History of MG

In 1927, the English automobile company “MG” was registered, founded by the designer William Morris, who, being the head and founder of another English brand “Morris”, had been creating prototypes of cars of various classes for many years. In the same year, the MG Midjet compact sports roadster was introduced, which had a huge impact on all subsequent sports car models from other brands. After only a couple of years of MG existence, William Morris sells his main company to Morris Motors, making it the manager of the famous manager of the time, Leonard Lord.

In the 1950s, the MG company, which successfully survived the Second World War, thanks to the supply of power units for the British aviation, comes under the control of the BMC concern, which also included Aston Martin. For 16 years, a whole scattering of new models has been introduced, which were in great demand among buyers from the UK, the United States of America and continental Europe. The main advantage of the models was the unique front suspension, first introduced on the MG Y-Type model, followed by the MGA and MGB models, as well as the Fastback. The pinnacle of the brand’s evolution was the second generation of the MG Midjet, introduced in 1961. Under the hood of the model are four-cylinder power units with a capacity of 46 to 90 horsepower.

However, in 1968, the BMC concern included such brands as Rover, Jaguar and Triumph, which put an end to the further existence of MG. A few months after the absorption of these brands, the BMC management closed the MG brand, and the production of Rover cars began at the company’s factories.

In 1982, the management of British Leyland, formerly BMC, decided to relaunch the MG brand. The compact Metro and Maestro models were introduced, which were in good demand among buyers in the UK market, but due to the success of another British Leyland compact car, the Mini, production of MG cars was curtailed again.

In 2000, Rover, which was part of British Leyland, as well as all the production facilities of MG and Mini, were sold to the German concern BMW. Thus, MG-Rover was created, which began the production of BMW cars for the British automotive market. However, the enterprises were recognized as unprofitable. MG-Rover has lost its division, the Mini brand, which has become an independent division of BMW with production facilities in the UK. In the process of gradually closing the company, she tried to release several new car models in 2004, but a year later, MG-Rover came under the control of the Chinese company Nanjing Auto.

MG factories in the UK were closed, and car production was transferred to China, where local engineers immediately began updating the 2004 Rover lineup. Thanks to the fact that all the technologies of the British brand were transferred to Nanjing Auto, the MG 550, 6 and 350 models were introduced, which became very popular in the Chinese automotive market. In addition, in 2009, an agreement was signed with the Italian concern FIAT, which led to the start of production of brand cars under the MG brand exclusively for the Chinese market. In 2011, a collaboration with General Motors was announced, which made it possible to start production of the MG 5 model, which since 2013 has been sold in the automotive market of the United States of America.

Thanks to significant investments from the parent company, Triple Eight Race Engineering was founded in the revived MG concern, which successfully competes in the British Touring Car Championship.

Based on the 2013 sales count, MG showed remarkable results and a positive growth trend. It was noted that it is much higher than that of many of the company’s competitors. At the Beijing International Automobile Salon, MG once again presented the entire model range for review. This decision has long been a tradition that the company has been following for many years. The latest development was also shown – the concept of an electric car MG DYNAMO. In May, the brand was included in the list of the best car companies in the UK, taking an honorable third place. Experts rated the handling of MG cars somewhat lower, which was reflected in the sixth place in the corresponding rating.