What is it" Third UK model and first SUV from reborn MG.
Key features: Budget price for power and space.
Our View: Old-style British motoring enthusiasts will likely recoil in horror at the very prospect of the MG badge appearing on an SUV, and use this as a prime example as to why the reborn, Chinese-owned company is not the same brand as once produced much-loved affordable sports cars.
According to MG?s UK sales and marketing head Matthew Cheyne, however, that the brand?s third offering after the MG6 saloon and MG3 supermini, and its first launch in three years, is an SUV is definitely the way to go. ?It?s not a two-seater sports car because two-seater sports cars are a declining market,? he says at the UK launch of the GS, days before it arrives in dealer showrooms. And considering that the market for SUV crossovers is still mushrooming fast and even performance-pitched brands such as Bentley and Jaguar feel happy leaping into SUV sales it?s hard to argue against his view. Cheyne also argues, however, that the MG heritage is still very much alive and well in the new model. ?I?m asked whether an SUV can be an MG, and I think it can. (MG founder) Cecil Kimber talked about affordability, fun to drive, never once did he mention two-seater sports cars.?
And the GS is not really like any other SUV. For a start it comes only as a front-wheel-drive model, with a petrol engine ? its makers insisting that neither all-wheel-drive or diesel propulsion are in their current plan...