blueman671
Established Member
Posting this purely for the benefit of future buyers browsing the web for reviews. My XPower was finally collected by the dealership today after the car was rejected for numerous faults, so feels right to summarise my time with the car.
Firstly, the faults in question don’t impact the points I’ve raised below, so it’s not a bias review of a dodgy example.
The good bits:
The build quality is surprisingly good. All the touch points and switch gear are nice, have a decent tactile feel. Much more premium than I expected. The steering wheel, buttons, door close etc all feel quite ‘German’, more so than modern plastic Mercedes for example.
The joy sticks on the steering wheel work very well and are intuitive to use.
Speakers are fantastic for a generic system. Much better than the Dynaudio upgrade I’ve had in a MK7.5 Golf R. Good quality right up to max volume.
It handles quite nicely. It feels quite direct and agile. Feels like a smaller hot hatch, like the fiesta ST, so it’s got a ‘fun’ feeling to it.
Headlights are very good.
0-60 is ferociously quick (caveats below).
One pedal drive is a nice luxury to have, even if it’s not perfectly calibrated.
DC charging is quick when you need to use it.
360 cameras are very useful, and great to have in a ‘cheap’ car.
The absolutely horrendous bits:
The range is abysmal. In the winter, I’ve been averaging 160 mile range from a 100% charge (actual, not the estimated range after a charge). That’s just not good enough by today’s standards. No heat pump doesn’t help, but it’s just really really inefficient, especially at motorway speeds. The problem with this is that when you run it from 80%-20% as recommended to save the battery, it gives you a ‘real world range’ between charges of 96 miles. That is just terrible. I appreciate the roads driven, and traffic conditions, will make everybody’s range different, but I drive a ‘typical’ commute - 9 miles motorway/A Roads, and 4 miles city centre. Battery test showed health of 93%, so the car doesn’t have a duff battery.
Next point I’ve already raised on the forum, so won’t go into detail again. But it links to point above. When the XPower dips below 50% charge, the power seemingly halves. 0-60 time drops from sub 4 seconds to 6-7 seconds. Is that ‘slow’? No. But it’s not fast either. It’s brisk. If you want brisk, the Trophy will do that, as will most EVs. Winter range being so bad means that running the car from 80% to 50% gives me around 60 miles before performance drops off a cliff. The XPower is essentially a Trophy with an acceleration boost for 60 miles. Before anybody justifies that, you can now get a used Tesla Model 3 Performance for the same price as a used XPower, and it’s faster, with more range, nowhere near as much power drop off, and arguably better in almost all other aspects of an EV.
The traction control is crap. Or maybe it’s ’torque vectoring’. I don’t know, but when you plant your foot out of a bend, you can literally feel the car cutting power to individual wheels to limit wheel spin, but not in a clever way. It’s like someone is pulling the car back. It’s not how a quick car should feel, it’s how a commuter car should feel. I know the XPower isn’t a track car, but it’s a ca with over 400bhp (sometimes!) and the calibration should be much better. It borders on unsafe because you don’t get any feel from the wheels. I’ve taken it on track and it’s awfully numb, more so than a diesel Skoda Octavia would be. Track reviews on YouTube also mention this.
The front motor doesn’t kick in ‘instantly’ in Normal mode. When you plant your foot, you can hear the front motor wake up and a good second or two pass before it seems to kick in. It’s like a strange version of turbo lag. And it feels terrible.
It just hasn’t been designed properly. They’ve basically slapped a motor on the front wheels of a Trophy. No R&D seems to have been conducted. The brakes aren’t good enough for a 400bhp+ car, the handling doesn’t give enough feedback, and the front motor/driveshafts cause the steering wheel vibration which is just appalling. The longer you have it, the more you realise how little MG cared, or care, about the XPower. It was a cash grab attempt at making a ‘quick EV’.
If you want a fast hatchback that’s fun to drive, you can get a used Golf R for less than half the price of an MG and the savings will pay for fuel and maintenance. If you need a fast EV instead of an ICE car, the Tesla M3 long range/performance are better and faster than the MG (yes, the long range is faster once you get below 60% charge). Both cars are better ‘cars’ than the MG, and available at a lower price point.
The bad bits:
The suspension is too hard. This might be XPower specific, and might be better in a Trophy or SE, but the xpowers suspension just isn’t comfortable. It’s not ‘capable’ enough when pushing on to justify the uncomfortable ride. I’ve owned stripped out track ready cars which aren’t especially comfy to be in, but that’s the trade off for a car that handles well on the limit. The XPower doesn’t. So the harsh ride is a needless compromise.
The infotainment is garbage, as expected, but its still frustrating.
Lane assist and cruise control work, but aren’t great. Annoying at times.
Not being able to cycle between ‘favourite’ radio stations is beyond stupid.
