The revised TF finally goes on sale in the UK next month, confounding a lot
of people who said that would never happen either. It's a very good price
too - about the same as the base model MX5 (Miata), but loaded with goodies
including detachable hard-top.
I imagine the biggest problem with selling them in the US (either built from
CKD in Oklahoma, or imported from the UK or China) was the K-series engine.
This was never homologated for use in the US, neither the independant MG
Rover, nor BMW when they owned the company, could justify the trouble and
expense of getting homologation. So it's most unlikely NAC/SAIC would be
able to justify it either, particularly for a car whose design is now older
than the MGB was at the time of the switch to rubber bumpers. This was one
of the main reasons Lotus dropped the K-series engine in favour of Toyota
power for the Elise and its derivatives.
Richard & Sammy ('73 Black Tulip BGT)
2008/8/28 Gordies Garage <mg_garage@comcast.net>
> Word is plans to sell the MG TF in the American market have come to a
> complete halt. When China's Nanjing Automobile Group bought most of MG
> Rover
> in September 2005 and insisted that it would set up a factory in Ardmore,
> Oklahoma, to build knock-down kits of the TF to sell in the U.S. market.
> To
> say that the automotive world was more than a little skeptical is an
> understatement. There was no way in hell that the deal was ever going to
> materialize, and the company confirmed it online yesterday, according to
> Automotive News.
>
> As the editor of AE said, What part of assembling knock-down kits of
> British
> roadsters in Oklahoma - that were made in China - seemed like a good idea
> at
> the time?
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