mmarksx19
Standard Member
- Joined
- Dec 9, 2021
- Messages
- 10
- Reaction score
- 6
- Points
- 4
- Location
- Leeds, United Kingdom
- Driving
- MG HS PHEV
First post here.
I had owned a 2018 VW Golf GTE Advance for over a year and travelled 12000 miles in it.
As it was over 3 years old and out of warranty, I decided to look around for a replacement.
I came across a 5 month old MG HS PHEV Exclusive in black and was offered £4,000 more for the golf than I paid for it so the cost to change was about £4,500 and of course it had 6.5 years warranty remaining which was my reason to look.
I had a brief test drive to ensure I was comfortable and did the deal, collecting the car yesterday.
I've only done about 100 miles in it and all on petrol but I thought I would write my initial thoughts which might be useful to anyone else considering changing their GTE and also whilst I remembered the Golf!
So here are my initial thought. Bear in mind I don't know the new car very well YET.
The HS has a lot more space than the Golf. Rear seat space and the boot are a class above. Whilst not a big car, the extra space is a bonus and makes it much more practical on a day to day basis. The boot in the Golf was particularly small. Talking of boots, the storage under the boot floor for the granny charger is great. In the Golf, there is nowhere to store cables except in the boot itself.
The granny charger has a very short mains lead compared to the Golf. This means it has to sit on the ground unless I build some sort of housing for it which will then make it less easy to travel with. The Golf charging point was in the middle of the front grille which meant I could park the car either way round and charge it. With the MG charge port being on the drivers side, I can only charge it if I park one way. Not the end of the world but a slight limitation.
Both cars have a claimed 31 mile electric range yet the HS battery is twice the capacity of the Golf. As I mentioned, I haven't used it under electric power yet but to me this means either the Golf was a lot more advanced/efficient using electric power or I should get much closer to the advertised range in the HS. I think I used to get about 20-24 miles out of the Golf on electric with no heater on. The heater would reduce the range by about a 3rd.
The performance of the 2 cars seems on par. The MG is bigger and heavier but more powerful. Neither are sports cars but I have been up and down motorways and overtaken in both and not found them lacking.
The MG seems to absorb bumps better, the Golf was more 'sporty'. I presume this is due to the higher profile tyres on the HS and the Golf being built as a sporty alternative to the GTI. Both are comfortable and day to day driving are fine.
The MG has a LOT more equipment. Obviously it is 3 years newer but the Golf, despite being the top spec model didn't have as many toys. So far, the extra toys I have noticed are the sunroof which is huge, camera (the Golf just has sensors), leather seats which look and feel very nice, electric tailgate, keyless entry and start, blind spot warning and a variety of safety tech.
The interior quality of the MG doesn't seem any less than that of the Golf which is a premium brand. There are a lot of soft touch surfaces, padded surfaces and everything seems well put together.
The Golf had various EV modes - EV, hybrid, battery hold, battery charge whereas on the HS I can only really see EV on or off unless I'm missing something. The Golf had a GTE button for extra power but I never used it!
The Golf had paddles to change gear which the HS doesn't. I never really used them so no loss there.
Infotainment wise, they seem to have the same features. The Golf also had a digital dash like the HS but could show the sat nav which was useful.
The HS infotainment is slow as people have pointed out. Often when adjusting something it returns to the home screen which is really annoying.
The sat nav on the Golf was quicker with better graphics and had traffic warnings. However, I tend to use Android Auto anyway as the maps are far more up to date. Talking of Android Auto, why is there nowhere to put the phone next to the USB ports? The Golf had a cubby at the side of the USB port with a flip lid like the HS and it was big enough to plug the phone in and close the cover so everything was neat and didn't slide around. It would have been so simple for MG to have done something similar.
The Golf could pre-heat/defrost the car when plugged in and had timers so you could charge overnight if you had a better tariff and theoretically have the car toasty when you set off for work. I don't believe the HS has any of this. However, I used the word theoretically for the Golf as the pre-heating for the car never worked for me. Having gone through some forums, it appears that it really needs a 7kw wall box for this to work properly and I just plug the granny charger into an outside wall socket. The lack of electric heating would have been an issue, especially in winter had I got used to it on the Golf but it never really worked so nothing lost.
There is an app for the Golf which allows you to see economy, electric range, fuel range, start/stop charging, set up sat nav routes and transfer them etc. I used it for a while then discovered I had to pay an annual subscription to continue using it which for the features I wanted was over £100 per year so I stopped using it!!!!! I haven't found an app for the HS but if you cant set timers for charging or pre-heat the car, I guess it would be of limited use.
So far that's my thoughts. The Golf averaged 88mpg over my time with it (not including electricity costs) so it will be interesting to compare over a long period.
In conclusion, I am more than happy with the decision to change, the extra space and practicality makes a huge difference and I like the extra toys. I think with a small update (electric heater, faster infotainment, phone storage next to the USB) it would be everything I wanted form a PHEV. As it is, it was tremendous value for money, doesn't feel like a value brand at all and I'm impressed to have 6.5 years warranty remaining so no large bill worries.
