MG6 Test drive...Now with added Clarkson - Page 4

[Pete-M]

To veer off slightly in the traditional AS stylee.

 

Young lad (18-19) who comes to my mates garage, he's always had shite old bikes, ancient CB100s, that kind of thing. Not got a full licence, stuck on 125s.

 

Turns up last week on a Jianshee (or something similar sounding) 125 Custom thing. Brand spanking new, 13 plate, Less than 50 miles on it and on the first 'temporary' tax disc I've seen in years.. Foot peg already rusted 50% through, chrome beginning to blister, signs of the dreaded tinworm already visible.

 

Ok, it's cheap. If it lasts a year without terminally breaking it's fairly cheap transport. A few hundred quid to insure instead of a three grand to insure a Punto or summat. It was about a grand with leathers and a lid thrown in (decent lid, leathers are better than a tracksuit).

 

But to buy a car for £18k that may not be much better built? No.

[Richard]

It's entirely possible he won't get a year out of it. My friend's son bought a Yamaha Dragstar copy a few years ago. It had already been sold "spares or repair" by its first owner, fettled and used by the second owner and was back in the same state by the time my friend's son bought it. It was 18 months old.

[Cavcraft]

  STUNO said:

^^^^^All this comes from people who love shite like Yugo, Polonez, Lada Etc.

I challenge someone real on here to actually sit in one and maybe even drive one. Then the truth will come out

 

The difference being a Yugo, Polonez or Lada isn't going to cost several thousand quid and isn't going to lose that much within a record amount of time. I'd also be willing to bet no-one on here actually thinks any of those cars are the pinnacle of engineering or greatest motor ever made. There is no comparison between those and the new MG in that respect, as you're comparing apples with pears.

[Hendry]

Thought I'd add an unbiased view here now I've actually driven one of these things,

 

First things first I work for a hire car firm which supplies cars to non fault accident victims (going to be even more hated now I've said that) and we have them on fleet although mostly at our English branches and until a few weeks ago had managed to avoid them, anyway we collected it from a client today any on first impressions IMO its not a bad looking car on the outside although the burnt orange paintwork doesn't do it any favours, it was the 5 door 1.8 model, not sure which spec but paperwork said 160bhp which sounds decent enough. Reg plates said "MG Sales Centre" and it turns out they were bought on A buyback deal with Greenhous (a Staffordshire Vauxhall dealer oddly)

 

The engine when idling judders like its about to stall, the front seats are a half arsed attempt at sports seats but the bolsters are too close together and you feel squashed in to the middle, the stereo is either crap or is already borked as it cannot find any stations, it just continually seeks, and the plastics are hard and scratchy and look like they will be worn out very quickly, I'd go so far as to say a Kia Mentor feels more quality inside. Then there's the gearbox which is very notchy and sometimes is stiff to go into gear. The dash is horrible with the clear Perspex that covers the speedo dials reaching half way across the dash, and as for the handbrake, its a weird contraption which seems like it functions like a normal handbrake but infact the release button is on the underside of the lever, not on the end. The ignition key is obviously so tricky to use there's even a card on the keyring telling you how to operate it. Also this cars a 62 plate so we will have had it no more than 9months and its due for defleet (most cars get kept for at least 2 years) so this is where all the £8K 2nd hand ones you see Are from, MG obviously couldn't shift them so gave generous buyback deals to fleets

[Pete-M]

That Chinese 125 I was talking about earlier in this thread. The lad came back in with it today. It's finished. Rear shock absorber mounts on the frame have snapped. To fix it would mean stripping the bike down to pretty much nothing, removing the snapped bolts - they're welded in place - replacing them in a slightly better way then rebuilding the bike around them.

Sent him back to the supplying dealer. It's got to have some sort of warranty, and as it's the actual bike frame that's failed we recommended he got his money back. No doubt next week he'll rock up on another one.

[STUNO]

Thanks Hendry, it seems that they are not the best !

[STUNO]

how mr Datsun learned to make cars

 

Datsun 12 (Austin 7)

Datsun A40

[Lacquer Peel]

How Ian SAIC learned to make MGs.

 

Drove MG-Rover to collapse.

Demolished most of Longbridge.

Waited until their customer base petered out and died.

Relaunched the brand with a car MG-Rover should have launched in 2005. But in 2011.

[RedSparrow]

You forgot to add:
Price the car at about £4000 more than it should be.

[gtd2000]

  On 11/06/2013 at 11:41, RedSparrow said:

You forgot to add:

Price the car at about £4000 and it should be a winner.

EFA

[Mr Lobster]

I was reading that in May they sold the grand total of 13 new cars from their around 30 UK dealerships.

 

I can't work out why MG are bothering unless they really thought they could sell loads of them for some reason and more to the point, who are these 13 people who chose one over anything else cheaper / better.

[Richard]

  On 11/06/2013 at 18:24, Mr Lobster said:

I can't work out why MG are bothering unless they really thought they could sell loads of them for some reason.

 

I think there must be some political reason for it, possibly to tick a box that needs to be ticked before something else can happen. They aren't priced to sell, that's for sure.