One of my favourite sheds for a long time, far better than all these leggy barges...

These cars were seriously rated by the specialist motoring press when new..I've still got the EVO group test where it was narrowly shaded by the Clio 172 and gave the Civic Type R a hard time..so £750 for a ten year old car like this is great value...all the naysayers are just badge snobs...

Great cars, always wanted one but the timing was never right.. Not seen a really bad review, and when first launched they were really rated. Test drove one, loved it apart from the shocking interior - I prepared myself, but was still appalled.

A 100 mile daily commute means that this will never happen now.. great value for £750.

To all of the people who cannot see past the German badge on their car, these MG ZS 180's are absolutely superb value for money. I have had use of one, and they are fantastic to be honest! Believe it or not I actually prefered driving it to my mates Subaru Impreza, and I actually think the ZS handles better.

These cars give a lot of "bang for buck" performance. It's nice to see a lot of positive comments here. I've run one of these for 110k miles from new (mostly on LPG, so the one potential downside wasn't really a problem) which, while not 'faultless' was still very good.

We're on our third Impreza WRX (my wife still has WRX number 2 - a 2.5ltr 07 plate saloon, mine is a 2.5 hatch). The subarus are, ultimately, faster than the ZS, but the MG has always felt better on b roads and has sharper turn in with more steering feel - it corners very flat, but the ride isn't harsh - firm, but not bumpy. In dry conditions, the ZS is as quick as any of the three WRX's on twisty roads.

I know the engine is not very powerful for its 2.5 ltrs, but the way it delivers really is great. Its eagerness to rev is matched by the ability to tootle along at 30mph in 5th gear while still being able to accelerate without complaint from low revs and low speed. . . . . . and then there's the sound (I managed to justify the purchase of a Janspeed exhaust given the £5k plus saving on fuel over the 100k+ miles) . . . happy memories - I really need to get it back on the road.

These things are tremendous value at the moment - 4 doors, 5 seats and a full size boot (the saloon is surprisinlgy practical with the fold down rear seats too) with £2k buying a very good example - and mine was responsible for one of my finest 'bloke' moments when I managed to change the three cambelts myself (only done a K4 prior to this, but have managed to completely disassemble a VVC head since . . . and put back together succesfully)

Shedding doesn't come much better than this . . . unless there's an xj8 involved, but I am getting on a bit now . . . . or cheaper than this - If it keeps going for 6 months, it's done its £750's worth

Just thought I would mention... I didn't pay £750 for it, I cheekily offered £730, which bought some petrol for the return journey home.

The chap I bought it from Justin, (nice guy) replaced the ZS with an estate Impreza which sounded rather fruity.

I have had a quote of £480 to do all 3 belts, tensioners, water pump & coolant flush. Reasonable?

One of these was my first "performance" car and it was awesome! I will defend these cars all day long, despite some flaws.

I had a saloon in silver which looked great. Been waiting for it to be SOTW!

One slight negative, & is only slight, is that I keep looking for a 6th gear.
The gearbox feels good, 3rd is little notchy, but only if you change up sloppily.
It gets into 5th nice & quick, the torque allows 30mph in 5th with no bother. But as the speed increases I find myself automatically going for another gear...that isn't there. I'm sure it would pull a 6th ratio with no problem at all.
Does the mk 2 come with a 6 speed box?

I never got more than ~24mpg out of mine, primarily because I enjoyed it so much.

On the hoons, excelling herself against much more expensive metal.

I spent a long time looking for an immaculate one, bought one with 16k on the clock for £3,000. Unfortunately mine seemed to develop every common fault that is available which made it an expensive tenure!
For the money, you are looking at Clio 182's or RX-8's. Neither sound as good as the KV6 under full load and modified induction.

As others have said, pick one up for under a grand and run it to the ground. You'll win, whether it breaks or not.

Depends how good the car is and long you want to run it. Changing the belts and getting 3 years from £1200 would work out much better value than finding and buying 3 subsequent cars with their inevitable faults. Bangernomics doesn't add up unless you like buying lots of different cars.

Check out MG ZS Dream car garage on you tube.