MG5 facelift Review Thread

[smokie]

Interestingly, I just went back to the saved Mk II £340 quote and changed the car back to my own Mk I and it came up with £227. So the Trophy insurance is considerably more in it's own right.

 

[Les burrows]

Interestingly, I just went back to the saved Mk II £340 quote and changed the car back to my own Mk I and it came up with £227. So the Trophy insurance is considerably more in it's own right.

Well as we all know so many things impact insurance quotes postcode are are but too I used both of them sites you mention £700-835 cheapest for me unbelievable spoke this morning to a MG dealer her words where she can’t understand it I’m not the only one would has said about the difference in the insurance to the Trophy from the MK1 exclusive model no idea why.
Certainly has got me thinking do I want the newer uplifted 5 or not.
Les

 

[Pebble]

72 plate, 2023 reg, 5 Trophy - £249 premium, £250 total excess, 7 years NCD, 62 years old plus wife at 61, SY4 postcode. No protected NCD or any other add ons.

 

[smokie]

I decided against the new 5 purely because it wold cost me about £8k + to change, for not a huge amount of improvement. There is some stuff which is undoubtedly better but not worth that much to me. If it had been the only choice when buying my Mk I I'd have bought it but I'm really happy with the one I have - and one thing which brings me happiness is how cheap it was (with Affinity)!

If I spent more time in the car (like I used to) I might have been more tempted.

But I'll hang onto the money till there are some more substantive improvements.

 

[Les burrows]

72 plate, 2023 reg, 5 Trophy - £249 premium, £250 total excess, 7 years NCD, 62 years old plus wife at 61, SY4 postcode. No protected NCD or any other add ons.

That’s excellent pebble can I please ask who that’s from and which insurance company if you don’t mind.
Les

 

[smokie]

Have you tried confused.com Les?

 

[Les burrows]

Have you tried confused.com Les?

Yeh about the same really smokie, did try again tonight with a few and this time meerkats came up with Churchill for £537, which is much better I have just saved it for the only thing I changed was the start date instead of next week I put in a date in around 3 weeks from now as Martin Lewis says you should do when coming up to renewal. When I get back home I am going on the phone to a few some of which don’t do online quotes or have not got the uplifted 5 on there on line systems yet.

I also have today e-mailed a chap on YouTube Jim Starling I think his name is, he does lots of car reviews plus PCP/ leasing deals and the likes, and he aways quotes insurance groups as well as prices, so I have asked him if he could do one about insurance groups and explaining how they are worked out, he’s wrote back to say he will look into it and do one if he can get enough information on it could help me and others understand the whole thing better I think you will agree.
Les.

 

[Les burrows]

I decided against the new 5 purely because it wold cost me about £8k + to change, for not a huge amount of improvement. There is some stuff which is undoubtedly better but not worth that much to me. If it had been the only choice when buying my Mk I I'd have bought it but I'm really happy with the one I have - and one thing which brings me happiness is how cheap it was (with Affinity)!

If I spent more time in the car (like I used to) I might have been more tempted.

But I'll hang onto the money till there are some more substantive improvements.

Your dead right smokie nothing wrong with the MK1mg5 but I’ve let mine go why
Around 2.5 grand more than I paid for it after 18500 miles was to good to say no to.
Was at first thinking of a 4 but then the wife decide so would like a 4 and got one so now not sure what to get for myself looked at model3 Tesla 3yrs old not over impressed to be honest plus I do like estate cars BYD or said to be bring one here by 2023/4 but at what price is anyone’s guess if it’s anything like the Ora cat that was to be £25000 mark but when it came £32000 so who knows.
Les

 

[Pebble]

That’s excellent pebble can I please ask who that’s from and which insurance company if you don’t mind.
Les

Admiral via Compare The Market. Going direct to Admiral gave a figure of £300+. This was back in mid December 2022. Should have added, 6k miles a year and a courtesy car included in the event of accident etc.. At the time, CTM were one of the few showing the 5 Trophy.

 

[Gomev]

... the only thing I changed was the start date instead of next week I put in a date in around 3 weeks from now as Martin Lewis says you should do when coming up to renewal. ...

That 3 week rule worked for me when renewing this year. Used the comparison sites about a month before when I got my renewal quote from Flow and was going to stay with them. Tried again 3 weeks before and got cheaper quotes and have changed to Aviva now.

 

[Les burrows]

It would appear that the range and the cost are in question on this newer version and is one of the dislikes.

 

[Gomev]

I haven't watched yet, but the cost to change from my pre-facelift and the reduced range of the Trophy are the 2 factors stopping me. I might consider the SE, I don't think I will lose too much from the Exclusive.....but why would I want to lose anything and pay more ?

edit: I have now watched it and opinion is still the same. It's a nice to have but not a need to have.

 

[szymon]

It would appear that the range and the cost are in question on this newer version and is one of the dislikes.

A good review and I enjoyed watching it. I'm glad to read that they plan to test the trophy with different wheels -- if they drop down to 16" and do a direct comparison it will show what effect they really have. Look forward to seeing that update!

