Honest review of the MG4 XPower

[salty]

I had the FN2 for five years from new, fun car when I was younger, just a shame the suspension was made from concrete.

View attachment 43606

Had mine 12 months.

 

[blueman671]

Nope an FN2. Got it brand new. Lovely motor, but quickly got bored of having to wring it's neck, to get any meaningful progress. I know that's the nature of the V Tec engine, basically nowt low down but all hell breaks loose in the high revs. But as said, it became tiresome very quickly.
Swopped it for the Mk2 Focus ST 5 pot.
So I've had a few so called fast cars, Not in the company of BMW M cars or Merc AMGs but quick enough.
The acceleration of the X Power just blows me away, and actually most cars too. I love it, some don't. Fair enough.

FN2 to the 5 pot focus is a glorious car history. I had the newest/final RS for a while. If I do just 2 million more EV miles, I might have saved enough in petrol to offset the cost of topping up my EP3's oil every 2 days and filling up the RS

Had mine 12 months.

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Ditto

 

[ClaretFozzy]

Sorry you didn’t seem to get on with the XPOWER.

I’ve had some decent past cars - mk 2 Focus ST, Volvo C30 T5, F21 M135i, F22 M235i, G01 X3 M40d, Jaguar I-PACE - to name a few and honestly, I find it really difficult to criticise the XPOWER for the price they go for.

I paid more 10 years ago for my M135i.

Edit: I had an EP3 Type-R 20 odd years ago and never really got on with it. I found the clutch pedal rock hard for starters. I’m probably the only person that didn’t really like them!

 

[Chrisdriving]

Interesting and comprehensive post.
Fair enough. And it's all about opinions.
But don't agree with most of um.
I must be driving a different X Power than you.

Agreed different car must be.

 

[blueman671]

Sorry you didn’t seem to get on with the XPOWER.

I’ve had some decent past cars - mk 2 Focus ST, Volvo C30 T5, F21 M135i, F22 M235i, G01 X3 M40d, Jaguar I-PACE - to name a few and honestly, I find it really difficult to criticise the XPOWER for the price they go for.

I paid more 10 years ago for my M135i.

Edit: I had an EP3 Type-R 20 odd years ago and never really got on with it. I found the clutch pedal rock hard for starters. I’m probably the only person that didn’t really like them!

This is the issue for me though, an XPower is certainly a better price than the new 35i or 40i range, but, you can get second hand m140s or 135i for less than the price of a used XPower, and it’s a much much better car. Obviously fuel plays a part, but if you’re getting an XPower for over £20k, or new at over £30k, you could save yourself £15k to pay for petrol and have a 140i that runs rings round the XPower and is so much nicer to drive. Not to mention the money you lose on the MG through depreciation.

New vs New, the XPower doesn’t have much competition. But I don’t see the value in any new car nowadays given how good the used market is.

Also, your ep3 must’ve had an aftermarket clutch, they were light as anything and the gearbox was the best bit about the car in my opinion! Horses for courses I suppose

 

[siteguru]

Playing Devil's advocate ... without the New market there is no Used market.

 

[blueman671]

Playing Devil's advocate ... without the New market there is no Used market.

Very true. Happy for others to pay the obscene prices for new cars and I’ll buy them in a few years

 

[ClaretFozzy]

This is the issue for me though, an XPower is certainly a better price than the new 35i or 40i range, but, you can get second hand m140s or 135i for less than the price of a used XPower, and it’s a much much better car. Obviously fuel plays a part, but if you’re getting an XPower for over £20k, or new at over £30k, you could save yourself £15k to Pa for petrol and have a 140i that runs rings round the XPower and is so much nicer to drive. Not to mention the money you lose on the MG through depreciation.

New vs New, the XPower doesn’t have much competition. But I don’t see the value in any new car nowadays given how good the used market is.

Also, your ep3 must’ve had an aftermarket clutch, they were light as anything and the gearbox was the best bit about the car in my opinion! Horses for courses I suppose

I loved our M135i and M235i, but honestly, I think the XPOWER is a better all round more useable car than both. The XPOWER actually reminds me a lot of the M135i, without a bit of the drama but with a lot more speed.

Granted we’re talking ten year old cars here but my 2025 XPOWER actually cost me 4 grand less than my 2016 M135i. I can’t overlook that.

 

[blueman671]

Agreed different car must be.

There is a reason most of the established car magazines and reviewers rate it 3/5. It’s not exactly an unusual take - the car isn’t that good.

Fully expect people who are active on a forum to love their car and defend it to the nth degree, but the reality is it’s a cheap Chinese EV. To pretend it’s some groundbreaking piece of motor vehicle engineering is daft.

It has faults. People raising them doesn’t mean they’re wrong, just honest and flagging issues to people looking at them on the used market.

 

[ClaretFozzy]

A couple of pics of the old girls and invariably getting stuck in snow (the beast from the east in that photo!)

 

[blueman671]

I loved our M135i and M235i, but honestly, I think the XPOWER is a better all round more useable car than both. The XPOWER actually reminds me a lot of the M135i, without a bit of the drama but with a lot more speed.

Granted we’re talking ten year old cars here but my 2025 XPOWER actually cost me 4 grand less than my 2016 M135i. I can’t overlook that.

Fully agree with the price. The m140 handles poorly so wasn’t a great car to drive quick - similar to the XPower imo, they’re both quick up to 8 tenths, beyond that they fall apart.

If you could get an m135i now for £14k, or, an XPower for £30k+, would you still consider the XPower the better value for money?

Again, new vs new the MG wins on value hands down. But you don’t have to buy new

 

[blueman671]

View attachment 43635View attachment 43643
A couple of pics of the old girls and invariably getting stuck in snow (the beast from the east in that photo!)

Preferred taking mine out in the sun

 

[ClaretFozzy]

Fully agree with the price. The m140 handles poorly so wasn’t a great car to drive quick - similar to the XPower imo, they’re both quick up to 8 tenths, beyond that they fall apart.

If you could get an m135i now for £14k, or, an XPower for £30k+, would you still consider the XPower the better value for money?

Again, new vs new the MG wins on value hands down. But you don’t have to buy new

A 14 grand M135i is going to feel like an old car now, unfortunately. The tech is massively outdated - no Apple CarPlay on our models on iDrive 4 - so I’d chuck a couple of extra grand at it to get a nearly new XPOWER which handles similarly, has far better tech and a warranty.

More power and lower running costs are just the icing on the cake.

 

[blueman671]

A 14 grand M135i is going to feel like an old car now, unfortunately. The tech is massively outdated - no Apple CarPlay on our models on iDrive 4 - so I’d chuck a couple of extra grand at it to get a nearly new XPOWER which handles similarly, has far better tech and a warranty.

More power and lower running costs are just the icing on the cake.

Fair enough, different strokes for different folks.

I’d use the £2k to get an updated car play head unit and get the car mapped with refreshed suspension. Found it much nicer to drive and the sound was 10/10.

Petrol of £300 a month would be worth it so I didn’t have to speak to MG ever again.

Plus, the CarPlay on my MG just didn’t work and it was bricked on my drive for the last 6 weeks which didn’t help