MG4 in Australia

[PeterK]

Great news. I would be interested if you noticed any vibration at 100kph?

No is the answer

 

[Trooper]

On another note, have you guys had any luck negotiating a better price than the website? Did the dealers throw in extras likes mats and window tint?

After initially trying to negotiate on price, the dealer ended up throwing in the 7kW MG ChargeHub for free instead!
Not a huge cost to them, but good value for me so win-win.

 

[Converted]

Midland MG. Picked it up on Friday 22nd sept

Hey I'm about to drop my order (Essence 64) and keen to hear your latest feedback about your first week's experience with the car.
And everybody else who has recently reviceved and started driving their new delivered MG4.

 

[DerekH]

Very happy with it. Weird that it was a learning curve given how long I have been a driver and rider. A fair few options to go through to understand layout etc but worth spending some time trying everything. Used a public charger to set up app access etc and very easy. Used granny charger again all easy. Now fitted a 3 phase charger and great charging speed max at 9.87kw AC.One pedal option is great. Software is responsive and as it goes back to defaults each start, need to make a few personal tweaks each drive but takes seconds. Range has been really great. Min 60km a day plus weekend driving and on an 80% start charge lasts the week without charging it, so pretty similar to my previous petrol drive. Very cheap to charge especially if you have solar. No regrets

 

[wattmatters]

Drove 225km yesterday, mostly 110 km/h cruise control on the Pacific Motorway. Car reported 16 kWh/100km. Was very windy and the car was getting moved around a fair bit. It was not at all a relaxing highway drive when compared with my last car, which was rock solid on the road. I'm not sure how much was due to the winds. I'm doing the same trip in reverse late today, so if the conditions are calmer I'll get a better sense of that.

On the motorway the lane keep assist triggered a couple of times for no reason but not violently like it does when driving the roads around home, where it borders on being outright dangerous. But what's frustrating is I'm finding the LKA can reactive itself during a drive. IMO it's a completely crap implementation of LKA and detracts from an otherwise good car.

The scheduled charging feature is hit and miss. It worked once, and failed on two other days. Indeed I find getting it to start charging normally to be rather painful. Plug the charger in and nothing happens. I seem to have to play a game of locking and unlocking, plugging and unplugging for anything to happen. It does not give me any sense of confidence.

Performance is ample and handling is pretty decent.

I tried some fast chargers, and lord what a mess that whole experience is. I already have five different charge station apps, they all work differently, the instructions are not always intuitive. Christ, why can't we tap n go a credit card or phone payment like we can for just about every other purchase we make in life? Yesterday's Evie station at Taree was ridiculous - a call to tech support needed to get it to work. The screen tells you to plug in, but tech support says "no, you have to ignore that". Then the station had a power outage when I got back to the car I found it wasn't charging.

The use of Vodafone network for the car is a PITA. Service coverage is patchy and often I can't use the remote functions/check car status.

The greeting announcement cannot be turned off, which given it keeps telling me it's the first of January 2019 is rather annoying.

 

[JoeBlow]

Plug the charger in and nothing happens. I seem to have to play a game of locking and unlocking, plugging and unplugging for anything to happen.

I just plug in and it will start after a few moments, not instantly like other cars do. (Edit: I actually went and plugged the car in after typing this post, and paid attention to how long it actually took - blue lights, lock cable, green lights all within a second or so - so it's practically instant, maybe sometimes after a longer drive it ponders for a few moments)

The very first time I tried charging I think I played the game, but I now realise I just had to let it do its thing.

As for the actual car after a month, as above it’s not perfect - and mostly that is due to software. My biggest complaint would be the lack of settings memory for OPD. Have to turn it on each time, but that is only two taps. No LKA issues here. No 2019 greeting either…

But, honestly I quite like driving it. Over the past few weeks I’ve often taken the MG rather than the Tesla. Robert Llewellyn mentioned he did this in his long term review as well, and I didn’t believe him. But yeah, after a few weeks I can see it being true, the Tesla is “better”, but really the MG is a decent car, and in a few ways slightly better than the Tesla. Especially OPD on a long windy downhill, but I think that is because the NMC battery is better at soaking up the regen than LFP is.

