MG Ute ?

[gromit]

Turns out it's a re-badged Great Wall.


Colin

[loanrangie]

Talk about lipstick on a pig [emoji1787]

[Tins]

I thought the cars were fugly. A complete travesty on a once great name.

[jerryd]

I often take the rubbish to the dump in mine [bigwhistle]

[Tins]

I often take the rubbish to the dump in mine [bigwhistle]

That's gorgeous. First MG I ever saw was a TC. Sister's boyfriend had one*. BRG and Tan of course. Nice to see a colourful one.

* Later he sold it and got a TwinCam A. Lovely, but not the same.

[Killer]

Saw the title, thought you meant the MGB ute, rather than the current garbage.

[Homestar]

We had one of the current pieces of garbage for a Hire car last weekend in Brissy. Certainly built to a price but actually better than I was expecting in most departments and miles ahead of a Haval.

Biggest issue is power (Lack thereof) - the poor little 1.5 litre in it would be more at home running a lawnmower I think. Needed to get it over 5000RPM to make it get up to speed. Once there though it was actually ok. Visibility is good and it doesn't squeak or rattle (yet). Seats were cozy - designed for smaller bums than mine that's for sure. Turning circle is larger than you'd expect too but the whole thing is built to a price. The one we had is around $25K driveaway (ZST Core) and has adaptive cruise control and most of the bells and whistles you'd expect these days.

I wouldn't run out and buy one but I can see why they are becoming popular as a second car etc that doesn't need to meet the expectations of the main drive.

[DieselDan]

I don't disagree about the sentiments around the ute, but it's a rebadged LDV T60, not a Great Wall.
LDV and MG are both brands of Shanghai Automotive (SAIC) and Great Wall/Haval is a separate brand (privately owned I think, so no CCP involved. Possibly.).

It's for exactly these sentiments of "that's not an MG!" that it is branded as an LDV here. Which, given LDV's commercial vans origin, makes a lot more sense than calling it an MG!

[JDNSW]

Well, bear in mind that originally, MGs were simply rebadged Morriss Oxfords with an aluminium body made by a taxi company. So there is ample historical justification for putting the badge on another car by the same manufacturer!

[Saitch]

I think the classic rebranding of a 'ute' is the Mercedes Navara.

[Tins]

I think the classic rebranding of a 'ute' is the Mercedes Navara.

Did you miss this one?

190334

[Saitch]

Did you miss this one?

190334


I'm not sure that's a "Lipstick on a Pig" scenario.

Wrong? My word!

[Tins]

Didn't matter what badge it wore, the door handles still broke off.

[V8Ian]

Didn't matter what badge it wore, the door handles still broke off.
Maybe if you were hamfisted. I had one as a company car, wearing the proper blue badge, never broke a door handle but wore the camshaft out.

[Saitch]

Didn't matter what badge it wore, the door handles still broke off.

Yep. The company I worked for had three and all of them had door handle issues.

I remember having one during the Brissie airport redevelopment. Sand was being dredged from Moreton Bay and used for fill for the new runways.

This made diving a 2wd vehicle somewhat awkward. Even 4bees had trouble.

My Falcon was 'Three on the Tree', so to get as far in as possible, I'd hit the sand track at about 80kph in top, then to down to second and finally to first until lack of progress. We'd then be towed by a tracked machine to as close as possible to our work area.

[V8Ian]

I did a bit on that mongrel contract. Took some unremembered civil machinery in, following the previous trucks compacted tracks, had to get dragged out. Did a few days tipping, for a mate, in a c/o Benz. Oddly, the Benz was the most capable off road, of the multiple marques.
The trick apparently, was not to drive on another truck's tracks, the crust was firmer than the substrate.

[Tins]

Maybe if you were hamfisted. I had one as a company car, wearing the proper blue badge, never broke a door handle but wore the camshaft out.

They were notorious for breaking them. Maybe it had something weather related. I drove a lot of X* Falcons as cabs.

[NavyDiver]

I don't disagree about the sentiments around the ute, but it's a rebadged LDV T60, not a Great Wall.
LDV and MG are both brands of Shanghai Automotive (SAIC) and Great Wall/Haval is a separate brand (privately owned I think, so no CCP involved. Possibly.).

It's for exactly these sentiments of "that's not an MG!" that it is branded as an LDV here. Which, given LDV's commercial vans origin, makes a lot more sense than calling it an MG!

190335 Calling a spade a spade can get you in trouble now :)

I saw a MG ute which as pointed out are SAIC no matter what name badge gets on them. Still laugh at my dad when he heard I had a MG- He thought I brought a cool old sports car :)

One the Capt Dodgy side Toyota and others are not immune it seems "Japan's transport ministry raided the headquarters of motor giant Toyota on Tuesday, as a scandal over faulty safety data escalated.The world's largest carmaker has apologised for providing incorrect or manipulated data for safety certification tests.
The scandal has shaken the Japanese car industry, with rivals Honda, Mazda and Suzuki also admitting to submitting faulty data.
Toyota sold more than 11 million passenger vehicles in 2023."

