I’ve had my MG4 Trophy for two years now and in that time I’ve suffered 3 instances of the car performing a completely unnecessary emergency stop, and each time has been a pretty terrifying experience. The first was about a year ago. I was driving along a village road with no other vehicles in front of me. I needed to turn right across the oncoming lane with only one car approaching. I indicated and began to slow to wait for the other car to pass, but as I did so the MG slammed on the brakes, bringing the car to a sudden (and quite violent) stop. I can only assume that it thought I was about to turn straight into the oncoming car, which of course I wasn’t. My youngest daughter was in the back. I was so pleased there wasn’t another vehicle following me close behind as they certainly wouldn’t have expected me to come to such quick stop for absolutely no reason, and so may possibly have hit us.
The second instance was about 9 months later. Again I was travelling through a village, travelling at somewhere between 20 and 30mph and with no other cars in front of me. This time, there wasn’t even anything coming towards me on the other carriageway. The sudden emergency stop was even more shocking than the first time as it was from a higher speed. The only “hazard” I noticed was a lady on my left who had just walked between two parked cars which were parallel to the road. She never entered the road itself. As before I was very lucky that nothing was behind me.
The third time was two days ago. This time I wasn’t actually in my car but a courtesy MG4 as mine’s at the dealership (an HVAC issue is being investigated). I was approaching a countryside crossroads with traffic lights. As I approached the lights went red, so I stopped and waited as a queue built up behind me. When they turned green I indicated right and moved forward. I was going to have to wait as there was oncoming traffic, but as I moved the car again slammed on the brakes. Realising there were cars moving up behind me I quickly pressed the accelerator but nothing happened. I had to press ‘Park’ and then back to ‘Drive’ before I could move again. I was so pleased no one hit the back of the car.
Both cars are Trophy models, one 2023 and the other 2024. As mentioned previously on this thread, perhaps of note is that my car had the required LKA (Lane Keeping Assist) update a few months ago but is still running on R33 infotainment software. It’s pretty clear that the courtesy car hasn’t had the LKA update (I’m having to turn it off every time I get in) but it’s running on R40. I wonder if the LKA update has indeed actually now fixed this braking issue on my car?
If it hasn't (and it may take many months of driving to know for sure) then for me, like many of you, it’s a massive issue. It’s really scared me all three times, leaving me quite shaken for a few minutes. I emailed MG UK after the second occurrence explaining in detail what had happened, but their reply only said that they’ve logged the issue and that if I fear it’s a safety issue I should contact my local dealership. But that seems pointless unless there’s a software update that fixes it, right? Otherwise what’s the dealership going to do? I believe the car is working as designed in this scenario. The problem is that it appears to have been designed very badly! It most certainly is a safety issue that I hope MG acknowledges very soon and does something about. As it stands, I can’t wait to get rid of my MG4 in a year’s time when the lease ends. It’s genuinely scary.
And my car is most certainly a ‘Friday car’; it has so many problems…
Some folk to seem to drop on a bad un.
