Discussion
NDNDNDND said:
V 02 said:
NDNDNDND said:
You bought this instead of a VXR8?
Fail.
If you don’t have anything nice to say on a readers cars thread you should keep it to yourself.Fail.
And he could've bought a VXR8.
Wow, quite the response, thank you.
Let me try and give my first impressions and answer a few questions on the way.
Style
As a few have pointed out a bright orange EV could be considered a brave choice, but having seen a fair few mg4 out and about I always thought the shape suits the bright colours more. The orange or the sky blue being my personal favourites.
When the car arrived I was immediately impressed with it. Smaller than you may think, different without being too out there. It receives lots and lots of attention. I used to drive an orange/goldish evora and I would say the mg4 gets an equal amount of attention (although I can't say it deserves it!) A few nice little style touches that some may think OTT like the rear spoiler lighting up at night. (I do like that BTW)
Interior is relatively plain, nothing too shouty. Largeish infotainment screen and a digital dash as you would expect in an EV. Lots of black with red stitching (stitching is an x-power only thing) sorry no decent pics!
Build quality / materials / usability
There are no rattles or squeaks, everything seems reasonably well screwed together so far (but I've only had it 3 weeks). Interior plastics do show the budget nature of the car but they are well beyond acceptable and certainly a step up from the Subaru! Ergonomically it all works fine. Doors shut with a reasonably hefty clump and paint finish is good and a lot less orange peely than some "premium" cars I have seen. I have heard reports it chips very easily but no evidence of that yet. Only thing that jumps out as not being properly put together is the driver's door handle is a tiny bit misaligned. All the other doors are fine, I'm sure it could be fixed but I don't think I will bother.
Seats are reasonably comfy, the driver's one is electrically adjustable which is nice but a shame they don't have memory. Heated steering wheel is a nice to have which I've never had before!
Fits my family of 4 really well, boot is fine for day to day but would be small for a family holiday trip
Sadly no frunk
Stereo is pretty good up to normal everyday levels but shows it's lack of quality at higher volumes.
Tech and getting set-up
There is quite a lot of tech, lane assist, adaptive cruise, 360 cameras, built in Amazon music, Android Auto, phone app for charging pre heating etc. As mine is a lease the guy basically dropped it off on my drive and left me to it. It doesn't come with a paper manual (although you can access it through the infotainment) although it did have a quick start guide.
There is a lot to take in, I did some research before it arrived so knew roughly what to do. I'm generally ok with tech so I wasn't too phased but no way could my parents have worked it out...
In use is really where the lack of development/investment starts to show. Most things work, but the touch screens can be annoyingly slow. The driver assist is overly intrusive, it even put the brakes on for me the other day for no reason which made me jump! I turn most of the assistance off now...
I've used the active cruise and traffic jam assist a couple of times and it works quite well. A bit jerky on occasion but perfectly fine. Not something I intend to use a lot to be honest.
Driving and performance
The most important bit! Firstly let me say, this thing is properly quick, the instant torque and acceleration is amazing as it is in many EV.
I have only used the launch control once but it is mind blowing how quick it gets off the line. Left me with goosebumps! I've had some reasonably quick cars but this is another level. I love it! The only thing I can compare it to is those roller coasters that do fast starts (Rita queen of speed).
Ride is on the firm side of comfortable but no worse than my mini before it. Body roll is very controlled and it corners surprisingly flat. Grip levels seem really high and it is actually a lot of fun! I haven't given it a full on cross country blast yet so I will report back when I have but so far I am impressed. You can feel it's heavy but no worse than some other large cats I've had. At really low speed going over speed bumps and things it gets a bit harsh, I'm guessing because of the weight but it's fine at speeds over anything but a crawl.
Cost and efficient.
As others have said depreciation is obviously a concern but it is on most cars. I'm used to pre covid levels where a normal car loses 40-50% over 3 years. I don't believe the current trend for slow depreciation will continue, the signs are there the new car market is getting back to normal, sales and 0% finance deals all over the place.
So a lease made sense for a car I wanted to try and works for my current phase of life. It works out less than 30% of the car value over 2 years, which was by far the cheapest way to drive the car and no capital tied up on it. Worth 50p in 2 years? No worries I'll give it back.
