In Praise of the ZS

I've moved some off topic posts into a new thread. You will find it here:

We've had a Mk1 and Mk2 which is coming up to 2 years old. Zilch problems with either I'm glad to say. It just does everything as expected. Very pleased indeed.

I've had the MG ZS EV SR Luxury trim for around 5 months now and I love it. Great driving experience and I haven't encountered a single problem so far. Very happy with it!

BeardedZs said:

I guess it is the nature of online forums like this that one tends to see more complaints than praise. I thought I would try to address the balance by saying quite simply I think the our ZS Trophy LR is a fantastic car! Firstly it's really comfortable, the seats adjust well enough for me and my wife feels the same. The car drives well it, can be relaxing if that's what you want, easy one-foot control , the ACC works well, the automatic headlights are great and the automatic wipers are no worse than any other manufacturer's. When you want to put your foot down the ZS is as responsive as I could wish for with the acceleration common to all electric cars. The interior of the cabin looks and feels fine, the 2 screens show everything clearly and it has more than enough bells and whistles for me. Even the app does enough for what I want.
We love it.

Click to expand...

I fully agree with you , I love my MG ZS LR, a year old in May

Jerry said:

I'm another very satisfied customer. Its nice to read other peoples happy experiences. Car has been brilliant (not faultless as had to have a replacement steering column under warranty). Local MG sales and service has been exceptional.

Its a joy to drive. I tow with mine. I had a witter detachable tow bar fitted. Its around a 340kg fully loaded trailer tent then there's all the camping stuff in the boot. I cant even tell its hauling around the extra weight.
I'm sort of dreading the new model due out this year? - I cant afford it and I'm sure some of the reported niggles will have been ironed out and I'll want one.

The only real gripes are the App, it could do so much more (v2.0.4) worked first time for me with an iPhone 13 and its currently only failed once to connect to the car. My other gripe funnily enough is the other App I use for my Rolec charger, .EV - its hopeless, so hopeless in fact that I switch it to dumb mode and let the car and MG App do the charge controlling. I've contacted them several times, they are quick to respond and quick to provide excuses. In a nutshell its just not 'smart'.

I love the panoramic sunroof and look forward to the Spring and Summer where even on the motorway travelling at 60mph (max speed towing a trailer) its nice to have open.
I'm going to get the rear windows tinted, probably by 'Global tint UK' before the summer.

I think as money is so tight these days I'll keep my MG ZS EV LR for way longer than I used to do with previous ICE cars. I look after mine and my MG looks after me.

Click to expand...

I agree about the Rolec “ smart “ charger. I’ve never been able to get the app to work properly, got fed up trying to get it sorted so now only use the MG app which since the last update has worked well. I’ve had a few niggles with my Trophy long range ( 12v battery being one ) but love my car !

BeardedZs said:

I guess it is the nature of online forums like this that one tends to see more complaints than praise. I thought I would try to address the balance by saying quite simply I think the our ZS Trophy LR is a fantastic car! Firstly it's really comfortable, the seats adjust well enough for me and my wife feels the same. The car drives well it, can be relaxing if that's what you want, easy one-foot control , the ACC works well, the automatic headlights are great and the automatic wipers are no worse than any other manufacturer's. When you want to put your foot down the ZS is as responsive as I could wish for with the acceleration common to all electric cars. The interior of the cabin looks and feels fine, the 2 screens show everything clearly and it has more than enough bells and whistles for me. Even the app does enough for what I want.
We love it.

Click to expand...

Yes, I love ours, too.yoy could spend twice, even three times as much on a car and still get little niggles.

Adapting to being electric is a little more difficult, however, (although much better now our home charger is installed). It's long journeys and holidaying when we feel it most. We have to drive down from Cumbria to the South coast regularly to see family, a good 600 mile round trip) so that, already long, journey is now almost intolerably longer, and of course, more expensive than with my old diesel car which could just about make it there and back on one tank of fuel. Likewise, we like to holiday in the UK, renting a cottage in the sticks somewhere and touring about. Taking into consideration charging has limited our choices somewhat.

Well said BeardedZs!
I spend less time on the forum these days because I got fed up with all the whingeing and slagging off. I initially joined to try and gain advice and knowledge from other owners (when the ZS was the only electric MG), I found it really useful then and visited the forum most days.

I was delighted with my first ZS (March 2020) and would still be happily driving it now if I hadn’t seen the improvements made in the new model. I was offered a superb deal to trade it in for a Trophy LR (March 2023) and am even happier now - I’ve had no real issues with either car in 4 years of ZS ownership. I occasionally glance enviously at other marginally better looking SUV style ev’s but then remember exactly what I have as standard equipment and how much (or how little) I paid by comparison.

