New arrival - MG4 Trophy (3 headrest model)

[stingrayMG4]

My thoughts after 6 days and 510 miles with my MG 4 Trophy:

1. It is very orange (but then I guess I knew that...though they had black roofs when I ordered, but now they just come in one colour)
2. The fit and finish is better than I expected. It got some hard plastics but nothing bad, especially at the price point
3. The claimed range of around 270 is closer to 190-200 if using A or M roads at 70mph. The on-board computer is showing average of 3.6 miles per KW after a couple of local shopping runs and a weekend trip from Chelmsford to Hull. Am sure it would be higher just on locals runs.
4. The active cruise control seemed to work quite well and is very handy when stuck in traffic, nudging the car forward as the car in front moves (not unique to EV's I realise)
5. The Lane Keep Assist seemed fairly unobtrusive and didn't do anything weird (contrary to what I had read)
6. The auto-hold (handbrake coming on/off automatically) stopped working on Sunday. A little yellow warning message flashed up, but disappeared too quickly to read. Google search suggests this is not uncommon, and car needs a powerdown/powerup to resolve
7. The infotainment system refused to boot up as we left a services on the A1. Got stuck at the MG logo. There is a way to reset (thanks to a google search) by holding a button for 10 secs. Seems that this error can occur if you try and drive off before the infotainment system has fully booted up
8. Our first experience of public charging (Peterborough services on Al) worked like a charm. Contactless credit card, plug in...all good and 65p per KW. 2nd one in Hull (79p) was ok using credit card, though the BP app refused to work.
9. Not so good on way home as the same charger in Peterborough (and its friend next door) were both dead, so off to the 6 faster chargers at the other side of the car park. 1 was broken (someone said it had been for 2 months) and the others were in use. 20 mins wait (there is no queueing system so you have to keep your wits about you and send your passenger to go and stand in the bay) for one to come free. Charger (even though on screen says it does, there is a sticker on the machine saying it doesn't accept credit cards, so the only way to pay was with the app on your phone. Once setup, it worked well and the charger was .but not cheap at 79p per KW again
10. This morning on the wife's trip to work she was driving along at 30mph in a 40mph zone (Lordship Lane, Writtle for those you know it) and the emergency braking system kicked in and brought the car to a halt. No cars in front and the one behind was thankfully far enough back to also stop. Shook the wife up a bit as no obvious reason for it... handbag shot off the passenger seat into the footwell, and the car moved itself from Drive to Neutral. Said it flashed up a yellow box with text in, but disappeared too quick to read it. Noticed some forums talk about the "downright dangerous auto braking" so it would seem it is not an isolated incident. The software must get confused (maybe by shadows) and jams the brakes on. Will turn it off in future, which means doing it via the dash EVERY time you start the car. It seems that NCAP crash testing now requires all these "aids" to default to on, whereas on older models you could permanently disable. Maybe NCAP needs to actually test the usefulness of these aids rather than just ticking a box if the car has it

So not a perfect start with what is a brand new car, but then it is (relatively) cheap and Chinese, and for those who remember the early cheap Android tablets, most of them were shocking, so not expecting perfection !!

Also if you need to use public charging and 70mph roads for a large portion of your journeys then I wonder if an EV is cost effective. 79p to do 3.6 miles is 22p a mile. Assuming a gallon of petrol is £6 and your car does 35mpg (which is quite low by modern standards) that is 17p a mile. Obviously there are other savings associated with EVs, though I see that from 2025 we now have to pay road tax (guess that was inevitable)

 

[lfc958]

I pick up My Trophy ER tomorrow, looking forward to see how different it is from my wife's Trophy LR, which we have had since March, only had the emergency sudden breaking for no reason once , so wondered if its just testing itself to confirm it works .
Also the LKA on the LR is not as bad as the test car, hoping this will be even gentler, although I will be trying a suggestion I have seen to see if switching on Towing mode will keep LKA off ? some have tried and say it doest work.

