MG4 Reviews from various online publications

[Lovemyev]

Dynamic red is a tri coat ( pearl ) paint and is the most expensive finish that MG offered and was around £700 extra when we bought our ZS EV Gen1 in 2019.
Solid white carried no addition premium, the new blue on the MG4 could be a solid colour also, other colours are metallic finish, at around £450 extra cost at the time of buying our car.
When the affinity scheme was running, there was no additional charge for choosing the more expensive paint option.

 

[BugEyed]

Except that he said that he was testing the LR which in SE spec with the red paint costs £29,120.

I was interested in his comments on the hesitation "at 45mph" when accelerating, and the question of whether it has a two speed gearbox.

Overall it struck me that he thought the car competent, excellent value for money, but uninspiring.

 

[dirk362]

Overall it struck me that he thought the car competent, excellent value for money, but uninspiring.

And here I think we hit the concern some will have prior to a test drive in a demo car.
If it's

• uninspiring
• not as family-friendly for space, storage, or carting kids or stuff around
• annoying for regen via favourite buttons and selecting a level
• annoying for drive mode if that is what you change more often
• too dark inside given the all-black interior
• too noisy on the roads at higher speeds
• true that SE and Trophy genuinely have different settings or ways to access settings

then the benefits of low price and availability dwindle. You can compromise, but only to a certain level. Past that, you have to be prepared to walk away.

 

[Racer7]

I think this is a good summary of the negatives or things to watch out for.

I thought the review was fine. Perhaps I've overdosed on them too much now. Because it's feeling all the same. Even the same routes.

I know it's only 2hr car time so appreciate what the reviewers can get out in that limited time. However I think from a review pov is they had them a bit longer and locally to them they could start to do more tailored reviewing/testing to their own skill sets.

My takeaway from the Jonny Smith review (I do subscribe to him anyway) is that the SE LR is the sweet spot. I sort of agree but am frustrated that 360 camera and flat floor are limited to the Trophy spec. Plus knowing we're only getting 10% SE LR means you'd automatically limit your chances of getting a first batch.

I went for the Trophy (in the red, which I like but didn't want to pony up for). At £32k you can say it's comparatively cheap but it feels a long way from the headline £26k. And as mentioned it creates another line of thinking that at £32k I'm very close to the Cupra Born.

Tough choice on a car to car basis. But the one thing still in MGs favour is being able to drive away in a few weeks. Rather than 6-12 months.

 

[dirk362]

I went for the Trophy (in the red, which I like but didn't want to pony up for). At £32k you can say it's comparatively cheap but it feels a long way from the headline £26k. And as mentioned it creates another line of thinking that at £32k I'm very close to the Cupra Born.

Tough choice on a car to car basis. But the one thing still in MGs favour is being able to drive away in a few weeks. Rather than 6-12 months.

Yep, right on the nose.

Trophy feels to be the first compromise to get some things that really should be on the SE. And let's not even discuss the fact there are no front parking sensors or rear wiper even then.
But once you pay £32,190 for Trophy in Red, you are encroaching on a price point that a few other vehicles start to go on the list.
£25,995 grabs the headlines, but I would think the extra money to get the long range will be what more customers go for.

Availability to going to be a more deciding factor for some, because pretty much everything else is 6 months or more away. But if you don't get an MG4 from either the September or October allocation, then how MG will fare in 2023 is an unknown (despite their commitment to bring 20,000 MG4 to the UK across the year).

 

[D1no]

Except that he said that he was testing the LR which in SE spec with the red paint costs £29,120.

View attachment 10657
I was interested in his comments on the hesitation "at 45mph" when accelerating, and the question of whether it has a two speed gearbox.

Overall it struck me that he thought the car competent, excellent value for money, but uninspiring.

Ignore the EV bit and it's just another family hatchback - they're generally all uninspiring. If you look at the price, even for ICE cars, there's not much you'd call inspiring that has 4/5 doors and can carry a family. The average family don't want something that can drift and shred tyres - look at the number of dull ICE cars that sell by the bucketload.

It feels at times like it's being compared to a Model 3, despite it being half the price. The ID3 is mentioned a lot and from looks, I'd say the MG is better, inside and out. The ID3 was heavily criticised for the quality of its interior and the complete lack of physical buttons, so I'd say the MG4 has got the basics right but kept some sensible things e.g. physical volume buttons, demist buttons etc. The ID3 is also a lot more expensive and has a lot less kit.

