How satisfied are you with your MG EV?

Can I ask: How satisfied are you with your MG EV?

Having read so many negative comments about cars from MG I’m now revisiting my planned purchase.

I picked the top one, because I have no regrets, and I love my MG4. I can't speak for any other MG model though.

I do have annoyances, which I've enumerated elsewhere. Yes, it's irritating to have to use work-rounds for software deficiencies that could quite easily be fixed by an update. But these work-rounds are possible, and become second nature after a bit. I could grind my teeth and get bent out of shape every time I have to switch off LKA and switch off the radio and hear the car lock me in at 10 mph and the app won't lock my car when I walked away from it and forgot to press the door button, and generally spoil my experience of the car by being a curmudgeon. But I choose not to. The car drives like a dream. It has some lovely positives.

I think the chances of getting a rogue car with the serious faults that have caused people to reject their car are pretty damn low. Of course these things are talked about a lot on the forum, but this is a minority of purchasers, and as far as the MG4 is concerned, seem to be confined to the very first cars to be manufactured, back in 2022.

The chances of getting a car with relatively minor software annoyancies are 100%. The question you need to think about is whether the way the car drives, and the positives it has, and of course the price, are enough to make you take a philosophical attitude to these. (They may of course be fixed in a future update, but I wouldn't rely on that.)

Had my MG ZS EV long Range since September 2022. Coming from a 2020 Golf Mk 7 SV i was worried about quality and reliability. Needn't have been concerned. The car has run perfectly and the build quality is surprisingly good. 4500 miles so far. Very happy with car. My only reason for selecting second option is that the " Arrange Service soon" message has come on the display about 4 times which i have reset and will have software update when it is serviced in September.

I have had my MG5 for just over 2 years and covered 34k miles.
I charge mainly using an overnight tariff and with my Zappi EVSE hopefully over the summer with excess solar.

This is a forum, forums are where people discuss problems and ask questions.
A bit like you should never read Trip Advisor reviews of a hotel you are going to stay in as you will cancel your booking immediately, you should not take any problems you read about on here as the norm, they are not.

Gomev said:

This is a forum, forums are where people discuss problems and ask questions.
A bit like you should never read Trip Advisor reviews of a hotel you are going to stay in as you will cancel your booking immediately, you should not take any problems you read about on here as the norm, they are yes I

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Yes I get that, thanks. Not really the same as trip advisor for me, but I do get your point, one nights stay in a hotel £250, on car purchase £35,000 do one should be far more critical.
But so many problems seem to be down to poor manufacturing/quality control. Forums are also a place for positive comments as I have seen here, but it would be nice to see from the webmaster if positives out weigh the negatives. Thanks again.

DBedford said:

Yes I get that, thanks. Not really the same as trip advisor for me, but I do get your point, one nights stay in a hotel £250, on car purchase £35,000 do one should be far more critical.
But so many problems seem to be down to poor manufacturing/quality control. Forums are also a place for positive comments as I have seen here, but it would be nice to see from the webmaster if positives out weigh the negatives. Thanks again.

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I know it's a small sample size so far, but the results are looking good and I think the trend will continue.

DBedford said:

Yes I get that, thanks. Not really the same as trip advisor for me, but I do get your point, one nights stay in a hotel £250, on car purchase £35,000 do one should be far more critical.
But so many problems seem to be down to poor manufacturing/quality control. Forums are also a place for positive comments as I have seen here, but it would be nice to see from the webmaster if positives out weigh the negatives. Thanks again.

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It would make for a very boring forum if it was full of threads simply praising the cars, people just don't do that. In order to get the balance you have to do exactly as you have, ask for it.

Bowfer doesn't seem to have voted yet...

We've had an MG5 for a couple of months, and - having read up in advance on some of the issues - weren't disappointed.

The issues for me are largely software related, which can - and may well - change in future releases. Consequently they are irritations, rather than show stoppers. Some of them are related to modern 'safety' features, not all of which can be permanently turned off, and some are quirky - like the way the audio keeps defaulting to radio and doesn't have an on/off switch.

No doubt more capable EVs will come along over the next few years, but IMHO the MG5 will still be a very capable car that we won't be rushing to change.

You can put the unit in standby (pretty much off) by long pressing the Power button when the car is switched on.

6500 miles since September in my MG ZS long range TC and only fault is service warning and greeting date, will get update on 1st service as it doesn't bother me that much and easy to reset. overall love the car.

smokie said:

You can put the unit in standby (pretty much off) by long pressing the Power button when the car is switched on.

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What power button? This is a FL version.

Very happy. Had my MG4 Trophy 5 months now. Only done 2.5k miles.
it looks good, it drives very well. It’s comfortable. I turn off most of the driver aids as I prefer to drive than be driven.

The radio software is awful. The main screen is not very responsive. The dealer experience is so-so.

All in all, I love it.

Amun said:

What power button? This is a FL version.

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Sorry got original answer wrong so edited out.