On the software side "Mercedes-Benz is recalling 14,912 EVs in the U.S. to address a battery management system software issue that could cause a loss of drive power. The recalled vehicles include all versions of the EQS and EQE sedans, as well as the EQS SUV and EQE SUV, from model years 2023 to 2025, depending on the variant."

No such recall happening here ? Wasn't it a VW stopping on a freeway in Melbourne 10ish years ago killing a lady? Yep "Melissa Ryan, 32, was killed on Melbourne's Monash Freeway in January 2011 when her Volkswagen Golf was hit from behind by a truck. The truck driver told last year's inquest into her death that Ms Ryan's car stopped suddenly with no brake lights"

RIP Mrs Ryan!

Names are fudgeable at times. Landrover "As of June 1, the UK-based luxury automaker is officially known as JLR. You can probably guess where the three letters come from, but this is more than just an abbreviation of a slightly awkward title. It's a new corporate identity that sees iconic Land Rover models transition to brands under a new JLR umbrella, on the same footing as Jaguar.
We first heard about this change in mid-April (https://www.motor1.com/news/663245/range-rover-defender-discovery-become-brands-reimagined-jlr/), presented as part of JLR's $18.6 billion Reimagine strategy"

Its a lot of money to change a name! Done by deed poll here on OZ it might be cheaper :)

[4bee]

190335 Calling a spade a spade can get you in trouble now :)

I saw a MG ute which as pointed out are SAIC no matter what name badge gets on them. Still laugh at my dad when he heard I had a MG- He thought I brought a cool old sports car :)

One the Capt Dodgy side Toyota and others are not immune it seems "Japan's transport ministry raided the headquarters of motor giant Toyota on Tuesday, as a scandal over faulty safety data escalated.The world's largest carmaker has apologised for providing incorrect or manipulated data for safety certification tests.
The scandal has shaken the Japanese car industry, with rivals Honda, Mazda and Suzuki also admitting to submitting faulty data.
Toyota sold more than 11 million passenger vehicles in 2023."

On the software side "Mercedes-Benz is recalling 14,912 EVs in the U.S. to address a battery management system software issue that could cause a loss of drive power. The recalled vehicles include all versions of the EQS and EQE sedans, as well as the EQS SUV and EQE SUV, from model years 2023 to 2025, depending on the variant."

No such recall happening here ? Wasn't it a VW stopping on a freeway in Melbourne 10ish years ago killing a lady? Yep "Melissa Ryan, 32, was killed on Melbourne's Monash Freeway in January 2011 when her Volkswagen Golf was hit from behind by a truck. The truck driver told last year's inquest into her death that Ms Ryan's car stopped suddenly with no brake lights"

RIP Mrs Ryan!

Names are fudgeable at times. Landrover "As of June 1, the UK-based luxury automaker is officially known as JLR. You can probably guess where the three letters come from, but this is more than just an abbreviation of a slightly awkward title. It's a new corporate identity that sees iconic Land Rover models transition to brands under a new JLR umbrella, on the same footing as Jaguar.
We first heard about this change in mid-April (https://www.motor1.com/news/663245/range-rover-defender-discovery-become-brands-reimagined-jlr/), presented as part of JLR's $18.6 billion Reimagine strategy"

Its a lot of money to change a name! Done by deed poll here on OZ it might be cheaper :)


Must be a heap of dosh with the supply of (re) badges everywhere, not to mention bloody confusing.

[Saitch]

I did a bit on that mongrel contract. Took some unremembered civil machinery in, following the previous trucks compacted tracks, had to get dragged out. Did a few days tipping, for a mate, in a c/o Benz. Oddly, the Benz was the most capable off road, of the multiple marques.
The trick apparently, was not to drive on another truck's tracks, the crust was firmer than the substrate.

Off topic a bit, but do you remember when the D9 with the 100 tonne, sheep's foot roller in tow, got hopelessly bogged? I can't remember exactly how long it took to extricate the unit, but I do know it was a bloody long time.

[V8Ian]

I don't remember that bogging incident, but it sounds like the same machine I moved from what was going to be the tallest building in the southern hemisphere, opposite the Sally Army hotel in town, to Forrest Glen, to construct the now motorway.

[Saitch]

, to Forrest Glen, to construct the now motorway.

I pegged a lot of the new Road Centreline for that stretch.

[Tins]

If you travel south through Somerset Dam, just past the store there's a bridge you go over. Doesn't look much now, but we went down a fair way to find rock. The haul road was black mud, behind a coffer dam. Bloke was walking an 1800 KATO esky across there. Got it well and truly. Foreman's first though was to leave him there, he was making so much noise. Anyway, tried to pull him out with the Cat 12E, and then a drott, and then both. Next day they walked the D8 down from the other end of the job to snig it out. Dozer driver's nick was Grumpy. Found out why after he had to come four miles down and four miles back. AND he got his chains all muddy. Bloke used to wear ironed overalls. Only machine on site with AC ( this was maybe '83 ), and he didn't like getting out.

Same bloke would get out at smoko though. Had one of those unbreakable Aladdin thermos things. One day he left it on the track where he had been sitting... Did I say "unbreakable"? I suppose that's true, but he had a bugger of a time filling it again.