MG 4 ongoing issue

[Tuareg]

Mine is also nothing like that whatsoever.

 

[tsedge]

This is a copy of my letter dated 25 July 2025 to MG Customer Support, MG Motors UK

2022 MG4 Trophy LR

We have now owned our 2022 MG4 Trophy LR for four months and we can honestly say that it is far and away the most dangerous vehicle we have had the misfortune to drive. The journey home from the dealer in Oldham where we purchased the car on 28 March 2025 was bad enough as we did not know how to disable the wretched lane-assist software which repeatedly tried to steer my wife into the nearside kerb or ditch. The software (and the connected cameras) are not fit for purpose, clearly designed by clueless geeks and not properly tested prior to production. The driver has little control over the behaviour of the car which is what makes the car so dangerous on the road. The so-called ‘safety features’ which the totally dysfunctional software has incorporated in order to achieve an NCAP 5-star safety rating don’t work properly. They have the opposite effect on the driver’s ability to control the car safely. We cannot believe that cars like this are allowed to be sold in the UK with such dangerous software defects

The problems with LKA/ELK have been resolved with the appropriate car module updates (NB: not infotainment). My car has been fine since I got them.

The challenge is getting them. Dealers aren't paid to install updates except under a warranty claim and often when a dealer says: "there are no updates" what they mean is that there are no mandatory updates, when there may be a ton of updates actually available. Part of the challenge is finding a clued up dealer who cares.

Calling people names ("clueless geeks") isn't a great strategy to get a favourable response, even if you do feel very strongly. You are better off sticking to known facts and demanding action.

On the evening of 26 June 2025, the car has gave us the fright of our lives. We were driving home at around 9.30pm along a clear, straight, tarmac, suburban road with a 30mph speed limit, a white line down the middle and kerbs on either side. I was maintaining 30mph up a slight incline with another car behind us. There were no cars in front of us, no parked cars on either side of the road and no oncoming vehicles. All of a sudden, the car slammed its brakes full on and brought the car to an abrupt halt for no reason at all that either of us could see. How the car behind us avoided running into the back of us, I don’t know but he/she must have thought we were drunk or stupid (we were neither). The ELK was disabled but some of the other ‘safety’ functions were enabled by default. We have regularly had the car brake suddenly for no reason, especially when travelling through contraflow road works with oncoming vehicles waiting at the lights on the opposite side of the road. The software thinks that the car is heading for a head-on collision so brakes hard before the driver has a chance to steer the car through the chicane. This is not a safety feature, it is bonkers and effectively removes any control the driver has over what is a simple manoeuvre. As a 73 year old IAM Advanced Driver and a former saloon car racing driver, I wonder whatever happened to driver skill and responsibility. Who will be to blame when the software causes an accident?

Again, there are updates to address this for the AEB system. Mine has been fine with zero false positives since I had the relevant updates a year ago. Your car clearly doesn't have them (notwithstanding what your dealer is saying).

It appears that the car’s software is not clever enough to ‘remember’ or record the reason it had for slamming the brakes on with no visible hazard. I recall seeing some message in RED that flashed up on the driver’s screen as the brakes were slammed on and I think the touchscreen briefly showed a picture of the road in front of us but both of these disappeared within seconds of the car being brought to a stop. We both sustained chest bruising from the seat belts in addition to the trauma of having the car decide to stop dead suddenly for no reason. With the ELK enabled, the car is a nightmare to drive on country roads in County Durham with constant beeping and braking for no reason other than the cameras’ and software’s inability to interpret the intermittent appearance and disappearance of a white line on the N/S or O/S or both. The car’s software was updated to the latest version at our local MG Dealership on 1 May 2025

It is true that the lack of user storage of errors that flash up is annoying, however internally the car is storing errors that a dealer can access.

When you say the car was updated to the latest software, this is almost certainly just the infotainment software, not the dozens of car modules that actually run the internal systems.

I have had the relevant updates and mine is unobtrusive, occasionally beeping and very gentle almost imperceptible nudges on the wheel which are easy to resist.

The car was booked in yesterday at Croxdale Durham MG because of the sudden braking incident described above but they refused to check for faults. The Service Manager confirmed that no further updates to the software are currently available

This is clearly not the case. Again they are probably talking about mandatory updates (almost none are mandatory). If this is what your dealer is saying I would find a better dealer who is willing to dig deeper.

The behaviour of the software in this car is totally unpredictable. When you get in the car in the morning, you have no idea what settings the heating / air-conditioning will be engaged. They are rarely what we left them at the previous day. Similarly, the radio station chosen the previous day has rarely been remembered so some horrible pop station comes blaring out. Speed limit recognition is completely random and wrong at least 50% of the time. Totally useless. Binding my phone to the car took weeks and remote action by MG Customer Services was required to clear the previous owner’s attachment to the car. Every few days I have to pair the car with my phone as it seems incapable of retaining the pairing for more than a few days. Really annoying

Heating settings should be remembered, again suggesting you are not on the latest software as does your radio problems which have had various fixes over the years.

