One other point that Rover brings up about the MGF not being exported to
America is the lack of a production facility. The MGF was designed and
produced as a specialty car with Mayflower building the body shells.
According to Rover Mayflower does not have the ability to mass produce these
cars so even if you could meet safety and emissions standards there would be
no way to meet the demand of the US market. It was designed from the get go
to be a small niche market car. Rover certainly couldn't justify a retool
this late in the game.
I'm quite sure the MGF will never be exported here but for all the banter I
think the car has served its purpose well. It has kept the MG name alive
and created a whole new market of younger MG owners and enthusiasts. Will
MG ever make it back to the states? Perhaps, but if it does we will be the
ones exporting them to the UK. Can you imagine Cecil Kimber talking with a
worker building a MG who has a South Carolina accent!
Mark Ascherl
1972 MGB Roadster
1981 TR8 DHC FI
----- Original Message -----
From: John Walker <john@rmartin.net>
To: <mgs@autox.team.net>
Sent: Thursday, September 09, 1999 5:58 PM
Subject: Re: MGF in America?
> I do not see how the existing BMW dealers could protest the sales of MG's
at
> the old MG dealerships as long as the cars still bear the MG name and not
the
> BMW name. On the other hand, BMW may not want to have two separate
networks
> of dealerships to have to deal with. It seems to me that the original
> dealerships contracts
> could probably be broken rather easily by a company with the resources
that
> BMW has.
> I would also be curious how many of those old MG dealerships have since
> signed exclusive
> deals with other manufacturers?
>
> As for the emissions equipment. It boggles my mind that, a company would
> produce a
> car that has historically sold best in the United States and design it in
> such a way that it
> could not easily be exported to the U.S. IMHO someone really dropped the
> ball on that one.
> If an even semi-competent marketing guy looked at the sales figures of the
> A's and B's I
> would think he would find that releasing the cars in the U.S. and not in
> Europe would look
> like a better plan than the other way around?? Even considering the
> current U.S. safety and
> pollution laws.
> I guess I just don't understand.
>
> -JW
>
>
>
>
> At 05:25 PM 9/9/99 -0400, you wrote:
> >
> >
> >
> >> There have been a number of reasons bated around, not the least of
which
> >> have to do with Federal emissions and safety stuff. But the most
popular
> >> seems to be the lack of a dealer network! Of course I don't buy it
> >because
> >> if there was really a desire to sell the car here dealers could be
lined
> >up.
> >
> >Perhaps the problem is with the current dealers who used to have the MG
> >franchise back in '80. Yep, many of them are still around. If they
didn't
> >offer the franchise to those, they may be in for some lawsuits, on the
other
> >hand if they do offer the franchise to those old dealers, what are the
> >current BMW dealers going to say? I'll sue. Could be a no win
situation,
> >and combine that with the safety/emissions issue and it just may not be
> >financially feasible.
> >
> >My $.02
> >
> >Gordie Bird
> >'62 MGA
> >'86 4kcsq
> >
> >
>
> John Walker
> john@rmartin.net
> drone@d23.com
> ============
> ~= Early 1974 MGB =~
> ============
> In Progress :)
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