MG’s We Couldn’t Buy
Bridging the gap in
Australia’s MG history.
Jeffrey Turnbull
We have grown accustomed to having the
MG as a brand name appearing in our new
car showrooms, from soon after the marque
appeared on British roads in 1924/5.
Through successive model releases, we
have had an almost continuous flow of MG
roadsters and saloons and even a tourer,
(‘wagon’ to Australians!) over the decades.
Well, let’s say … almost continuous! We
know that since 2005, when MG-Rover as
a company collapsed, no new MGs were
released or sold in Australia until 2013
when the all-new MG6 was released in this
country.
This contemporary hiatus in MG releases
since the last MG ‘Zeds’ were sold off in the
liquidator’s auction of 2005, saw a gap of
some eight years without new MGs gracing
our showrooms and our roads, but it is not
the longest break without new MG releases
in this country. There was a substantial
interruption in the MG presence in Australia
which has gone relatively unnoticed,
simply because a selection of models
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M.G. Car Club Victoria
JUNE 2014
released in Britain, just didn’t make it here;
potentially, ‘out of sight, out of mind’, so
far as Australians were concerned. These
models, namely the early ‘eighties: Metro,
Maestro and Montego didn’t make it to our
roads at the time they were released and
therefore they are essentially ‘missing in
action’ when it comes to knowledge about
them and acknowledgement of them.
They are unrecognized when creating a
pantheon of Australian MGs across the
decades. This may also be because this trio
of MGs reflected ‘badge engineering’ and
as such then and now remain relatively
unloved by MG traditionalists. As well,
there were other MG models, which were
sold overseas, particularly the RV8 in Japan
and MGB Mark IV ‘Rubbernose’ in the
United States, but not here. These models
have since been imported second-hand
into Australia in reasonable quantities and
are well represented within MG cars clubs
from Queensland to Western Australia and
all points in-between.
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