As for efficiency somewhere just over 200 miles seems possible on a charge but this will change with the weather and time of day as well as driving style. Again one to keep an eye on. I got a charger (zappi) installed and changed my electric tariff to an eon EV one. 9p per kwh so a full charge from empty should be less than £6 at home....
Ethics
Ah yes, I'm sort of on the fence on this one. Yes it's made in China and sponsored by the Chinese government. Now unlike some I have no qualms about it being made in China, most things will have some Chinese element to them, just because it's Chinese doesn't make it instantly a poor product. Not sure this is different just because it's a car. The Chinese government are a long way from being nice folks though which is not so good. In my experience with anything Chinese the government is involved some way or another anyway. Is Geely stuff really that much different from SAIC? I honestly don't know. I'm sure someone will set me straight. It didn't stop anyone buying ladas back in the 80s and 90s...
Let me try and give my first impressions and answer a few questions on the way.
Style
As a few have pointed out a bright orange EV could be considered a brave choice, but having seen a fair few mg4 out and about I always thought the shape suits the bright colours more. The orange or the sky blue being my personal favourites.
When the car arrived I was immediately impressed with it. Smaller than you may think, different without being too out there. It receives lots and lots of attention. I used to drive an orange/goldish evora and I would say the mg4 gets an equal amount of attention (although I can't say it deserves it!) A few nice little style touches that some may think OTT like the rear spoiler lighting up at night. (I do like that BTW)
Interior is relatively plain, nothing too shouty. Largeish infotainment screen and a digital dash as you would expect in an EV. Lots of black with red stitching (stitching is an x-power only thing) sorry no decent pics!
Build quality / materials / usability
There are no rattles or squeaks, everything seems reasonably well screwed together so far (but I've only had it 3 weeks). Interior plastics do show the budget nature of the car but they are well beyond acceptable and certainly a step up from the Subaru! Ergonomically it all works fine. Doors shut with a reasonably hefty clump and paint finish is good and a lot less orange peely than some "premium" cars I have seen. I have heard reports it chips very easily but no evidence of that yet. Only thing that jumps out as not being properly put together is the driver's door handle is a tiny bit misaligned. All the other doors are fine, I'm sure it could be fixed but I don't think I will bother.
Seats are reasonably comfy, the driver's one is electrically adjustable which is nice but a shame they don't have memory. Heated steering wheel is a nice to have which I've never had before!
Fits my family of 4 really well, boot is fine for day to day but would be small for a family holiday trip
Sadly no frunk
Stereo is pretty good up to normal everyday levels but shows it's lack of quality at higher volumes.
Tech and getting set-up
There is quite a lot of tech, lane assist, adaptive cruise, 360 cameras, built in Amazon music, Android Auto, phone app for charging pre heating etc. As mine is a lease the guy basically dropped it off on my drive and left me to it. It doesn't come with a paper manual (although you can access it through the infotainment) although it did have a quick start guide.
There is a lot to take in, I did some research before it arrived so knew roughly what to do. I'm generally ok with tech so I wasn't too phased but no way could my parents have worked it out...
In use is really where the lack of development/investment starts to show. Most things work, but the touch screens can be annoyingly slow. The driver assist is overly intrusive, it even put the brakes on for me the other day for no reason which made me jump! I turn most of the assistance off now...
I've used the active cruise and traffic jam assist a couple of times and it works quite well. A bit jerky on occasion but perfectly fine. Not something I intend to use a lot to be honest.
Driving and performance
The most important bit! Firstly let me say, this thing is properly quick, the instant torque and acceleration is amazing as it is in many EV.
I have only used the launch control once but it is mind blowing how quick it gets off the line. Left me with goosebumps! I've had some reasonably quick cars but this is another level. I love it! The only thing I can compare it to is those roller coasters that do fast starts (Rita queen of speed).
Ride is on the firm side of comfortable but no worse than my mini before it. Body roll is very controlled and it corners surprisingly flat. Grip levels seem really high and it is actually a lot of fun! I haven't given it a full on cross country blast yet so I will report back when I have but so far I am impressed. You can feel it's heavy but no worse than some other large cats I've had. At really low speed going over speed bumps and things it gets a bit harsh, I'm guessing because of the weight but it's fine at speeds over anything but a crawl.
