MG History: In 1924 a Morris car dealer in England started customizing Morris cars and sold them as 'Morris Garages', and they became known as MGs. The first MGs were re-bodied Morris vehicles built in a Morris factory and by 1928 they had enough orders to start their own company under the M.G. Car Company name. MG was absorbed by the British Motor Corporation in 1952, which became British Leyland in 1968, and then joined the Rover Group, which went bankrupt in 2005. The Chinese car maker Nanjing Automobile bought MG Rover shortly after that and then sold it to the Shanghai Automotive Industry Corporation in 2007.