Eric,
At approx. 50K USD I believe MG-Rover is still "kinda" missing the marque
(yes, pun intended!) What MG needs to do, IMHO, is reintroduce the Midget. But
not a chromed up Sprite like the last time (1961-1979) But more along the lines
of the original Kick-Butt Midget that began with the M-type in 1929 and
continued until the 1955 MG-TF. Yes, just a simple, fast, no frills sports car.
And
with modern engineering and manufacturing practices, some shared hardware and
that wonderful English sense of heritage a suitable (for my needs, anyway)
modern day MG-Midget sans all unnecessary frills and fluff could come in well
under the $20,000 ceiling that made the Miata such a hit at its introduction.
Lately though the Meat seems to have lost that edge as its price went way up to
almost the same price as the BMW Z-3. This new MG "Practical British Muscle
Car" seems to be headed for the same price range as the Porsche Spyder, MBA and
BMW Z-4 which is foolish IMHO since the MG was never intended to be just
another expensive sports car like the Jaguar when Cecil Kimber first proposed
the
car. No instead it filled a niche that allowed an average person like ourselves
to have an extraordinary car, without a whole lot of unnecessary junk that
would have probably been removed by the owner as soon as they got it home
anyway!
Albert Escalante, owner-1978 MGB
Central Coast British Car Club (Ca.)
http://www.ccbcc.org
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