Jaguar World Magazine S-Type R vs MG ZT 260 Back Issue

It was during my research for the S-TYPE R and MG ZT 260 twin test on page 30 that I realised just how lucky we are. Not only is Jaguar still with us, but as our news piece on page six shows, the company is doing rather well. But despite Jaguar's recent successes, it's a sobering thought that apart from sister company Land Rover and family favourite Vauxhall – which was bought by the American giant, General Motors, so long ago its British origins have almost been forgotten – the UK's only other homegrown mainstream car manufacturer to survive is MG. (And before anyone writes in, MINI wasn't originally a brand in its own right). But while Jaguar's current owner, Tata, has allowed the company to rediscover its sporting past, the same can't be said for MG's parent, the
Chinese firm SAIC. My journalistic colleagues tell me the current MG6 isn't a bad car yet neither is
it a great one like the XF arguably is. But more importantly, although the F-TYPE continues to grab our attention (including Phil Weeden's when he drove a V6S version to Jaguar's birth town of Blackpool – see p74), an MG sports car – the epitome of the name – is a thing of the past. Without an ultra competitive saloon or a headline grabbing sports car, just 782 MGs were sold in the UK during 2012 compared to 14,105 Jaguars. Yet if fate had been different and Tata had rescued MG Rover from collapse in 2005 (which isn't hard to imagine since the two were linked by the Indian-built CityRover) instead of buying Jaguar in 2008, then the tables could easily have been turned. Would MG be where Jaguar is today, producing the same sort of high performance and technically advanced models? There's no denying that as a British car enthusiast I love the idea of a modern MG two-seater, but as a Jaguar man I think I'd miss the thought of an F-TYPE even more.