Talk:MG Motor

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This article is a mess. speculation, opinion, comparisons that are inappropriate a la "Escort Sized" and MG5...evokes the MGB" The MG5 has no MGB styling cues or throwback nods other than the octagon logo. Someone needs to put some real effort into this thread. 24.22.147.151 (talk) 05:25, 7 October 2016 (UTC)— Preceding unsigned comment added by 24.22.147.151 (talk) 05:23, 7 October 2016 (UTC)

The origin of the name MG is missing from the article's top area

Why is this information not included in the supposedly all-inclusive Wiki article? ... "MG stands for Morris Garages, a British brand founded in 1924 by William Morris. The name pays homage to Morris, who owned the garages where MG's founder, Cecil Kimber, worked. Kimber chose the name as a mark of respect." This is from the Google AI answer, from here: https://www.google.com/search?q=what+does+the+mg+in+mg+cars+stand+for%3F&oq=what+does+the+mg+in+mg+cars+stand+for%3F&aqs=chrome..69i57.15417j0j7&sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8 Jeffrey Adams 001 (talk) 12:29, 28 October 2024 (UTC)

It's deliberate. The history of MG is not here, but on MG cars. Andra Febrian (talk) 14:17, 28 October 2024 (UTC)

Differences with MG cars article

I have no objection to both articles existing. But some issues need to be clarified. What exactly is the relationship between the MG cars article and the MG Motor article? What are the differences?

LK (talk) 02:38, 10 November 2024 (UTC)

To put it simply:

MG cars = 1924–present (after 2005, there's a hatnote to direct readers to MG Motor as the main article)

MG Motor = 2005–present, the Chinese automaker Andra Febrian (talk) 06:17, 10 November 2024 (UTC)

To put it another way:

MG cars =

1. The story of the M.G. Car Company from 1930 until 1972

2. The story of the MG marque from 1924 to present, including the period between 1972 (when the M.G. Car Company became defunct) and 2005 (when MG Motor acquired the marque)

MG Motor = The story of the Chinese motor company that acquired the MG marque (but not the company that previously used it) in 2005

Should we perhaps split the story of the MG marque into a separate article? -- DeFacto (talk). 11:45, 10 November 2024 (UTC)

Still British?

Is the lead, namely that MG is "a British automotive manufacturer," still accurate? The rest of the article seems to contradict this statement. --87.119.144.203 (talk) 11:58, 7 July 2025 (UTC)

Last time I looked (when I clocked off at 19:00 today), Abingdon was definitely in Britain. If it hadn't been, I would have needed to present passport at the border. --Redrose64 🌹 (talk) 21:54, 7 July 2025 (UTC)

The company is based in Shanghai, however. 87.119.144.203 (talk) 20:08, 22 August 2025 (UTC)

(The way the lead is written now makes sense.) 87.119.144.203 (talk) 20:09, 22 August 2025 (UTC)

MG Motor UK, which currently sells MGs in the UK, and develops all the MGs sold in Europe (presumably excluding the IM models), is based in Birmingham, succeeding the original MG Rover Group (along with all the companies that came before it). Inpops (talk) 15:59, 28 August 2025 (UTC)

Well, sort of. MG Motor UK's predecessor, NAC, bought some of the assets of the MG Rover Group, including intellectual property rights, but not the company itself, that had gone into liquidation, and the workforce had been made redundant. -- DeFacto (talk). 20:42, 28 August 2025 (UTC)

I think we need a consensus on whether we should consider MG under NAC/SAIC as being Chinese or British. Many sources and people consider MG a Chinese car brand due to SAIC treating it similarly to its own Chinese brands (I'll admit I'm one of them).

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But I can't say that's factually accurate for Wikipedia. I mean, sure, one could argue that MG and its cars are Chinese, and that they just use the brand and heritage as a mask to hide that. But something as trivial as this should not really affect Wikipedia's coverage of the brand. It'll be more confusing to readers to say its British and then somewhere else its Chinese, and this sort of thing doesn't even affect most other brands' Wikipedia coverage and perception (for example, you won't hear people say that Mini (marque) is a German car brand, or that Atari is French, or PlayStation is American, and the list can go on and on and on). Its much more simpler to just say its British and leave it at that. I just can't see much merit in classing MG as being Chinese.

