NAC MG UK has almost sold out of its 500-unit run of the TF LE500 relaunch model.

While the sales success is great news for dealers it also leaves them without new cars until the standard TF 135 arrives in December.

Each dealer was allocated 10 TF LE500s, including their demonstrator.David Wood, general manager of Luffield MG and
Citroën in Loughborough, said: “We’ve been overwhelmed by the reaction and have already sold eight from our allocation of 10.

“We had 800 prospects to chase up and 100 customers came to our launch day.”

The standard model’s specification has already been issued so dealers can deal with prospective customers, but NAC has yet to finalise prices.

Dealers will continue to conduct test drives and take orders for the standard TF.

Wood said staff resources won’t be wasted during the wait as he has no dedicated MG sales team.

MG’s original launch date of September 2007 was abandoned while quality issues were remedied. 

Wood said: “While dealers may have been frustrated about waiting for the cars, I think it was for the best that NAC took the time to iron out any problems with the car. The quality of the cars we’ve had has been fine.”

Another dealer agreed that sales were going well and there were no quality issues.

However, a third told AM it had to take a press car in place of its demonstrator on its launch weekend due to “misaligned panels and poor paint work on two models”.

Nevertheless, the dealer said he was getting good profit on each sale with no discounts and enough interest to sell his remaining allocation of stock.

He said: “We have sold four units so far and delivered one. So we now only have four left to sell.”

A spokeswoman for MG said: “We are in the fortuitous position of having dealer orders for all the 500 LE’s and that vehicle production run will be on-going until later this year. 

“Customers for the standard 135 will soon be able to place orders.”