MG3 supermini (2013) first official pictures

This is the MG’s new Fiesta-fighting supermini: the MG3. It’ll go on sale in late 2013 carrying Korean brand-challenging prices and what MG is touting as ‘a distinctive statement of modern British style’ aimed at young buyers. Though the 3 is more likely to draw in penny-pinching pensioners, given that MG’s past that is rather more evoctive than its present.

The MG3 is longer and taller but slightly narrower than a Ford Fiesta, with MG claiming it offers best-in-class headroom, particularly for rear passengers. Like the similarly boxy Skoda Fabia, the MG3 uses a blacked-out A-pillar to give a wraparound windscreen effect. The nose styling is clearly related to the MG6 family hatchback, but the little 3 makes an effort to win the ‘yoof’ vote with hockey stick-shaped LED running lights, two-tone side skirts, and diamond-cut alloy wheels on the higher spec versions, as pictured in our gallery.

MG is following the trend of the Mini, Vauxhall Adam and Fiat 500 by offering an array of personalisation options for the MG3. Buyers can spec roof, side and bonnet graphics, and switch the interior trim and mats for a new colour-scheme.

At launch, the only engine available is a 104bhp four-cylinder petrol motor, mated to a five-speed manual gearbox. MG will release performance and economy data later in 2013, ahead of the first models rolling off the Longbridge UK factory production line in summer 2013.

MG claims the ‘core value’ of the MG3’s development has been to make it a fun-to-drive, chuckable steer, and points to European-specific models being set up on European roads as a clue to the dynamic promise.

By Ollie Kew