 

[situbusitgooddog]

I would imagine towing mode will work, but to my knowledge it disables just about every safety feature so driver beware - feels like a bit of a sledgehammer to crack a walnut.

I was very apprehensive about the LKA having read the forums a lot prior to getting my Trophy the other day, but honestly so far it's been nothing to worry about, much subtler than I was expecting. I hired an Insignia a while back and the LKA on that was downright aggressive and unpredictable whereas on the MG4 it seems more like a bit of a random nag to pay attention and use your indicators. The one option I have disabled is the road sign detection, it's a pretty cool gimmick for the first few trips but it just will not stop blinking when it's missed a sign and thinks you're over the speed limit.

Also having moved from a much older car, can confirm that the adaptive cruise control is an absolute godsend - jump onto an A-road, set the ACC and point the car in the right direction and it will take care of the rest regardless of traffic slowing down, love it.

Unfortunately I seem to be plagued with an ongoing issue - I'll start a drive in 'Normal' with the best of intentions and somehow finish the drive in 'Sport' with a grin plastered on my mug and absolutely shocking kWh efficiency

 

[Ian Key]

Also if you need to use public charging and 70mph roads for a large portion of your journeys then I wonder if an EV is cost effective. 79p to do 3.6 miles is 22p a mile. Assuming a gallon of petrol is £6 and your car does 35mpg (which is quite low by modern standards) that is 17p a mile. Obviously there are other savings associated with EVs, though I see that from 2025 we now have to pay road tax (guess that was inevitable)

Unless you can charge at home you don't save much on the fuel cost per mile. If you have a home charger when costing it out the initial and final charge on a long journey will be a lot cheaper than the fast chargers. Also remember an ICE vehicle will be doing a lot less mpg until it warms up.

 

[rigby44]

My thoughts after 6 days and 510 miles with my MG 4 Trophy:

1. It is very orange (but then I guess I knew that...though they had black roofs when I ordered, but now they just come in one colour)
2. The fit and finish is better than I expected. It got some hard plastics but nothing bad, especially at the price point
3. The claimed range of around 270 is closer to 190-200 if using A or M roads at 70mph. The on-board computer is showing average of 3.6 miles per KW after a couple of local shopping runs and a weekend trip from Chelmsford to Hull. Am sure it would be higher just on locals runs.
4. The active cruise control seemed to work quite well and is very handy when stuck in traffic, nudging the car forward as the car in front moves (not unique to EV's I realise)
5. The Lane Keep Assist seemed fairly unobtrusive and didn't do anything weird (contrary to what I had read)
6. The auto-hold (handbrake coming on/off automatically) stopped working on Sunday. A little yellow warning message flashed up, but disappeared too quickly to read. Google search suggests this is not uncommon, and car needs a powerdown/powerup to resolve
7. The infotainment system refused to boot up as we left a services on the A1. Got stuck at the MG logo. There is a way to reset (thanks to a google search) by holding a button for 10 secs. Seems that this error can occur if you try and drive off before the infotainment system has fully booted up
8. Our first experience of public charging (Peterborough services on Al) worked like a charm. Contactless credit card, plug in...all good and 65p per KW. 2nd one in Hull (79p) was ok using credit card, though the BP app refused to work.
9. Not so good on way home as the same charger in Peterborough (and its friend next door) were both dead, so off to the 6 faster chargers at the other side of the car park. 1 was broken (someone said it had been for 2 months) and the others were in use. 20 mins wait (there is no queueing system so you have to keep your wits about you and send your passenger to go and stand in the bay) for one to come free. Charger (even though on screen says it does, there is a sticker on the machine saying it doesn't accept credit cards, so the only way to pay was with the app on your phone. Once setup, it worked well and the charger was .but not cheap at 79p per KW again
10. This morning on the wife's trip to work she was driving along at 30mph in a 40mph zone (Lordship Lane, Writtle for those you know it) and the emergency braking system kicked in and brought the car to a halt. No cars in front and the one behind was thankfully far enough back to also stop. Shook the wife up a bit as no obvious reason for it... handbag shot off the passenger seat into the footwell, and the car moved itself from Drive to Neutral. Said it flashed up a yellow box with text in, but disappeared too quick to read it. Noticed some forums talk about the "downright dangerous auto braking" so it would seem it is not an isolated incident. The software must get confused (maybe by shadows) and jams the brakes on. Will turn it off in future, which means doing it via the dash EVERY time you start the car. It seems that NCAP crash testing now requires all these "aids" to default to on, whereas on older models you could permanently disable. Maybe NCAP needs to actually test the usefulness of these aids rather than just ticking a box if the car has it