I would still take the Tesla on a road trip that will require charging, but that is mostly due to the DC charging network shenanigans that wattmatters has mentioned.

Long story short: not perfect, but no real regrets.

 

[DerekH]

Interesting responses from you guys. I too have had no LKA issues and no 2019 greeting either. I can and have set a custom greeting, this can be changed to whatever you want and the toggle allows the greeting to be disabled if you wish. I have had no issues with granny cable charging. I must admit I haven't let it self start. I do the following. If car is locked I unlock so I can open the charge port cover. I then lock the car. I plug the granny cable in and switch power point on. I go to the app and click start charging. I will try and wait next time and see if it auto starts. I also have a 11kw MG chargehub and do the same thing. I tried public DC charging once to see how it would go and to add my credit card to the chargefox app. Agree some standardisation would be great but lets face it not a lot seems standard in this world . It was a simple process to plug it in, follow the prompts and away it went. I set a charge limit of 90% and it charged to that, slowed at the end and finished. Disconnected and the chargefox app tells you how much was charged to my card and they also send a nice email containing the info on Kw, time and $ in case I guess you want to claim it on tax etc. The app also maintains history so you can track spend, time charging and kwh. Doubt I will use public chargers much except on those long trips. Loving the car so far and other than having to set OPD on and traffic sign recognition off which literally takes 5 secs I have had no problems at all.

 

[wattmatters]

The very first time I tried charging I think I played the game, but I now realise I just had to let it do its thing.

When I do that, nothing happens. It just never charges.

Especially OPD on a long windy downhill

I have a decent mountain not far from me (Dorrigo) and took it for a blast up. Use the OPD on the way down and that was good.

and the toggle allows the greeting to be disabled if you wish

Mine is off. It still makes the announcement.

I too have had no LKA issues

At my bother's today and let hime take it for a drive. When we were on a country road I said to him "let me know when you want me to disable lane keep assist". A few minutes later when it tried to pull him off the road he said,"uh, yeah, turn that shit off!!".

It's awful and needs to be fixed before it kills someone.

 

[DerekH]

try my method to initiate the charge and see how that goes for starters. Weird how there is a setting to turn off announcement yet you still get it. That and what clearly seems a bad LKA sounds like totally different experience to mine. Firmware level?? I have the essence 77kw, could the firmware be that different?

 

[JoeBlow]

essence 64 here.

could be a software difference, could be a fault in the car with bad camera alignment or something.

Like LKA is not perfect, but no different to other cars I've driven with LKA. And anytime it's kicked on I can see why it chose to interfere, and it's never been entirely bogus. And it's not dangerously overpowering.

 

[wattmatters]

try my method to initiate the charge and see how that goes for starters.

Ultimately I will have a charge station and that should be automated, so it won't be a normal thing with the granny unit. But just got home from my drive and plugged in. Nothing, zip, nada. Kept getting voice warning that car is low on charge and to plug in ASAP. It was at 21% SOC.

Firmware level??

04 but I'm not actually sure where you find the car's firmware. That's on the infotainment system which I presume to be a different thing to the car's firmware.

And it's not dangerously overpowering.

Sometimes I think it's going to break my wrist. It's a violent jerk.

On the motorway on the way home it was mostly fine. It tries to pull over into left turn out lanes though.

 

[DerekH]

Ultimately I will have a charge station and that should be automated, so it won't be a normal thing with the granny unit. But just got home from my drive and plugged in. Nothing, zip, nada. Kept getting voice warning that car is low on charge and to plug in ASAP. It was at 21% SOC.


04 but I'm not actually sure where you find the car's firmware. That's on the infotainment system which I presume to be a different thing to the car's firmware.


Sometimes I think it's going to break my wrist. It's a violent jerk.

On the motorway on the way home it was mostly fine. It tries to pull over into left turn out lanes though.

definitely sounds like an issue with something on yours for LKA, never had it be that violent.. Hadn't thought that it could be camera / LIDAR fault... yeh if its eyesight is bad it could do weird stuff.

So charging did you follow how I do it? be interested as I don't have car on and not in it, given you hear it advising low charge sounds like you have the car powered up? That said once it initiates charging I can get in, sit down and check status, play music etc. Obviously wont let you drive Let it initiate charging with car off and locked and see how it goes. The start of charging process requires car and charger to do some communication and dialogue before charging starts. Could be you are in some way interrupting that comms at the beginning?

