This is not your father's MG


MG6 is hardly the first sedan to wear the famous MG emblem.
   IT COULD seem like sacrilege to affix the MG badge, the same octagon that has graced so many two-place, open sports cars, to a line of generic, Chinese-built sedans and hatchbacks.
   Before we get too righteous, however, let's remember that the MG name has appeared on sedans in the past, including the 1960s-era 1100 and 1300 that were variants of a squat four-door shared with Austin, Morris, Riley and other British Motor Corp. brands.
   Nanjing Automobile picked up MG Rover in 2005 and was itself absorbed two years later by SAIC Motor Corp. Ltd., headquartered in Shanghai.

MG5 compact hatchback has more styling presence than its larger sibling.
   In 2011 SAIC stopped production of the dated TF roadster that Nanjing had inherited from MG Rover and introduced the MG6, a bland midsizer produced as sedan and five-door hatchback. The 6 was joined the following year by the MG5, a more sharply drawn five-door hatch.
   In Cuba, the 5 and 6 are mid-level rental choices.
   Despite the foreign ownership, MG hasn't lost its British connection. SAIC still uses the 110-year-old Longbridge plant at Birmingham for final assembly of some MG models. And the same site is home to a research and development centre that, we'd like to think, might even now be drawing up plans for a trim new two-seat roadster fully worthy of MG's famous emblem.
The 5 and 6 are mid-level offerings for rental customers in Cuba. 


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