This was outside my kids' school the other night:
Note the badge. Now, I highly doubt that MG is going to start selling sedans in the US any time soon. Most likely, it's a competitive vehicle being evaluated by GM at the Milford Proving Grounds, which is about 5 miles away from where I took the picture.
Love all the random test cars running around Detroit taped up... The first of the Chinese OEM's offerings to the USA...
In reply to Tom_Spangler:
I disagree, Tom. Nobody puts camo on competitive analysis cars. It's more likely that the Chinese owners of MG want to sell cars here. MG is an easier name than whatever the Chinese equivallant is.
The Chinese can make acronyms that are easy to pronounce too, but MG will make people think of cute old British cars instead of modern Chinese pieces of junk.
alfadriver wrote: In reply to Tom_Spangler: I disagree, Tom. Nobody puts camo on competitive analysis cars. It's more likely that the Chinese owners of MG want to sell cars here. MG is an easier name than whatever the Chinese equivallant is.
That's a good point, Eric. They usually only put camo on cars they are trying to conceal.
Side note on that, honestly, does anyone think the above camo is effective? If it was just another small grey sedan, I never would have noticed it, but since they put bright blue checkerboards on it, it caught my eye. And this is the type of camo I see all the time on test cars. I don't get it.
Without camp I wouldn't have given it a second look after assuming it was some recent Camry.
Tom_Spangler wrote: They usually only put camo on cars they are trying to conceal. Side note on that, honestly, does anyone think the above camo is effective? If it was just another small grey sedan, I never would have noticed it, but since they put bright blue checkerboards on it, it caught my eye. And this is the type of camo I see all the time on test cars. I don't get it.
I work down the road from the proving ground and sometimes wonder the same thing. The checkerboard does make the lines hard to distinguish (I thought the car was a prius at first glance) but maybe that's just cause the thing is that generic looking to begin with.
In reply to Tom_Spangler:
Seeme like it does a better job attracting attention.
Not sure if it does any hiding of the shape details.
But we camo by putting cloth and sponge bumps under that.
Well it's about the size and proportions of the current MG6 sold in China and the UK, but it's not the same car, so perhaps it's the face lifted version.
this is the current car
Yeah, if not for the emblem I would have thought it was just another Toyota sedan. A little black plasti-dip over it and nobody would notice it existed 
Tom_Spangler wrote: Most likely, it's a competitive vehicle being evaluated by GM at the Milford Proving Grounds, which is about 5 miles away from where I took the picture.
My old 1988 BMW 325iX had a sticker on the underside of the hood showing it was originally owned by Chrysler. I talked to my brother, who was a Chrysler engineer at the time; he confirmed they would buy all kinds of vehicles from other manufacturers for evaluation purposes, but it always seemed weird to me that they would have had a 325ix - it didn't seem to have any direct comparison to any Pentastar offerings in the late 1980s.
In reply to stuart in mn:
Long time ago I read an article in Car and Drive (I think) about the original Mazda Cosmo 110. He was a ChryCo engineer when the car was new; Chrysler bought it for testing and eval at their lab. Think about the Mopar offerings back in 1967. 325iX seems less different by comparison.
stuart in mn wrote:Tom_Spangler wrote: Most likely, it's a competitive vehicle being evaluated by GM at the Milford Proving Grounds, which is about 5 miles away from where I took the picture.My old 1988 BMW 325iX had a sticker on the underside of the hood showing it was originally owned by Chrysler. I talked to my brother, who was a Chrysler engineer at the time; he confirmed they would buy all kinds of vehicles from other manufacturers for evaluation purposes, but it always seemed weird to me that they would have had a 325ix - it didn't seem to have any direct comparison to any Pentastar offerings in the late 1980s.
They were experimenting with AWD systems back then.
Eventually some of those experiments showed up in AWD minivans and the DiamondStar cars.
Given the reputation of so called "cheap" tools, furniture, and other goods from China, I wonder where the quality of their North American automotive products will rank?
pres589 wrote: In reply to stuart in mn: Long time ago I read an article in Car and Drive (I think) about the original Mazda Cosmo 110. He was a ChryCo engineer when the car was new; Chrysler bought it for testing and eval at their lab. Think about the Mopar offerings back in 1967. 325iX seems less different by comparison.
Pretty sure that it was either Sherman or Bedard. Probably Bedard.
One thing I thought funny about that article was the comment about how low the engine was and how much lower it could be with modern EFI. The fuel injected 13Bs were the same external height and width as the 10A engines, being the same engine but 40mm longer. The EFI manifolds are huge monstrosities...
That's interesting, but my question is why haven't they tried making a Miata competitor? That would seem logical.
SyntheticBlinkerFluid wrote: That's interesting, but my question is why haven't they tried making a Miata competitor? That would seem logical.
MG did build the mid engined MG F starting in the 90's that morphed into the TF. After the Chinese bought MG, they moved all the tooling for the MG TF to China and carried on building them. They also built the updated one there, I think they've stopped building them now. The problem was the K Series engine was never US legal so it would have been a mammoth undertaking to bring it here.
I don't think MG F's ever sold in that large a #'s outside of the UK, and latterly China, the Miata seems to have been a better product. Note, I've seen thousands of MG F's, but I've never so much as sat in one, let alone driven one to give any actual perspective on this.
MG F
MG TF
Chinese MG TF
stuart in mn wrote:Tom_Spangler wrote: Most likely, it's a competitive vehicle being evaluated by GM at the Milford Proving Grounds, which is about 5 miles away from where I took the picture.My old 1988 BMW 325iX had a sticker on the underside of the hood showing it was originally owned by Chrysler. I talked to my brother, who was a Chrysler engineer at the time; he confirmed they would buy all kinds of vehicles from other manufacturers for evaluation purposes, but it always seemed weird to me that they would have had a 325ix - it didn't seem to have any direct comparison to any Pentastar offerings in the late 1980s.
I've heard that they were supposed to be competition for the euro sedans of the time.
moparman76_69 wrote: I've heard that they were supposed to be competition for the euro sedans of the time.
That was the idea behind this too. Meant to compete with contemporary Euro sedans. SMirk, snigger snigger.
Well it did go on to compete with them head to head
DAmn, I'd love to see a real DTM Mustang running in the flesh and see all the details.
Tom_Spangler wrote:
that looks like the "camo" job i'm going to do to my Camaro eventually, except mine will be done with that black and yellow safety tape that you see on the floors of factories.. a few rolls should do it, and the direction will be altered on every body panel... hopefully, when it's all said and done, my Camaro will literally hurt to look at..
My favorite sighting was headed north on M39 and coming upon a full on factory Right Hand Drive Focus RS with a safety cage followed by a Falcon FPV with a camouflaged car behind that I think was a Ford Cmax.
Side note:
MG still has the record for World's Fastest Wagon (225.609 mph) at Bonneville set in 2003.
Somehow, I don't see a wagon version coming to the US...
225mph? A little tweaking on a CTS-V wagon should beat that.
Wonder if they plan to bring this here?
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drainoil wrote: Given the reputation of so called "cheap" tools, furniture, and other goods from China, I wonder where the quality of their North American automotive products will rank?
Why'll your probably right, if the price I cheap enough, it won't matter. Its the Harbor Freight principle. (And yes, I love me some HF)
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