Roewe 550 revealed

This is the new Roewe 550, Shanghai Automotive Industry Corporation’s successor to the Rover 45. Designed and engineered in Britain, the 550 is due to be unveiled on Sunday at the Beijing motor show.Based on a cut-down but updated Rover 75 platform, the car that has become the Roewe 550 was in development before MG Rover collapsed in 2005.UK consultancy Ricardo has been closely involved with finishing the car, and has been helping SAIC to tune it to European tastes. SAIC is looking at bringing the car to Europe, but has yet to confirm such a move.The 550 is certainly one of the more appealing Chinese exports, with a crisp, contemporary exterior design and a clean, neat interior. The all-digital dash looks a little fussy and some of the trim, especially the wood, seems to be made of shiny plastics, but the 550 looks set to prove that the Chinese can produce more modern, less derivative cars.The engines aren’t too modern, though; they’re updated versions of the 1.8 and 1.6-litre Rover K-Series four-cylinder units. There will be a 2.0-litre diesel as well. The car’s crash-worthiness should not in question: the 75 chassis was impressively strong.There is a chance that this car could also be sold as an MG, because SAIC now owns Nanjing Automotive, the Chinese company that bought the MG name. SAIC could easily badge the Roewe 550 as an MG for European sales, which would get round the fact that the Roewe name has totally unknown outside of China.

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