I find it interesting that they say that the charging speed has dropped (to 80kW) but that it holds that higher speed for longer, leading to faster overall charging. That's a trade-off that I feel is worth making.

Overall a very positive review indeed.

 

[Les burrows]

Hi as some of you will know I got the 5 uplifted Trophy model picked it up on Friday after a long drawn out battle trying to get insurance at a reasonable price so that sorted for now Gone with Churchill via the meerkats about £440 had to drop the NC protection £87 I think that was and had to increase the excess from 2-4 hundred pounds.

So getting back on thread this morning I was reading in another thread on here some body have a bit of a moan about his 5 MK 1 exclusive not have a warning light as he drove off with the charge port open think most of us have done that right.

So I thought I wonder if they have sorted that out on this new Trophy well in a word NO they haven’t or I can’t see any warning if the port is open and I turn on the car to ready mode, my wife’s MG4 does and there is also 4 big lights all around the charging port with light up in turn as the battery gets more charge in it’s great, but the size and brightness of these lights light up the street almost and if you get in the car and the charge port is open it has a big picture on the dash panel saying charging port open.

The 5 Trophy has 4 small lights to show the state of charge I think not charged it yet, but no warning if you leave it open from what I can see.

But there’s good news it now has lights in the rear seating area. But the MG4 doesn’t. When will they listen appears they can only fix one grip at a time maybe on the next uplifted version but then I think the motor and the charging port might be at the rear like the Mg4 and that’s all ok then.
Les.

 

[Gomev]

Hi as some of you will know I got the 5 uplifted Trophy model picked it up on Friday after a long drawn out battle trying to get insurance at a reasonable price so that sorted for now Gone with Churchill via the meerkats about £440 had to drop the NC protection £87 I think that was and had to increase the excess from 2-4 hundred pounds.

So getting back on thread this morning I was reading in another thread on here some body have a bit of a moan about his 5 MK 1 exclusive not have a warning light as he drove off with the charge port open think most of us have done that right.

So I thought I wonder if they have sorted that out on this new Trophy well in a word NO they haven’t or I can’t see any warning if the port is open and I turn on the car to ready mode, my wife’s MG4 does and there is also 4 big lights all around the charging port with light up in turn as the battery gets more charge in it’s great, but the size and brightness of these lights light up the street almost and if you get in the car and the charge port is open it has a big picture on the dash panel saying charging port open.

The 5 Trophy has 4 small lights to show the state of charge I think not charged it yet, but no warning if you leave it open from what I can see.

But there’s good news it now has lights in the rear seating area. But the MG4 doesn’t. When will they listen appears they can only fix one grip at a time maybe on the next uplifted version but then I think the motor and the charging port might be at the rear like the Mg4 and that’s all ok then.
Les.

I suppose time will tell, but do you think it is worth the upgrade cost to change. I reckon it would be about 10k now with the falling value of used vehicles and the new Trophy at £34k

 

[Les burrows]

Well Gomev you and me are on a very similar track in some ways, we both join this forum around the same time and owned a MG5 mk1 mine was the standard range 50 kw exclusive in blue and I think you have the very same yeh, and we, very probably paid around the same price for them as well, with the incentives that where around at the time sadly now gone, so far more expensive today.

I was very please with that car apart from a squealing rear brake problem when reversing off my drive in the morning almost from new, or if it had been stood for a while had it back to the dealers at least 5 times they had overnight twice and the last time they had for 3 days but never managed to stop it, so I decided I might have a change that was about the time the MG4 came to the dealers in Chorley, my wife and I had been waiting for MG to bring a electric version of the MG3 out for over a year but as you know that as never happened, so when the 4 turned up we when to look at that, you see the 3 was the size of car that she wanted and nothing bigger plus it had to be an automatic, which they never did in the ICE 3, I had to convinced her she needed to have an EV as it made no sense to buy an ICE again, anyhow talk her into it and, we’ll, it is what it is bit bigger than the 3 so I had to get around that but its fine for what she wants, doesn’t go very far shopping mainly and that is it, any distances we do we always go in my car the 5 we have family in SE London Berkshire and South Wales plus holidays when we can and doing them in the 5 was no problem yeh needed to charge going and coming back but OK with that and we where doing this several times a year so the miles where beginning to mount up.

So with that in mind I thought maybe a bit more range would be nice to have with the price for ever going up now on the rapid chargers and the range was just a little bit short the extra range might mean I don’t need the rapids on my trips south but the MG4 was big enough so went for SE SR in that for the wife.

So while in the dealers in Chorley they said the new 5 was about to arrive in a week or so now as I said above I had been thinking maybe time for a change and I had done as everyone else as done and tried to see what I could expect to get for mine at We buy any car and CarZoo plus others and all of them where making me overs of more than I paid for it so I was on her on time and BillyWizz wrote that he had sold his car to Motorpoint well they are not far from me so I filledin the form online and sent it off and they came back with a quote which was unbelievable almost £3500 more than I paid for the car wow.

So just left it a week or so until the new 5 came and went to see it and sorry I while now try to give you an answer to your question so there it was £34000 just under about £3360 in white so some things have change is it worth the extra over my own car a MG5 mk1 50kw well yes it probably is but is it worth the extra over a MK1 Long range I going to say no it’s probably not.

