MG TF

It may look like a facelifted MGF but the TF’s talents run much deeper and may just make it the better buy.

- Paul Wager

It’s impossible to mention the MGF without at least considering the TF and there will doubtless be many potential purchasers wondering which way to go.

At first sight of course – especially to someone not particularly clued up on the model’s history – the two cars do seem very similar and you could be forgiven for thinking the TF was simply a facelift of the F.

The differences are much more significant than that though. Regular readers will be well aware of the amount of Metro thinking which went into the original MGF design and it was the untimely demise of the Metro/Rover 100 which sparked the development of the TF.

With the Metro discontinued, the MGF was the sole model to use the Hydragas suspension and when the replacement parts market for the Metro started to die off, it was simply too costly to keep the system in production only for a single low-volume sports car.

By then though, BMW had sold the Rover Group to the Phoenix Consortium and in its MG Rover guise the company desperately needed to keep a proper sports car in production to lend some credibility to the MG badge which it was hastily slapping on to warmed over Rover saloons.

The solution was to re-engineer the MGF to accept a more conventional suspension set-up but this wasn’t a simple task.