Discussion
I remember driving the Kia Pride, Hyundai Elantra and Sonata when working in South Korea, twenty years ago. Then Kia/Hyundai, state backed Chaebol businesses, were written off in the West, but look at them now.
What can SAIC achieve with the MG GS, I wonder - Safety, Fast - with the backing of the World's eighth largest car manufacturer?
What can SAIC achieve with the MG GS, I wonder - Safety, Fast - with the backing of the World's eighth largest car manufacturer?
FinstonPickle said:
I remember driving the Kia Pride, Hyundai Elantra and Sonata when working in South Korea, twenty years ago. Then Kia/Hyundai, state backed Chaebol businesses, were written off in the West, but look at them now.
What can SAIC achieve with the MG GS, I wonder - Safety, Fast - with the backing of the World's eighth largest car manufacturer?
Well they seem to be happy to chuck money at it (Benedict Cumberbatch for the ad probably wasn't cheap), so lets hope so!What can SAIC achieve with the MG GS, I wonder - Safety, Fast - with the backing of the World's eighth largest car manufacturer?
I think that the advance information on the MG GS has been poor.
I have been driving a Mazda CX 7 DISI petrol turbo since new. There are similarities here with the GS in that it came out just before a recession and tried to challenge the established order. In spite of the CX 7 being judged by Autocar to be second only to the Cayenne, it bombed (It was the most popular SUV at the time in Australia and Russia). Surprisingly, by Autocar’s own figures, the CX 7 is eight seconds faster around their wet track than a 3 litre petrol turbo Macan.
This shows you how difficult it is, once you have a winner car on your hands to get it accepted. The styling seemed to do it for the Kia Sportage and, I guess, so did the price and warranty. Here is one approach to follow.
I am looking for a new car and have found, as other writers say, a range of SUVs with poor engines for high prices. Could MG pull something off, like Aldi, by producing premium quality at affordable prices. For some people, yes, for badge snobs no. The power of the Emperor’s new clothes and people seeing what they want to see, especially when others supposedly see it, is surprising and exploited relentlessly by car advertisers.
I have looked online and it does seem as though SAIC and MG are trying to do what what Mazda tried, but by using an Aldi approach – high quality for a reasonable price. The difference is that, unlike Mazda, SAIC are the eigth largest car manufacturer in the world and are already producing VW and GM cars etc. to world standards and know how they are built.
The surprising thing about the GS seems to be the thoroughness of its engineering. Again, the fact is impossible to determine, but by researching on line an encouraging series of releases by SAIC and others reveal:
1. It features China’s most powerful engine, the MGE 2.0TGI in-cylinder direct-injection turbo charged engine of 220 Horsepower and 350 Newton-Metres, giving 36 mpg – superficially, it sounds competitive with the Jaguar Ingenium petrol engine.
2. The GS comes with a full leather interior – heated front, electric driver and reclining front and rear seats, a sunroof, a TST 6-speed dual-clutch transmission, four wheel drive – engineered by GKN, handling developed by Porsche – with multi-link rear suspension like the Tiguan, not torsion beam like the Kadjar and a 0-100km/h acceleration of less than 8 seconds – what is there not to like? Styling may be Marmite y, but is fresh and could be good with two panel changes.
3.The front biased, four wheel drive promises the GS superior wet weather handling (like the Golf R and Mazda CX 7 petrol turbo). Whilst ceramic brakes means that the GS 100-0 km/h braking distance of only 36.29m is less than a Porsche 911 Turbo S or Golf R (Motor Magazine (Aust) figures).
4.The GS achieved a Five star C-NCAP (2015), which tests best selling cars, rather than allowing top of the range model features to enhance results. This is before considering the “fifteen-in-one protection” safety systems, whatever they are.
5. The GS approach angle of 28°, departure angle of 23° and maximum ground clearance of 185mm sounds better than most soft roaders.
6. There are some interesting videos, on line, of the GS doing standing starts – demonstrating 0-100km/h acceleration in less than 8 seconds – no special tricks, high speed slaloms through cones, going up 45 degree ramps and easily driving off whilst having diagonal wheels on rollers – the wheels turning on the rollers are not braked, which looks neat.
7. MG drivers obviously like their cars, with the 2015 Auto Express Driver Power Survey showing the MG 3 at 10th, the MG 6 at 28th and the MG dealers at 8th.
8. If pricing and equipment is similar to the MG6 – surely the GS is worth a punt at, say, ~£20k whilst also supporting British jobs at MG and GKN.
