Leaf owner thinking of the MG as replacement.

[Barfly]

Hi all, I've been considering the long-range MG as a replacement for my ageing Leaf Tekna. I have been very happy leafing along for the past 4 years, I really love the Leaf. Range and price are now major considerations, and rule out a new Leaf as range is much less than the MG. Nissan are not the easiest manufacturer to get along with, the spare parts prices are beyond astronomical and the dealerships haven't got a clue about EV's.

I would dearly like to hear some positive owners comments about these sort of issues. I have not heard particularly good reports about MG's dealerships in my couple of weeks lurking about on this and other forums.
My concerns are:-

1. Ride and road noise (the Leaf is a bit hard but whisper quiet). The roads around Bournemouth and Poole are positively medieval with potholes and speed humps everywhere.
2. Rattles. I have this thing about rattles in cars, cannot stand them
3. "A" pillar size. The Leaf's "A" pillar is absolutely enormous and restricts road view dangerously.
4. Can I spec the MG to give me heated steering wheels, and front seat heating that can be remotely controlled? Also can the MG turn the air-conditioning remotely via an app? This is one aspect of the Leaf that is just brilliant-has all that and even heated rear seats.
5. All-round cameras with birds-eye view?
6. Puddle lights? Missing from the Leaf, not good when dropping off the lovely Jane in a gravel car-park in her £200 shoes.......
7. Tow-hitch? Just for a tiny trailer and bike rack. I had to import one for the Leaf from the USA.
8. Annoying beeps-how intrusive on the MG?

Thanks all, hope I'm not asking too much......Cheers Tony.

 

[RobinH]

1. Soft & bouncy. Tyre noise could be better but OK overall.
2. Mine is still rattle free after 1 year / 8k miles.
3. Not too bad. Better than my Volt was.
4. No heated steering wheel. The seats are heated but not remote controlled. The Aircon can be controlled via the app.
5. Yes.
6. No.
7. Can be fitted. 500kg towing limit.
8. Not too bad. Most can be turned off or volume reduced with a bit of a delve into the settings.

 

[profdraper]

1. Soft & bouncy. Tyre noise could be better but OK overall.
2. Mine is still rattle free after 1 year / 8k miles.
3. Not too bad. Better than my Volt was.
4. No heated steering wheel. The seats are heated but not remote controlled. The Aircon can be controlled via the app.
5. Yes.
6. No.
7. Can be fitted. 500kg towing limit.
8. Not too bad. Most can be turned off or volume reduced with a bit of a delve into the settings.

Agreed, great car, I've had two of them - the gen 1 and now the gen 2 'facelift'. I have to say that the gen 2 is a vast improvement over the first one - better sound proofing, suspension, motor /torque, infotainment & software. I was surprised just how refined the car is now given some very clever work by SAIC /MG in providing the updates yet keeping to a sensible price-point.

The only thing I would add is that the new short range (320 WLTP) has a brilliant LFP battery & I would recommend that highly over the LR NMC battery (like what was provided in the gen 1). 100% charging as you like on the LFP whereas the NMC has the old 20-80% charging regimine /battery equalisation & 100% charging every couple of months. Like most EVs & SR vs LR.

 

[MoDolph]

Hi all, I've been considering the long-range MG as a replacement for my ageing Leaf Tekna. I have been very happy leafing along for the past 4 years, I really love the Leaf.

We traded in our 2014 LEAF last year. We did place an order for a ZS but it fell through. We are glad it did as when the MG4 was released we test drove it and much preferred it. My advice would be to try both.

 

[DBedford]

Good morning Barfly

The only reservations I have impacts all users, and that's the availability of working chargers and the cost, otherwise so pleased with out purchase. But ask again after Winter has come and gone

1. Ride and road noise low, with a smooth ride
2. Rattles. none
3. "A" pillar size. The Leaf's "A" pillar is absolutely enormous and restricts road view dangerously. slight issue.
4. Can I spec the MG to give me heated steering wheels, and front seat heating that can be remotely controlled? Also can the MG turn the air-conditioning remotely via an app? This is one aspect of the Leaf that is just brilliant-has all that and even heated rear seats. No heated wheel on the ZS, yes you can AC on remotely, heated front seats but not rear
5. All-round cameras with birds-eye view? Yes, but not as good as the Leaf
6. Puddle lights? Missing from the Leaf, not good when dropping off the lovely Jane in a gravel car-park in her £200 shoes.......No but can be purchased from Amazon
7. Tow-hitch? Just for a tiny trailer and bike rack. I had to import one for the Leaf from the USA. Can only pull 500Kg So unless you want to be charging every few minutes I'd say no
8. Annoying beeps-how intrusive on the MG? No bleeps that can be turned off and so very easy to pick up as based on a ICE vehicle.

