They aren't the first car to have this problem.
The roof 'rails' on the current Astra Estate are purely a decorative feature and not load bearing. If you want to fit a roof rack, it fits to fixed positions in exactly the same way as would be done on a car without the rails fitted.
In that case though they are fairly obviously too flimsy to support roof bars, whereas those ones on the MG5 are meant to at least look robust.
For any cars which have been sold, I wonder if this will require a VOSA safety recall as the outcome would be quite dangerous if those rails detached on the motorway with a couple of bikes on top. I'm not sure what the recall would be though, other than perhaps fixing large "Do Not Use" stickers to the rails. They wouldn't be able to remove the rails on affected cars as it would leave a hole in the roof.
It does beg the question why they fitted them in the first place though. Big fixed rails like that will have some adverse effect on aerodynamics, as well if they are anything like the ones on my Octavia make an irritating noise when driving on the motorway with a strong cross-wind.
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