MG planning flagship Sydney showroom

MG Motor Australia has appointed three new dealers – taking the total to 21 nationwide – and will open its own flagship showroom in Sydney in the next 12 months.

Speaking to motoring.com.au at the launch of the upgraded 2019 MG 3 automatic hatchback in Sydney yesterday, MG Motor Australia general manager Peter Cao said that an SAIC-owned showroom would give the brand direct contact with customers in Australia’s biggest city.

“We need more communication with the customer,” he said. “If I have a showroom, I don’t have to email the [dealers] every day — I can go to my showroom and talk to the customer.”

Cao said MG Motor Australia has chosen North Sydney as the location for its new showroom, which would open “in the next 12 months”.

Meanwhile, MG has appointed its first South Australian dealer, Newspot MG in Adelaide, while the addition of Northern MG in Bundoora and Peter Stevens MG in Ballarat takes the number of Victorian outlets for the Chinese marque to six.

Adelaide’s Newspot MG has opened its doors in Hampstead Gardens alongside its showroom for fellow SAIC brand, LDV.

Newspot MG Dealer Principal Darrell Wadsworth said: “We’re thrilled to become MG Motor’s first dealership in South Australia.

“Having recently partnered with another SAIC Motor-owned brand, we were very impressed with the superior quality and craftsmanship of its product offering. Partnering with MG Motor was a natural extension of this relationship.”

The new dealers are in addition to the existing nine outlets in NSW, where two new Sydney outlets were opened earlier this month, plus four in Queensland, two in the ACT and one in WA, leaving only Tasmania and NT without representation for the fledgling marque.

After the aborted 2013 attempt to revive the MG brand via Longwell Motor, MG returned to Australia in 2016 as a factory-owned subsidiary of parent company SAIC with just four dealers.

Alongside the new MG 3 auto, MG Motor Australia sells the small MG 6 hatch, and the compact ZS and mid-size GS crossovers, all with a seven-year/unlimited-km warranty.