I bought my MG5 Excite original version (WLTP 214 miles) nearly 2 years ago (August) and have driven 10000 miles. At the time my 8 year old Toyota Diesel was costing an arm and a leg to fill up (and rising) and was beginning to cost a bit at services (brake discs etc) and its value was rapidly going down while the cost of new cars was going up. There was still a (reduced) government grant of £1500 and MG threw in a further reduction of £750. Although I very much liked my Toyota, It seemed sensible to change at that time and I don't regret it at all. I actually paid £24750 for the Excite, which at full price was nearly £28000 as I recall. I can put up with the adverse comments about styling, that doesn't bother me. I would have bought the Exclusive but for those seats....... I must say I like the cloth seats in the Excite, particularly in the hot weather. I don't miss the extras that the Exclusive has (MG Pilot, LKA etc) as I have never had them, and where I live they can be a positive nuisance if the experience of a friend is anything to go by!

Yes, there are a few irritations, such as the radio automatically coming on when you start up, but really they are minor. I quickly established a routine of muting the radio and selecting Eco Kers 3, and checking the auto-hold brake, so now I don't even think about it, it is automatic. The SatNav is quirky - but does the job, and the AC needs a bit of fiddling to get the settings right especially in the winter, but really these are of little concern in the grand scheme of things.

Charging at home is a doddle and so far I have had no significant issues using public chargers on the 10-or-so longer trips I have made away from home. It would be nice to have more range for the occasional away trips I do, but I generally have a rest stop after a couple of hours anyway so combining that with a charge just takes a little planning. I get over 200 miles range on a longer trip (usually about 210 -220) as I drive in the 60 to 65 mph range, which I find is actually quite restful, and at the moment driving round the Isle of Wight I am getting 250+ miles to a charge, due to the warm weather. I think too many people get wound up by the charging issue; EV driving is different from ICE driving, just chill out a bit and plan ahead.

To quote Edith Piaf "Non - je ne regrette rien!"

Gen1 ZS owner, bought mine "by accident" when looking for a runabout! The deal was so ludicrously good with loads of free stuff I couldn't say no. It had the infamous clicking steering issue which was resolved under warranty without any problems, albeit it took months and months to sort due to the delay in getting parts. The car was safe and driveable during this time, so not a major issue for me and the clicking sound wasn't that bad. The look of the car is OK, but that's as far as I'd go with it. Not in any rush to change it, it does what I want, but if I could have a battery with 100 miles more range, it'd be great. I have not had range anxiety despite the lower range of the car, but on occasion when considering long trips it would be easier to have a larger battery capacity.

I do like driving it - it's quiet, relaxed and fairly quick off the mark, and it has plenty of tech toys too which is great for this price range. I did test drive an MG4 and really liked it, but the reports on here did put me off so I'm sticking with what I know for now. Quite like the MG5 facelift, and whilst there are reports of issues they don't seem as extensive as the MG4 (the new MG5 is basically the old one with new looks/tech, perhaps that's why).

Will I stay with MG? Who knows. There are lots of other cars closing in on their market (BYD, for example) so I will go where the best VFM is!

Hope that helps.

DBedford said:

Yes I get that, thanks. Not really the same as trip advisor for me, but I do get your point, one nights stay in a hotel £250, on car purchase £35,000 do one should be far more critical.
But so many problems seem to be down to poor manufacturing/quality control. Forums are also a place for positive comments as I have seen here, but it would be nice to see from the webmaster if positives out weigh the negatives. Thanks again.

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The only issue with such a poll here is that those who subscribe are more likely to be one sided in favour of their car if they are still owners. I would suggest that earlier MG ZS EV’s were plagued with certain reliability issues (steering, water leaks) but would also suggest that quality control has also improved over time.

Brianlescargot said:

The only issue with such a poll here is that those who subscribe are more likely to be one sided in favour of their car if they are still owners. I would suggest that earlier MG ZS EV’s were plagued with certain reliability issues (steering, water leaks) but would also suggest that quality control has also improved over time.

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Agreed. I think perhaps the biggest lesson learned is that as you said the early ZS EVs had some issues, and the early 4s had some issues which seem to be getting resolved. Also a few issues with the early facelift 5. So moral of the story, wait a bit until the early bugs are ironed out.

FWIW, I owned a gen 1 ZS EV for a couple of years, then the facelift came out. On the face of it, seemed reasonably worthwhile, but could have easily stayed with the gen 1 for another couple of years. But then here in Australia some new rebates came out: $3k back from MG, them another $6k from the government. The $9k was pretty attractive.

In any case, the short end of the story is that the gen2 2022 ZS EV short range has certainly surpassed my expectations: surprisingly so much more refined, I think they nailed it for the price or otherwise; a had a good look at the Atto 3 (dreadful interior, dodgy & unnecessarily complex warranty); Tesla, nah - knees around my head in the M3, the MY far too large & with poor suspension…; Volvo far too pricey & dubious range.

While the gen 1 was certainly fun to drive & could easily fishtail away like a startled water dragon, the gen 2’s steering, suspension, handling & sound proofing all add up to a much more refined car. Then there’s and improved sound system, great infotainment & maps, more comfortable seating, and aircon for the rear seats. The dive modes have been nicely tuned over the gen 1. And LFP battery chemistry with a little more range & seemingly better economy. Zero technical issues, 7 year warranty, what’s not to like?

Well: no power tail gate, who cares? No frunk, LFA is waste of time, but the Cruise Control auto distance keeping is brilliant. I have no interest in MG Pilot. I also notice many common issues come up on far more expensive EVs than this one. Great car. I suspect one recommendation would be to try to ensure you have the best MG service centre possible, mine have been excellent, knowledgeable & responsive (although another was truly useless in the past). All EVs should come with a space saver or as an option, but no one does except for Audi & Jag I believe.