Not sure MG4 X Power good idea

[mjtmjt]

I love my MG4 (Trophy) and in many ways I think it’s the ideal city and short journey car. I also appreciate the rapid acceleration which makes it a dream to drive around cities.

But in general I worry about the power in these cars. When people query why kids don’t ride bikes around streets any more as they did in the 1980s I point out it’s partly as cars in 1980s hardly ever went 30 mph as their acceleration was slow. But modern cars and especially BEVs are near instantaneous so are always at the speed limit.

Onto the Xpower. What Car notes with admiration that it is “faster at accelerating than a Porsche Taycan”. Is that really a good idea? Has the rest of the car - brakes, chassis etc been upgraded to match a Taycan? Does the LKA work on that version? Do we want residential streets full of vehicles that have more power than a Lamborghini Countach? I fear the industry will just add more and more bhp until it is regulated away. Maybe wrong forum for this but any thoughts?

 

[Brettus]

A reasonable concern I think but I think it comes down to driver responsibility. Otherwise do you limit a power curve? Do you enforce it by GPS? Do you make a car unable to speed anywhere? There’s a whole argument about it being big brother like to enforce all this stuff. Quick cars have been around for ages but they’ve been unaffordable to most. EVs are nippier (on average) than ICE cars ever were. But ice cars still caused deaths, it’s not power as such that is the bad thing here I think.
But yes, the XPower and ones like it CAN be excessive but I don’t engage launch mode on a city street… I boot it when the way is clear and safe to do so.

Oh and yeah just to cover it if you’re skim reading articles the XPower has got upgrade brakes and suspension to help it handle it. (Of course it’s still a cheap car but it seems safely done, nobody has complained the brakes don’t work well etc)

 

[JustAnotherMidlifeCrisis]

I’d be curious to hear the evidence relating kids’ bike use to car performance. Is there any?

 

[mjtmjt]

A reasonable concern I think but I think it comes down to driver responsibility. Otherwise do you limit a power curve? Do you enforce it by GPS? Do you make a car unable to speed anywhere? There’s a whole argument about it being big brother like to enforce all this stuff. Quick cars have been around for ages but they’ve been unaffordable to most. EVs are nippier (on average) than ICE cars ever were. But ice cars still caused deaths, it’s not power as such that is the bad thing here I think.
But yes, the XPower and ones like it CAN be excessive but I don’t engage launch mode on a city street… I boot it when the way is clear and safe to do so.

Oh and yeah just to cover it if you’re skim reading articles the XPower has got upgrade brakes and suspension to help it handle it. (Of course it’s still a cheap car but it seems safely done, nobody has complained the brakes don’t work well etc)

Thanks very much for the thoughtful response we. I think these are all good and important points but it seems to me if drivers are no more or no less responsible than they have ever been they are still more dangerous in a car that has super car performance (especially if they don’t realise it and it has the very dodgy LKA). I fear if KWs keep increasing speed limiters will be compulsory within 10 years.

 

[Nobbyplopps]

I love my MG4 (Trophy) and in many ways I think it’s the ideal city and short journey car. I also appreciate the rapid acceleration which makes it a dream to drive around cities.

But in general I worry about the power in these cars. When people query why kids don’t ride bikes around streets any more as they did in the 1980s I point out it’s partly as cars in 1980s hardly ever went 30 mph as their acceleration was slow. But modern cars and especially BEVs are near instantaneous so are always at the speed limit.

Onto the Xpower. What Car notes with admiration that it is “faster at accelerating than a Porsche Taycan”. Is that really a good idea? Has the rest of the car - brakes, chassis etc been upgraded to match a Taycan? Does the LKA work on that version? Do we want residential streets full of vehicles that have more power than a Lamborghini Countach? I fear the industry will just add more and more bhp until it is regulated away. Maybe wrong forum for this but any thoughts?

Why do kids not ride bikes anymore? Because of faster cars? As a kid in the 80s faster cars would not have deterred me and my mates as safety for a kid is not at the forefront of their concerns. Kids don’t ride bikes anymore because they have their faces buried in smartphones, tablets and games consoles and they need safe spaces. They have perms now *** silly looking broccoli heads.

 

[m4rmite]

I'd say kids don't ride around the streets nowadays as they have a mobile phone/tablet/game console glued to their hands.

 

[Nobbyplopps]

I'd say kids don't ride around the streets nowadays as they have a mobile phone/tablet/game console glued to their hands.

And it would mess up their broccoli heads

 

[Brettus]

I think (forgive me if I’m wrong) but you’re also thinking of this in isolation. The bigger picture is that more safety features exist now, better designs of cars, lower speed limits, better separation of the different forms of transport etc.
I queried a trend of UK traffic deaths and it’s pretty clear it’s on the right path even given faster more powerful cars.

I tried to get it to plot a graph but it just generated the code for it heh.

It seems a little sensational or headline grabbing to assume that one new thing is the downfall of all.
In summary, don’t panic.

Edit: the data looks like this, not gonna graph it but neither year quoted in the first image is an outlier.

 

[Nobbyplopps]

I think (forgive me if I’m wrong) but you’re also think of this in isolation. The bigger picture is that more safety features exist now, better designs of cars, lower speed limits, better separation of the different forms of transport etc.
I queried a trend of UK traffic deaths and it’s pretty clear it’s on the right path even given faster more powerful cars.
View attachment 22517
I tried to get it to plot a graph but it just generated the code for it heh.

