MGS5 auto dipping headlights

[Joningy]

The auto dipping headlights on my 4 week old S5 are terrible, often blinding oncoming vehicles, sometimes not auto dipping at all, needing to manual dip, feels so sluggish as though they've been on the beer and forget to work.

Has anyone else noticed this sluggish nature on auto dip?

I doubt if the sensitivity is user adjustable, I've tried adjusting the headlight height, but no difference!

The car is in next week to (try) to sort out the adaptive cruise control (ACC), which intermittently stays on for several seconds when switched off. ---- (Thread elsewhere on this forum)

 

[Alb]

I've never had it switched on and probably never will as I prefer to keep this strictly under manual control.

 

[Loada]

I turned it off in the settings - it's a novel idea but it's just not very good. To be fair, in most new cars that have it, it's not great.

 

[5teep]

The one time I've driven in the dark the lights came up as I was about to pass an HGV. I turned off auto dip.
Other cars I've driven have auto dip that works just fine.

 

[tsedge]

Auto-dip on many cars rarely works well enough for my satisfaction and I have tried quite a few. I turned it off permanently on my MG4, I am happy to manually dip.

I expect future software updates may improve it.

 

[TimothyN]

I found it completely unusable. But I prefer to anticipate anyway, when I see the oncoming car's lights around the corner.

 

[GaryMG4]

The MG4 system is useless, way too laggy, the eNiro is just about usable although like @TimothyN I prefer to anticipate.

 

[Lovemyev]

It was automatically defaulted to ON in our previous ZS EV and I was not aware of this feature for months after getting the car.
Until one evening, the car automatically turned on main beam while we where driving down an unlit country lane, when headed back home.
So, I left it enabled to see how it managed !.
Well, how was it ? - Bit of a mixed bag really, sometimes it was very quick to respond and other times it was a bit laggy to turn OFF when traffic was approaching at speed.
I have not been able to compare the ZS EV to the S5 just yet, but I expect it will be very similar.
These "fancy pants" driving aid gizmo's are all well and good on paper, when they work of course. If an OAP like me can still operate the column stork faster than a modern computer system, I will take that all day .
I sometimes wonder sometimes if we have just become far to use to all of these features, then when they do not perform 100% correctly every single time, we are extremely annoyed.
If its there as a feature, then should we expect it to work correctly all of the time ?.
Well, yes I suppose it should in the perfect world, but more tech, means more problems .
Try driving an early Citroen 2 CV for a bit, to action the so called main beam, you have pull a metal handle that is sticking out of the dash.
This is connected directly to swivel headlight support bar, the head lights and then directly bolted on to.
As you move the handle, it twists the bar, which lifts or lowers the height of the headlights themselves, quality basic engineering at its very best.
Oh - No main beam warnings light etc .

 

[GrahamB]

I found ours around two seconds late in turning on and off. Dealer acknowledged almost everyone says the same. It's the same on our MG4 as well.

 

[GaryMG4]

I sometimes wonder sometimes if we have just become far to use to all of these features, then when they do not perform 100% correctly every single time, we are extremely annoyed.
If its there as a feature, then should we expect it to work correctly all of the time ?.
Well, yes I suppose it should in the perfect world, but more tech, means more problems .

I think the problem is that 90% correct is still worse than none at all. All of the driver aids would be a really good idea except that if they are not perfect then add to the workload rather than improving it. I'm sure I'd be amazed by Tesla FSD when it works but just one fail would mean I'd concentrate too much on monitoring it rather than just driving with full awareness.

 

[Joningy]

I've never had it switched on and probably never will as I prefer to keep this strictly under manual control.

I'll probably do the same @Alb, but the S5 is far worse than the MG4 was, I'd expect it to be as good or superior not worse.

I turned it off in the settings - it's a novel idea but it's just not very good. To be fair, in most new cars that have it, it's not great.

I've driven a few cars with auto dipping headlights, the MGS5 is definitely the worst I've I've used!
Not a good advert for MG.

 

[German Paddy]

For what it is worth, I think it worked very well on my Volvo XC 40 recharge. Only get my S5 in 2026. It might be the bad Irish roads or drivers?

 

[Kenp1]

Yes, the MG4 is the same, I turned it off.

 

[99999Jamrs]

Prefer the old fashioned ‘DIY’ mode!

Aside from that anyone having issues with almost non existent DAB radio in an S5? Listening to Smooth this morning and it kept jumping to Radio 2 FM!! Only had it 2 weeks! On the 2024 HS I had it worked perfectly, the 2024 MG4 had radio for 2 months out of 8 I had it and the ZS 2025 worked like a dream except in a tunnel!! Here’s hoping there’s a bug fix on its way!!

 

[Jazzyboy]

Prefer the old fashioned ‘DIY’ mode!

Aside from that anyone having issues with almost non existent DAB radio in an S5? Listening to Smooth this morning and it kept jumping to Radio 2 FM!! Only had it 2 weeks! On the 2024 HS I had it worked perfectly, the 2024 MG4 had radio for 2 months out of 8 I had it and the ZS 2025 worked like a dream except in a tunnel!! Here’s hoping there’s a bug fix on its way!!

It may depend what part of the country you are in. More rural areas wont get great DAB signal...

 

[99999Jamrs]

It may depend what part of the country you are in. More rural areas wont get great DAB signal...

The HS was great, the MG4 gateway module was faulty and MG wouldn’t authorise a repair so rejected the car, ZS was great, yet the S5 barely works anywhere!

 

[Ian Key]

If they put the aerial on the roof (e,g. in a shark's fin) instead of using the bottom of the rear window or like Ford do who also use the rear window but they use all the heating elements instead of the bottom two and that works