Cost and efficient.
As others have said depreciation is obviously a concern but it is on most cars. I'm used to pre covid levels where a normal car loses 40-50% over 3 years. I don't believe the current trend for slow depreciation will continue, the signs are there the new car market is getting back to normal, sales and 0% finance deals all over the place.
So a lease made sense for a car I wanted to try and works for my current phase of life. It works out less than 30% of the car value over 2 years, which was by far the cheapest way to drive the car and no capital tied up on it. Worth 50p in 2 years? No worries I'll give it back.
As for efficiency somewhere just over 200 miles seems possible on a charge but this will change with the weather and time of day as well as driving style. Again one to keep an eye on. I got a charger (zappi) installed and changed my electric tariff to an eon EV one. 9p per kwh so a full charge from empty should be less than £6 at home....
Ethics
Ah yes, I'm sort of on the fence on this one. Yes it's made in China and sponsored by the Chinese government. Now unlike some I have no qualms about it being made in China, most things will have some Chinese element to them, just because it's Chinese doesn't make it instantly a poor product. Not sure this is different just because it's a car. The Chinese government are a long way from being nice folks though which is not so good. In my experience with anything Chinese the government is involved some way or another anyway. Is Geely stuff really that much different from SAIC? I honestly don't know. I'm sure someone will set me straight. It didn't stop anyone buying ladas back in the 80s and 90s...
fred bloggs said:
I know 0-60 is good, how is say 50-100 ? Will it do over 100?
I have obviously never driven over 70 on the road. That would be illegal. But I would say it continues to push hard over 60mph and continues going. The ferocity does die down a little as you get to motorway speeds but it's still no slouch after that. I've obviously not done it but 1/4 mile has been recorded as low as 12s which would suggest well over 100 is possible.
BricktopST205 said:
These will be worth 50p in 18 months time. They do seem very good value for an EV but the depreciation of all EV's is just scary and waiting 2-3 years to buy used is equally as pointless because of how fast the technology is going. It is a catch 22.
I wouldn't be so sure for the X-power version. That performance benchmark also has a price benchmark. 
love that! 
One of the very few things MG have done to make the x-power stand out is to give you big orange calipers. Except they are not. They are covers. Being not entirely sure how I felt about covers (they look a bit cheap and it feels a bit like cheating) I decided to take them off on 1 side to see what is underneath.
Front cover
Comes off with the 2 visible Allen bolts you can see, and the wheel needs to be loosened off and car jacked up to wiggle them out.
Now I was hoping (not expecting) there would be something amazing under there. Unsurprisingly there wasn't.
Front caliper (and yes it's the other side of the car to the previous pic)
Back of from caliper
Same for the rear (except you didn't need to loosen the wheel)
Rear cover
Rear caliper
Not sure whether to keep them off or put them back on. If I wasn't leasing the car I would probably paint them black and put them back on... (Covers are made of steel in case anyone was wondering)
Front cover
Comes off with the 2 visible Allen bolts you can see, and the wheel needs to be loosened off and car jacked up to wiggle them out.
Now I was hoping (not expecting) there would be something amazing under there. Unsurprisingly there wasn't.
Front caliper (and yes it's the other side of the car to the previous pic)
Back of from caliper
Same for the rear (except you didn't need to loosen the wheel)
Rear cover
Rear caliper
Not sure whether to keep them off or put them back on. If I wasn't leasing the car I would probably paint them black and put them back on... (Covers are made of steel in case anyone was wondering)
As someone who is waiting for their MG4 Xpower on a lease I've had similar thoughts about the covers.
I personally think that within the next year or so you'll be able to buy replacement covers in all colours from the likes of Aliexpress and similar.
I think I'll probably paint / change mine, and in the worst case you could even just paint them orange again when the lease is up.
I personally think that within the next year or so you'll be able to buy replacement covers in all colours from the likes of Aliexpress and similar.
I think I'll probably paint / change mine, and in the worst case you could even just paint them orange again when the lease is up.
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