MG is back – officially

MG Motor Australia got off to a careful start this week, officially opening the doors to its headquarters at 692 Parramatta Road in the Sydney suburb of Petersham.

Just for now, it will continue with the single model introduced locally in April this year – the MG6 – selling out of one sales outlet and setting what it describes as “not aggressive” sales targets.

The Petersham facility includes MG’s head office, along with a “complete team” looking after the showrooms, spare parts and service centre.

The new importer for the MG brand, Australia Longwell Motor (ALM) is currently in the process of appointing dealerships elsewhere, in Queensland, New South Wales and Victoria, with other states to follow “early next year.” MG says it hopes to establish a tally of more than 20 Australian dealerships.

Despite the traditional sports car heritage, MG makes its Australian reappearance as a small hatch or sedan competing in the red-hot Mazda3, Toyota Corolla, Holden Cruze segment with the top of the range TSE version selling for a driveaway price of less than $30,000.

Power for the MG6 comes from a 1.8-litre turbo four driving, at this stage, through a five-speed manual transmission.

The local company plans to offer a dual-cutch auto transmission for the MG6 at the same time as it expands the range with the MG3 light hatch and an as-yet un-named compact SUV next year.

MG has made one comeback attempt since the heydays of the brand 40 years ago when it was part of British Leyland. The most recent iteration of the classic two-seat British sports car, the mid-engined MGF, was on sale here between 1997 and 2002. The last front-engined MG, the MGB, was discontinued locally in 1972.

Although the MG brand is now owned by the “big four” Chinese car-maker SAIC Motor Corporation Limited, design and engineering are still carried out in the UK at its long-standing facility in Longbridge.

SAIC is the company that grabbed the front-drive Rover 75 after the brand was dumped by BMW in 2005. It was re-birthed in 2006 as the Roewe 750 luxury car, essentially intended for the Chinese market but sold alongside other models under the MG banner to limited European and South American markets.

The MG6’s basic design can be traced back to the Rover 75. Recent testing by Australian safety organisation ANCAP gave the MG6 a four-star safety rating in a segment where the bulk of contenders enjoy a full five stars.

Read the latest news and reviews on your mobile, iPhone or PDA at carsales' mobile site...

Don't forget to register to comment on this article.