BeardedZs said:

I guess it is the nature of online forums like this that one tends to see more complaints than praise. I thought I would try to address the balance by saying quite simply I think the our ZS Trophy LR is a fantastic car! Firstly it's really comfortable, the seats adjust well enough for me and my wife feels the same. The car drives well it, can be relaxing if that's what you want, easy one-foot control , the ACC works well, the automatic headlights are great and the automatic wipers are no worse than any other manufacturer's. When you want to put your foot down the ZS is as responsive as I could wish for with the acceleration common to all electric cars. The interior of the cabin looks and feels fine, the 2 screens show everything clearly and it has more than enough bells and whistles for me. Even the app does enough for what I want.
We love it.

Click to expand...

I echo all this, a really good car.

BeardedZs said:

I guess it is the nature of online forums like this that one tends to see more complaints than praise. I thought I would try to address the balance by saying quite simply I think the our ZS Trophy LR is a fantastic car! Firstly it's really comfortable, the seats adjust well enough for me and my wife feels the same. The car drives well it, can be relaxing if that's what you want, easy one-foot control , the ACC works well, the automatic headlights are great and the automatic wipers are no worse than any other manufacturer's. When you want to put your foot down the ZS is as responsive as I could wish for with the acceleration common to all electric cars. The interior of the cabin looks and feels fine, the 2 screens show everything clearly and it has more than enough bells and whistles for me. Even the app does enough for what I want.
We love it.

Click to expand...

Hi BeardedZs,
I am very pleased that you have a great car. We have the same car on a 22 plate but we can not say the same thing about ours! The car is booked in again for more things to be fixed and this will make it seven times it has been back in for repairs. This time is is in they are keeping the car for 3 days as it needs a new stearing rack along with 4 other repairs like auto headlights keeps going on to full beam when cars are coming towards us! Back wash water jet stopped working! They recently replaced the whole sunroof! Radio stopped working! I could go on and on but all I will say I will not be buying another MG and will be glad to see the back of it. Maybe we got a Friday car!

GordieG said:

Well said BeardedZs!
I spend less time on the forum these days because I got fed up with all the whingeing and slagging off. I initially joined to try and gain advice and knowledge from other owners (when the ZS was the only electric MG), I found it really useful then and visited the forum most days.

I was delighted with my first ZS (March 2020) and would still be happily driving it now if I hadn’t seen the improvements made in the new model. I was offered a superb deal to trade it in for a Trophy LR (March 2023) and am even happier now - I’ve had no real issues with either car in 4 years of ZS ownership. I occasionally glance enviously at other marginally better looking SUV style ev’s but then remember exactly what I have as standard equipment and how much (or how little) I paid by comparison.

Click to expand...

To be clear from my standpoint I’m happy that others are having trouble free experiences with the car , when mine worked trouble free I liked it. My feedback was more to alert people to the inherent risk of buying a new ev at the moment and also just give my own experience of the car. Whilst it would make sense for me to bugger off now from mg forums (don’t worry I will) I decided to continue for now again to put my experience of losing 15.5k in one year.
The car i replaced the zs with whilst also not perfect has held its value better after 6 years than the zs did in one year.

On the whole pleased with my ZS Trophy Gen 2 SR, just a few niggles:-
Not impressed with the satnav, often forgets where it is, and picks up side roads when on the motorway!
The electric adjustable seat has failed twice. The fuse layout in the handbook bears no relation to actual layout so it had to be dealership jobs, 24 mile round trip.
Minuscule clock, no outside temperature display.

MikeN said:

On the whole pleased with my ZS Trophy Gen 2 SR, just a few niggles:-
Not impressed with the satnav, often forgets where it is, and picks up side roads when on the motorway!
The electric adjustable seat has failed twice. The fuse layout in the handbook bears no relation to actual layout so it had to be dealership jobs, 24 mile round trip.
Minuscule clock, no outside temperature display.

Click to expand...

The outside temperature is on your dashboard between the two circular bits.

It is also displayed in the top R/H corner of the info unit.

Gadget Geek said:

This will probably put a hex on it, but apart from the rear springs, which were replaced under warranty, I've had no issues with mine. The software and app can be quirky at times, but I'm loving the sky roof.

Click to expand...

I’ve had rear springs too!! At 15k miles.

Tone68 said:

Yes, I love ours, too.yoy could spend twice, even three times as much on a car and still get little niggles.

Adapting to being electric is a little more difficult, however, (although much better now our home charger is installed). It's long journeys and holidaying when we feel it most. We have to drive down from Cumbria to the South coast regularly to see family, a good 600 mile round trip) so that, already long, journey is now almost intolerably longer, and of course, more expensive than with my old diesel car which could just about make it there and back on one tank of fuel. Likewise, we like to holiday in the UK, renting a cottage in the sticks somewhere and touring about. Taking into consideration charging has limited our choices somewhat.

