Currently reading: New MG 3 will cost less than £10,000 - new pictures
Lots of styling and customisation options for new MG 3, due to arrive in UK showrooms later this year

The MG 3 is set to cost less than £10,000 and will be offered with “hundreds” of different styling and customisation options. The MG 3, showcased in the UK for the first time at an event at MG’s Longbridge plant in Birmingham today, will go on sale in the UK this autumn.

Initially, three trim levels and 10 exterior colours - with names such as 'Hello Yellow' - will be offered. The top two trim levels will come as standard with equipment that includes Bluetooth connectivity, air-con and DAB digital radio. Hill-start assist will be optional.

MG's new hatchback will also launch with the 'MG 3 Collection' offer. It allows buyers to personalise the car's bodywork with various patterns, decals and stripes, including large RAF roundels.

The European version of the MG 3 was first seen at the Shanghai motor show in April, complete with a more distinctive exterior and plusher interior than the car of the same name on sale in China.

It has been designed and engineered in the UK. Final assembly is taking place in the UK, with knocked-down kits being shipped to Longbridge from China.

The MG 3 is an important part of the brand’s rebirth in the UK. Sales of the MG 6 haven’t impressed, but a style-led supermini pitched into a growing segment should lift sales volumes.

The customisation packages will give owners “hundreds and hundreds” of different ways to spec their cars, according to a source. They’ll include myriad options for the exterior styling, interior trim and wheel designs.

MG is pitching the car at the likes of the Mini and Vauxhall Adam, but with prices set to start at less than £10,000, it could be marketed as offering the style of those rivals with the space of a car from the class above. The MG 3 is Ford Fiesta sized and a five-door only.

The MG 3 will be offered with a 104bhp 1.5-litre petrol engine mated to a five-speed manual as its sole initial powertrain choice. Exact pricing will be announced closer to its autumn on-sale date.

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MG Motor’s first supermini has price on its side, but the segment is filled with quality offerings for little more money - does the MG3 have anything else to offer?

Mark Tisshaw

mark-tisshaw-autocar
Title: Editor

Mark is a journalist with more than a decade of top-level experience in the automotive industry. He first joined Autocar in 2009, having previously worked in local newspapers. He has held several roles at Autocar, including news editor, deputy editor, digital editor and his current position of editor, one he has held since 2017.

From this position he oversees all of Autocar’s content across the print magazine, autocar.co.uk website, social media, video, and podcast channels, as well as our recent launch, Autocar Business. Mark regularly interviews the very top global executives in the automotive industry, telling their stories and holding them to account, meeting them at shows and events around the world.

Mark is a Car of the Year juror, a prestigious annual award that Autocar is one of the main sponsors of. He has made media appearances on the likes of the BBC, and contributed to titles including What Car?Move Electric and Pistonheads, and has written a column for The Sun.

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craig england 25 June 2013

Martin - I think you need to

Martin - I think you need to realise that MG is a 'brand' and that of course 'sticking an MG badge on the front makes it an MG.

 

Similarly, it would be an Aston Martin if it had an AM badge on it.

 

The real MG which you refer to is a completely subjective thing and has been argued many times.

 

In my opinion, this funky looking little car is as much an MG as any that have gone before it.

 

It was designed by the same team responsible for the ZR so has 'Z' car heritage.

 

Now lets just hope that it drives as well as it looks.

 

 

martin_66 26 June 2013

Absolute rubbish

"Martin - I think you need to realise that MG is a 'brand' and that of course 'sticking an MG badge on the front makes it an MG.

 Similarly, it would be an Aston Martin if it had an AM badge on it."

 

I've read some rubbish on these forums but that really tops the lot.  How the people at Aston Martin must have chortled when they read that! 

By your logic if I sewed an Armani label into my Marks and Spencer jacket it would suddenly, miraculously, become an Armani jacket!!!

As Barack Obama once famously said "If you put lipstick on a pig, it's still a pig!".

It would be better if the "MG" brand could just be left dead and buried, for dead it most certainly is.  I really hope this "endeavour" fails miserably.

(Oh, and those pink wing mirrors?  Are "MG" jumping on the same bandwagon that LandRover jumped on by employing Victoria Beckham, and producing the "Katie Price Special Edition?).

 

MikeSpencer 14 June 2013

Saw one on the road today

Saw an MG3 on the A425 in Warwick today. It was a silver UK-registered car - spotless - so I immediately thought Press car. Only caught a brief glimpse but I'd say it looks a lot better on the road than in these pictures. The styling definitely has an MG Rover look to it, which I suppose is what they're after. It looked stylish and, maybe I'm seeing things now, but I swear it was Steve Cropley at the (LHD?) wheel!

optima 14 June 2013

I can see

I can see the points being brought across from both sides of the MG argument. I was trying to say that many on here are having ago at the car even before we have seen the vehicle in the flesh or driven it. Yes the MG brand my no longer be British but neither is Bentley, Mini, RR, Aston Martin, Lotus, aguar, Land Rover. These are all owned by foreign car companies but we still see them as British and don't say that they are all made here as they are assembled here but lots of their parts come from around the world and more so from China. Yes MG will take quite a few years to build up sales but lets give them a chance.