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MG TD TF 1500 - So that's what MG stands for!

http://www.motorauthority.com/news/news/mg-is-now-modern-gentleman/
Derek Nicholson

!@#$#!!!@ the Chinese!

How dare a corporation try to erase history of such a fine mark!

Thanks for the update...at least I know there is one company that will never see my business. And besides, there will always be an England!!! God save the Queen...and MG if at all possible.


Octagonally British,

DaveL
dave lackey

Yuck!
D Clark

That's funny, I always believed that MG stood for Masochistic Greasemonkeys!!
Regards, Richard.
R Payne

Gentlemen, be kind ...one has to look at where this kind of thinking comes from.
IMHO:
C Chinese
H Hack
I Idiot
N Neoclassic
A Automobiles

I am sure they will take no offense that we will consider their product a good representation of this!

Cheers ,
David 55 M.G. TF1500 #7427
David Sheward

I guess since they are now following western capitolism the correct definition should be "M"ore "G"reed although with me it's "M"y "G"od.

Perhaps they will refine it to "M"oa's "G"arage
Maybe "M"oron "G"ooks(yeah I know it's out of line)
How about "M"indless "G"eeks
or "M"ore "G"uck
"M"issing "G"oodness
"M"ighty "G"lum
"M"ud "G"rubber
"M"ister "G"uano
"M"ore "G"overnment

I'm gonna be sick.
LED DOWNEY

Modern Gentlemen: Aaargh! I like the Mao's Garage though!

It's probably not as awful as we all think: my wife (Liesbeth) studied Chinese and one of the first things they did in university was making up a name in Chinese characters that in her case sounded like "Liesbeth" in Manderin Chinese but meant (f.i.) "beautiful flower", again in Mandarin Chinese.

I think another example is that "Golden Arches" in Mandarin sounds like "McDonalds". Crafty buggers those Chinese!

So tonight I will ask my wife to pronounce Modern Gentlemen in Chinese. If it sounds remotely like Emgee (or Morris Garages, or Cecil Kimber, or Gotcha you tweed wearing barbarians....) the mystery of the rediculous Modern Gentlemen is solved.
Willem van der Veer

I'm afraid the Chinese are really losing it... my theory about a phonetic reason bounced.....
Willem van der Veer

So Dave L. tell us how you really feel about Modern Gentleman.

Willem - I particularly like the "Gotcha you tweed wearing barbarians"

All - I am really afraid that the new MG from China is not being produced for the like of us (old farts living in yesteryear), but of the young drivers of the world who know nothing (or care) about MGs that we know and love.
Cheers - Dave
David DuBois

Why not just name it

Mao's Grinning.
BEC Cunha

Mao's Grinning and I'm LOL.

As a matter of fact Mao was a great car lover. His car-collection was impressive (23 Mercedes Benz 600, Rolls Royces etc.) and proved that "some pigs are more equal than others"
Willem van der Veer

Now, now Gentlemen, we must be tolorant. If the proposed MG facrory in the US (Oklahoma) becomes a reality, a new generation of 2 seat MG drivers will be hitting the roads. It will be our job to educate them into the history of the marque. As with the new Mini, about 10% of the drivers are aware of the history and use their cars in a like mannered fashion, rallying and shows etc. Our hobby will die without the next generation. Teach them the history and introduce them to the pleasure of driving a car from another era and you just might get a young man or woman who not only has a modern MG as a daily driver but an MGB, MGA or MG TD in the garage.
As to the MG name being basterdized, remember, it was Longbridge who named the re-vamped MGF the mgtf, completely ignoring the history of their own company!!!
Bob Doc
69 MGB &52 MG TD
Robert Dougherty

According to Jean Kimber Cook, the initials M and G don't have any significance. She is recorded as saying that her father, the late Cecil Kimber, chose the letters from the Morris Garages, but that the term 'MG' was never intended to stand for a commercial enterprise, and that it was "just a name".

I personnaly don't give a s***t what the Chinese call it. To me an MG as I know it, has to be made in England, using British skills, labour, know-how, heart, tools and materials.

Anything that resembles a REAL MG that is made in China, is what I call a Sino Modern Gentleman, or a SMG. Let the Chinese call it a Sino Modern Gentleman, just as long as they don't try to hoodwink the public into thinking they know how to make a REAL MG.

From here on, I will call the Chinese- manufactured vehicle, the SMG. Who knows? Maybe it'll stick.

Gord Clark
Rockburn, Qué.
Gordon A. Clark

I think the Chinese are just continuing the 'marque' and also the philosophy of the company....!
Having read many, many books on the history of Morris/MG, I don't know when I have seen a company which 'shoots its self in the foot' so continuously!
Like most 'great things', the car was one man's passion... with the 'company' throwing as many obstacles as it could to prevent success!
I'm sure that over the 60 years of MG's (1927 to the 1980's) the marketing department(s) came up with a gazillion meanings for 'MG' and 'Safety Fast'....and probably used a few of them...
Our cars are unique...they can't be remade, or recreated...they were built for use in the 'time' they were created for. (Imagine a TC with 5 mph bumpers, air bags, crumple zones, well, you get the picture..)
No company, including one run by Cecil Kimber could produce a car we would be able to call a 'good old MG'...impossible in today's world with today's regulations.
Lets just hope whatever comes out is a nice little 'sporty' car that catches on with the masses...we can then educate the world to the 'history' of the marque! (and enjoy the fact we own one of the 'old' ones).
gblawson - TD#27667

This was posted on the MGB site.