The Stelantis cars are mentioned and I liked the look of the 208 and the Mokka, but the range is terrible and they're all small inside, particularly in the back. For a family or anyone who wants more than a city car, I don't think any of them can compete with the MG4, they're competing with the Fiat500, maybe the Mini.

The Cupra Born is mentioned, but that's going to be the sports version of an ID3, even though few of them are sporty - the reviews of that said it wasn't the first EV hot hatch people wanted. Every indication is that the AWD version of the MG will undercut it on price, will beat most things on part and pace, although we'll have to see if it's a proper drivers car or just an over powered family car.

If anyone wants a hatchback, I can't see a better option than the MG4 and there's the choice of range and equipment to meet budgets. If you put a Ford badge on the front of it, it would be being declared as car of the year.

 

[gasman]

I haven't noticed where or how you engage and alter the cruise control. Perhaps one button to turn it on/off but where is the adjustment for speed. Anyone know ?

 

[dirk362]

I haven't noticed where or how you engage and alter the cruise control. Perhaps one button to turn it on/off but where is the adjustment for speed. Anyone know ?

Taken from the WhichEV.net review, they said of this

"Adaptive Cruise Control is available on all models, something we now consider essential with today’s traffic levels. We found this a bit finicky in practice, with speed changes that weren’t as smooth as we would have liked, but it's great to have this on even the base SE Standard Range. We also noticed that the speed limit sign recognition was temperamental."

See their full review here.

 

[JimB]

And here I think we hit the concern some will have prior to a test drive in a demo car.
If it's

• uninspiring
• not as family-friendly for space, storage, or carting kids or stuff around
• annoying for regen via favourite buttons and selecting a level
• annoying for drive mode if that is what you change more often
• too dark inside given the all-black interior
• too noisy on the roads at higher speeds
• true that SE and Trophy genuinely have different settings or ways to access settings

then the benefits of low price and availability dwindle. You can compromise, but only to a certain level. Past that, you have to be prepared to walk away.

I keep getting the same feeling, every time something else is added to the 'doesn't have / can't do' list.

 

[ukflyer]

I haven't noticed where or how you engage and alter the cruise control. Perhaps one button to turn it on/off but where is the adjustment for speed. Anyone know ?

We won’t know for sure until someone gets their hands on one, but I am wondering if this might have something to do with it, perhaps in conjunction with the steering wheel controls?

 

[JimB]

There's now so much stuff on here that I'm losing sight of the trees, and there still isn't much info on the MG site.

As I have a 'dumb' charger it would be a big issue for me if the 4 doesn't have on board charge timers but for the life of me don't remember seeing any reference to that.

 

[scoobeesnac]

Taken from the WhichEV.net review, they said of this

"Adaptive Cruise Control is available on all models, something we now consider essential with today’s traffic levels. We found this a bit finicky in practice, with speed changes that weren’t as smooth as we would have liked, but it's great to have this on even the base SE Standard Range. We also noticed that the speed limit sign recognition was temperamental."

See their full review here.

Reminds me of my ZS EV test drive when it said to go 70 in a 20 area...I put it down to the poor cameras and AI recognition. I've not seen any mention of the MG4 camera quality yet.

 

[kin]

We won’t know for sure until someone gets their hands on one, but I am wondering if this might have something to do with it, perhaps in conjunction with the steering wheel controls?
View attachment 10668

I thought there was a infra red sensor on top of the steering column?

 

[ukflyer]

And here I think we hit the concern some will have prior to a test drive in a demo car.
If it's

• uninspiring
• not as family-friendly for space, storage, or carting kids or stuff around
• annoying for regen via favourite buttons and selecting a level
• annoying for drive mode if that is what you change more often
• too dark inside given the all-black interior
• too noisy on the roads at higher speeds
• true that SE and Trophy genuinely have different settings or ways to access settings

then the benefits of low price and availability dwindle. You can compromise, but only to a certain level. Past that, you have to be prepared to walk away.

Dirk,

My thoughts on your bullet points:

If I were the lesser side of 50 (or indeed 40), I may look elsewhere for something more inspiring, but I am not, and I like the look of the car. ‘Elsewhere’ could include the upcoming high performance version.