 

[Mcgrst]

Only beeps that bother me is the front impact alert, I like the feature I don't like it alerting me¹

¹it hasn't bothered me enough to bother trying to turn it off.

 

[linkandnavi]

Hi all, I've been considering the long-range MG as a replacement for my ageing Leaf Tekna. I have been very happy leafing along for the past 4 years, I really love the Leaf. Range and price are now major considerations, and rule out a new Leaf as range is much less than the MG. Nissan are not the easiest manufacturer to get along with, the spare parts prices are beyond astronomical and the dealerships haven't got a clue about EV's.

I would dearly like to hear some positive owners comments about these sort of issues. I have not heard particularly good reports about MG's dealerships in my couple of weeks lurking about on this and other forums.
My concerns are:-

1. Ride and road noise (the Leaf is a bit hard but whisper quiet). The roads around Bournemouth and Poole are positively medieval with potholes and speed humps everywhere.
2. Rattles. I have this thing about rattles in cars, cannot stand them
3. "A" pillar size. The Leaf's "A" pillar is absolutely enormous and restricts road view dangerously.
4. Can I spec the MG to give me heated steering wheels, and front seat heating that can be remotely controlled? Also can the MG turn the air-conditioning remotely via an app? This is one aspect of the Leaf that is just brilliant-has all that and even heated rear seats.
5. All-round cameras with birds-eye view?
6. Puddle lights? Missing from the Leaf, not good when dropping off the lovely Jane in a gravel car-park in her £200 shoes.......
7. Tow-hitch? Just for a tiny trailer and bike rack. I had to import one for the Leaf from the USA.
8. Annoying beeps-how intrusive on the MG?

Thanks all, hope I'm not asking too much......Cheers Tony.

My wife and I used to share a Nissan Leaf Tekna. I now drive a Tesla Model Y Long Range and she drives an MG ZS EV (the new version), so I have some experience of your position.

I won't bother to go through each question individually as others have already answered them comprehensively, but I'd just not a couple of things having come from a Leaf.

1. The MG uses CCS for rapid charging, not CHAdeMO. The benefit of that can't be overstated if you use motorway chargers etc. Nobody even manufacturers cars with CHAdeMO anymore - even the new Leafs are moving to CCS, and the availability of the old style chargers, which were limited to 50kw anyway, are already almost non-existent and I would imagine will be phased out. That to me was reason enough to ditch the Leaf before it become actually impossible to live with;

2. There is no one-pedal driving on the MG. It has regenerative braking, so will slow down if you take your foot off of the accelerator, but it will never come to an actual stop if you don't use the foot brake. The Nissan Leaf has one pedal driving via it's e-Pedal. If this is important to you, then the MG doesn't have it. (For me it's a dealbreaker. I always used it on the Leaf and always use it on my Tesla. My wife always turned it off on the Leaf and so couldn't care less.) On the very rare occasion that I need to drive my wife's car, I have to repeat "Must use the brake" to myself for a few minutes out loud to remind myself that it won't stop unless I do so. Depending on how you drive your Leaf, that may or may not matter to you.

3. There's a handy brochure from MG here. At pages 19-21 it summaries the difference between the "Standard Edition" and "Trophy Edition", i.e. which have heated seats and so on.

4. Finally, you've posted this in the MG ZS EV forum. The ZS is their mini-SUV electric. As someone else has noted, the MG4 is closer in form factor to the Leaf, being a hatchback, so just double check what it is you're after. The MG4 is cheaper, is built as a ground up EV and has a better infotainment system. The ZS on the other hand is more expensive, converted from a petrol car setup and has a slightly clunkier infotainment system, but a great car that my wife loves as her runaround.

 

[Barfly]

A heartfelt thanks to all of you that replied to my queries. I will have to investigate and see what are the major differences between the ZS and the MG4.
The next step is to try and twist my local dealers arm to let me try one out for a week or so before taking the plunge.
I do have a home charger, but need the charger port on the front or front left side so I can use it on the MG.

 

[linkandnavi]

A heartfelt thanks to all of you that replied to my queries. I will have to investigate and see what are the major differences between the ZS and the MG4.
The next step is to try and twist my local dealers arm to let me try one out for a week or so before taking the plunge.
I do have a home charger, but need the charger port on the front or front left side so I can use it on the MG.

MG ZS EV has the charge port slap at the front of the car. Basically the same place as the Leaf does, but slightly off centre.

The MG4 charge port is at the rear left, similar to a Tesla but a bit further forward.

 

[Barfly]

Well that sorts it out, the MG4 is no good for my garage set-up.

