MG Cars was once regarded as one of Britain’s great, although admittedly, it was competing mostly with national manufacturers, and manufacturing qualities were dubious, which, mind you, was actually a universal trait shared amongst quite literally all of British Leyland.
Remember the MGB? It was a lightweight coupe, some had a retractable top as well, that was MG’s entry into the classic lightweight sportscar formula, the one that the Brits are good at. But people weren’t satisfied with it, they wanted more speed, or MG just decided that a V8 is the à la carte to the straight-4s that powered the little car for years. I mean, when the MGC came out with the straight-6, things improved, but when they went with Rover’s aluminium V8 that, mind you, while making more power and torque, was 40 pounds less than the straight-4s back then, things were just better.
But as time moved on, the company met the same fact as most other British manufacturers, and went bankrupt. Now, reincarnated, times have changed, the masses are no longer yearning for cheap sports cars, the modern MG, to survive, needs a cheap little hatchback that can sell and appeal to the crowd. Cue the MG3, a supermini with style. Paul hooked me up with oneto shoot.
When first confronted with the car, I was actually impressed. Sure, I know it is an affordable car, and expectations were set accordingly, but this is one supermini I wouldn’t mind being seen in, it is one handsome little car. One thing for sure, if you were to ask someone that didn’t know about MG, they wouldn’t figure that this is a sub £10,000 car. From the front, the car looks unreasonably tidy, in fact, I really like the car from the front. It reminds me a bit of the Renault Clio.
In its segment, if you wanted a stylish car, you really can do much worse. Its competition, such as the Dacia Sandero and Volkswagen Up has a lot to step up to if they want to stand a chance. The car is very well proportioned, everything feels planned and measured before being decided. It’s not forcefully feeding ‘cuteness’ or the typical ‘angry puppy’ look to the customers.
Our MG3 was the top of the line version, with all the bells and whistles, and a lovely shade of grey they codename ‘Lady Grey’. In fact, with this colour, photographing the MG3 is ‘easier’, per se, just because the car works from almost any angle you look at it from.
One thing is, before photographing a car, you need to actually learn about the car and acknowledge the purpose of the car. For the MG3, a supermini that is built to travel around a city, urban landscape fitted it like a glove. In fact, shooting the car in the streets feel so natural. All the concrete buildings, marbles, large panes of glasses even made the shots better. It almost felt like it’s not a photoshoot, more coming out in a day for a casual shoot. Sometimes, photographing simple cars like these instead of the extravagant exotics can be quite relaxing and rewarding.
Moving onto the interior, it’s actually a nice change of pace from the usual cheapos we find. The usual conscience of compacts created for your daily hauls is that the interiors are always grim, dull and very full of grey plastic. To be honest, the MG3 is no different, it’s an affordable car! But MG has tried hard to keep it fresh. The sporty credentials of MG bring in the red accents all over the inside, and it certainly spice things up.
One thing I like about the interior is the vinyl on the seats. Of course, MG can’t go berserk, but all those small little touches make the MG3 shine out of all the competitors. I think, if you can overlook the quite rare MG badge, and you want an affordable supermini that you won’t mind being seen in, the MG3 is hard to beat, it’s full of little details for good eyes, and let’s be honest, who doesn’t want to see MG back in business again?