April car sales

As anyone heard the Mg6 sales figures for April?

A lowly 13.

snifferdog1 wrote:A lowly 13.

I can't believe that most dealers didn't sell a single one, and with the Diesel newly available too, in fact the dealers must be actively trying to put people off buying them because there was a queue for information at the MG display at Thruxton:

What on earth is happening??

Its more like 'where are those who where screaming there needs to be a diesel'
Its there,so buy it.
Everytime i see those poor figurs.
The more i ask my se;f how long will they keep MG in UK.
They just don't want to sell in europe

mg-zs wrote:Its more like 'where are those who where screaming there needs to be a diesel'
Its there,so buy it.

That is what I was thinking too!

They wont stop sales in the UK but it doesn't give them any reason to bring us new models

Meanwhile in China they profitably sold 20,923 and built 15,430 - why would they want to send any over here when they have built over 10,000 less than they have sold so far this year and were also short in the last 2 years - they can't have many spare!

Are they producing at capacity then? I thought their Chinese sales were small compared to the big leaders like the Focus selling 20k a month or whatever?

Morris Motors wrote:Are they producing at capacity then? I thought their Chinese sales were small compared to the big leaders like the Focus selling 20k a month or whatever?

Production so far this year is up 18.04% on last year, sales are up 51.68%, they planned for sales to be up 25% over the year. I don't think they plan for spare capacity just in case, they prefer to reduce discounts to slow sales and make more profit but it doesn't always work!

Is there anyway we can see where and how much they selling in the world ?

mg-zs wrote:Is there anyway we can see where and how much they selling in the world ?

Patpending has a list of countries to tell you where: http://www.mguk.org/t713-countries-with-mg-dealerships#6306 - the website links can be very interesting

How much is more difficult, some countries like the UK publish figures but many don't and most only publish the top 10 which doesn't include MG. Then some like Chile are very slow, I've only just seen the February Chile figures of 184 cars, not a big number but it was 0.9% of the total car market - nearly 1 in 100 cars sold was an MG.

These threads are interesting:
http://www.mguk.org/t906-world-sales-2012
http://www.mguk.org/t866-sales-figures-2013 - We don't have April figures for Chinese model sales yet so the April graph will be a few more days.

I honestly think they will maintain their presence in the UK even if it is just so they can keep telling the Chinese how British they are etc.

Still, with 13 sales a month, they wont have many dealers left soon.

Hopefully the MG3 will rescue some sales.

I guess they arent in a rush to conquer the European market with sales doing so well in China and other similar markets.

snifferdog1 wrote:Hopefully the MG3 will rescue some sales.

I'm sure it will sell quite well if there are any decent dealers to sell it, but how are they going to get more dealers?

Aren't they supposed to be exporting to Europe this year?

Morris Motors wrote:Aren't they supposed to be exporting to Europe this year?

I believe the 3 and 6 are due to be released in some European markets this year - I think I heard Belgium,Luxembourg and the Netherlands?! Maybe Malta as well?! Dont quote me on thos though.

Anybody know how many sales dealerships MG UK currently have?

I think this year MG's will be released only in EU RHD countries - Ireland, Malta and Cyprus(?)

MG's European expansion will focus initially on growing MG6 and MG3 sales in right hand drive markets such as Ireland, Cyprus and Malta. It will then move in to Benelux and Scandanavian regions where the brand is well known, then Eastern Europe and then more established markets such as Germany, France and Italy.

"We have to take it step by step," said Jones. "As a totally new company we need to build the infrastructure and know-how in each market before we try launching lots of new products.

MG now sells cars in 40 countries worldwide. Last year it sold 80,000 cars in total.

Source: Guy Jones - http://www.autocar.co.uk/car-news/shanghai-auto-show/mg-icon-concept-shanghai-motor-show-2013

They are waiting for the MG3 which will also be going to Australia and New Zealand: http://www.mgmotors.co.nz/news.html

"As a totally new company we need to build the infrastructure and know-how in each market before we try launching lots of new products"

And how's that going for them in the UK then? *sigh*

Windy wrote:

MG's European expansion will focus initially on growing MG6 and MG3 sales in right hand drive markets such as Ireland, Cyprus and Malta. It will then move in to Benelux and Scandanavian regions where the brand is well known, then Eastern Europe and then more established markets such as Germany, France and Italy.

Source: Guy Jones - http://www.autocar.co.uk/car-news/shanghai-auto-show/mg-icon-concept-shanghai-motor-show-2013

They are waiting for the MG3 which will also be going to Australia and New Zealand: http://www.mgmotors.co.nz/news.html

It's slipping again, last year MG3 was H1 and MG5 was H2, now MG3 is H2 (at least it's coming) and MG5 "never"?

Also Benelux/ Scandinavia was going to be first - 2013?

The British brand’s first European ports of entry outside the UK have
been chosen to be the Benelux countries and Scandinavia, according to MG
sales and marketing head Guy Jones. This is due to their small size,
ease of control and low costs of entry. Cars will be sold via importers
who Jones says have had success in the past by adding upstart Asian
brands.

http://www.mguk.org/t805-first-mg-birmingham-eu-export-markets-are-benelux-and-scandinavia

Hadn't seen that quote before but how do you get finance in Cyprus? A wheelbarrow? First time I've seen either Cyprus or tiny (often pro-British) Malta mentioned - ever IIRC!

patpending wrote:It's slipping again...