 

[wattmatters]

Could be you are in some way interrupting that comms at the beginning?

What comms are they?

I just plug it in, turn it on, lock the car and expect it to charge. Why is it so hard? (rhetorical).

I don't want to have to be getting in and out of the car multiple times and performing some secret masonic-like handshake while doing a double pike navigating a phone app for a car that doesn't always get 4G signal, just to charge the bloody thing.

But more importantly, I want my wife to be able to charge it and not need to go through a complicated sequence of events, none of which are described as necessary by MG.

This is what MG say to do:

I'm following the process the user manual advises.

I'm due to visit the service centre tomorrow to pick some stuff up, so I will see if anyone there has a clue (I won't be holding my breath).

I hope have enough charge left to make it there, but getting home will be reliant on finding a public charge station. Yep, the car wouldn't charge when I got home from my trip.

 

[DerekH]

What comms are they?

I just plug it in, turn it on, lock the car and expect it to charge. Why is it so hard? (rhetorical).

I don't want to have to be getting in and out of the car multiple times and performing some secret masonic-like handshake while doing a double pike navigating a phone app for a car that doesn't always get 4G signal, just to charge the bloody thing.

But more importantly, I want my wife to be able to charge it and not need to go through a complicated sequence of events, none of which are described as necessary by MG.

This is what MG say to do:
View attachment 20566
I'm following the process the user manual advises.

I'm due to visit the service centre tomorrow to pick some stuff up, so I will see if anyone there has a clue (I won't be holding my breath).

I hope have enough charge left to make it there, but getting home will be reliant on finding a public charge station. Yep, the car wouldn't charge when I got home from my trip.

Hahaha, I feel your frustration. Not that you want to hear it but I left mine at home today to let it granny charge all day on solar. Hit start on the app this morning it charged all day and I used the app to stop charging. It stoppedband lights went off on chart port. I then checked mailbox etc walked back in garage and as I hadn't turned the charger off at the wall, it proceeded to re initiate and start charging again... so I stopped it via the app and then turned power of at the wall

 

[Converted]

But more importantly, I want my wife to be able to charge it and not need to go through a complicated sequence of events

Just what watmmatters said, in my situation is really important. It may be a one off and I hope will be identified and resolved under warranty/service and not ploughing thru forums to find a fix!!!
I very much appreciate the technical details and feedback but if I have to support this vehicle in order for my wife's daily drive I have just created 2 new jobs for me.
One: to learn and interperet all of the accronyms and basic math, and then to spend the time to...
Two: translate teach and execute as required...... just to keep my wife on the road as a daily driver.
That said, all input that everybody is taking the time to respond in this thread is absolute gold and I thank you all.
I hope you all get your issues resolved whether it software, warranty or otherwise, I'm still keen to drop my order and share my novice experience as I convert.
Please keep up all of your findings so we can all benefit.
I am learning so much from this thread, Thanks!

 

[PeterK]

Interesting responses from you guys. I too have had no LKA issues and no 2019 greeting either. I can and have set a custom greeting, this can be changed to whatever you want and the toggle allows the greeting to be disabled if you wish. I have had no issues with granny cable charging. I must admit I haven't let it self start. I do the following. If car is locked I unlock so I can open the charge port cover. I then lock the car. I plug the granny cable in and switch power point on. I go to the app and click start charging. I will try and wait next time and see if it auto starts. I also have a 11kw MG chargehub and do the same thing. I tried public DC charging once to see how it would go and to add my credit card to the chargefox app. Agree some standardisation would be great but lets face it not a lot seems standard in this world . It was a simple process to plug it in, follow the prompts and away it went. I set a charge limit of 90% and it charged to that, slowed at the end and finished. Disconnected and the chargefox app tells you how much was charged to my card and they also send a nice email containing the info on Kw, time and $ in case I guess you want to claim it on tax etc. The app also maintains history so you can track spend, time charging and kwh. Doubt I will use public chargers much except on those long trips. Loving the car so far and other than having to set OPD on and traffic sign recognition off which literally takes 5 secs I have had no problems at all.

