MG3 Spec & Prices

http://mg.co.uk/mg3/specifications/

£8300 is the figure people will focus on - nice. So what does the team think?


But... STEEL WHEELS!! *faints dead away*

Also - no typos on the specifications page ;o)

I don't see any problem with steel wheels. Look at the price, they give more than any other company can offer!

Fully loaded for under £10k is a bargain.

Will it be enough to shift thousands.....

Morris Motors wrote:Fully loaded for under £10k is a bargain.

Will it be enough to shift thousands.....

These are good prices. It's now up to MG to see if they can get some sold and not have a disaster on their hands like with the MG6.

Mirtininkas wrote:I don't see any problem with steel wheels. Look at the price, they give more than any other company can offer!

Completely agree, on a cheap car steel wheels are expected, alloys would put a lot of people off!

It also makes the top spec. version look a bit of a bargain, for the price that other companies charge for alloys you not only get decent alloys but a whole load of other stuff!

Windy wrote:

Mirtininkas wrote:I don't see any problem with steel wheels. Look at the price, they give more than any other company can offer!

Completely agree, on a cheap car steel wheels are expected, alloys would put a lot of people off!

It also makes the top spec. version look a bit of a bargain, for the price that other companies charge for alloys you not only get decent alloys but a whole load of other stuff!

Tell me about it. Bargain of the century!

Definitely considering buying next year

I think the last MG to be offered with steel wheels was the Montego...

Morris Motors wrote:I think the last MG to be offered with steel wheels was the Montego...

And what was the last MG that cost £8,300 or less list price?

The ZR was over £10K for even a basic one, and we have had a bit of inflation since then!

Not knocking it necessarily, it's just an observation. Us long-time MG owners aren't used to steelies -even my MGBGT had alloys from new  

A set of 15" minilight alloys (just as an example) can be had retail for £370 so I don't think the cost is the thing that has made them offer the steel wheels - it's been done to drive punters towards the £9999 cars.

Morris Motors wrote:Not knocking it necessarily, it's just an observation. Us long-time MG owners aren't used to steelies -even my MGBGT had alloys from new  

A set of 15" minilight alloys (just as an example) can be had retail for £370 so I don't think the cost is the thing that has made them offer the steel wheels - it's been done to drive punters towards the £9999 cars.

Obviously there must be the option of decent alloys, but providing a cheap basic model with steel wheels does give them a bigger market, I'm not sure that it would be right to avoid that market since MG has always been at the cheaper end of the sports car/saloon/hatch market.

The steel can just be pressed to shape unlike the alloy, I guess they will cost MG more like £37 including the covers, and most of that will be packing and transport due to their size!

With decent plastic covers, steel wheels can look very good, tend to weigh less and are normally much easier to clean.  They do need a decent design of cover though, and with a decent MG badge, not just an indented non-coloured logo like my Rover 216 had!

Mind you, Mini manage to make steel wheels look OK even without the plastic, and they are £240 new on ebay:

I wrote this message on forums.mg-rover.org:

What is the main message when manufacturer shows concept car? Beauty, future body lines?
For example - Dacia Duster:


What does manufacturer when it wants to show that this car is good but very cheap? They fit steel wheels in world's main car shows!
Dacia Duster:


So like i said, i don't see any problem with steel wheels, MG's message was - "just look at the prices, they are so low!"

Mirtininkas wrote:So like i said, i don't see any problem with steel wheels, MG's message was - "just look at the prices, they are so low!"

That gives me the idea that all Dacias are cheap though, MG need to show the top spec. ones and be careful,...

And so they did! Did you see MG3 with steel wheels? Their demonstrators are top spec.

P.S. Duster is so ugly, when i can compare to 2009 concept...

I wonder what wheel trims the MG3 will have? They can really be a let down if they're not right. Also I note the entry level cars have black door handles and don't get the rear window spoiler either. for the extra couple of hundred quid I don't think we'll be seeing many £8399 3Time models around!

Mirtininkas wrote:P.S. Duster is so ugly, when i can compare to 2009 concept...

I thought the same when I saw your images above!  I found myself behind one on the road a couple of months ago, Polish registered, and it looked half way between your two images, but for some reason still looked like it was a really cheap car, overtook it and a couple of cars later I was behind an MG6 with UK flag on the roof, compared to the Duster that looked top quality, not quite sure why they appeared different quality just from the looks but I reckon in both cases the designers had successfully created the image they were trying to achieve. I'm not sure what they were trying to achieve with that Duster concept though  

Morris Motors wrote:I wonder what wheel trims the MG3 will have? They can really be a let down if they're not right. Also I note the entry level cars have black door handles and don't get the rear window spoiler either. for the extra couple of hundred quid I don't think we'll be seeing many £8399 3Time models around!

