Nanjing Automobile Group, which purchased the assets of the bankrupt MG Rover Group last year, announced on Wednesday it would build MG-brand cars in Oklahoma. This will make it the first Chinese automaker to assemble vehicles in the United States.
The Construction of Nanjing’s Oklahoma plant in Ardmore is scheduled to begin early next year, with production projected to start by late 2008, according to the company.
Duke Hale noted that MG Motors planned to offer a full range of sports cars and sedans. The Oklahoma plant will produce a newly designed TF Coupe, while three sedans would be built at Nanjing’s facilities in China, and the MG TF roadster would be built at the factory in Longbridge.
Hale said his company had chosen Ardmore, Oklahoma, because of its excellent location as a distribution center.
“It has rail access, the city’s airpark has the ability to handle large aircraft, and Houston can be used as a port…”
This isn’t intended to be anything more than an entry to US production. Fully ramped-up, it will bring about 550 jobs to OK. Still, it’s interesting to see the Chinese bringing jobs to the US.
That’s because people outside the USA still think that products made in the USA are top of the line.
In some cases, they are…
In the 80’s and 90’s, you couldn’t have given me money to take an American car. I truly believed this country didn’t make a single car that was reliable and efficient. Reality, in some cases, would generally bear out my fears.
But today… It seems that the overall quality, performance, reliability, and efficiency, to say nothing for safety, of American cars is way up.
I’m still a big fan of Toyota and Honda, but I recently needed to buy a mini-van and I choose a late model Mercury Villager (which is the same van as a Nissan Quest). A decade and a half ago I’d have refused to even consider such a buy from a name plate like Mercury. This year, the call was easy and I’m very happy with the van so far.
Reminds me of when Honda started making “Goldwing” motorcycles in Ohio, in 1979…..
Because upwards of 80% of their Goldwing sales were in the US. [and that tariff on anything over 700cc, started in 1982, didn’t hurt either]
American companies can’t wait to get out of America while foreign companies set up shop here to get a foot into our market. Notice how the #1 American made cars are the Toyota Camry and the Honda Civic.
Jim:
And don’t forget those recent Ford ads that describe their cars to be all american and then people found out that most of the parts used to build the cars are not made in the USA.
I have to say the vehicles the big three are producing are POS! … and I own a Ford and a Chevrolet. I bought the new Chevrolet in 2004 because it was $5000+ cheaper than the Toyota or Honda I really wanted. It’s been in the shop multiple times already. Funny thing is most of my car was built Canada, the Toyotas and Hondas in the US.
No, No ,no..
If they have a plant in the US, then they can Import PARTS, with no tarriff or taxes, and put the vehicles together, HERE… It keeps the prices lower., AND makes a higher profit.
THEY should REALLY head for Mexico..
Made in the USA, bitches! Take that you damn dirty foreigners.
Don’t be dissing modern American cars… I’ve bought 3 brand new American cars (one Pontiac and two Chevy’s), since 2001, and have never had one of them into the shop once… 38k miles on one, 14k on another, and 28k on the last one, and all running just fine.
I have a Honda Accord with 225,000 miles on it. It just had its first major problem, a leaky oil seal between the engine and transmission. It’s been trouble-free otherwise. My daughter has a Civic with 205,000 miles on it. It needs a new A/C compressor, but is otherwise in really good shape. Neither BURN oil, although both leaked a little. (Ok, my Accord leaks a lot now. Like a quart a minute.)
I changed the oil religiously in my Accord… every 10,000 miles. (I have always used synthetic, though.)
When I first got married, my wife had a Datsun B210. Ugly as sin, but incredibly reliable. We put 145,000 miles on it, and got as much in trade-in for it as we had paid for it brand new. (Yeah, I know, trade-in values are a scam, but…)
The last Ford product I had (Aerostar van, back when my kids were small) went through four transmissions before I had enough and traded it in on a Chevy Astro, which threw a rod at 50,000 miles. (Replaced under warranty but never trusted again.)
I did have an Olds Delta 88 with a diesel V8 that I managed to put a little over 200,000 miles on before it died.
If there is a point, and there probably isn’t, I’ve generally had pretty poor luck with domestics, and pretty good luck with imports. Aside from residents of Michigan and Indiana, I think most Americans would agree with that.
Toyota has been do the same thing for years.
There are a few issues with this. The MG engine was never Federalized. Does the TF pass safety legislation in the US? And will Chinese quality control be good enough, so that problems don’t appear in assembly in Oklahoma?
If the quantities are kept relatively low (which they will, as this car will be 10 years old by the time it relaunches—and the bits designed for it are older still), a skilled workforce could probably do quite well with the new MG TF GT. Remember GM has shut a plant there, so at least some of those folks could find jobs in the state.
I haven’t been back Stateside for a year, but my impression of American quality is still coloured by a very direct comparison I made in 2000 between the Belgian-built Ford Mondeo ST V6 and the (almost technically identical) Kentucky-built Ford Contour 2·5 SE. We are talking a Grand Canyon of difference, which is a shame—one was a sports sedan designed to compete against Europe’s best, and the other was a common-garden plasticky car which had the on-paper credentials to take on BMW, but an interior to take on Hyundai. The Cadillac CTS and the high-end Jeeps are still quite poor.
Let’s hope things go better for MG and that the car has benefited from the years when the company was controlled by BMW, though one mechanic friend down here, who has serviced the MGF and TF, says they were still horribly put together.
Dodge/Chysler’s cars have gotten significantly better since Daimler bought them. I just picked up a new Caliber today, and I didn’t even consider Dodge when I started shopping.
Interesting. I wonder if they will resurrect the MG XPower SV and SV-R. these were due to have 300 and 400 HP respectively. They even showed one pre-production car (before they went under) that sported a 700+ HP engine.
I doubt anyone would pay the original “pre-bankruptcy” price of $120,000 to $150,000 for a Chinese made MG SV. At least not for a decade or two. At least that worked for the Honda/Acura NSX.
Speaking of foreign makers and domestic vehicles, is anyone else find it a little disturbing that Germany’s Dr. Z of DaimlerChrysler is selling Dodge trucks? The new TV ads only make me realize all the more that buying a Dodge is employing more and more foreigners and less and less Americans.
Dodge no longer American evokes hotdogs & baseball but rather German bratwurst & soccer.
Oops that last sentence should read:
Dodge no longer evokes American hotdogs & baseball but rather German bratwurst & soccer.
Car enthusiasts should watch “Who killed the electric car” and hope that this change in players will also change the outcome of the game. But that’s wishing too much from a greed-driven economy like the U.S.
I vote that they bring back a modern version of the MG B.
I never understood why MG let Mazda take their market share of the cool little convertable.
Let’s hope they don’t build cars like they drive them!
The big question I have is why the U.S.?