Before I join the debate on the ethics of buying Chinese car, let me admit hypocrisy. I am writing this on my iMac, ‘designed by Apple in California’ – but assembled in China. I recommended my sister buy a Tesla Model 3 (made in China). Many of my T-shirts (although not my favourite English-made Sunspels) are Chinese-made.
I am mindful of Chinese cars because I’ve just had another drive in an MG 4. And liked it. This was a car I was determined to dislike. It pretends to be British and carries a badge of UK automotive aristocracy. In fact, MG is now Chinese state-owned. There is a modest (20-strong) if influential advanced design office in London, and a small engineering team in Birmingham finessing chassis for European roads. Otherwise, MG is about as British as President Xi dressed as Elton John doing a Goodbye Yellow Brick Road karaoke.
MG began life in Oxford in 1924 selling tuned and rebodied versions of sedate Morris Oxfords. By the ’30s, it was better known for its technically unremarkable but charming and affordable roadsters.
Handsome spindly-wheeled little open-top MGs barp-barping down hedgerow-lined B-roads would soon become a symbol of postwar Britain. They were successful overseas too: MG fostered the cult of the European sports car in America.
As with most of Britain’s motoring industry, it all went wrong in the ’70s and ’80s, when MGs become more classic curios than cutting-edge sports cars. And that’s where most of us thought (and hoped) MG would finish its days. Like a World War 2 hero, it was time quietly and nobly to pass away, fondly remembered, much loved, but now about as modern and relevant as Churchill in his homburg.
Then a strange thing happened. When the group formerly known as British Leyland was disassembled, the unwanted MG and Rover brands were sold to a bunch of Brummie optimists for £10. When that (predictably) went wrong, the assets were off-loaded to a company that could trace its car-making roots back to Mao’s China.
Now, wrapped in a Union Jack – but managed, manufactured, funded, engineered and mostly designed by SAIC in China – they’re selling like spring rolls before a Chinese banquet. MG is the fastest growing volume car brand in the UK. So far in 2023, it has sold more
cars than Peugeot, Skoda and Mini – and outsells Renault more than two-to-one. It’s not hard to see why. Although its petrol SUVs and hatches are bland, th