The camera quality at night (especially when it’s wet), is diabolically bad. It’s almost impossible to see anything at times. But when light they are very good.
No rear interior light is also stupid. Very hard for putting kids in and out. You need to buy an USB light from Amazon to be able to get kids in and out safely at night, otherwise you can’t check the car seat is secure.
The seats are not comfortable. At first, they feel good, but after 30 minutes, you can really feel the lack of lumbar support and poor padding quality. Others have raised this on the forum for all variants of MG4.
The internal door grabs/handles!!! The handle to close/open the door is too far forward. When you’re in a tight space, you can’t control the door properly. There should be a notch in the door card to hold onto. Somewhere behind the window switches. It makes tight spaces awkward to get out of - if this was the only fault, it’d be fine, but with all of the above, it’s another infuriating lack of design thought.
Similarly, the seating position is odd. It’s not nice to get in and out of the car. When you’re in, you can get into a comfortable position with good visibility and adequate arm rests. But it’s not ‘easy’ to get in and out. The bottom side bolsters of the seat are a bit too high, and the dash is a bit cramped - everybody that has driven mine has banged their legs on the steering column and made a grunting sound when getting into the car. If you’ve got a bad back, you’ll really have a hard time.
CarPlay is intermittent. Cuts out randomly.
They are all of the things you can’t really get a feel of on a test drive, but that come to realisation after owning the car for a few weeks/months.
My overall verdict is that the car is good. If it was made 10 years ago it’d be great. But it isn’t. A lot of people on this forum rave about it, but a lot have come from older, 10-15 year old, diesels or other undesirable cars. If you owned a 2008 Fabia, any car made this decade will be light years ahead. If, like me, you’re fortunate enough to have owned/driven more modern cars, especially performance cars, the issues are unbearable.
The Trophy might be a million times better - the target audience is different. If you’re buying an ordinary EV that’s cheap, you don’t care about performance drop off, handling, brakes, and also don’t get the steering wheel vibration.
If you want an MG4, look at a trophy or extended range. If you want an XPower, it’s because you want a quick, cheap car. Which this is, BUT, there are SO MANY alternatives that are better than the XPower, at the same price point, and still offer 0-60 times of sub 5 seconds. The XPower is NOT a sub 4 seconds to 60 car, except for maybe 20 miles whilst it’s at full charge.
If you drive less than 20 miles a day, it might suit you. But as somebody that has owned an XPower for months, I can name so many cars for the price of my used XPower that I’d rather have.
And that’s before dealing with MG customer service…..
Firstly, the faults in question don’t impact the points I’ve raised below, so it’s not a bias review of a dodgy example.
The good bits:
The build quality is surprisingly good. All the touch points and switch gear are nice, have a decent tactile feel. Much more premium than I expected. The steering wheel, buttons, door close etc all feel quite ‘German’, more so than modern plastic Mercedes for example.
The joy sticks on the steering wheel work very well and are intuitive to use.
Speakers are fantastic for a generic system. Much better than the Dynaudio upgrade I’ve had in a MK7.5 Golf R. Good quality right up to max volume.
It handles quite nicely. It feels quite direct and agile. Feels like a smaller hot hatch, like the fiesta ST, so it’s got a ‘fun’ feeling to it.
Headlights are very good.
0-60 is ferociously quick (caveats below).
One pedal drive is a nice luxury to have, even if it’s not perfectly calibrated.
DC charging is quick when you need to use it.
360 cameras are very useful, and great to have in a ‘cheap’ car.
The absolutely horrendous bits:
The range is abysmal. In the winter, I’ve been averaging 160 mile range from a 100% charge (actual, not the estimated range after a charge). That’s just not good enough by today’s standards. No heat pump doesn’t help, but it’s just really really inefficient, especially at motorway speeds. The problem with this is that when you run it from 80%-20% as recommended to save the battery, it gives you a ‘real world range’ between charges of 96 miles. That is just terrible. I appreciate the roads driven, and traffic conditions, will make everybody’s range different, but I drive a ‘typical’ commute - 9 miles motorway/A Roads, and 4 miles city centre. Battery test showed health of 93%, so the car doesn’t have a duff battery.
Next point I’ve already raised on the forum, so won’t go into detail again. But it links to point above. When the XPower dips below 50% charge, the power seemingly halves. 0-60 time drops from sub 4 seconds to 6-7 seconds. Is that ‘slow’? No. But it’s not fast either. It’s brisk. If you want brisk, the Trophy will do that, as will most EVs. Winter range being so bad means that running the car from 80% to 50% gives me around 60 miles before performance drops off a cliff. The XPower is essentially a Trophy with an acceleration boost for 60 miles. Before anybody justifies that, you can now get a used Tesla Model 3 Performance for the same price as a used XPower, and it’s faster, with more range, nowhere near as much power drop off, and arguably better in almost all other aspects of an EV.
