China Car Times

The Roewe 550 is the Roewe W2 concept that was unveiled in Shanghai last year. Rumor has it that 550 is based off a shortened Rover 75 platform which makes it shorter than a VW Passat, but bigger than the latest Jetta/Sagitar. Under the hood we can expect to see the recently launched 1.8 Turbo assisted engine.

SAIC did once tease us with pictures of their development team in the UK working on a model of the 550, but now many pictures have leaked out onto the internet of the 550 sans camoflauge

Click the below pictures for bigger versions:

A bit of funny reporting from Freep.com, based in Detroit (of course):

Ford’s announcement that it’s working to sell its Jaguar and Land Rover operations to India’s Tata Motors is the best news fans of the prestigious British brands could hope for, and potentially a darned good deal for Ford and Tata, too.

On the other hand, Shanghai Automotive Industries Corp.’s plan to use a British assembly plant that last built MG and Rover cars to launch SAIC’s presence in Europe could set the Chinese auto industry back years.

The difference between the two deals comes down largely to expertise and expectations.

For all their flaws, Jaguar and Land Rover have their devotees.

Land Rover’s strong model line appeals to status-hungry shoppers around the world.

Jaguar is about to launch its most promising new car in years, the luxurious and technically advanced XF sport sedan. Both brands use systems that would improve Tata’s other vehicles.

Tata, as India’s largest automaker and part of the family-controlled business that is India’s biggest conglomerate, brings its own strengths to the deal. It has substantial financial resources, manufacturing know-how, planning and home field advantage in a growing market for luxury vehicles.

SUVs may be out of fashion in Hollywood, but Bollywood is booming. And India’s software moguls want fast and sophisticated cars as much as anybody in San Jose, Calif.

If Ford structures the deal so it keeps an interest in the brands, the sale could also be a step toward giving the Dearborn automaker a larger presence in India.

SAIC’s infatuation with MG, Rover and Austin-Healey is harder to figure out. Like many Chinese companies, SAIC, which has excellent car-making joint ventures with GM and Volkswagen, seems to understand that it’s easier and faster to buy a brand than to build one from scratch. Did SAIC buy a brand originally? No - they built one up from the ground up, a brand that sees better sales than MG in China.

But these brands have about as much appeal as Yugo — which is also for sale, by the way. Madness! It’s been decades since Rover sold meaningful numbers of cars outside Britain. MG and Austin-Healey never did. Debatable, but this is CCT not British Car Times There’s some affection for little sports cars like the MG Midget and Austin-Healey’s bug-eyed Sprite, but among a very few people, most of whom also remember leaky roofs and overheating engines.

Believing any of those brands will establish SAIC as a major player in Europe flies in the face of even the rosiest reading of their histories.

Other companies have foundered while trying to pull the Rover Group — which included MG and Austin — out of the whirlpool. The British group nearly sank BMW in the ’90s.

A decade earlier, Honda saw Rover as its ticket to developing luxury cars and formed a joint venture whereby a Rover factory built Acura Legends and a Rover version of the car called the Sterling. The quality was so poor that German dealers refused to take Legends built at the British plant, and Sterling flopped in the United States.

Tata’s probable acquisition gets it two strong brands.

It’s harder to see the upside for SAIC.

The same journalist, Mark Phelan, in a previous article wrote that the rather rancid Jeep Liberty 2008 is a rugged refined classic, when clearly its the most revolting thing to role off the Jeep production line! Bring back the Cherokee!