Quote:
Explanation copied from Autoblog:
15. "Modern Gentleman" is the Chinese brandname of MG translated back in English.

The Chinese population needs a Chinese brandname to refer to just as an English speaking person couldn't refer to a Chinese brand written in Chinese.

Chinese can't refer "MG" as "MG" because they don't use alphabet in the language. They have to use Chinese words that sounds like "Em-Gee", instead of using meaningless Chinese words that sounds like "Em-Gee", the guys from Nanjing chose an arrangement of Chinese words that means "Famous Gentleman". This name is referred as "Modern Gentleman" in English because it can be shorten to MG (and not FG).

There are only so many combination of meaningful Chinese words that sounds something like "Em-Gee".

I hope this will clear things up, and possibly be included in the article.
The reason for this "Modern Gentleman" name is behind languages, not because Nanjing is ignorant of MG's heritage.
Posted at 2:59PM on Jan 11th 2007 by Andy 0 stars
End Quote

If true, it would make sense for the Chinese to give it another name.

BEC Cunha

OK, so if I ask Liesbeth (see my earlier reply) to pronounce "famous gentlemen" it'll sound like Em-gee. Pheww!
Willem van der Veer

Gentlemen:
How about My Goodness! My Guinness!
SEAMUS
SEAMUS HEALY

I guess it could be worse. They could make us refer to them by numbers, like they do the food. "Say old chap, is that a number 16 you're driving"? "I used to have a 32, and two hours after I sold it, I wanted it again".
Or worse, "Mongolian Garage"...
Cleve

Maybe when selecting your dealer accessories for your new "Modern Gentleman" you'll be asked to select two from Column A and one from Column B?
L Karpman

Yea L, but that is their sales strategy. When you finish buying one, an hour later you want another.
BEC Cunha


I'm reminded of how yesteryear's quality brandnames are occasionally resurrected to lend undeserved prestige to a cheap modern product.

A case in point: back in the '50s there was an elite name in audio gear: "The Fischer". They sold complete consoles for the technically-challenged, and amplifiers, preamps and tuners for the component-oriented audio-heads. If "The Fischer" products weren't absolutely state-of-the-art, they were darn close, and well worth the high prices they commanded.

In recent years, I've still seen the Fischer brand name - but on $39.95 boom boxes at the likes of Penneys, K-Mart, etc. The name is the same, but that's it. The guy who buys the boombox doesn't join lists like this and talk shop with the enthusiasts who restore, modify, and cherish those old tube-amps from the '50s.

Believe me, I'll celebrate along with the guys in Oklahoma who get jobs building new cars in Ardmore. May they live long, prosper, get paid well with good benefits. May their bosses really care about them, and may the cars they build be of high quality, of distinguished character, and objects of pride. And then... if this can be sustained for 50 years, maybe these folks will know what it must have been like to work at "the G". But even then, the cars will not be MGs.

After all, a friend of mine put an octagon on his garden tractor!

BTW: a friend who used to sell Triumphs in Roanoke tells me that for clients of that marque, "M.G." stood for "M"onkey "G"lands.

FWIW,
Allen

Allen Bachelder

And we thought we had problems converting The King's English to American English, and back and forth! Wait until we have to convert Chinese to English, to King's English, and back in forth!

I can just see it now...
"To make removal of above steering “carumm”, please to take off part B similar to part A, located before you start...

At the end of the manual, it says, "ENJOY"!
Cleve

Cleve & Allen,
Shouldn't that be "YOU ENJOY NOW....HI" !!
I'm still laughing! Being somewhat "antique audio inclined" (Still partly heating my house with old McIntosh tube amps and listing to "records"...what would you expect from someone driving a "T") I guess maybe this could be a good thing for M.G.???
Point in case: My son & I recently brought back to life an old Fisher reciever after his solid state junk died. "Dad, this sounds so much "warmer" than that other one...it's worth haveing to "get-up" and not having a remote!" A lot of the old "MAC" dealers carried Fisher for a "lower-priced" model for those that wanted quality but could not afford it! (Me included back then!)He now wants to know who "get's" all that old stereo stuff when I die! (All 3 of my children have "re-discovered" 3rd harmonics lacking in todays 20/20 digital tunes!)
Maybe new "mg" (I will never refer to them as M.G. just as I refuse to acknowledge the new "tf" as being the same as a "TF"!)
will spark some new found intrest in our M.G.'s. ??????

Cleve's post reminded me of a phone conversation I had with a Japanese engineer at Tascam Corp years ago concerning wording in a manual for an multitrack recorder we were installing in a corporate recording studio. Long story short ....we actually had the guy on the phone from Japan that wrote the manual explaing his theroy concerning how to "enable the dissable switch" ....he had us literely rolling on the floor with laughter!
Cheers,
"Analog" David & Izzy!
David Sheward

I thought that MG stood for 'Money Gone', as for MG not meaning anything, my Grandfather started at Morris Garages bike repair shop in 1917 at the age of 14 and retired from 'MGs' in 1969 having spent 52 years with the firm (I have a clock that says so - given to him on his retirement)so to us MGs is Morris Garages since he did not change employers the whole time!

Kevin
Kevin Whitehead

This thread was discussed between 10/01/2007 and 18/01/2007

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