£550 daily MG ZS 180
Discussion
Hi folks,after reading pistonheads daily i thought i would finaly share my ride with you, i was on the look out for something cheap after me and the mrs finaly got bored of sharing a car,i only lived 10mins from work so i either took the car or she dropped me off,current car is a new 14 plate vauxhall astra gtc cdti 130ps,while this imo is a good car it didnt realy float my boat in a petrolhead kind ofway. So the goal was cheap as chips with some tax n test and hopefuly,something with a little ooomph. After jumping on fleabay i seen a black 2004 mg zs 180 with 20 mins left and only 1 bid at £600. 4 mins left and i put a bid in for £620 and i won. Now the only question was, will it be ok in the flesh, i was pleasently surprised, great condition, no knackered drivers seat as per the norm on these,4 new matching falken tyres, scorpion exhaust, k&n 57i induction kit, and a oil catch tank to stop the dreaded inlet rattle! Took it for a quick test drive and did notice a slight groan from back n/s wheel. Told him sounds like the bearing is going and i would give him £550 now and take it away and he took it.
I have always lime these since my dad had a 120 hatch back in the day when they first came out and imo are very underated by people and a great buy for the money.
Plans are to get the wheel bearing sorted in the next week, wheel refurb and maybe change the colour to a gunmetal while there being done and maybe a decat.
Im waffling on now sorry to bore you but without further a do, here she is
I have always lime these since my dad had a 120 hatch back in the day when they first came out and imo are very underated by people and a great buy for the money.
Plans are to get the wheel bearing sorted in the next week, wheel refurb and maybe change the colour to a gunmetal while there being done and maybe a decat.
Im waffling on now sorry to bore you but without further a do, here she is
Nice motor! I still miss mine. Just keep an eye on the VIS motors - if one of these fails it will be down on power. You should notice a pull around 3k and 4.5k on WOT as each one does its job. Mine went at 10k miles (even with catch tank). Other than that it was pretty reliable.
A guy bought it new in NI for around 17k. It was registered in 06 (manufactured 04). My brother bought it at 10 months old with 3k on the clock for 7k. I bought it off him for 6 a few months later and sold it on 16k miles a year later for 4k!! That's some depreciation.
Crazy that these can be had for shed money. Most people browsing the classifieds would disregard them which helps prices stay low I guess. But they are a nice drive!
Good advice over on xpower forums if you encounter any issues.
Enjoy it!
A guy bought it new in NI for around 17k. It was registered in 06 (manufactured 04). My brother bought it at 10 months old with 3k on the clock for 7k. I bought it off him for 6 a few months later and sold it on 16k miles a year later for 4k!! That's some depreciation.
Crazy that these can be had for shed money. Most people browsing the classifieds would disregard them which helps prices stay low I guess. But they are a nice drive!
Good advice over on xpower forums if you encounter any issues.
Enjoy it!
These are a hoot to drive. Really sure-footed handling and the V6 up front justs being ragged around like it's a little twin cam in something 3dr and tiny. Sounds good too. I only paid £250 for mine and in the time I had it, it proved reliable. Couple of niggles and quirks, but nothing actually broke. Inlet rattle was present when I got it, so I ripped the manifold open, threw the flaps away and put it back together. We own a dyno at work, so I did plenty of testing on that (171bhp was the best IIRC) and I also did a dyno day for the MG forum. The number of 180's that were sitting around the 140 mark because the VIS was shot was comedy (mine gave the second highest reading of the day)!
Drawback of it for me, was the ride. I've grown up on a diet of French hot hatches, so I know you can have decent handling AND ride comfort, but this thing was so over stiff it was unreal! I work on TVRs daily, and they glide down the road in comparison - even a Griffith 500! I improved the ride by sticking the 16in wheels from the 120 on it, and then further improved it by loading 140kg of old car magazines in the boot. Didn't help the second issue with it though, which was.....
.....economy, which was also abysmal, though in fairness I only worked up the road so it never got a motorway run or anything. 20mpg was the norm. On the occasions I took it for a run it still couldn't crack 30mpg.
Drawback of it for me, was the ride. I've grown up on a diet of French hot hatches, so I know you can have decent handling AND ride comfort, but this thing was so over stiff it was unreal! I work on TVRs daily, and they glide down the road in comparison - even a Griffith 500! I improved the ride by sticking the 16in wheels from the 120 on it, and then further improved it by loading 140kg of old car magazines in the boot. Didn't help the second issue with it though, which was.....
.....economy, which was also abysmal, though in fairness I only worked up the road so it never got a motorway run or anything. 20mpg was the norm. On the occasions I took it for a run it still couldn't crack 30mpg.
