Autoblog

Thanks to our colleagues reporting from their home turf on Autoblog Chinese, we now have the first official shots of the Rover 75-based sedan from Roewe, Shanghai Automotive Industry Corp.'s (SAIC) newly minted brand. We've shown you spy shots of the large sedan, but these are the first official pics that show off the new sedan's front end. The shape of the face is a bit Rover-esque, but the new fascia incorporates a large chromed grille frame that's bisected by body work a la Audi, new headlight clusters and vertically stacked fog lamps at the corners. We are also given a few interior pics that, quite honestly, look decidely unlike what we usually think of (rightly or wrongly) as Chinese craftsmanship. The sedan's inner sanctum uses a combination of matte gray plastic, beige plastic and leather, as well as a light wood trim. A satellite navigation system is present, as well as what looks like the shifter for a 5- or 6-speed automatic transmission with no manual control. We've surmised in the past that engine offerings might include a 1.8-liter and 2.5-liter, the smaller of the two perhaps sporting a turbocharger. The pics show a tachometer with a redline of about 6,750 rpm, though that's hardly a telling clue. Looks like we'll have to wait a little longer to discover the mechanical details of Roewe's first offering that's destined for export all over the world.

More pictures can be found after the jump.

[Source: Autoblog Chinese]

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The latest twist in the ongoing saga of the collapse of British automaker MG Rover is the resurrection of the Rover in China - twice. In its own inscrutable fashion, the Chinese government has authorized both Shanghai Automotive Industry Corp. and Nanjing Automotive Corp. to produce versions of the Rover 75 sedan (pictured at right).

This bizarre turn of events resulted when SAIC bought the intellectual property rights to the Rover 25 and 75 sedans, but lost a bidding war for the production tooling to Nanjing Auto. Both companies are state-owned, with powerful allies in Beijing, so the central government came up with the Solomon-like decision to allow both companies to produce Rover-based cars.

Neither company owns the rights to the Rover brand name, still held by BMW, but both are trying to acquire it.

Of the two, Nanjing Auto has the biggest plans, including exports to the UK and Spain and revival of MG models.

Unfortunately, both companies' political clout seems to exceed their automotive engineering and production expertise. Nonetheless, both companies are forging ahead, with an SAIC model to be launched "soon" and Nanjing's version expected in late 2007. If you want a preview of what they might look like, check out the MG Rover website here.