Birmingham "Sunday Mercury" road tests the MG6 Magnette

However, the Shanghai Automotive Industry Corporation seem to be taking the right steps to woo the army of MG followers back.

They have set up their UK headquarters in what is retained of the Longbridge plant, which had become the marque’s home before its collapse.

The Birmingham site now also features a recently opened showroom where you can buy the new breed of anglo-oriental MGs.

It is a very big boot for a compact saloon though and the fact that the MG publicity blurb makes much of its ability to swallow not one, but two sets of golf clubs tells you something about where they are heading with this motor.

Although not setting over ambitious sales targets, they are hoping the MG6 Magnette will catch the eye of executives and company car drivers who might otherwise be looking at German alternatives – clearly hoping to plug into some jingoistic buy British spirit.

It is a shame that all this kit is let down by some low end materials on the dash and some quirky design features – such as the fiddly hand brake arrangement which led to me painfully cracking my thumb more than once!

On balance, though, there is enough good stuff here to outweigh these niggles and the MG6, while not the finished article, does show some serious promise for the reborn MG brand.