I'm always puzzled by people who buy cheap cars when they could buy a much better second hand one for a lot less, but there are many people out there who do!

I agree about the wheel trims, they can be done very well, and also very poorly.  I hate it when wheel trims don't fit properly with the steel underneath - visibly mismatched holes etc.

It's quite a jump of £900 to the version with alloy wheels - which I would want for the DAB. My first two cars did not have alloys and nor did the MG 1300 - did the MG Metro?

I just don't see the point of alloy wheels.

I could easily imagine buyers of a second car going for 3TIME. I wonder if they will?

The MG Metro had 'pepperpot' style ones at first. It always had alloys on certain models; I can't picture one with steel wheels and trims though, but I think the base models had them as standard.

I saw a VW Up today with alloys and they really look smart; sort of 'milled' rather than cast and a little reminiscent of the old Dunlop steel wheels with knock-off hubs fitted to the MGA and ZA Magnette etc.



Here's the VW:



Obviously different, but the same sort of neatness to them.

And here are the hotly-debated wheeltrims:



And may I say they look quite awful! The MG logo could have been chromed, and lets hope they sit nicely in the rim and line up ok.

BUT it is, of course only £8399 so mustn't grumble (too much  )

Morris Motors wrote:And here are the hotly-debated wheeltrims:

Need to see them on the wheel and the wheel on the car, but I'm not very hopeful at the moment!  

patpending wrote:I just don't see the point of alloy wheels.

For a ZS180, I'm not convinced that a steel wheel that would fit over the large brake discs and callipers would be strong enough to cope with the power, or if it was then it would need to be stupidly heavy.  That is why the space saver spare is designed not to fit on the front! The steel ones have to be made by pressing out steel sheet which limits what you can do, an alloy one is cast so you can put as much or as little alloy wherever you like.

Even for a ZS120, yes a steel wheel is possible, but not at the full width, you have to make do with narrower wheels for them to be strong enough.   Mind you, I'm not convinced that there is an advantage to having 205 wide wheels on a 120 other than looks!

There is a place for steel wheels - look at that MGA, or the reverse-rims fitted to the original Cooper 'S', or the Lotus Cortina. They are very good at adding 'beef' to the car's stance.

These ones aren't like that, they're just a symptom of price. As for the MG1300, well it had far nicer trims than that bit of plastic..

We havent even seen them properly yet.

I think they look ok as far as 14 inch wheel trims go.

They are only an option so that MG can grab the £8K headline - and a wise move indeed.

The Mini first is pretty close to the entry level MG3, the First is nearly £4K more, both have steel wheels and no air-con, 0-60 13.2 secs for the Mini First, MG3 10.4 and whilst the tax is £25 cheaper and the MPG slightly better (Mini 52MPG and MG3 48MPG), the insurance group for the Mini first is double the MG3 and for a young driver that would be a significant saving.

Obviously some will say that the residuals of the Mini will make it a better buy, but the price saving in the first instance cannot be ignored.

littlechicken wrote:The Mini first is pretty close to the entry level MG3, the First is nearly £4K more, both have steel wheels and no air-con, 0-60 13.2 secs for the Mini First, MG3 10.4 and whilst the tax is £25 cheaper and the MPG slightly better (Mini 52MPG and MG3 48MPG), the insurance group for the Mini first is double the MG3 and for a young driver that would be a significant saving.

Obviously some will say that the residuals of the Mini will make it a better buy, but the price saving in the first instance cannot be ignored.  

I'm not sure what the insurance bands actually mean, but for a 17 year old the difference in insurance must be very significant, especially if they are expected to pay it while their parents buy them the car?

And the difference between a 0-60 of 10 seconds and one of 13 seconds is quite significant with 10.4 being not exactly quick but still reasonably sporty and faster than the average car, while 13.2 is really not sporty at all. It is a difference you would certainly notice on a test drive.

littlechicken wrote:Obviously some will say that the residuals of the Mini will make it a better buy, but the price saving in the first instance cannot be ignored.  

I think this is why the price is SO cheap; they can be 'competitive' but still get slated. It's no good being £400 cheaper, or the same price but with more equipment - they need to score a big goal and I think they have.

Whatever your criticisms of the car, or MG, or the Longbridge operation - they can still point at the price and shut down the argument.