So not a perfect start with what is a brand new car, but then it is (relatively) cheap and Chinese, and for those who remember the early cheap Android tablets, most of them were shocking, so not expecting perfection !!

Also if you need to use public charging and 70mph roads for a large portion of your journeys then I wonder if an EV is cost effective. 79p to do 3.6 miles is 22p a mile. Assuming a gallon of petrol is £6 and your car does 35mpg (which is quite low by modern standards) that is 17p a mile. Obviously there are other savings associated with EVs, though I see that from 2025 we now have to pay road tax (guess that was inevitable)

I dont know how any EV owner would survive without a charger at home, unless you are lucky enough to have a place of work where you can charge for free all day. You really are making hay then.

We are on Octopus Go, so charge at 9p/kwh overnight, my Mrs does about 50 (mostly motorway) miles per day. She is having to charge every other night due to the short Go window, but i’m sure she is making a big saving over the £65 tank of fuel that used to only last her 10 days. Petrol on its way back up in price at present too.

 

[Mattmcg]

I dont know how any EV owner would survive without a charger at home, unless you are lucky enough to have a place of work where you can charge for free all day. You really are making hay then.

We are on Octopus Go, so charge at 9p/kwh overnight, my Mrs does about 50 (mostly motorway) miles per day. She is having to charge every other night due to the short Go window, but i’m sure she is making a big saving over the £65 tank of fuel that used to only last her 10 days. Petrol on its way back up in price at present too.

In Durham, We've got 7kW free chargers about 4 miles away and some 4 x freebie 3.5kW chargers about 15 mins walk away. Obviously a tiny bit more inconvenient than ICE but significantly cheaper with free chargers locally. Got a new Wickes and Home Bargains (c.10 mins walk away) opening in next few months with 20 EV charging bays between them, so we'll see what prices/rate they are but been no problem without home charger so far - boils down to the local area really.

 

[JonnyG]

[*]This morning on the wife's trip to work she was driving along at 30mph in a 40mph zone (Lordship Lane, Writtle for those you know it) and the emergency braking system kicked in and brought the car to a halt. No cars in front and the one behind was thankfully far enough back to also stop. Shook the wife up a bit as no obvious reason for it... handbag shot off the passenger seat into the footwell, and the car moved itself from Drive to Neutral. Said it flashed up a yellow box with text in, but disappeared too quick to read it. Noticed some forums talk about the "downright dangerous auto braking" so it would seem it is not an isolated incident. The software must get confused (maybe by shadows) and jams the brakes on. Will turn it off in future, which means doing it via the dash EVERY time you start the car. It seems that NCAP crash testing now requires all these "aids" to default to on, whereas on older models you could permanently disable. Maybe NCAP needs to actually test the usefulness of these aids rather than just ticking a box if the car has it
[/LIST]

Thats a bit worrying ... hopefully a one off (such as a leaf or crisp bag blowing in front of sensor). On the VW system if you ever got that warning on the dash (i.e Red Front Collision Warning) you could avoid the cars emergency stop by either promptly braking yourself (much more gently and not to a stop) or a quick turn of the steering wheel. The system then thinks you are aware of the danger and have reacted.