I was at my dealer in Friday having my mk3 serviced, whilst waiting I was looking at a new Crosstar being offloaded from a transporter, another customer commented that it was ”f**king ugly”, obviously it's looks are subjective, I'd have one, in fact I considered trading mine in and held back because of the current financial climate, I find the Crosstar to look more conventional with its grill than the other models, certainly nothing that would put me off.
With regard to the MG franchises, they are in the same dealerships as Nissan in my area, I suspect they sell really well as I see loads about.