Click to expand...

I just choose cottages I can charge at, even if that's via a granny charger. I just ask if its possible before I book, always stating I will pay for the electricity. If its not possible either because they don't want to, don't have a dedicated chargepoint or a properly wired outside 3 pin plug socket, i just look elsewhere. When I visit my folks, 189 miles each way, I charge at theirs using a granny charger. I reimburse them, albeit by 'hiding' eg 20 quid somewhere easy to find.

Drove a 23 plate ZSEV for an hour last week whilst my car was being looked at.

Smooth and comfortable spring to mind but with quite a lot of tyre noise IMO.

Windscreen washers that just.......work!

Beautiful wash pattern and wipe.

I'm still not 100% happy with the set up on my 4.
Such a bugger to set up and 'wet' the screen to my satisfaction.

I felt the steering had a 'self centering' pull that I don't have on my 4 and something you would get used to I'm sure.

It seemed 'old school' looking at the binnacle, now being used to the large clear display on my car.

I found it very easy to get in and out of, due to the higher ride height and slim sill compared to the 4.

Stop/Start button. YES!
Just makes bloody sense.

Loved the full glass roof and the fact that you had a full length sun blind.

The Stereo was also very good.

I was very comfortable in the car and having had a recent string of SUV type vehicles felt very happy swanning about in and around Carmarthen.

Oddly I felt more support from the seat in a long sweeping roundabout than I've got in the supposedly sportier seat in my 4.

The vibes I am used to in my car at 70mph were noticeable by their absence.

I thought I would pop some electrons into her at my usual Tesla Superchargers out of courtesy but no matter what I did, I could not start a charge.

On, off, locked, unlocked. Nada.

Must of been missing something as I charge my 4 there all the time.

I also think it's a very good looking car.

My final thought to the salesman was
"Let me know when they put the X Power drivetrain in one of those"
I would be first in the Q!

Minus the vibes.
Obviously.

Ruislip Resident said:

I just choose cottages I can charge at, even if that's via a granny charger. I just ask if its possible before I book, always stating I will pay for the electricity. If its not possible either because they don't want to, don't have a dedicated chargepoint or a properly wired outside 3 pin plug socket, i just look elsewhere. When I visit my folks, 189 miles each way, I charge at theirs using a granny charger. I reimburse them, albeit by 'hiding' eg 20 quid somewhere easy to find.

Click to expand...

I use a Face Book group, "EV holidays/breaks/days out." on which people with cottages, houses etc to rent advertise - they all have chargers of course. I stayed at an excellent one in Suffolk, Upthorpe Lodges, and got free charging as a member of the group!

profdraper said:

& especially in the UK it would seem ...where surely there must be a different MG shipped there to the rest of the world. Have never seen so much winging & this does not appear in anywhere near such volume other parts of the world, ie, India, Australia, New Zealand etc.

Personally, I've owned two ZS EVs over the years, a gen 1 then a gen 2. Had zero issues with either of them, the service centres were brilliant, the DAB radio works as does dead reckoning, the 12v battery fault has never happened etc etc. Its a perfect car for urban use in particuar: excellent allround vision, seating height,turning circle, storage. Cleverly built to a useful price point & especially the gen 2 LFP model.

Click to expand...

was in Australia and nz for full month in feb. loads of Mg zs ev. Australia is contantly warm so no battery issues as to range sapping due to cold. NZ virtually has same climate as us. but they must love em. cant say about India. Just a shame they stopped shipping to uk with skyroof. im lucky we got one

GordieG said:

Well said BeardedZs!
I spend less time on the forum these days because I got fed up with all the whingeing and slagging off. I initially joined to try and gain advice and knowledge from other owners (when the ZS was the only electric MG), I found it really useful then and visited the forum most days.

I was delighted with my first ZS (March 2020) and would still be happily driving it now if I hadn’t seen the improvements made in the new model. I was offered a superb deal to trade it in for a Trophy LR (March 2023) and am even happier now - I’ve had no real issues with either car in 4 years of ZS ownership. I occasionally glance enviously at other marginally better looking SUV style ev’s but then remember exactly what I have as standard equipment and how much (or how little) I paid by comparison.

Click to expand...

You seem to be the best person to ask: given the choice of second hand ZS, both around 45,000 miles, would you go for earlier Exclusive or later Trophy standard range - difference in price being about £3,000? And why, if not too much to ask?

Anyone else's comments?

If you can afford it go for the trophy as the travels further. The range on the pre facelift is appox.160 miles and roughly 200 for the standard range trophy and 273 for the long range.
This is my first time with an EV since Sept 2022 and I still have a smile on my face when driving especially at traffic lights lol