Motoring: What's in a name - quite a lot actually

The name MG has been appearing on cars on our streets for some years now but not the MG as we knew it. The MG marque and other assets were sold for 53 million pounds in 2005 to the Nanjing Automobile Group.
For this fee, they were able to use the historical name and they are putting it to good use with a vast array of new models but all now manufactured in China. Do not be fooled into thinking otherwise. Clearly the marque holds great marketing value across the globe and with good reason.
Morris Garages (MG) made two-seater sports cars from the 1920s through to 1981, when Sir Michael Edwardes closed the Abingdon factory to much consternation all round. Leyland continued badge engineering the name with abominations like the Maestro and Montego, which just compounded the grief as a final crush into dust one of our finest cars.
MG had remarkable exporting success in the USA and across the globe. Many a US serviceman would return home with his prized MG TC after WW2 and the overseas revenue and reputation stood us in good stead as a motor manufacturing nation.
As foreign earnings go, I suppose £53m is not to be sniffed at in one hit but the MG production over the life of the brand kept a fully-trained expert workforce in highly skilled employment, which rubbed off on other British manufacturers and kept generations of families in work not just at Abingdon but across a network of support industries. Our export earnings were consistent and substantial from MG and others like them for over 50 years.
So, no longer do we export MG’s but instead we now import them. Or so you may think.
I wrote about this little gem a few weeks ago, which was looking for a new home and it has found one in France. The car now resides in Brittany and was bought as a surprise 21st birthday present for one lucky girl.
As a nation, we still export MG’s but not quite in the numbers we used to.