MG TF range
The Latest
MG TF Is A Real Sports Car In Every Sense. Naturally, It Didnt Take Too Much Persuasion To Get Vanessa Hinkley Behind The Wheel
I hate to be predictable. I hate to admit to being impressed by anything that the rest of the world drools over. I hate the MGTF for making me admit that, in some ways at least, Im just like everybody else. Even for those who arent at all patriotic, with so many impressive Japanese competitors on the market, theres something very satisfying about knowing that such a stunning vehicle is British from badge to bootlid.
Having said that, if you havent driven an MG TF before, you can rest assured that the best is yet to come: once youre behind the wheel youll understand. Yes, of course it would suit me. I might be blonde but Im not stupid.
Practicalities? Let me thinkWell, buy an MGTF and you wont have to ferry kids and dogs around. You wont have to shove shed loads of groceries in the boot. You wont have to do any of those mundane tasks ever again because you simply cant. Youll have to delegate.
Yes, this is a car with the ability to truly liberate women! Oh yes and if youre sun worshipper, youll save hours on tanning if you drive with the roof down unless its raining of course.
As expected, once out on the tarmac, the MGTF performed so well I was tempted to give it a standing ovation: rest to sixty took just 7 seconds in my TF160, while the ordinary TF135 achieves the goal in 8.2 seconds. The handling was nothing short of excellent. What more can I say? The car can move.
I often feel a little vulnerable when driving a vehicle thats so close to the road, but I found Rovers claim that the MGTF is the safest car of its kind ever built reassuring. The safety spec includes a rigid steel bodyshell with full side-impact protection. Even the entry-level model has a driver's airbag, with an optional passenger-side airbag and
MG's unique electrically-assisted power steering.
You probably wouldnt expect a vehicle this outstanding to be affordable. However, on the road prices range from £15,795, so your bank manager could well be more amenable than expected when you sign up for a loan. There are four mid-engined models an entry-level 1.6-litre TF115, an automatic TF120 Stepspeed for £18,445), the better-equipped TF135 version (costing £17,545) and the top TF160 version, costing £20,345.
I found the MGTF we tested much improved over the original MGF model on which its obviously based. Its the front youll notice first, with projector-style headlamp units that also incorporate the indicators. Between them, theres the latest MG sportscar two-bar grille and below that, a deeper front bumper incorporating a mesh air intake and twin foglamps. It all looks mean enough to frighten off the hairdresser types though given that these people bought the majority of the 40,000 MGFs sold here, that might not necessarily be something of which MGs shareholders would approve.
With all this effort having gone into making the TF its own car, its a little disappointing to climb inside and find a sense of deja vue. True, the
seat cloths and the instrument graphics are different but thats about it. To be fair, the Longbridge budget probably only stretched so far and in any case, the cabin did get a bit of a re-work at the turn of the century. Still, we could have done without keeping the narrow, rather highly-mounted seats.
The Fisher Price-style controls for the Stepspeed models gearshift could have been consigned to history too.
As Ive said, this is not the most practical car for my needs. If I owned an MGTF, I wouldnt be able to take my mother to Sainsburys or the cats to the vets nice thought Honestly though, Id be lying if I said I couldnt live with a car like this. When I do decide to expand my personal fleet, it will definitely be with an MGTF.
<< Back to MG car reviews
<< Back to car reviews homepage
Find New & Used Cars in the UK |
New & Used MG Cars For Sale UK
