Guy Jones - The person MG have needed for a long time...15th June 2010
 After the events below, I walked up to Guy Jones. Shook him by the hand and said, "As an enthusiast, can I just say that you are what this company has needed for a long time, thank you". Why did I say this?... read on...
Today was the opening of the Design Centre at Longbridge and yours truly went along, not really knowing what to expect. Little did I know that it was quite simply going to be the most open, accessible and fascinating visit to the Longbridge plant (now renamed MG Birmingham, but to local people like me, it'll always be Longbridge) that I've ever had. It started with an overview of the company and pretty much all of it was stuff we all know. We then went off to the ribbon cutting event. After that we then split into 2 groups, one went to the Design Centre and the other to the Technical Centre.
What they also had were spots around the visitor centre were you could talk to various teams of Engineers, Powertrain, Chassis, Interior and Crash Testing. This access to the engineers is quite simply unprecedented. I have never been to a press event Longbridge before when you could go and talk to the engineers behind the cars quite so openly.
I will post a few more articles in the next few hours as I try to assimilate the information that I've learnt over the last 6 hours or so! One of the journalists described it as information overload - but that certainly makes up for 5 years of information void! Overall though the event was widely praised by the media people who attended and has done no end of good for the brand as far as I can see in the media. Whether it comes out of the media in the same way we'll have to wait and see.
But one thing is for sure, Guy had to work hard to get the OK to arrange the day with the Chinese bosses, no doubt if it had all gone wrong, it would have been some serious egg on his face. However, as far as I can tell it was a huge success and bodes well for the future.
Chatting to the Engineers was a great experience, to get answers to questions that I've been wanting to ask for some time - some really interesting info from the Powertrain guys, which I'll get onto shortly.
But credit has to go to Guy Jones for setting the day up and Doug Wallace the new PR guy for running the day. It appears to have done MG's relationship with the Media no end of good and if this is a sign of things to come, the future really is looking good for the MG brand & MG Birmingham. (Picture Credit: AROnline) Advantage West Midlands' Deputy CEO Richard Hutchins cuts the ribbon
   Photo 1 of 24 Article Last Updated 15th June 2010
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