There's a century of British engineering wrapped up in MG history. You've got racing wins, factory closures, ownership changes and the kind of stories that get retold at owners' club meetings up and down the country.
We've put this guide together to walk you through the history of MG, from a small Oxford dealership in the 1920s to today, and to share where the Moss Rimmer partnership sits in keeping these cars on the road. Whether you've owned an MG for years or you're thinking about your first one, this background helps you understand the car on your driveway and where to come when it needs parts. Have a browse of our MG parts and accessories range to see what we stock for your model.
MG is first established as Morris Garages by British motoring pioneer William Morris in 1924. The badge began life as a sales promotion. MG (an abbreviation of Morris Garages) was the name Cecil Kimber, then general manager of the Oxford dealership, gave to the lightly modified Morris cars he was building for sportier-minded customers. MG started off as a sports car division of Morris Cars, but it grew quickly into a marque with its own identity, factory and racing programme.
The first MG vehicles used Morris underpinnings dressed in sharper bodywork with tuned engines. By 1929, demand had grown enough that production moved from Oxford to a dedicated factory at Abingdon-on-Thames, where it stayed put until October 1980. That Abingdon connection is something MG owners still feel today. The octagon badge, the racing pedigree, the small-batch character of the cars and the underdog spirit: all of it traces back to those pre-war years and the people who built the cars by hand.
To explore MG's heritage timeline is to track the rises and falls of British motor manufacturing itself. Here's a snapshot of the key eras at a glance:
The T Series carried MG through the late 1930s and into the post-war boom. The TC, built from 1945, brought British roadsters home with American servicemen heading back across the Atlantic. The MGA arrived in 1955 with curves that broke from MG's upright pre-war look, and the MGB followed in 1962. MGB production stretched to 18 years, which makes it one of the best-selling British sports cars ever built.
Then came the harder years. Abingdon shut its doors in October 1980. MG became a badge on hot Metros and Maestros, and the marque drifted through ownership changes at British Leyland, the Rover Group, BMW and the Phoenix Consortium. The MGF appeared in 1995 as the first new MG sports car for over a decade, with the TF following in 2002. MG Rover collapsed in 2005, Nanjing Automobile bought the remains, and SAIC of China has owned the MG brand since 2007.
The 2024 MG centenary marked 100 years since the first MG-badged car left Morris Garages, and the marque celebrated with a year of events that nodded to its racing past. Today's line-up leans into electric, with the Cyberster roadster bringing the badge back to a two-seat sports car for the first time since the TF went out of UK production. You might see today's cars as the next chapter or as a clean break from what came before. Either way, they're part of the history of the MG marque now.
For those of us who own an older MG, that century of change is part of the appeal. You're driving a car that sits in a direct line back to Cecil Kimber, the Abingdon factory floor and the octagon badge on the bonnet.
So where does the Moss Rimmer partnership fit into all this? Moss Motors was founded by Al Moss in Los Angeles in 1948, after he bought a new MG TC and realised that parts and service for British sports cars were hard to come by in California. The British MG marque has sat at the heart of what we do from the start.
More recently, Moss Europe has joined forces with Rimmer Bros under the MPG umbrella. The Moss Rimmer partnership brings two of the most established names in British classic car parts under one roof, with shared logistics, broader stock, joint catalogues and pooled technical knowledge. For you as an MG owner, that means one place to come when you need parts.
Looking at the MG history timeline as a parts business, Moss has now been around for more than 75 of MG's 100 years. We hold parts across the full classic range:
A few MG history facts shape how we work day to day. Combined MGB, MGC and MGB GT V8 production reached 523,836 cars, so we hold deep stock of common service items decades on. T Type production was much smaller and earlier, so trim and chrome parts often need specialist sourcing. The MGF and TF, as more modern cars, share more parts commonality, though they bring their own quirks. The K-series head gasket is a known issue across both, and Hydragas on the MGF needs specialist support that the steel-sprung TF doesn't.
We produce catalogues with schematic diagrams for classic MG models, plus a parts-by-number function that takes the guesswork out of ordering known good fitments. You can click and collect from any of our UK and Paris branches, and the trade shop covers ex-VAT pricing for professional restorers and garages.
There's no single way to explore the history of iconic British car brand MG. Some owners are drawn to the pre-war racers, others to the chrome bumper MGBs, some to the rubber bumper cars that get unfairly overlooked, and a growing number to the MGF and TF as the new affordable classics.
Whatever sits in your garage, the MG heritage and history is part of why you bought it. Why else does an old British sports car keep its grip on you for years after the keys first changed hands?
We're here to help you keep yours on the road. That might mean a single bulb, a full restoration's worth of parts, some technical advice from someone who's worked on the same car, or just a chat about your project. From a nut and bolt to a body shell and everything in between, our MG section is the place to start.