From an editorial, The MG Dynasty in today’s New York Times:
A Toyota assembled in Kentucky is now old news. Some of us can even live with the idea of a Jaguar sold by Ford. But it’s going to take a while to get used to the thought of an MG coupe built by a Chinese auto company in a factory halfway between Dallas and Oklahoma City.
Luckily, we will have a couple of years to think about it before the first vehicle — a newly designed MG TF Coupe — rolls out of the Nanjing Automobile Group’s new plant in Ardmore, Okla. When that day comes, it will be the first new version of the MG in the United States since 1980 — and from the first auto assembly plant built in this country by a Chinese carmaker.
The Times editorial, which continues, does not mention a most interesting aspect of the plan, however. The land on which the factory is to be built is former Indian land being re-acquired (and put into trust) by the Chickasaw Nation.
The interstate, a nearby railway, an abundance of cheap land and the tax advantages of partnering with a tribe make southern Oklahoma an attractive alternative to the Metroplex, McCaleb said.
This diversification is made possible by the Dawes Act of 1887, which eliminated Oklahoma’s reservations and carved up tribal land into individual allotments.
However, a tribe can buy land anywhere within its former reservation and ask the federal government to put it into trust for the tribe’s benefit.
That gives the tribe immense advantages for economic development.
I for one think that the MG built by Chinese in Oklahoma on Indian land is a very cool idea. Talk about multi-cultural diversity. I for one would buy an MG.