 

[linkandnavi]

I did find this (which is far from complete and dates back to March 2022) but is somewhat interesting

If I was to speculate, I'd guess that the number of cars with front-located charge ports will fall rapidly.

Partially because it's generally safer to reverse into a bay, as it means you pull out of it facing forward and can see cross-cutting traffic and partially because Tesla has won the charging standard war in the US. Most cars for the US market are now adopting Tesla's NACS standard instead of CCS and gaining access to the Supercharger network (with more manufacturers constantly signing deals to do the same). For them it will make sense to have charge ports that align easily with the Supercharger setup.

So I'd grab a front-facing charge port car while you can if that's what your garage allows!

(For what it's worth and I obviously have no idea what your garage looks like, but my 4m charging cable allows me to reach from the charger on the side of the house, around and past the back of my Tesla which is usually parked in front and all the way over to my wife's MG ZS on the other side of the driveway. You can get even longer cables than that, so trailing a cable around the car to plug in might be an option for you if the choice of cars with a front charging port are too limited?).

 

[Barfly]

I did find this (which is far from complete and dates back to March 2022) but is somewhat interesting

View attachment 20980

If I was to speculate, I'd guess that the number of cars with front-located charge ports will fall rapidly.

Partially because it's generally safer to reverse into a bay, as it means you pull out of it facing forward and can see cross-cutting traffic and partially because Tesla has won the charging standard war in the US. Most cars for the US market are now adopting Tesla's NACS standard instead of CCS and gaining access to the Supercharger network (with more manufacturers constantly signing deals to do the same). For them it will make sense to have charge ports that align easily with the Supercharger setup.

So I'd grab a front-facing charge port car while you can if that's what your garage allows!

(For what it's worth and I obviously have no idea what your garage looks like, but my 4m charging cable allows me to reach from the charger on the side of the house, around and past the back of my Tesla which is usually parked in front and all the way over to my wife's MG ZS on the other side of the driveway. You can get even longer cables than that, so trailing a cable around the car to plug in might be an option for you if the choice of cars with a front charging port are too limited?).

Check out my garage-it really needs a good clearout, but in order for drivers to be able to exit from their doors, one car needs to drive in, and one needs to reverse. My dear daughter-in-law when we first moved into this house asked my son when she saw the garage said "will I have to turn the wheel?" That gives you an idea of what I'm up against, there is no way I'd trust her to reverse in.

 

[Robf]

Went through a similar thing recently, swapped the leaf for an mg4 lr (I already have a zs ev lr). ZS is easier to get out and in but a bit wallowy to drive, good workhorse, mg4 is brilliant to drive and much more practical than the leaf. for charging, just get an extension cable? You can even get a type 1 to 2 extension EV Public Charging Cable | Type 1 to Type 2 | 16/32 Amp | 3.6/7.2 kW | 5/10 Metre |

 

[Susanna]

@Barfly I would say your garage is pretty tidy and organised if you can fit in 2 cars!
However, I cannot understand why anyone would have trouble reversing into a garage - it’s so much easier when you have your door mirrors to guide you; they can be adjusted down to check for any obstructions which you might not spot whilst driving in, and the reversing sensors/camera help with distance.

 

[Grriff]

Just a note to a previous post. The MG4 Trophy 23 model does have one pedal driving.

 

[Barfly]

Susanna - My daughter-in-law is ethnic Chinese, born in Malaysia, brought up in Australia and now lives here with us. Need I say any more? Add to that she's a lawyer........

 

[Susanna]

Susanna - My daughter-in-law is ethnic Chinese, born in Malaysia, brought up in Australia and now lives here with us. Need I say any more? Add to that she's a lawyer........

But she’s a woman, and everyone knows we are the better drivers……

 

[Barfly]

Went through a similar thing recently, swapped the leaf for an mg4 lr (I already have a zs ev lr). ZS is easier to get out and in but a bit wallowy to drive, good workhorse, mg4 is brilliant to drive and much more practical than the leaf. for charging, just get an extension cable? You can even get a type 1 to 2 extension EV Public Charging Cable | Type 1 to Type 2 | 16/32 Amp | 3.6/7.2 kW | 5/10 Metre |

There is nowhere near enough room for my barrel-chest (at least that's what I call it!) to fit down the side. I would have to connect the car end first with the lead then connect to the podpoint after reversing in. Not really practical, I suppose I could connect it then stick the other end in the passengers window then reverse in, great as long as it's not raining......

 

[gus]

Simple solution, leave her car outside or yours when charging. Seriously I just got a 10m charge cable and routed it over the top secured to the rafters of the garage, works well for me.

 

[Barfly]

And then there's the wife's car in the driveway, life wasn't meant to be easy..first world issues.