Hope this was useful to someone!
Michael
I had owned a 2018 VW Golf GTE Advance for over a year and travelled 12000 miles in it.
As it was over 3 years old and out of warranty, I decided to look around for a replacement.
I came across a 5 month old MG HS PHEV Exclusive in black and was offered £4,000 more for the golf than I paid for it so the cost to change was about £4,500 and of course it had 6.5 years warranty remaining which was my reason to look.
I had a brief test drive to ensure I was comfortable and did the deal, collecting the car yesterday.
I've only done about 100 miles in it and all on petrol but I thought I would write my initial thoughts which might be useful to anyone else considering changing their GTE and also whilst I remembered the Golf!
So here are my initial thought. Bear in mind I don't know the new car very well YET.
The HS has a lot more space than the Golf. Rear seat space and the boot are a class above. Whilst not a big car, the extra space is a bonus and makes it much more practical on a day to day basis. The boot in the Golf was particularly small. Talking of boots, the storage under the boot floor for the granny charger is great. In the Golf, there is nowhere to store cables except in the boot itself.
The granny charger has a very short mains lead compared to the Golf. This means it has to sit on the ground unless I build some sort of housing for it which will then make it less easy to travel with. The Golf charging point was in the middle of the front grille which meant I could park the car either way round and charge it. With the MG charge port being on the drivers side, I can only charge it if I park one way. Not the end of the world but a slight limitation.
Both cars have a claimed 31 mile electric range yet the HS battery is twice the capacity of the Golf. As I mentioned, I haven't used it under electric power yet but to me this means either the Golf was a lot more advanced/efficient using electric power or I should get much closer to the advertised range in the HS. I think I used to get about 20-24 miles out of the Golf on electric with no heater on. The heater would reduce the range by about a 3rd.
The performance of the 2 cars seems on par. The MG is bigger and heavier but more powerful. Neither are sports cars but I have been up and down motorways and overtaken in both and not found them lacking.
The MG seems to absorb bumps better, the Golf was more 'sporty'. I presume this is due to the higher profile tyres on the HS and the Golf being built as a sporty alternative to the GTI. Both are comfortable and day to day driving are fine.
The MG has a LOT more equipment. Obviously it is 3 years newer but the Golf, despite being the top spec model didn't have as many toys. So far, the extra toys I have noticed are the sunroof which is huge, camera (the Golf just has sensors), leather seats which look and feel very nice, electric tailgate, keyless entry and start, blind spot warning and a variety of safety tech.
The interior quality of the MG doesn't seem any less than that of the Golf which is a premium brand. There are a lot of soft touch surfaces, padded surfaces and everything seems well put together.
The Golf had various EV modes - EV, hybrid, battery hold, battery charge whereas on the HS I can only really see EV on or off unless I'm missing something. The Golf had a GTE button for extra power but I never used it!
The Golf had paddles to change gear which the HS doesn't. I never really used them so no loss there.
Infotainment wise, they seem to have the same features. The Golf also had a digital dash like the HS but could show the sat nav which was useful.
The HS infotainment is slow as people have pointed out. Often when adjusting something it returns to the home screen which is really annoying.
The sat nav on the Golf was quicker with better graphics and had traffic warnings. However, I tend to use Android Auto anyway as the maps are far more up to date. Talking of Android Auto, why is there nowhere to put the phone next to the USB ports? The Golf had a cubby at the side of the USB port with a flip lid like the HS and it was big enough to plug the phone in and close the cover so everything was neat and didn't slide around. It would have been so simple for MG to have done something similar.
The Golf could pre-heat/defrost the car when plugged in and had timers so you could charge overnight if you had a better tariff and theoretically have the car toasty when you set off for work. I don't believe the HS has any of this. However, I used the word theoretically for the Golf as the pre-heating for the car never worked for me. Having gone through some forums, it appears that it really needs a 7kw wall box for this to work properly and I just plug the granny charger into an outside wall socket. The lack of electric heating would have been an issue, especially in winter had I got used to it on the Golf but it never really worked so nothing lost.
There is an app for the Golf which allows you to see economy, electric range, fuel range, start/stop charging, set up sat nav routes and transfer them etc. I used it for a while then discovered I had to pay an annual subscription to continue using it which for the features I wanted was over £100 per year so I stopped using it!!!!! I haven't found an app for the HS but if you cant set timers for charging or pre-heat the car, I guess it would be of limited use.
So far that's my thoughts. The Golf averaged 88mpg over my time with it (not including electricity costs) so it will be interesting to compare over a long period.
In conclusion, I am more than happy with the decision to change, the extra space and practicality makes a huge difference and I like the extra toys. I think with a small update (electric heater, faster infotainment, phone storage next to the USB) it would be everything I wanted form a PHEV. As it is, it was tremendous value for money, doesn't feel like a value brand at all and I'm impressed to have 6.5 years warranty remaining so no large bill worries.
Hope this was useful to someone!
Michael