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I think we could start by omitting details that imply MG is Chinese (such as the "Automobile manufacturers of China" article in the "See also" section, and the China template). A hatnote explaining why MG is thought of as Chinese in this article or the other MG article should be sufficient for readers. I was also thinking of perhaps having a seperate category for MG-branded cars produced under NAC/SAIC (similar to Category:Mini (BMW) vehicles) to distinguish them from British-made MGs. Recently someone included the "Cars of China" category in that category which isn't really accurate or appropriate. Also Wikipedia isn't letting me include blank spaces in between my paragraphs on the mobile web version and I don't know why (hence the dashes). Inpops (talk) 23:07, 30 August 2025 (UTC)

The MG marque has a separate article which clearly states British brand: MG cars. This article, however, is about the Chinese subsidiary of SAIC. It's owned by a Chinese SOE, produced in China (and other countries but not the UK) and headquartered in China. The analogy with PlayStation simply doesn't hold water. Sony is a Japanese company and if anything by this same logic PlayStation is more American than MG Motor is British as the subsidiary making it is HQ-ed in the United States — unlike MG Motor.

I could get behind a separate category for Chinese MG cars, but omitting details that imply MG is Chinese when it is literally owned, made and headquartered there with minimal British input is just silly. SigillumVert (talk) 11:40, 31 August 2025 (UTC)

SAIC has various MG-branded subsidiaries and joint ventures in various countries, such as in the UK, the Netherlands, India, Thailand, Australia, and Mexico. There's no info on whether all of these are held by an MG-branded subsidiary or division based in China, or if they are all independent subsidiaries or JVs of SAIC itself. The bit where it says MGs were previously engineered in Longbridge but now developed in China is WP:OR, as the source doesn't specifically mention MG, and if you check the end of every UK MG press release, MG still say they have an engineering facility in the West Midlands, and a design studio in London. Inpops (talk) 12:10, 31 August 2025 (UTC)

Regardless, the cars are not produced in Britain, at least according to the BBC. And even if they were — no one would describe BMW as anything other than a German multinational, even if they produce vehicles in China and the United States. Add to that it being owned by a Chinese company headquartered in China and we can't in good faith "just say its British and leave it at that". SigillumVert (talk) 12:26, 31 August 2025 (UTC)

MG Motor UK is a company based in Birmingham that is responsible for the development of MG cars in Europe. Technically that makes it a British car manufacturer. On the other hand BMW produces, develops and sells some of its cars under the Mini brand. There are no specific BMW subsidiaries for Mini as far as I can tell or if development and design is done in the UK. And most Minis aren't produced in the UK. I've seen Mini ads in the UK where the steering wheel is on the left side even though Britain is a RHD market.

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Another example would be Polestar, which is based in Sweden with its cars designed and engineered there, yet its owned by Chinese Geely and has most of its cars assembled in China. It doesn't even operate its own factories, but is still similarly considered a manufacturer.

The only thing that could make MG worthy of being considered Chinese on this Wikipedia article is the fact SAIC sees it as being a brand for exports outside China. Almost if not everything SAIC sells outside China is an MG, and some of it, such as the vans, pickups, and IM models, isn't even really necessary if you ask me. It puts the brand in a similar position to Chery's Omoda and Jaecoo brands, as well as the luxury brands of Japanese automakers that originally weren't launched in Japan, such as Acura, Infiniti and Lexus. Inpops (talk) 18:08, 31 August 2025 (UTC)

Is "MG Motor UK" a local UK subsidiary of MG Motor headquartered in China? You said SAIC has many MG branded subsidiaries across the world. This article is — at least from what I see — about the parent company that controls all the MG branded subsidiaries from China, is it not?

Again to use a German analogy, Mercedes Benz Group China was founded in 2001. It doesn't make Mercedes a Chinese car brand.

