MG GTS = MG GS (and knock it off now!)

Reading Time: 2 minutes

News like this to your inbox or phone?

Weekly summary to your inbox

Never miss and important news

Get Instant notification once the news is published.

- Advertisement -

China’s MG has released the first images of the MG GS. Yes that is GS, not GTS or CS. Local Chinese automakers are famous for changing the names of their vehicles during the development process, all the way up to the evening before launch. It is not unusual that a name changes up to four times, and then some. MG is in the changing game now with their new SUV. It started life as the 2013 MG CS Concept, and the CS-name stayed around for pretty much the whole development process. Until:

- Advertisement -

… early December when new spy shots showed the SUV with a GTS badge on the back.

- Advertisement -

mg-cs-china-1-anyway-2

The spy shots were accompanied by a scan of the vehicles’ Fuel Consumption Label, again showing the MG GTS name (right column, second line).

mg-cs-china-1-anyway-1d

Then came the release of the first set of official images. The orange vehicle on the photos didn’t have any badges or name tags, but it was called ‘MG GTS’ in the MG press release, and all Chinese media, and we, thus assumed that was the end of the name story.

mg-cs-china-1-anyway-1f

But is was not to be. MG released two new official photos yesterday. The first image, on top of this article, is completely new, with an MG GS plate up front. The second image however is exactly the same as the one found in the first set of official images, with a unreadable badge Photoshopped-in on the right side of the rear.

In the accompanying press release MG comes up with the wobbly explanation that the official name of the vehicle, as registered at the  Ministry of Industry, is indeed ‘MG GTS’, but that the name they will use on the market is ‘MG GS’. They don’t say why. MG’s Chinese website doesn’t even try anymore, there is no page for the MG GS yet, just an entry in the news where the SUV is called ‘MG SUV’.

The MG CS GTS GS is scheduled for launch on the Chinese car market in the first half of this year, which is rather vague, likely deliberately, because it gives MG the time to change the name of the bloody thing quite a few times more.

- Advertisement -
- Advertisement -

6 COMMENTS

  1. Finally a real photo of this slow-to-market MG model. What does that droopy outdated rear wiper, and the mis-fitting tailgate tell us about the GS?

  2. I guess they don’t have access to old ARG heritage names, so who knows what the final name will be. Maybe it will hit the market as a Roewe!

  3. This car, like a lot of SAIC’s other MG and Roewe-branded cars are slow to the market because they have had a lot of trouble to hold onto their small core of engineers and development team in the UK at MG/ SAIC Technical Center.

    The development of the dynamic attributes of the cars, as well as calibration of the gearbox and engine is actually mostly driven by the guys in England, but from what I have heard they are on quite a different level of understanding compared to the Chinese management from SAIC, which has led to a lot of them leaving the development team.

    • Very interesting comment. Are they all going to JLR? Seems a bit ironic that at the same time Lotus (famed for its handling development) is way down on its contract work and shedding staff.

  4. Call any car Watermelon or call it F1 it would still be the same car…why the hell is that trend of changing names in China for a million times?

LEAVE A REPLY

Please enter your comment!
Please enter your name here

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

- Advertisement -