Thanks for the replies gUys.
Manmaths, im loving the look of that mk2,very nice.
I have definatly got the shove at 3k but now i think about it i dont know if i feel any extra at 4.5k iv only heard people talking about a shove at 3k,doesnt seem like its down on power though as to be fair it does seem pretty rapid for what it is.
Dont know what my mpg is but it doesnt seem to be too bad on juice tbf and i do like to hear it growl a lot to be honest, but i didnt realy buy it to worry about mpg so hey ho.
Manmaths, im loving the look of that mk2,very nice.
I have definatly got the shove at 3k but now i think about it i dont know if i feel any extra at 4.5k iv only heard people talking about a shove at 3k,doesnt seem like its down on power though as to be fair it does seem pretty rapid for what it is.
Dont know what my mpg is but it doesnt seem to be too bad on juice tbf and i do like to hear it growl a lot to be honest, but i didnt realy buy it to worry about mpg so hey ho.
Kitchski said:
These are a hoot to drive. Really sure-footed handling and the V6 up front justs being ragged around like it's a little twin cam in something 3dr and tiny. Sounds good too. I only paid £250 for mine and in the time I had it, it proved reliable. Couple of niggles and quirks, but nothing actually broke. Inlet rattle was present when I got it, so I ripped the manifold open, threw the flaps away and put it back together. We own a dyno at work, so I did plenty of testing on that (171bhp was the best IIRC) and I also did a dyno day for the MG forum. The number of 180's that were sitting around the 140 mark because the VIS was shot was comedy (mine gave the second highest reading of the day)!
Drawback of it for me, was the ride. I've grown up on a diet of French hot hatches, so I know you can have decent handling AND ride comfort, but this thing was so over stiff it was unreal! I work on TVRs daily, and they glide down the road in comparison - even a Griffith 500! I improved the ride by sticking the 16in wheels from the 120 on it, and then further improved it by loading 140kg of old car magazines in the boot. Didn't help the second issue with it though, which was.....
.....economy, which was also abysmal, though in fairness I only worked up the road so it never got a motorway run or anything. 20mpg was the norm. On the occasions I took it for a run it still couldn't crack 30mpg.
When you gutted the manifold did you remove the balance flap connected to one of the vis motors? My ZT 190 has sluggish acceleration and recently was checked on dignostics. Errors were logged for the vis motors so instead of replacing I'm planning on gutting the manifold as well.Drawback of it for me, was the ride. I've grown up on a diet of French hot hatches, so I know you can have decent handling AND ride comfort, but this thing was so over stiff it was unreal! I work on TVRs daily, and they glide down the road in comparison - even a Griffith 500! I improved the ride by sticking the 16in wheels from the 120 on it, and then further improved it by loading 140kg of old car magazines in the boot. Didn't help the second issue with it though, which was.....
.....economy, which was also abysmal, though in fairness I only worked up the road so it never got a motorway run or anything. 20mpg was the norm. On the occasions I took it for a run it still couldn't crack 30mpg.
There are two sets of flaps, but it's only the power flaps that fail as the plastic linkages break. I gutted those, but left the balance flaps in and working. Left the VIS motor in too, otherwise the ECU throws a duckfit. It just assumed they were still there and carried on happily.
Drawback is you lose a bit of grut lower down as you're effectively shortening the inlet tract, but once it hits 4000rpm you know you're getting full power. It probably effected my fuel economy for the worse slightly too and may have contributed to my low figures (others had said they're good on fuel for a V6, but when you hear people saying their ZS180 does 35mpg around town, you just assume they're talking out of their arse, or don't know how to calculate MPG properly!) My ZS180 was nearly as bad as my Mondeo ST200 for economy, though the MG was a damn-sight quicker. That also suffered secondary flap inlet issues, incidentally! Best V6 for economy AND power I've had was an Alfa 156 2.5V6 - no flaps, nothing clever, could always do 25mpg around town if driven carefully and had a decent turn of pace).
Anyway, back O/T, the last ZT190 I dyno'd was making 158bhp. I said it was good, not realising it was a ZT190 not a ZT160
Drawback is you lose a bit of grut lower down as you're effectively shortening the inlet tract, but once it hits 4000rpm you know you're getting full power. It probably effected my fuel economy for the worse slightly too and may have contributed to my low figures (others had said they're good on fuel for a V6, but when you hear people saying their ZS180 does 35mpg around town, you just assume they're talking out of their arse, or don't know how to calculate MPG properly!) My ZS180 was nearly as bad as my Mondeo ST200 for economy, though the MG was a damn-sight quicker. That also suffered secondary flap inlet issues, incidentally! Best V6 for economy AND power I've had was an Alfa 156 2.5V6 - no flaps, nothing clever, could always do 25mpg around town if driven carefully and had a decent turn of pace).