I would still consider Lexus to be Japanese as it is at least HQ-ed in Japan. But yeah, Polestar is hardly a Chinese brand consider both its legal and operational HQs are in Europe. SigillumVert (talk) 00:30, 1 September 2025 (UTC)

It seems this article was meant to cover the company formed by NAC made up of the remaining MG Rover assets, originally known as NAC MG UK, now known as MG Motor UK. According to their terms and conditions page, it is a part of Nanjing Automobile UK, itself presumably a subsidiary of Nanjing Automobile in China, in turn part of SAIC. According to the privacy notice on their European website, the company that sells MG-branded cars in Europe is actually known as SAIC Motor Europe. Its the same in Australia according their Australian website's "modern slavery statement", which also says its part of a SAIC subsidiary named "SAIC Motor International". The Mexican business is also known as "SAIC International Mexico". Pretty sure these are the legal names of these businesses and they just trade using the MG name. I wasn't able to translate the legal notice on the Chinese website but it seems its a direct division or subsidiary of SAIC itself, with SAIC being the copyright holder. Doesn't seem like all the international companies are part of the Chinese company named MG. The joint ventures in India and Pakistan don't seem to tell us anything about the ownership on their sites but they both also use MG as their legal names. Inpops (talk) 13:00, 1 September 2025 (UTC)

MG is a British marque now owned by a Chinese company. That's easy to understand - it's like if an Irish racehorse is owned by an Egyptian, it doesn't become an Egyptian horse. That doesn't imply that all, or even any, MG-branded cars are currently made in the UK.

In fact, with today's multi-national car manufacturers, it's not obvious where any car is made. Nissan, Toyota, Opel, Peugeot, and Citroën cars are manufactured in the UK, yet none of those marques are British. Similarly with commercial vehicles; DAF, Opel, Peugeot, Citroën and Fiat CVs are manufactured in the UK. -- DeFacto (talk). 16:21, 31 August 2025 (UTC)

Also, small components are made in one country, shipped to another to be incorporated into sub-assemblies, which are then shipped to a third country to be incorporated into the final product. None of these countries needs to be the same as that of the company's HQ. --Redrose64 🌹 (talk) 19:19, 31 August 2025 (UTC)

@87.119.144.203 indeed the company is in no way British. Chinese state owned. Designed, built, finished and shipped entirely out of China. Yes international pieces have a part to play in the puzzle, like any company that trades in multiple counties, but that doesn't change the fact that it's entirely and totally a Chinese company, a state owned one at that, with nothing what so ever to do with the UK other than it's brand names origin which is fully explained in the article. Thinkharder (talk) 23:21, 12 May 2026 (UTC)

@Redrose64, Inpops, DeFacto, and SigillumVert: as editors who previously particpated in this discussion to see if there is consensus for the proposed change. The previous discussion above petered out some time ago.-- Ponyo^{bons mots} 17:01, 13 May 2026 (UTC)

The problem as I see it is that the article does not reliably and verifiably describe what exactly MG Motor is. Is it a company? If it is, what sort of company is it. Does it manufacture cars? Does it simply market cars manufactured by SAIC? Is it only a brand? Until we know, it's impossible to say what it's nationality is. This article was created to describe MG Motor UK Limited (MG Motor), the British company created to describe the Chinese-owned company that was established to buy-up some of the assets of the liquidated MG Rover Group, including the MG marque and tools. What it is currently about isn't clear. -- DeFacto (talk). 17:51, 13 May 2026 (UTC)

@DeFacto you do make a good point here, it's somewhat vague as to what specifically the article is referring too.

MG itself is now little more than a brandname entirely owned by and operated internally within SAIC, its not a seperate company. Hence it's entirely Chinese and why it definitely shouldn't state its British. The brands origins are of course British, as mentioned in the article, but there's nothing else British about it.

To make it a little more complex of course, SAIC uses seperate companies to sell its cars internationally, as you'd probably expect. Some of these companies are MG branded too. For example in the UK you buy a car from MG Motor UK Ltd, which is in turn owned by SAIC Motor International UK Ltd, then eventually it's owned by SAIC in China. Thinkharder (talk) 18:30, 13 May 2026 (UTC)

There is already an article about the actual brand and the original creator and manufacturer of the cars, with the totally illogical name MG Cars. I say illogical because the company was called "M.G. Car Company Limited" and the marque simply "MG". Anyway, given all that, what is this article actually here to cover? -- DeFacto (talk). 18:58, 13 May 2026 (UTC)

the way I see it is that MG Motor UK focus on selling in the UK, but also have a facility for R&D in Birmingham, where the UK subsidiary's legal office is, while the design studio in London it also operates has also been its operational HQ since 2019. A bit like how Ford of Britain has the Dunton Technical Centre but also sells cars, previously having factories of its own too. Inpops (talk) 18:54, 13 May 2026 (UTC)