My reason are it can do less miles if you need the miles and apart for several cosmetic changes it the same car they have remove a few good things from this new one the HAVC controls are now in the screen along with the switches for the heated seats I’m talking the Trophy spec here of course I don’t find the seats quite as comfortable but maybe I will wear them in, there’s a few other bits and bobs that have changed like interior lights in the rear seats so you can see what your doing while trying to put a belt on or get kids in or out, the 360 cameras they are not brilliant at all in there quality of picture the reversing camera on the MK1 was much clearer for me but you only had the rear one,

Drive is about the same may be a little bit smoother probably because of the bigger wheels but it’s a bit noisier I think buy that I mean road noise probably again because of the bigger wheels, steering wheel in the 4 is much nicer than ether of the 5s and the 4 is quieter as well I think.

I had never driven a car with MG pilot before we got the 4 and at first I was not impressed at all there is some really bad issues with it as you may have read here LKA is bloody dangerous not to bad on ours as once you turn it off it stays off but other can’t do that so at for soon reason there an update coming I believe to sort that out but on my 5 can I say MG5 MK2 it’s great really do like it.

So in summary mate is the Mk 2 MG5 worth the extra over the MG5 Mk1 yes over the SR for the range and the pilot plus the LKA on this is fine
But over a Long Range Mk1 you will be paying for cosmetic improvements only I think only had it a few days driven 50/60 miles so far but will do a fuller write up on it when I have had it a few weeks.
You are not going to believe this but this morning there was a very slight Squealing from the rear brakes !!!

Jeff I need some help !!

Sorry this is so long and not fully an answer to your question but I will do that in a few weeks time.
Les

 

[Gomev]

Thanks @Les burrows Yes we have travelled a similar journey in a similar time. Mine was from the shorter range Mk1 ZS EV to the LR 5 Exec and yes the longer range makes a lot of the cost very worthwhile.
I like the look of the facelift and it's more modern interior but I have become addicted to the reassurance the 'extra range' gives. As mentioned before I don't necessarily use the extra battery capacity for range but also use the heating and AC without worrying about it. My m/kWh has been awful of late simply because the heating is on full time....and I don't care

I think the facelift SE would do me, cheaper and longer range than the Trophy. I wouldn't miss the bits I've never had, like 360 cameras but would miss the simple things like auto folding mirrors. Daft eh. The big plus on either though is the V2L. If I had that I would use it in place of home batteries with a bit of fiddling and a good electrician.

With loads of new EVs coming out this year I will be looking around, hoping there are some cheaper options. I feel very grateful to MG for providing affordable EVs to get me started but I'm not not beholding to them.

Oh and we tried the MG4, there is only the 2 of us so plenty big enough and I would have one in the blink of an eye, except my shorthouse missus just couldn't cope with the sills

 

[Les burrows]

Hiya yeh right about the sills on the 4 they are a no go for shorter people not bad getting in but getting out no good my missus does still have a moan from time to time especially if we park on a slope but she loves driving it.
See the YT video I placed on here in the thread
MG4 reviews and various online publications go to page 3 #638 Susan doesn’t like it and at the very end of it they comment on the sills.

Sorry I thought you still had the SR mk1 so as you now already have the LR is maybe harder to decide to swop it like I said above, also the extra range is now becoming useful with the cost of public chargers going up and up but now I think most of my longer journeys to family can be done without a charge stop will still need to to empty me and recharge my taste buds but won’t be looking for a car charger I hope we will see how that goes.

I forget to mention the V2L yes that was another reason for buying both the 4 and the 5 MK2 I’m also interested in running things from it, plan is one on charge from the solar we have the other could be used on discharge if we want to and ether can be driven away at any time unlike a home battery which is screwed to the wall and are not cheap to install, the other good things is being able to use power tools away from a supply as well which I some times do.
Les

 

[MarkM]

Problems during the 1000km challenge. I think it is similiar what happend to other members over time.

I tried it when plugged in the ODB dongle (+ the app Bjorn uses as well) and had more strange thinks that happened: Problems when I wanted to charge but after disconnecting the dongle there was no problem anymore and sudden theft-alarm going of several times ( + ones in the middle of the night!) when I had the dongle connected. After that I unplugged the ODB dongle and had NO problems for a little less than a year now.

Maybe the MG5 doesn’t like ODB-dongle’s that much(?)

I hope Bjorn will try the 1000km challenge again and disconnect the ODB-dongle when having problems with charging.

 

[slmorgan42]

I tried it when plugged in the ODB dongle (+ the app Bjorn uses as well) and had more strange thinks that happened: Problems when I wanted to charge but after disconnecting the dongle there was no problem anymore and sudden theft-alarm going of several times ( + ones in the middle of the night!) when I had the dongle connected. After that I unplugged the ODB dongle and had NO problems for a little less than a year now.

Maybe the MG5 doesn’t like ODB-dongle’s that much(?)

I hope Bjorn will try the 1000km challenge again and disconnect the ODB-dongle when having problems with charging.

I have not had problems the few times I have used my odb2 device but then again I do not leave it plugged in all the time.