The Original Chinese MG3 & MG5 That Almost Made It To The Market

In 2005 China’s Nanjing Automobile bought the right to the MG brands, and various assets of the MG Rover Group.

But things were pretty messy in England and the Chinese were somewhat inexperienced. This lead to lots of confusion over what Nanjing Automobile had purchased exactly, and what not. Further complicating matters was Honda, which owned the most of the rights to the design of the Rover 45.

In the end, it turned out that Nanjing Auto only had full rights to the MG ZT (renamed to MG7 in China), and the Rover Streetwise. Nanjing Auto however had no rights to the Rover name, or to the Streetwise name, so that car was renamed tMG 3 SW in China.

But before all of that was cleared up, and even afterwards, Nanjing Auto showed several MG-badged cars in China, based on Rover models. These cars didn’t make it to production for various legal reasons, and they would have been long forgotten, if it wasn’t for us:

MG3:

This is the Nanjing Auto MG3 3-door hatchback, seen on a Nanjing Auto event in 2007. Note the MG3 SW and the MG7 in the background. The MG3 was nothing more than a rebadged version of the Rover 25 3-door hatchback.

There were no badges on the car, but according to information on a display it was powered by a 1.1 liter petrol engine with 55 kw and  95 Nm.

It has a large MG logo on the steering wheel, but Nanjing Auto forgot to change the…

… Rover name in the rev-counter!

MG3 ZR:

This is Nanjing Auto MG3 ZR, rebadged from the MG ZR, which was based on the Rover 25. Now originally, the MG ZR was a sporty variant of the Rover 25. But Nanjing Auto didn’t just use the ZR-name for a sporty variant, but for the whole lineup.

There were five variants planned: the MG 3 ZR 105 with a 1.4 petrol, the MG 3 ZR 120 with a 1.8 petrol, a hot MG 3 ZR with a more powerful version of the 1.8, and then there were two 2.0 turbo diesels. At that time diesels weren’t yet toxic in China.

This is the MG 3 ZR 160.

The MG 3 ZR 120. Note Nanjing Auto badge on the left, and ZR badge under MG logo.

On the right: MG 3 1.8L

Interior of the silver car.

But while the MG3 ZR looked pretty sporty, it wasn’t speedy enough for Nanjing Automobile:

On another event in late 2007 Nanjing showed an extra wild variant of the MG3 ZR, with a new set of headlights and a body kit. On the right side stands another ZR, in wine red with the new lights but without the extra bodywork.

The front of the wine red car, the wilder one on the right.

On the same event was also a black MG3 ZR, with the updated lights but again without the body kit.

There was a yellow car too, without the body kit.

Both updated MG3 ZR’s were shown on an auto show in 2008. This is a yellow car with the full body kit.

Oddly, they redesigned the license plate holder to be angled upwards:

Chinese law does not require angled-up license plates. Perhaps Nanjing Auto thought it looked fast.

But speedy it was not! According to information handed out at this show, the yellow racer was actually powered by the 76 kw 1.4, the least-powerful engine that Nanjing Auto planned to offer. Very weird.

To this show, Nanjing also brought a red car without the extra bodywork.

Sadly, the cars were never seen again. And that was the end of the MG 3 ZR project. Time now, to move on to the MG5:

MG5

The first sight of the MG5 was on a 2006 event in Nanjing, where Nanjing Auto showed the MG TF, a wine red MG 5 sedan, and a MG 3 SW.

The MG 5 sedan was a rebadged Rover 45 sedan and the MG 3 SW was a rebadged Rover Streetwise. The MG3 SW would see production but the MG 5 would not. More on this below:

On the same 2007 event as described earlier Nanjing Auto also showed a car called the MG 5. Note the Najing-Fiat Palio Weekend in the background. The MG 5 was a rebadged Rover 45 5-door hatchback. Rights to the platform and design of the Rover 45 rested largely at Honda.

At the time of the sale of the MG Rover assets to Najing Auto, MG Rover paid a license fee to Honda for each car manufactured. As soon as MG Rover started talks with Nanjing Auto, Honda terminated this license agreement, and refused to deliver any more parts, killing production in the U.K.

That however did not necessary mean that Nanjing Auto wouldn’t been able to produce the Rover 45/MG 5 in China. The Chinese even approached Honda to see if they could work out a deal. The Japanese refused, fearing competition for their own Chinese operations with Dongfeng and Guangzhou Auto.

According to information provided at the event, the MG 5 was powered by the same 76 kw 1.4 as the MG 3 ZR.

Honda’s refusal to have anything to do with the MG 5 seemed the final kill. Except that is was not:

On the 2009 Shanghai Auto Show Nanjing Auto suddenly came up with this very wild version of the MG5, which appears to be yet another rebadge, this time of the facelifted version of the MG ZS. The MG ZS was based on the Rover 45 4-door saloon. So Nanjing made MG5 versions of both the Rover 45 hatchback and the Rover 45 saloon.

Most interestingly, at the show Nanjing Auto said the MG 5 would be powered by a new 1.5 liter engine, developed by Nanjing Auto. Who needs Honda engines if you have your own..?

Sadly for Nanjing Auto, the engine was just part of the problem; the entire platform and most of the design were Honda’s too. So Nanjing finally came to it’s senses and cancelled the MG 5 project.

The new 1.5 liter engine however proved to be a winner of some sort, it served in the all-new Nanjing Auto MG 3 and in many other Chinese MG’s that came after it.

There is much more to tell about the adventures of MG cars in China. And remember that the rights to the Rover 75, although not the rights to the Rover name, where sold to China’s SAIC. Yet later on, the Chinese government forced a merger between Nanjing Auto and SAIC. That in turn lead to many more odd projects, especially in the beginning. More on all that in later posts!

Sources: 163, qi-che, sohu, xcar, xcar, 315, sina, autohome, 168, 58, sina, archives.