Three years ago, the future of MG Rover was in serious doubt after it was dumped by German car giant BMW. But now the Birmingham car maker is taking revenge on its former owners in a series of cheeky adverts. The tenacious Longbridge firm has launched a campaign extolling the virtues of its own sporty MG ZT saloon - and poking fun at the famous BMW 3 Series. A 'mg beats bmw' website has been set up after an independent survey revealed the ZT 190+ beat the BMW 318i SE in performance, handling, driving experience, looks and value for money. A poster picturing the two models has also been produced as part of the campaign, stating: Eight out of 10 people preferred driving the ZT. Sarcastically referring to BMWs own advertising slogan, the poster adds: So much for the ultimate driving machine. The Birmingham company has also produced 100,000 leaflets featuring a sticker of an MG badge and the words: You can stick this on a 3 Series but it wont make it go any quicker. And if that isnt enough, 100,000 MG stickers have been delivered to BMW owners across the country. It was in March 2000 that BMW revealed it was to offload its loss-making Longbridge subsidiary. The news sent shockwaves through the Midlands and put the future of tens of thousands of jobs on the line. It was only after two months of anguish - and an 80,000-strong protest march through Birmingham - that saviour John Towers and his Phoenix Consortium snapped up the firm for £10. Now MG Rover is fighting back with its latest advertising campaign, which follows an NOP survey involving a panel of 100 drivers, none of whom had owned an MG or BMW before. More than 90 per cent said the MG outperformed the BMW, 71 per cent favoured the handling of the British car and 86 per cent preferred its driving experience. In terms of looks, 75 per cent favoured MG over the BMW, with 80 per cent opting for the MG interior. Finally, 91 per cent believed the MG was better value for money than the BMW. John Edwards, MG Rover sales and marketing director, said: You take a bit of a risk when you commission an independent survey that makes direct comparisons with the competition. We were fairly confident that the same money buys a lot more MG than BMW but we were completely bowled over by the results which gave a conclusive victory to the MG ZT. Although MG Rover is upbeat about its survey performance, there is still a way to go before the company makes a profit. | 