As above, no longer need family space as have passed that era of my life. It only needs to accommodate my pug and I, with the occasional guest passenger.

I will most likely keep it on the adaptive regen and let the car figure it out.

As I will rarely change the drive mode, I will keep it in normal, but if I find I do change it more often, then will assign a wheel button for it.

Too dark is a genuine concern for me and why on Earth have they not put in a rear courtesy light? I’m guessing it stems from the design having had a panoramic roof, which, of course, was changed at the last minute, in our market.

Excessive road noise will only be a factor on longer drives, which will be rare, and can be resolved, possibly, by changing tyres (or cranking up some progressive rock). Most of my journeys will be local. If I were going to be making a lot of longer trips, I would consider a different car.

If folks want an infotainment system with the most options, then, obviously, look at The Trophy. I think it quite normal for a lower spec car to have a more basic software package, that is more applicable to the level of trim.

 

[ukflyer]

I thought there was a infra red sensor on top of the steering column?

There is, but I don’t think that has anything to do with the adaptive cruise control, aside from detecting if you nod off.

 

[Racer7]

Taken from the WhichEV.net review, they said of this

"Adaptive Cruise Control is available on all models, something we now consider essential with today’s traffic levels. We found this a bit finicky in practice, with speed changes that weren’t as smooth as we would have liked, but it's great to have this on even the base SE Standard Range. We also noticed that the speed limit sign recognition was temperamental."

See their full review here.

I wonder how much of these short comings can be improved via software updates?

Maybe one for the ZS EV owners but it would be interesting to know if these cars can effectively be optimised over time via software updates and whether MG even do something like this.

I've noted a distinctive group of anti EV comments on FB EV car adverts. They're not unwarranted (cost of electricity these days, how sustainable, how long life). Makes me get a bit nervous on pulling the trigger on this.

Also I learnt here the about miles per kWh range being more important (I guess like mpg?). In The fully charged review he says 3.7 (with some caveats) but I read on the cupra born owners club they are getting 4.2 or higher. An interesting comparison point.

Anyone know if it's been declared. I am trying to sort the MG hype (e.g keep quoting 281 miles and £26k - even though they're not linked) from what is closer to reality.

 

[dirk362]

I too now have fewer days ahead than behind, don't have a young family to cart around, and so a fair bit of what I posted was defined as generic items to cover the spread of customers and posts I've seen from other users on the forum. It wasn't meant to be my personal list of concerns, although some clearly are.

With potential road noise, I went so far as to look at what it would cost to get replacement tyres with better noise suppression or those with the foam inside (or whatever it is they use to dampen sound). The problem I found was those sorts of tyres don't seem to exist for the 17" rims the MG4 has. They only seem to exist for things like 20" and above. So I don't think it could be mitigated fully if indeed it does turn out to be a concern area for me.

I do have a regular family commitment drive of around 240 miles every 3 weeks. This is motorway for 75%, and so I wouldn't want to suffer too much intrusive noise given the frequency of the journey. It's also why I will be resetting the trip computer on my test drive to see what genuine mileage I can get on Eco mode at 60mph to at least indicate if I need to wait for the Extended Range if the MG4 ticks all the other boxes. Yes, I can charge on route but it would be a hassle I'd prefer to avoid.

Until I actually drive the thing for myself, there's not much point worrying about this or that.
The car will either tick the boxes for my personal circumstance, or it won't. If it does, then great as I'm assured of my choice of Trophy in Camden Grey as I put down a deposit back on the 5th of August. The dealer has confirmed it is allocated to me so it's mine if I want it.

 

[duncerduncs]

I haven't noticed where or how you engage and alter the cruise control. Perhaps one button to turn it on/off but where is the adjustment for speed. Anyone know ?

Press the Steering Wheel symbol and it brings up the MG Pilot menu, you can set it using the left hand 'toggle' on the steering wheel.

It would seem that the 'toggles' on the wheel control different functions depending on what menu you are on - once you get used to it, it shouldn't be an issue....

 

[gasman]

Thanks for that. It probably is a lot easier than you thank when you've done it a couple of times.

 

[WonkoTheSaneUK]

They seem to be "thumbsticks", like the kiddies have on their console gamepads.

(Pic from MG Germany Facebook)