The traction control is crap. Or maybe it’s ’torque vectoring’. I don’t know, but when you plant your foot out of a bend, you can literally feel the car cutting power to individual wheels to limit wheel spin, but not in a clever way. It’s like someone is pulling the car back. It’s not how a quick car should feel, it’s how a commuter car should feel. I know the XPower isn’t a track car, but it’s a ca with over 400bhp (sometimes!) and the calibration should be much better. It borders on unsafe because you don’t get any feel from the wheels. I’ve taken it on track and it’s awfully numb, more so than a diesel Skoda Octavia would be. Track reviews on YouTube also mention this.
The front motor doesn’t kick in ‘instantly’ in Normal mode. When you plant your foot, you can hear the front motor wake up and a good second or two pass before it seems to kick in. It’s like a strange version of turbo lag. And it feels terrible.
It just hasn’t been designed properly. They’ve basically slapped a motor on the front wheels of a Trophy. No R&D seems to have been conducted. The brakes aren’t good enough for a 400bhp+ car, the handling doesn’t give enough feedback, and the front motor/driveshafts cause the steering wheel vibration which is just appalling. The longer you have it, the more you realise how little MG cared, or care, about the XPower. It was a cash grab attempt at making a ‘quick EV’.
If you want a fast hatchback that’s fun to drive, you can get a used Golf R for less than half the price of an MG and the savings will pay for fuel and maintenance. If you need a fast EV instead of an ICE car, the Tesla M3 long range/performance are better and faster than the MG (yes, the long range is faster once you get below 60% charge). Both cars are better ‘cars’ than the MG, and available at a lower price point.
The bad bits:
The suspension is too hard. This might be XPower specific, and might be better in a Trophy or SE, but the xpowers suspension just isn’t comfortable. It’s not ‘capable’ enough when pushing on to justify the uncomfortable ride. I’ve owned stripped out track ready cars which aren’t especially comfy to be in, but that’s the trade off for a car that handles well on the limit. The XPower doesn’t. So the harsh ride is a needless compromise.
The infotainment is garbage, as expected, but its still frustrating.
Lane assist and cruise control work, but aren’t great. Annoying at times.
Not being able to cycle between ‘favourite’ radio stations is beyond stupid.
The camera quality at night (especially when it’s wet), is diabolically bad. It’s almost impossible to see anything at times. But when light they are very good.
No rear interior light is also stupid. Very hard for putting kids in and out. You need to buy an USB light from Amazon to be able to get kids in and out safely at night, otherwise you can’t check the car seat is secure.
The seats are not comfortable. At first, they feel good, but after 30 minutes, you can really feel the lack of lumbar support and poor padding quality. Others have raised this on the forum for all variants of MG4.
The internal door grabs/handles!!! The handle to close/open the door is too far forward. When you’re in a tight space, you can’t control the door properly. There should be a notch in the door card to hold onto. Somewhere behind the window switches. It makes tight spaces awkward to get out of - if this was the only fault, it’d be fine, but with all of the above, it’s another infuriating lack of design thought.
Similarly, the seating position is odd. It’s not nice to get in and out of the car. When you’re in, you can get into a comfortable position with good visibility and adequate arm rests. But it’s not ‘easy’ to get in and out. The bottom side bolsters of the seat are a bit too high, and the dash is a bit cramped - everybody that has driven mine has banged their legs on the steering column and made a grunting sound when getting into the car. If you’ve got a bad back, you’ll really have a hard time.
CarPlay is intermittent. Cuts out randomly.
They are all of the things you can’t really get a feel of on a test drive, but that come to realisation after owning the car for a few weeks/months.
My overall verdict is that the car is good. If it was made 10 years ago it’d be great. But it isn’t. A lot of people on this forum rave about it, but a lot have come from older, 10-15 year old, diesels or other undesirable cars. If you owned a 2008 Fabia, any car made this decade will be light years ahead. If, like me, you’re fortunate enough to have owned/driven more modern cars, especially performance cars, the issues are unbearable.
The Trophy might be a million times better - the target audience is different. If you’re buying an ordinary EV that’s cheap, you don’t care about performance drop off, handling, brakes, and also don’t get the steering wheel vibration.
If you want an MG4, look at a trophy or extended range. If you want an XPower, it’s because you want a quick, cheap car. Which this is, BUT, there are SO MANY alternatives that are better than the XPower, at the same price point, and still offer 0-60 times of sub 5 seconds. The XPower is NOT a sub 4 seconds to 60 car, except for maybe 20 miles whilst it’s at full charge.
If you drive less than 20 miles a day, it might suit you. But as somebody that has owned an XPower for months, I can name so many cars for the price of my used XPower that I’d rather have.
And that’s before dealing with MG customer service…..
