Newbie Cyberster Owner - Initial Experience and Questions

[GranTurismoEra]

Good to see people giving MG a chance coming from Market Dominators

 

[TeslaDriver]

But what is it like to drive e.g. acceleration, steering feel, oversteer/understeer etc ...or perhaps that is no longer relevant!?

When I was a kid the poster on my wall, for a Lamborghini Miura, in the late 60's had a 0-60 of around 5.5s, so that was "fast" and I thought of Family Saloons that were under 10s as "good" ...

In 1980 I bought a Ford Escort XR3 - 96 bhp and around 9s 0-60. That was impressive!

So things like the MG Cyberster GT at 3.2s and 5x the BHP!! of my XR3 are, frankly, unbelievable.

But my driving has changed. I've been driving performance EV for 10 years. There is so much power, with absolutely zero lag, and (being silent) zero drama, that I no longer drive to get that "noise and drama"; I don't miss it, at all, its very tiring on a long journey. I no longer corner on two wheels round blind bends (well ... I'm sure you know what I mean); the pick-up on exit from a bend is so quick that "maintain speed in bend" is largely irrelevant, and I get better tyre life! My buzz is from "gun it" coming out of a bend.

I remember the instances of yesteryear in ICE where I was behind someone, coming up to a corner, knowing there is a straight ahead, I changed down - noise, vibration, drama - to be "ready". Come round the bend and there is a car coming, change back up again. That is replaced with: tootle along behind someone, at a sensible distance, and when I find the road is clear: Whoosh ...

I think of the MG as a GT car, and that suits me. Comfortable to drive, usually there is "traffic" or I am at limit on Motorway trogging along for an hour or two. So I can't tell you about over/understeer as I've not tried that; I've done a couple of tight roundabouts to check the "bite", and that was very good, but no getting away from the EV battery making it a heavy car. Steering seems fine to me, and the way that "press red button" sharpens everything up (ie change, temporarily, from Comfort that I was in to all the "Super Sport" settings) I think is a master stroke by MG - such a useful gadget enabling "comfort motoring" when there is traffic / on motorway etc. and Woosh for any opportunity

Good to see people giving MG a chance coming from Market Dominators

I've driven Tesla for 10 years (and that's still my daily driver). If I compare the software side-by-side then MG is nowhere near, and of the few others I've tried eg Volvo / Polestar, that's true of them too. I haven't tried BYD but I have read there are gaps there.

I test drove the IM5, that was amazing, the auto-park was impressive - at terrifying speed (Tesla is useless), and the 4-wheel steer meant it could outturn a London taxi ... but software was gappy.

But I don't mind the MG software foibles - the edgy-thoroughbreds I've driven in the past have been hugely unreliable (mechanically), I'm happy to swap that foible for some software eccentricity, or "gaps". The one thing that does annoy me is that in one-pedal-driving mode I use the accelerator in Drive, but when I select Reverse I get CREEP and it sets off by itself, which catches me out. That's fixable for OTA (or "at dealer"), it will be interesting to see if they do.

Its a great car. Beats me why previous owner sold it at low mileage.

 

[Jackolino]

You don’t know how powerful a wife can be when she doesn’t want to!