It seems a little sensational or headline grabbing to assume that one new thing is the downfall of all.
In summary, don’t panic.

Edit: the data looks like this, not gonna graph it but neither year quoted in the first image is an outlier.
View attachment 22518

Absolutely. Besides, there are still speed limits on roads, if not more.

 

[CooperS]

Absolutely. Besides, there are still speed limits on roads, if not more.

Especially here in Wales. However I think whatever we say OP not going to change their opinion, which is why I ignored until now. Each to his own.

 

[mjtmjt]

Especially here in Wales. However I think whatever we say OP not going to change their opinion, which is why I ignored until now. Each to his own.

Thanks for your unthoughtful response, which is just as helpful in its own way.

 

[Ayoull]

I’d be curious to hear the evidence relating kids’ bike use to car performance. Is there any?

Imagine that would be case of correlation vs causality.

Be as easy to argue that as home PC and game console usage increases bike usage on roads by kids decreases.

 

[CooperS]

Thanks for your unthoughtful response, which is just as helpful in its own way.

Thanks much appreciated….from the likes to my post I'm clearly not alone.

 

[gazza487]

I think it’s just how things go. Standard street vehicles nowerdays will thrash the sports cars of yesteryear. I seem to recall a top gear where they put 80s hot hatches like 205s, Fiestas etc up again something like a Corolla from mid 2000s. The Corolla won or whatever it was.

Also, the vehicle will only go as fast as ones right foot decides. I’d not be too worried about the braking (let’s face it you can REALLY feel when there is no regen available even on my little SR) though handling is a darned good point but again my own thoughts are EVs are made to be EVs, heavy batteries low down etc. Suspension and steering probably only need lightly warming over to accomodate and they will put software in to keep things under control cheaply for them (let’s not think of the Boeing Max though.)

I find the performance gains in ICE just as mind boggling. Small 1L ish engines making all the power they do now compared to say a metro, fiesta type vehicle from 40years years ago - crazy.

It’ll be fine

 

[mjtmjt]

Imagine that would be case of correlation vs causality.

Be as easy to argue that as home PC and game console usage increases bike usage on roads by kids decreases.

That’s right and there are obviously a whole host of reasons of which game consoles are one, making cycling less of an attraction. But it would still be useful to get to school or clubs etc and I know a lot of other parents and the main reason they give is concern over traffic. Traffic doesn’t seem that much higher now than in the 1980s so I think the concern is really traffic and speed.

Child cycling road deaths fell very sharply from the late 1980s but that surely is because children were stopped from cycling not something magically got safer.

Anyway this wasn’t really about that, just whether anyone one else saw any problems in supercar performance becoming ubiquitous. I’m heartened to see they don’t.

 

[tsedge]

One thing that is improved by modern EVs is lower top speed. While still typically high enough to be dangerous most of the non-supercar EVs have a lower top speed than their ICE counterparts.

I don't believe acceleration in itself is problem except where it is into danger - for example if approaching a roundabout accelerating into it is likely to surprise people on it and can cause issues, but accelerating out of a roundabout on an empty dual carriageway causes nobody any problems.

Accidents are usually caused by inappropriate driving - through either inattention/distraction or by otherwise approaching a hazard without reducing speed. It is irrelevant who is in the right, if someone else does something silly or stupid, your job is to avoid them.

Closing space down is one of the ways that people often cause a collision, especially if done at speed.

Staggered formation and other defensive techniques which leave a lot of space around your car are effective countermeasures.

Biggest modern menace in my view? Mobile phone distraction.

 

[Anon70]

The XPower is not the first car than can accelerate to 60 in less than 4 seconds. It is also not the first or only EV that has this capability.

You could argue that when you were growing up you did not have to wear protective head gear when riding a bike and the fact that it is now advised in the highway code is the reason fewer children are riding bikes. You also have the many other things that occupy children in 2023/4 such as games consoles and Netflix that were not around 20,30 or 40 years ago.

You also have more cars on the road (about 5 million more in the last 20 years) and fewer children being born so the car to child ratio has changed.

Too many other factors to just say it's cars like the XPower having an influence

 

[mjtmjt]

The XPower is not the first car than can accelerate to 60 in less than 4 seconds. It is also not the first or only EV that has this capability.

You could argue that when you were growing up you did not have to wear protective head gear when riding a bike and the fact that it is now advised in the highway code is the reason fewer children are riding bikes. You also have the many other things that occupy children in 2023/4 such as games consoles and Netflix that were not around 20,30 or 40 years ago.

You also have more cars on the road (about 5 million more in the last 20 years) and fewer children being born so the car to child ratio has changed.

Too many other factors to just say it's cars like the XPower having an influence

I didn’t say that. I said the trend towards faster acceleration in cars has contributed to fewer children cycling. Which was an aside in a post about a general concern in putting nearly 450 bhp in a car that has a habit of veering around against the driver’s wishes.

 

[m4rmite]

Tbh if the Internet was about when i was a kid, I would have classed as an albino.
Vitamin d ingestion would need to have been in tablet form

 

[Nobbyplopps]

Tbh if the Internet was about when i was a kid, I would have classed as an albino.
Vitamin d ingestion would need to have been in tablet form

I would have completed Pornhub quicker that’s for sure