Speed limit detection is rubbish, but then it is rubbish in most modern cars.

The phone app issues are a pain but the repairing is a fixed bug and a good dealer would sort this out asap.

For some unknown reason, turning at a junction activates cameras showing a totally useless view of the tarmac at the side of the car. Why do the software designers think this is a safety feature and an acceptable alternative to looking out of the window? It is madness and like the wretched ELK software, it is a useless distraction that adds absolutely nothing to safe driving

This can be disabled, there is a small settings icon in this mode which lets you turn it off.

The other day, I got in the car and noticed that the touchscreen was dead, not displaying key information and not allowing disabling of the ELK. The car had been charged overnight to 80% charge but this was not displayed on the touchscreen. The radio station and heater/aircon settings were also not displayed. The driver’s screen confirmed the level of charge and ELK engaged even though this was not shown on the touchscreen. I drove a few miles and then got out of the car and locked it. I unlocked it but the dead touchscreen persisted. I took the three photos of the screens and drove the car to my destination with the wretched ELK bleeping and swerving the car all over the road. Returning to the car later, the fault had rectified itself and the touchscreen was working normally. There is clearly something seriously wrong with the software in this car and it is not fit for purpose

Again, this is further evidence you don't have the latest software since these kinds of problems are very rare nowadays.

Note you can reboot the infotainment screen by holding the Home button down for 15 seconds to trigger a restart.

The MG EV Forum is full of similar experiences of sudden braking across the last few years. These dangerous cars should be taken off the road until the manufacturer can fix the software to return the car's controls to the driver. Trying to make a car safer to be driven by blind and incompetent drivers is a pointless and dangerous exercise. Whatever happened to driver skill and responsibility? Who is to blame when your car decides to slam the brakes on for no reason and the car behind crashes into you? Chasing NCAP 5-star safety ratings has led to bonkers software controls that are unsafe. There is a conspiracy of silence on this matter from MG Motors Ltd. My exchange of e-mails with you are simply frustrating and totally unacceptable

Actually, although there is a lot of historical chat about these two issues, few people complain about it now. They either have the fixes or they turn the features off before starting each journey.

During my last visit to my local MG Dealership, I was told that the software is not covered by the manufacturer’s warranty and they reserve the right to charge us £144 to poke around in the car’s computer brain and more than likely tell us that there is nothing wrong with the car. Opinion on The MG EV Forum suggests that software faults are covered by the manufacturer’s warranty so we do not expect an invoice for the work to correct the car’s defective software

The way to get software updates (once you have a decent dealer) is to report problems and ask them to be fixed under warranty. This is the only way a dealer gets paid to do the work.

There is no right to free software updates per se, that isn't part of the deal.

I am not holding my breath for a sensible or helpful response

Hopefully this is helpful and other people here will be, however I suspect you are talking about your letter. Let's see.

You could have a lemon, that is possible, they are out there but everything you saying suggests to me you have a bad/clueless dealer who only does the minimim mandatory software updates (which is effectively almost none).

I hope you get a helpful response from MG.

 

[MG Clive]

Superb reply @tsedge
Best of luck to you @Sparky2.

 

[Sparky2]

Thanks Salty. I was born in 1952 and we used to call "lemons" Friday Afternoon Specials' but that was when the only chips we had came with fried fish and mushy peas on a Friday night. The Chinese were rationed to two light bulbs in their meagre homes and they walked or cycled everywhere. There was no Internet, no mobile phone network, no Social Media and no hackers relieving you of your life savings. Some cars were built to last 100 years (if properly maintained) and some were hauled off to the dump when rust ate away the chassis and bodywork in just a few years. I also own a 1999 Jaguar XKR and a 1949 Alvis TA14 which has no seat belts, no airbags, no heater and no radio. Both of these cars are easier to control and safer to drive than the digitally-assisted MG4. I admit that I am an Analogue Man in a Digital World but nobody has managed to convince me that digital devices and controls are well-designed or reliable. Every piece of digital equipment I own falls over from time to time and the MG4 is sadly no exception. In order to compensate for my gas-guzzling hobby cars, I have designed and built an EPC Band A passive house with lots of solar PV, batteries and a Zappi EV charger. Every time there is a power outage or one of these bits of kit decides to do a software update, they refuse to speak to one another and chaos ensues. Ditto my mobile phone (with the flaky apps), my home computer, my laptop and my Internet radio. They all fall off their perch regularly and you need a few hours and a 12-year-old geek to get them going again. When the chips are down (literally) you cannot repair these things. Sometimes switching them off and on again restores them to working OK but long-term reliability is not part of the digital deal. As the Post Office scandal has shown, we trust digital equipment of any kind at our peril as it is not designed to last very long without constant updating. It is planned obsolescence of the worst kind and I hate it

Thanks to everyone who has responded to my complaints. The MG4 is a good car ruined by flaky software that should have been designed and tested fully before testing it out on us. There is also a fundamental disconnect between the manufacturer and their dealerships

 

[tsedge]

My tumble drier now warns me if I am using too much energy and refuses to start until I confirm EVERY TIME this is what I want.

