About MG Cars
The MG Car Company predominantly manufactured British sports cars. They are probably best known for their two seater open top sports cars.
MG stands for Morris Garages and was a dealer of Morris cars in Oxford; Cecil Kimber who was an employee of William Morris became the designer although he had originally joined the company in 1921 as its sales manager. He became general manager in 1922 and retained this position for nineteen years. The MG business was William Morris's business until 1935; he then sold MG to Morris Motors Limited.
The first cars that MG produced were in essence rebodied Morris models and were built in Alfred Lane, Oxford. However, the premises they were using were extremely small, and so therefore they had to move to larger premises on Bainton Road during September 1925, this was in the Morris radiator works. However, due to greater expansion and productivity, they again had to move in 1927 to a factory on Edmund Road, Crowley, Oxford.
It wasn't until 1928 when the company had become large enough that they could create their own name and separate from the original Morris Garages and become M.G. Car Company Limited.
MG was sadly sold in 1935 to Morris Motors and was absorbed into The British Motor Corporation Limited in 1952 to merge Morris Motors Limited and The Austin Motor Company Limited, BMC also took over Jaguar Cars in September 1966 and that same year BMC changed its name to British Motor Holdings who then joined with joined with Leyland Motor Corporation in 1968 and formed British Leyland Motor Corporation.
The British Leyland factory situated in Abingdon was forced to shut down in 1980 due to cutbacks and the last car built there was the MGB. However, all was not lost and the Austin Rover Group was revived in 1982 with new and exciting versions of their saloon and hatchback models. MG Metro continued until 1990.
2000 saw BMW sell the business to the MG Rover Group in Longbridge, Birmingham and continued to make MG sports cars alongside the MG TF road Cr, although they went into receivership in 2005 and stopped making cars in 2007.
In 2005 the Nanjing Automobile Group purchased the MG brand and assets of the MG Rover Group for £53 million and created a new company called MG Motor. They launched a new model in 2011, the MG 6 in GT which was a hatchback and a saloon car, Magnette. These two cars became the first new generation of MG cars available in the UK since the MG TF. The MG range is still available and is now sold in China, Colombia, Chile and the United Kingdom.