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MG Cars - then and now.


john luke

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In days gone by an MG was the car every schoolboy would want in the future to own.  Times change and MG cars are more conventional cars as against sports cars.  Does anyone have any stories about an MG?

Old photographs are lifted from the internet.

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The garage I deal with had a very late model  mg sitting in the yard for months the parts for the clutch were plastic and had melted and were unobtainable even from China 

The mechanic said he would rather have hemorids removed with a red hot poker than own a mg and he's heavily in to old English cars

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The MGA's were great, classic styling, relatively decent reliability and for the time, good road manners, but got very old very quickly. The MGB's maybe not so much, apart from the V8's which were rapid, but they suffered from overheating problems in traffic and needed 2 massive cooling fans running at full pelt to keep the heads from warping.

As for more modern MG's, the "K" series engine basis upon which the earlier (2004 ish) models were based is an utter turd of an engine which has a propensity for eating head gaskets at an alarming rate. The cars themselves were also steaming piles of turd and were really just developments of current , even bigger piles of turd made by Rover.

It is possible to actually buy brand new panels such as floor pans and pre fabricated sections to build yourself a "brand new" MGB, everything from a heater matrix to a complete B series engine (there's a TV series on YT I think called "An MG is born" which follows the ground up resto of one.

I do have an affinity for MGB's though. I did toy with the idea of restoring a Jubilee model, which don't really fetch a big premium but are by their very nature a less common version of a now uncommon car. However, having restored a TR6 and enjoyed that for many years, the MGB is to me, a smaller and less capable car.

I'm not really enamoured by the modern versions. However, the hugely successful Mazda MX-5 (Or Miata to our American friends, or Eunos in the Japanese Domestic Market) was actually loosely based upon the MGB GT (front engines RWD Sports coupe / drop top) small ,simple and elegant and at a reasonable price point.

Given the choice, and if I wanted a true British sports car, I'd save and get a Ginetta G15 or if I could find one, a G21.

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7 hours ago, Nickrock said:

The garage I deal with had a very late model  mg sitting in the yard for months the parts for the clutch were plastic and had melted and were unobtainable even from China 

The mechanic said he would rather have hemorids removed with a red hot poker than own a mg and he's heavily in to old English cars

As I've mentioned in these pages before, I am a frequent visitor to my old friend's autobody shop and some of the stuff I see him repairing there is shocking - plastic everything, even down to radiator bulkheads and especially what passes for "bumpers" nowadays - huge plastic mouldings all held together with plastic tabs and rivets - the slightest tap from anything and they just shatter, especially in colder weather. Then the customers  try to cheap out by ordering aftermarket replacement parts and they NEVER fit the way they are supposed to and my friend has to go to great lengths to make them fit - very frustrating for him at times. 

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Whilst i have no personal experience of the original MG's, i have an MG HS, bought new 2 years ago at a dealer just south of Pattaya. It's been ( so far at least ) a perfect vehicle, 25,000klms and not a single problem, not even a minor 'niggle'. It's also a very pleasant motor to drive, both for me and the Mrs.

Hopefully, long may it continue.......

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