The reason I want the high-energy mode is that these new heat-pump driers take absolutely forever to dry on low-energy settings. It might use less energy overall but I have other priorities in my day, I just want my stuff dry.

It is similar to the restricted cistern on toilets to save water. A very large percentage of people now just flush 2-3 times instead. Or vacuum cleaners that don't suck well, requiring hoovering for longer.

I suppose I should be grateful, I am hearing about dishwashers that require WIFI in order to set a timer through an App, each of which have their own software updates!

I too prefer the world as it used to be, but we can't stop the change.

 

[Martinonline]

@Sparky2, it is a shame that you are having significant problems with your car. I bought my MG Trophy in 2023 and have had no major issues. After an early Emergency Braking I set the FCA sensitivity to medium and that's where it stayed until after SC077 when I could leave it at high. LKA also improved with a nudge rather than a jerk.

Note similar problems have been reported with other EVs and ICE cars.

I would challenge your assertion that digital devices are more prone to failure than analogue ones. Mechanical links wear and analogue electronic voltages drift needing adjustment. 'Tinkering' is required but, for amateurs, that is not usually possible with digital devices.

I hope you get your car sorted. For information can you please tell what your infotainment version is, just to see if that is at the latest level as your dealer has stated. (Swipe left and selected settings, scroll down to system. Or swipe down from top right corner and touch the cog next to the word system and scroll.)

 

[salty]

My tumble drier now warns me if I am using too much energy and refuses to start until I confirm EVERY TIME this is what I want.

The reason I want the high-energy mode is that these new heat-pump driers take absolutely forever to dry on low-energy settings. It might use less energy overall but I have other priorities in my day, I just want my stuff dry.

It is similar to the restricted cistern on toilets to save water. A very large percentage of people now just flush 2-3 times instead. Or vacuum cleaners that don't suck well, requiring hoovering for longer.

I suppose I should be grateful, I am hearing about dishwashers that require WIFI in order to set a timer through an App, each of which have their own software updates!

I too prefer the world as it used to be, but we can't stop the change.

Good post, and have to agree. And no we can't stop the change. It's good and bad.
But something sticks in my mind about change, think it was on another forum.
Someone posted, they'd got a new Toaster, Jesus! It looked like a NASA computer. It's for Toasting Bread for Christ sake.

 

[tsedge]

Good post, and have to agree. And no we can't stop the change. It's good and bad.
But something sticks in my mind about change, think it was on another forum.
Someone posted, they'd got a new Toaster, Jesus! It looked like a NASA computer. It's for Toasting Bread for Christ sake.

I shouldn't have Googled, but I did. There are dozens of Wifi toaster models out there, including this:

Revolution’s New Smart Toaster Will Have Wi-Fi and Tell You The Weather

Last week at CES, Revolution Cooking, a company that’s made a name for itself by creating the world’s most high-end, tech-enabled toaster, gave us a sneak peek at its latest-generation …

thespoon.tech

 

[salty]

I shouldn't have Googled, but I did. There are dozens of Wifi toaster models out there, including this:

Revolution’s New Smart Toaster Will Have Wi-Fi and Tell You The Weather

Last week at CES, Revolution Cooking, a company that’s made a name for itself by creating the world’s most high-end, tech-enabled toaster, gave us a sneak peek at its latest-generation …

thespoon.tech

Nuff said.

 

[Tuareg]

Digital tech brings incredible benefits that we take for granted now and any issues pale into insignificance compared to these benefits.

 

[salty]

Agree on some things. But an all Singing all Dancing, Toaster. Come on!

 

[Ian Key]

Agree on some things. But an all Singing all Dancing, Toaster. Come on!

You're only jealous because you haven't got one. Here's mine...

 

[salty]

Brilliant!

 

[Martinonline]

For the real McCoy follow this link:

Red Dwarf Toastie

 

[salty]

Never seen that before. Also Brilliant!

 

[Archev]

You're only jealous because you haven't got one. Here's mine...

View attachment 38428

Crumbs that’ll be messy !

 

[salty]

Crumbs use your, Loaf, you'd be Barmy, to buy one of those.They'll definitely cost a lot of Bread. Whichever way you Slice, it.
(Sorry I'm off, now)

 

[tsedge]

What a load of old crusty Waffle! I really can't be buttered any more...

 

[salty]

Any more, we're on a Roll, now.

 

[MG Clive]