Is that an offshore subsidiary of SAIC? -- DeFacto (talk). 18:59, 13 May 2026 (UTC)

I don't think it's unreasonable to still describe MG as British on Wikipedia; the brand was founded in England, they're still based in the UK, they still have operations here that could suffice for being considered British and MG and their British executives (who were also responsible for moving production) say they are a British brand. Pretty sure I saw one of the execs say that "We're very much a global organisation with our heart in the UK", boasting that "an awful lot" still goes on here despite producing in "another part of the world". One way to interpret it is that they're a British brand making cars in various parts of the world. Mind you they're considering a factory in the EU, and that would likely export to the UK too, as well as reducing the amount of MGs imported from China (since most of their cars aren't even sold there or don't sell well).

That being said, I think I'm more open to the idea of classifying MG as British in the article with the template, since most sources consider MG Chinese. Think of MG as a British brand making Chinese cars that are primarily built and developed in China, similar to how companies like Ford, Nissan and Kia have developed cars in Europe, for Europe, or how many foreign automakers have Chinese-developed cars, often for that market.

Maybe a lead like this with a footnote could work:

MG is an automotive brand owned by Nanjing Automobile from 2005 to 2007, and by SAIC Motor from 2007 onwards. MG Motor UK Limited is a subsidiary of SAIC that handles sales for MG vehicles in the United Kingdom, and also operates a research and development facility in Longbridge, Birmingham, and an advanced design studio in Marylebone, London.

With the footnote being:

MG was founded in Oxford in 1924. Under British ownership, its vehicles were built in factories in the UK. From 2013 to 2016, SAIC briefly did CKD assembly of MG models at the former Longbridge plant. After MG began importing all of its cars from China into Europe, most sources have described MG as a Chinese brand, though MG still say they are a British brand.

I think it would also make sense to have a section on its UK and European operations in the article, and a seperate section for the brand's operations elsewhere.

I don't think it's ideal for us to call MG Chinese in articles listing cars such as List of battery electric vehicles or List of sport utility vehicles, since like I said they originate in the UK, are based here, and say they're British. It kinda doesn't make sense to contradict that. I dunno, I can't see us explicit calling MG Chinese when Wikipedia has never really had the same mentality with any other brand. I'm especially not sure why we would not respect what the company wants even though I personally don't agree with it. If we really are going to go against what they say about themselves and explicitly say they're Chinese with no mention of them being British then atleast use an "Attributed to multiple references" footnote to say that this is what most sources think. Inpops (talk) 18:47, 13 May 2026 (UTC)

This article is about "MG Motors" though, not the MG marque - that is British, now Chinese owned, and has its own article at MG Cars. -- DeFacto (talk). 19:13, 13 May 2026 (UTC)

The way I see it is that this article is for the operations of MG under NAC/SAIC, including but not limited to the MG Motor UK business from which the article derives its name from. Inpops (talk) 18:24, 16 June 2026 (UTC)

@Inpops whatever is decided re the direction of this article, it's with noting they are not based in the UK in any real way. The cars are designed and built entirely in China. The UK company sells the cars to the UK public and not much more. The Brand itself, ie the name only, is of British origin. But the cars and the company are entirely and completely Chinese owned and operated. Thinkharder (talk) 10:52, 14 May 2026 (UTC)

Notes

What is the subject of this article?

We already have an article about the MG marque (MG Cars), which covers it under British Leyland (1968–1986), Rover Group (1986–2000), MG Rover (2000–2006) and MG Motor (2006–present). So what are we trying to cover here? -- DeFacto (talk). 19:18, 13 May 2026 (UTC)

@DeFacto assume there sould be an article deals with the history of the old original MG company, that no longer exists, which is what the MG Cars article sets out to do. Then another, I would say this article, be about the current/modern day active MG explaining what it is and it's current cars etc. Thinkharder (talk) 11:04, 14 May 2026 (UTC)