Note: The Autocar review of the new 2.0 TFSI Tiguan 4x4 DSG - 178 bhp (~40bhp down on the GS) for >£29.5k; New 1.6 DGI Sportage 4x4 manual - 174 bhp for >24.4k.
Also, for what it is worth, they do seem to have the engine that would transform the MG3. This is the SGE 1.5TGI turbocharged direct-injection engine, jointly developed with General Motors. Apparently, there was an embargo on SAIC using this engine until 2016 – so it might happen.
I have been driving a Mazda CX 7 DISI petrol turbo since new. There are similarities here with the GS in that it came out just before a recession and tried to challenge the established order. In spite of the CX 7 being judged by Autocar to be second only to the Cayenne, it bombed (It was the most popular SUV at the time in Australia and Russia). Surprisingly, by Autocar’s own figures, the CX 7 is eight seconds faster around their wet track than a 3 litre petrol turbo Macan.
This shows you how difficult it is, once you have a winner car on your hands to get it accepted. The styling seemed to do it for the Kia Sportage and, I guess, so did the price and warranty. Here is one approach to follow.
I am looking for a new car and have found, as other writers say, a range of SUVs with poor engines for high prices. Could MG pull something off, like Aldi, by producing premium quality at affordable prices. For some people, yes, for badge snobs no. The power of the Emperor’s new clothes and people seeing what they want to see, especially when others supposedly see it, is surprising and exploited relentlessly by car advertisers.
I have looked online and it does seem as though SAIC and MG are trying to do what what Mazda tried, but by using an Aldi approach – high quality for a reasonable price. The difference is that, unlike Mazda, SAIC are the eigth largest car manufacturer in the world and are already producing VW and GM cars etc. to world standards and know how they are built.
The surprising thing about the GS seems to be the thoroughness of its engineering. Again, the fact is impossible to determine, but by researching on line an encouraging series of releases by SAIC and others reveal:
1. It features China’s most powerful engine, the MGE 2.0TGI in-cylinder direct-injection turbo charged engine of 220 Horsepower and 350 Newton-Metres, giving 36 mpg – superficially, it sounds competitive with the Jaguar Ingenium petrol engine.
2. The GS comes with a full leather interior – heated front, electric driver and reclining front and rear seats, a sunroof, a TST 6-speed dual-clutch transmission, four wheel drive – engineered by GKN, handling developed by Porsche – with multi-link rear suspension like the Tiguan, not torsion beam like the Kadjar and a 0-100km/h acceleration of less than 8 seconds – what is there not to like? Styling may be Marmite y, but is fresh and could be good with two panel changes.
3.The front biased, four wheel drive promises the GS superior wet weather handling (like the Golf R and Mazda CX 7 petrol turbo). Whilst ceramic brakes means that the GS 100-0 km/h braking distance of only 36.29m is less than a Porsche 911 Turbo S or Golf R (Motor Magazine (Aust) figures).
4.The GS achieved a Five star C-NCAP (2015), which tests best selling cars, rather than allowing top of the range model features to enhance results. This is before considering the “fifteen-in-one protection” safety systems, whatever they are.
5. The GS approach angle of 28°, departure angle of 23° and maximum ground clearance of 185mm sounds better than most soft roaders.
6. There are some interesting videos, on line, of the GS doing standing starts – demonstrating 0-100km/h acceleration in less than 8 seconds – no special tricks, high speed slaloms through cones, going up 45 degree ramps and easily driving off whilst having diagonal wheels on rollers – the wheels turning on the rollers are not braked, which looks neat.
7. MG drivers obviously like their cars, with the 2015 Auto Express Driver Power Survey showing the MG 3 at 10th, the MG 6 at 28th and the MG dealers at 8th.
8. If pricing and equipment is similar to the MG6 – surely the GS is worth a punt at, say, ~£20k whilst also supporting British jobs at MG and GKN.
Note: The Autocar review of the new 2.0 TFSI Tiguan 4x4 DSG - 178 bhp (~40bhp down on the GS) for >£29.5k; New 1.6 DGI Sportage 4x4 manual - 174 bhp for >24.4k.
Also, for what it is worth, they do seem to have the engine that would transform the MG3. This is the SGE 1.5TGI turbocharged direct-injection engine, jointly developed with General Motors. Apparently, there was an embargo on SAIC using this engine until 2016 – so it might happen.
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