chinese siblings(fancy a chinky?)

:whistle: Passed a local mg garage this sunday which I go out of my way to browse..........on the forcourt was a mgtf in trophy blue,it was a le500 on a 08 plate for around 8 grand....its done the exact mileage as my 04 tf :dry: ...........my question is to those in the know is how much more of a car do you get for the money??????????........apart from some cosmetics which I know are different like the dash display and front bumper???????? and how much different is the engine????? ive heard it called the n series...........are they worth paying that kind of money when there is a lot of cheaper tfs out there????????????????

The Mg franchises i deal with have had not had the problems or comebacks with the N series engine apposed to the K series.I dont think enough was sold to give a full comparison against a K series less than a thousand.915 i think was the figure.

I have fitted two N series engines one in & MGZR the other in a 2003 TF i had no problems or callbacks to the TF.
The MGZR was a one off build by me just to see one working in a ZR a bit odd but there we go.
Cosmetically the N series & K series look identical only the injectors and slight difference to the engine loom will tell the difference to to a trained eye.the engine number starting with a N the obvious giveaway.
The machining of head & stretchbolts slightly different the trophy blue in a LE500 is intense blue i repaired one last year there is a post on T BAR and sold for half of £8000 however it was recorded as cat D.
Overall the MG ROVER BUILT MGTF,not a great difference to the relaunched TF it sadly never really took off enough for one reason or another to progress or develop any further by the factory.

I feel that peoples trepidation about Chinese quality or the perceived quality of Chinese made cars especially has held back sales and development. One can understand it with the greed of a lot of people having stuff made as cheaply as possible in China and this very cheaply made stuff has almost no QC applied to it to meet the price break point demanded by the greed of the importers who then inflate the price many 100 percent to make huge get rich quick profits. Such trading hurts the Chinese reputation for quality and quality control.

Add hang overs from communist regeims running of things where the numbers mattered nott eh quality and people are still wary. It will take time for people to get over this. They have done so with electronics but cars are adifferent thing all together.

I watched a youtube vid about the le500 and a speaker presenting the mg stated all the past issues with the k series head have now been rectified..............the head was a new design with a multilayer gasket added..........sounds just like a party political broadcast....