I'm the same. 77 kW essence.
LKA is no problem. Gentle touch every now and then and generally for a reason.
OPD has remained on since I got the vehicle, and I don't know why you would turn it off anyway.
The car has never greeted me, and I would have turned that off if it did.
Charging is a 7 kW home charger set to solar only. I just plug it in, have it set to 80% and walk away. No issues and no complaints.

 

[DerekH]

Interesting that your OPD stays on between car restarts. I want mine to do that... I find it really odd that there are so many variances of what the car does between different people..

 

[wattmatters]

This sort of confusion doesn't help.

 

[JoeBlow]

Yeah there shouldn't be any need for special incantations to get it to charge. Plug in, walk away.

If it's not like that there's a fault and you're right to be annoyed.

OPD has remained on since I got the vehicle,

As in you see "S" in the regen "rainbow wheel" all the time and OPD stays toggled on? Mine always resets to 3. I would be so happy.

 

[wattmatters]

Yeah there shouldn't be any need for special incantations to get it to charge. Plug in, walk away.

If it's not like that there's a fault and you're right to be annoyed.

I made my trip into town to pick up some goodies (more on that in another post) but before coming home I found a fast charger and gave it a 10-minute hit just to make sure I had enough to get back. It was happy to pull 140 kW before slowing down a bit. Got back to the car and it was already at 66% SOC.

When I got home I got out of the car, plugged in the charger cable, locked the car and this time it started charging all by itself.

¯\(ツ)/¯

As in you see "S" in the regen "rainbow wheel" all the time and OPD stays toggled on? Mine always resets to 3. I would be so happy.

Yeah, mine does the same, goes to a default regen setting of 3.

Weird how there is a setting to turn off announcement yet you still get it.

Not sure where I read it but someone somewhere suggested there was a way to disable it through the weather menu, and it was not the greeting option.

So I tapped on the weather card and it opened a new screen with a couple of options, one was about announcing the weather. Turned that button off. I think it's done the trick but probably won't know for sure until I see if it sticks.

My trip into town was to collect some items I had ordered:

- MG4 floor mats
They fit well and look good. Have a sort of velcro like backing to keep them from moving about, while the driver's floor has two clips to keep the mat secured in place. Glad I got them as the floor carpet in the week I've had it is already showing signs of wear.

- Type 2 charge cable
This is the MG branded one. Nothing particularly special/noteworthy. 6 m long I believe and in a carry case. The case fits in the shallow space under the boot floor lid.
I need to have another look at the granny charger to see if there's anyway it can also be squeezed into that shallow space under the boot floor without concern for damaging anything. Seems silly to make it not be able to fit under there.

- V2L adapter
Again the MG supplied one. I note that while the socket says 15 A, the plug appears to only have a regular 10 A earth pin socket, which is a little annoying but perhaps they want to emphasise the power supply limitation of the car. I am yet to test this feature (need to charge the car first!). The big test will be how it goes as a supplemental charge source for my home battery system.
Like the Type 2 cable, this also comes in an MG carry bag which also fits in the space under the boot floor lid.

- ZJ Beny OCPP charge station
Also arrived today so I called my electrician and looks like he will try to swing by tomorrow afternoon to fit it. We already have the sub-board, circuit and wiring all ready for it. We'll do a neat rear wire entry so the only visible cable will be the charger cable itself. Looking forward to getting this all set up with Charge HQ and running the solar only charging.

LKA

About today's drive. I left the car's default settings in place, which of course includes the LKA being activated. I'm doing this as I want to know exactly what my wife is going to experience. She's not an experienced driver and is not going to be attempting to play with the car's drive mode settings. For her it is get in, select drive and go.

I noticed when driving on the B-highway the LKA icon was constantly flipping between green (active) and white (inactive).

Interestingly I was following a truck and left a fair distance to it as it seemed to be shedding stuff. At one point a big chunk of timber flew out the back and so I took evasive action to avoid it which did involve crossing the centre double lines (no oncoming traffic so I could afford to take a wide berth). Car had no issues with my manoeuvre.

On the motorway the LKA icon would stay green but it still wants to pull me over when I pass turn out lanes.

On country roads I can't really tell what the icon is doing as there's less opportunity to safely observe it, but the steering wheel regularly gets jerked without need.