I wonder if they still have issues with that group that claimed rights to use "MG" in the EU? Maybe entry to mainland EU is going to cost and at the moment EU car sales (except UK) are rather poor!

Entry to Malta etc is probably just the next logical step after places like Dominican Republic

Windy wrote:

patpending wrote:It's slipping again...

I wonder if they still have issues with that group that claimed rights to use "MG" in the EU? Maybe entry to mainland EU is going to cost and at the moment EU car sales (except UK) are rather poor!

Wasn't there an issue in the Netherlands separate from the UK once?

Entry to Malta etc is probably just the next logical step after places like Dominican Republic

strange we've not heard about it TBH. Malta with (then) no MoT used to be a haven for old British cars like old BMC and MG, and in many ways the Maltese are pro-British!

However, I think "RHD" is the key. Supplied from Longbridge (EU) I expect rather than China...

patpending wrote:

Windy wrote:

patpending wrote:It's slipping again...

I wonder if they still have issues with that group that claimed rights to use "MG" in the EU? Maybe entry to mainland EU is going to cost and at the moment EU car sales (except UK) are rather poor!

Wasn't there an issue in the Netherlands separate from the UK once?

Entry to Malta etc is probably just the next logical step after places like Dominican Republic

strange we've not heard about it TBH. Malta with (then) no MoT used to be a haven for old British cars like old BMC and MG, and in many ways the Maltese are pro-British!

However, I think "RHD" is the key. Supplied from Longbridge (EU) I expect rather than China...

Yes, I think it was a Dutch dealer group that claimed rights to MG in mainland EU.

Maybe Longbridge needs time to set up LHD production but I wouldn't have thought it would take much effort?

Pakistan next then: "Pakistan also considered changing to the right in the 1960s, but ultimately decided not to do it. The main argument against the shift was that camel trains often drove through the night while their drivers were dozing. The difficulty in teaching old camels new tricks was decisive in forcing Pakistan to reject the change." - I was wondering about Gibraltar but that changed to LHD in 1929. There must have been a time when the vast majority of the world was RHD like us, China changed in 1946.

Quite often in the first place there was no actual decision by the local Government as to preferences between LHD or RHD. Eventually Governments adopted whichever was prevalent on their roads at the time. And usually that was the Ford Model 'T'. British territories differed because the UK was a smaller, much more diverse market so the Ford didn't hold as much influence.

Plus British ships pass to port (left), plus British trains always travel on the left. British roads adopted this practice and so LHD became the sensible choice. And wherever the British Empire went, so did British cars and rules...

LHD MG6s are available in other territories though?

Comes back to the issue of quality again - are they in a situation where they have improved and upgraded RHD cars but neglected to bother with LHD ones?

Morris Motors wrote:Quite often in the first place there was no actual decision by the local Government as to preferences between LHD or RHD. Eventually Governments adopted whichever was prevalent on their roads at the time. And usually that was the Ford Model 'T'. British territories differed because the UK was a smaller, much more diverse market so the Ford didn't hold as much influence.

Plus British ships pass to port (left), plus British trains always travel on the left. British roads adopted this practice and so LHD became the sensible choice. And wherever the British Empire went, so did British cars and rules...

I thought the Model T had started off as RHD but apparently not, earlier Fords where RHD but the Model T was LHD + RHD from very early on.

"An interesting fact that is little known other than in the east coast is the reference to 1923 as the year of free beef. When they changed to drive on the other side of the road it was found that all of the ox teams could not be retrained to walk on the other side of the road -- oxen are known to be a little slow thinking. The solution was to train new oxen. Talk about a poor career change for the original gang!! Luckily horses are easier to train so they survived."

By RHD I meant "British spec could be supplied from Longbridge unchanged". I think the EU is key as Oz, NZ and S Africa are supplied from China (and, in future, Thailand doubtless with RHD Thailand, Malaysia, Singapore, Indonesia(?), India and Pakistan...)

Both Ghana and Nigeria (MG countries) changed to LHD since independence. Nepal (RHD) was on the list once but has now gone.

Italy interests me most:

In Italy the practice of traffic driving on the right first began in the late 1890s, but it was not until the mid-1920s that it became standard throughout the country. There was a long period when traffic in the countryside drove on the right while major cities continued to drive on the left.^[90]
Rome, for example, did not change from left to right until 20 October 1924. Milan was the last Italian city to change to driving on the right (3 August 1926). Cars had remained right-hand drive (RHD) until this time. Italian car makers Alfa Romeo and Lancia did not produce LHD cars until as late as 1950 and 1953, respectively.^[91]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Right-_and_left-hand_traffic#Italy

patpending wrote:Italy interests me most:

I'd not read this Hitler one before:

When Germany annexed Austria in 1938, Hitler ordered that the traffic should change from the left to the right side of the road, overnight. The change threw the driving public into turmoil, because motorists were unable to see most road signs. In Vienna it proved impossible to change the trams overnight, so while all other traffic took to the right-hand side of the road, the trams continued to run on the left for several weeks. Czechoslovakia and Hungary, among the last states on the mainland of Europe to keep left, changed to the right after being invaded by Germany in 1939 and late 1944 respectively.

Hungary 1944 only! I just read the obituary of Admiral Horthy's daughter-in-law and hadn't realised that.

There is film footage of 1938 Vienna with red double-deckers driving on the left...