Hmmm....Food for thought.
I've sort of had the feeling that BMW has been less than impressed with
Rover, at least from what I can tell here in America. The Land Rover
Discovery, which I now understand is quite a nice SUV, never stole any
thunder from its chief rival, the Jeep Grand Cherokee. As for the venerable
Range Rover, in this price class I feel that all those newly minted semi-or
multi-millionaires were buying Lexus LX470's. Worst of all, I doubt any new
owner of either of these vehicles ever explored what incredible poise they
exhibit off-road. From here, it just didn't look like BMW made a real strong
effort to really get Land Rover's sales cranking oveer here. Unfortunately,
it's the same story I can realy to several other European brands, although in
this case I think Land Rover is strong enough in America so as not to go
anywhere anytime soon.
An excellent point was made about getting MG purists excited about a
badge-engineered BMW Z3. You know, I think a strong point was made here.
Let's say that on some magical day I had $20,000 or so in cash. I can do one
of the following:
1. Go to my Land Rover or BMW dealer and buy an "MG" that was initially
designed in Munich and built in South Carolina.
2. Read the classifieds and buy one exceptional chrome bumper MGB, and one
MGB GT, built in Abingdon.
Again, this is the view from my side of the pond. I read MG World, a British
publication, but I'm asking our friends abroad, how is the MGF received? Is
it looked upon as fondly as a B, Midget, MGA? Granted, in my opinion no car
can match the older MG's in terms of charm and character, but taking that as
a given, how does the MGF hold up?
Tom
78 Midget
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