIC be wise enough to use one of its recently acquired British brands?
What do our China Car Times readers believe will happen?
As you pointed out there is a huge regional rivalry here. We are talking about two companies identified with two capital cities on the Yangzi river. One a political capital of old, and the other an economic capital. Some NAC managers may not be able to make the transition to a company that will ultimately erase its name (Nanqi)from the industry rolls. But the younger workers will make the adjustment and roll with the waves of change. Those who do not will just fade into the landscape.
MG Roewe lives!
I was hoping for the best when NAC took over MG, but with this take over, NOTHING new about MG’s being made in Oklahoma, and comments like “every MG driver aspires to be a Roewe owner one day,” tells me that no one understands what MG and Rover were. MG drivers do not aspire to be a Roewe/Rover owner. MG’s are (were) the sport car and Rover were the luxury car. They were different tastes for different drivers, not one better than the other. I feel that MG will never be the brand it once was.
MGBMAN72
I believe the opposite, SAIC has way more money than NAC.
So I think SAIC can do a better job with MG.
They may make a decent car. It may even be reliable and safe, but I do not think it will ever be an MG. Is SAIC changing the meaning of MG back to Morris Garage instead of NAC’s made-up Modern Gentleman? Will they understand that MG is not up market nor down market from the Roewe and actually know why?
I have been holding out for a US return for MG since BMW’s ownership. I have given up and do not want that any longer. I will just count myself lucky that I still have my 72 MGB that I have owned for the last 26 years, and continue buying SAAB’s as my everyday car.
MG only means modern gentlemen in the Chinese name, 名爵.
I cant believe you kept the same car for 26 years, that is amazing.
Yes, I have had my 1972 MGB for the last 26 years. The MG was the first car that caught my attention and sparked my ever growing enthusiasm for the automobile. When I was 12 in 1980, I told my dad we had to buy one as the factory was closing (having no clue that one could buy used…) It was May of 81 when my parents left me home to “run errands.” My dad was actually working a deal with a friend to trade his boat for his friends MG. He was very wise not to say anything prior or I would have hounded him to death. He called me and said he was bringing one home. I was plastered to the window. I still remember it as if it were yesterday, the B pulling up to the house. He did not know it at the time, but I knew it would soon be mine. I drove it for 2 years in high school, but kept it ever since. To this day, I still get the same comments that I got while driving it back then, “I remember when I (or a friend) had one in college and on a dark, cold, rainy night it broke down… blah, blah, blah.” The very next thing spoken would be, “I wish I still had that car today.”
I can not describe what is so special about the B or MG’s in general that always elicit this type of response, but I feel it each and every time I get behind the wheel. I will never be without my B. I just do not think new MG’s will every trigger this type of response, and for that, I am sadden.