brrm: (dent)
brrm ([personal profile] brrm) wrote2007-01-11 10:06 am
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Nanjing Automobile Group (who own MG after MG-Rover's collapse) has decided to backronymify MG. Originally, it stood for Morris Garages - a Morris dealer in Oxford which used to customize Morris cars to produce sportier versions.

Now it stands for...

Modern Gentleman.

Urgh.

Nanjing’s Zhang Xin has commented that the firm "wants Chinese consumers to know this brand as Modern Gentleman, to see that this brand represents grace and style."

[identity profile] meirion.livejournal.com 2007-01-11 10:22 am (UTC)(link)
that's .... just so wrong.

yuk. i feel sick now.

-m-

[identity profile] met24.livejournal.com 2007-01-11 10:27 am (UTC)(link)
Yeuch!

Rightly or wrongly, you could hardly call MG-Rover's more traditional buyers 'modern gentlemen'.

I wonder what other backronyms we can come up with, apart from the usual ones for FIAT.

[identity profile] brrm.livejournal.com 2007-01-11 10:41 am (UTC)(link)
This looks like a fairly comprehensive list. ;)

[identity profile] chi-ryu.livejournal.com 2007-01-11 10:43 am (UTC)(link)
Best Chinglish Backronym ever...?

[identity profile] cultureofdoubt.livejournal.com 2007-01-11 12:33 pm (UTC)(link)
I was about to post describing my expression, then I realised your icon had it nailed.

[identity profile] arron-shutt.livejournal.com 2007-01-11 01:28 pm (UTC)(link)
Sure MG from a chinese perpective is "Maoist Government". Now there's a brand name any self-respecting dictator-on-the-go like myself could sign up to.. Hitler has the Volkswagen, and the Chinese have MG! ;)

[identity profile] frodomorris.livejournal.com 2007-01-11 01:38 pm (UTC)(link)
It's a bit sad that the Morris garage (longwall street, on the corner of holywell street) has almost nothing to draw attention to the fact that it's the centre of the Oxfordshire performance motorcar industry and the home of one of Britain's most respected (erm, forgot the word erstwhile) car marques. Still, it's not exactly in the correct place for a motor museum :-)

[identity profile] brrm.livejournal.com 2007-01-11 01:41 pm (UTC)(link)
You know that's all a false front, and that New College accommodation is right behind it?

[identity profile] frodomorris.livejournal.com 2007-01-11 01:46 pm (UTC)(link)
I thought it was magd accommodation, but yes I knew that :-(. I say we build a British Motor Museum in the New College grounds; I know that it.support@new will be amenable ;-)

[identity profile] met24.livejournal.com 2007-01-11 01:39 pm (UTC)(link)
And SAIC came up with Roewe, which if pronounced the German way sounds vaguely like Rover, but the Pinyin is allegedly Rongwei, which goes off in completely the opposite direction.