Anyway, back O/T, the last ZT190 I dyno'd was making 158bhp. I said it was good, not realising it was a ZT190 not a ZT160
Andyk84 said:
Thanks for the replies gUys.
Manmaths, im loving the look of that mk2,very nice.
I have definatly got the shove at 3k but now i think about it i dont know if i feel any extra at 4.5k iv only heard people talking about a shove at 3k,doesnt seem like its down on power though as to be fair it does seem pretty rapid for what it is.
Dont know what my mpg is but it doesnt seem to be too bad on juice tbf and i do like to hear it growl a lot to be honest, but i didnt realy buy it to worry about mpg so hey ho.
Yea it's not as noticeable as the one at 3k but it is there. Like you say the car feels quick - if you had VIS problems it wouldn't so I'm sure everything is working for you. Manmaths, im loving the look of that mk2,very nice.
I have definatly got the shove at 3k but now i think about it i dont know if i feel any extra at 4.5k iv only heard people talking about a shove at 3k,doesnt seem like its down on power though as to be fair it does seem pretty rapid for what it is.
Dont know what my mpg is but it doesnt seem to be too bad on juice tbf and i do like to hear it growl a lot to be honest, but i didnt realy buy it to worry about mpg so hey ho.
I put a powertec SL1 filter in mine and mounted it in a custom bracket behind the left wheel. It really did sound fantastic. Then I went and stuck a massive Powerflow exhaust on it which totally drowned the induction roar out. Wish I never did that but it did sound great over 4krpm.
No - don't think this car is for the mpg conscious!
I would consider getting one again though (for the Mrs). I could of course borrow it occasionally. At this price point it's hard to overlook.
manmaths said:
Yea it's not as noticeable as the one at 3k but it is there. Like you say the car feels quick - if you had VIS problems it wouldn't so I'm sure everything is working for you.
I put a powertec SL1 filter in mine and mounted it in a custom bracket behind the left wheel. It really did sound fantastic. Then I went and stuck a massive Powerflow exhaust on it which totally drowned the induction roar out. Wish I never did that but it did sound great over 4krpm.
No - don't think this car is for the mpg conscious!
I would consider getting one again though (for the Mrs). I could of course borrow it occasionally. At this price point it's hard to overlook.
It already got a scorpion cat back on,but its not over powering,sounds great stood behind it but go to the front and you can only hear the induction roar from the k&n 57i, so best of both worlds for me,i would get tired quickly of a ott exhaust constantly droaning on the motorway, can not honestly think i would have found anything in as good a condition than this for the money and it certainly wouldnt have put a smile on my face like this does, big smiles for peanuts! Result.I put a powertec SL1 filter in mine and mounted it in a custom bracket behind the left wheel. It really did sound fantastic. Then I went and stuck a massive Powerflow exhaust on it which totally drowned the induction roar out. Wish I never did that but it did sound great over 4krpm.
No - don't think this car is for the mpg conscious!
I would consider getting one again though (for the Mrs). I could of course borrow it occasionally. At this price point it's hard to overlook.
wouldnt mind doing a track day tbh wouldnt know where to start going about it though and dont even know if theres anywhere near me in warrington cheshire that even does them
Whilst out getting some stuff for work today i stopped off at halfrauds and took advantage of their 3 for 2 on car cleaning gear, after giving it a good was n buff yesterday i can see that it does have some fine swirls and scratches as to be expected with a car 10 yrs old, i think previous owner must av put a fair few layers of polish with fillers on it as before you couldnt realy see them so heres my plan...
Some mags compounds to get rid of the swirls and scratches,have previously used mags scratch x with great results so thought i would try this seen as the scratch x was no where to be seen.
The AG deep polish i have never used before,have used SRP and thought it was decent so went for this as it says its better for dark colours.
And finaly some Gloss sealent to keep all that hard work protected, will all be done with a rotary polisher that i have.
Will come back with the results tomorrow as il get up nice and early and crack on seen as i dont start work till 5pm tomorrow
Some mags compounds to get rid of the swirls and scratches,have previously used mags scratch x with great results so thought i would try this seen as the scratch x was no where to be seen.
The AG deep polish i have never used before,have used SRP and thought it was decent so went for this as it says its better for dark colours.
And finaly some Gloss sealent to keep all that hard work protected, will all be done with a rotary polisher that i have.
Will come back with the results tomorrow as il get up nice and early and crack on seen as i dont start work till 5pm tomorrow
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