March sales figures

I here, only 41 MG sales were registered in March. These are very poor results for a new car registration

month. Also a month were the diesel should have made a big impact! If you don't start

advertising soon, you are going to be in big trouble. It is almost two years since the

launch of the MG6, and i have YET to see one on the road. The launch of the MG3 is desperately

needed now. but the launch date seems to continually be slipping further away.

Advertise now, and use the BTCC as a springboard to success.

Best wishes for the future. Davea.

Have to agree, what happened to all the diesel sales?...

At least they have now put up a BTCC news item on their website: http://mg.co.uk/plato-and-tordoff-kick-off-the-2013-btcc-season/#top but with nearly a week to prepare it, you would have thought they might have included the fact that they are leading the Drivers Championship, and the Team Championship, and the Manufacturers Championship, instead it reads as though the person who posted it thought that the BTCC starts this weekend They haven't even updated the BTCC part of their website to 2013 and the new colours (Ahh, I see they have now!)

Windy wrote:Have to agree, what happened to all the diesel sales?...

I saw somewhere that the first diesel registrations were at the end of the month... so when were the demonstrators registered?

How many dealers are there now? Hard to tell from mg.co.uk - search around Birmingham and get Summit, Jaybee and Luffield who have all stopped(!) But we surely need 40 more for s minimum coverage, even 20 to replace the ones lost.

From now sales and production should be ramping up - after a couple of months of MG6 GT and Magnette petrol and diesel, MG3? XROSS? new trims and engines into 2014...

patpending wrote:From now sales and production should be ramping up...

Sales are ramping up, 41 for March is a year on year increase from the 36 of last March (ignoring Avis registrations), it's just not the 300% increase that we have become used to over the previous 6 months and clearly doesn't have an extra increase from sales of diesels that we were expecting.

The salesman at the dealership nearest to me, said only

8 diesels had been sold in total in March, which is pathetic.

Also they had no diesel model on display in the showroom. The

demonstrator which was round the back, and out of sight,

was absolutely filthy. How can sales progress, when only

2 petrol models were on display. I must say though the salesman

was MG motivated.

Are there any advertising on UK tv ??
Never seen any.
Winning car in BTCC,but failing in real life
Such a shame

Btw:Not showing face on any europe car show does not help either

This is so frustrating and I feel so sorry for the factory staff at Longbridge fiddling while Rome burns.

If the 3 is launched in the same way as the 6 disaster beckons..whether the 3 turns out to be a good car or not.

The 6 is an OK car..nothing really distinguishes from the crowd...it has no USP other than rarity and looks out of date already.

I suppose what we can summise from this is that either MG UK or MG China have no ability to produce an integrated range and actually sell cars which doesn't bode well for a sound business model.

So many other UK manufacturers are doing much better in the current climate it shows MG up even more

Apparently a new 'Head of Sales and Franchising' has been appointed and started on 2 April 2013. He is Tom Burton who did a similar job at Subaru until May 2012. He has his work cut out with only 31 MG dealers doing sales now compared to 42 this time last year (and that includes the 8 new appointments in 2012). I dont know anything about him, but did notice that Subaru registrations dropped 32% in 2011 when he was in post..

Went past my 'local' MG dealer in Yeovil yesterday to see that their MG signs have now come down and been replaced by Ssangyong banners. Oh dear. It will now be an 80 mile trip to Plymouth if I want to try an MG3 this autumn unless Mr Burton gets his act together..

Dorset Rocket wrote:Apparently a new 'Head of Sales and Franchising' has been appointed and started on 2 April 2013. He is Tom Burton who did a similar job at Subaru until May 2012. He has his work cut out with only 31 MG dealers doing sales now compared to 42 this time last year (and that includes the 8 new appointments in 2012). I dont know anything about him, but did notice that Subaru registrations dropped 32% in 2011 when he was in post..

Went past my 'local' MG dealer in Yeovil yesterday to see that their MG signs have now come down and been replaced by Ssangyong banners. Oh dear. It will now be an 80 mile trip to Plymouth if I want to try an MG3 this autumn unless Mr Burton gets his act together..

Tim Burton? This has better not be the Nightmare before Christmas.

He needs a big budget. New dealers will presumably come on a few weeks before the MG3 (now!), then be already there for the MG3. There must be expensive advertising over weeks.

It is often mentioned that Morrison's Supermarkets are over-concentrated in Northern England. At least there is a Morrison's in Wimbledon! How can MG succeed without a single dealer in the London area (except along the M4), four in Lincolnshire and loads in Staffordshire?

As well as no dealers in London, there are none North of Wigan on the

West side of the British Isles, including Glasgow right to the tip of

Scotland. If they cannot afford to set dealerships up, i for one would

gladly drive around free of charge, handing out leaflets and promote the

car for them. I would be proud to help them being an MG fanatic.

My reward would be driving the MG6 free of charge, as buying one at

moment is beyond my means. I think others on this site would do the

same willingly.

adaveabbott wrote: As well as no dealers in London, there are none North of Wigan on the

West side of the British Isles, including Glasgow right to the tip of

Scotland. If they cannot afford to set dealerships up, i for one would

gladly drive around free of charge, handing out leaflets and promote the

car for them. I would be proud to help them being an MG fanatic.

My reward would be driving the MG6 free of charge, as buying one at

moment is beyond my means. I think others on this site would do the

same willingly.

idea!

Windy wrote:

patpending wrote:From now sales and production should be ramping up...

Sales are ramping up, 41 for March is a year on year increase from the 36 of last March (ignoring Avis registrations), it's just not the 300% increase that we have become used to over the previous 6 months and clearly doesn't have an extra increase from sales of diesels that we were expecting.

You can't plot trends and performance predictions on sales of between 9 and 41 units per month. Some firms will order that many in one go. At those rates, MG's sales stats would record a significant percentage fall if a prospective customer fell under a bus on the way to the dealership! For example, with the best will in the world, I don't see how a year-on-year increase of 5 cars can be indicative of anything. I would feel happier if MG Sales were at least consistently in double figures, but we know that even that is wishful thinking.

Look at it this way - if March was the new registration month, what on earth will happen in April when numbers traditionally dip? And surely March will have had a new batch of demonstrators with the new plates - one per dealer? Does that mean maybe 3 found customers?

It's a very odd situation - surely a good sales team would be able to get at least one firm to lease a dozen or so? There don't seem to have been any 'fleet' sales ever, except Avis. And Avis didn't take any more did they?