Probably won’t get an MG4 again

[ReintjeWA]

Same with stellantis EVs - they aren't fashionable so there are massive discounts. The list price is high as well because this gets referenced for accountancy and tax purposes.

I think Stellantis also had some issues with some of their battery packs on slightly older models, they were basically dumping them for cheap at some point to clear the “old” stock in France. According to family there anyway.

I looked at Peugeot for EVs when I was in the market for a new car, but besides not offering a lot of choice here, the price tag, and to be honest the lack lustre specs, I couldn’t in good conscience stick with the brand. Even now the specs on an e-308 are some much worse than what you get in the MG4, I’m not surprised car makers are afraid of Chinese competition. And with worse specs I’m thinking of range, acceleration (or lack thereof) and still being a FWD set up.

 

[Bam Bam]

I think Stellantis also had some issues with some of their battery packs on slightly older models, they were basically dumping them for cheap at some point to clear the “old” stock in France. According to family there anyway.

Whatever the reason, Vauxhall usually have models available significantly below the RRP. The other way to look at it is that the RRP must be inflated for accounting/finance/tax reasons.

We were considering an e-208 initially but after visiting the MG garage opposite there was no way we'd pay more for an older and smaller car.

The price difference with MG is significant.

Stallantis have various brands but it can be hard to differentiate them.

Is it Vauxhall/Opel (practical), Puegeot (advanced), Citroen (comfortable), Fiat (quirky), Alfa (Sporty), Jeep (rugged). But the cars have the same bits underneath. I've probably missed some brands there!

 

[HazardLights]

I have worked as a product manager in a couple of industries and always factored in historic and protected discounting when setting MRPs. In my most recent industry discounting was massive so to maintain margins after discounting MRPs were outrageous but the assumption was that nobody would pay them but if they wanted to we would take the profit and be grateful.

My MG4 long range cost me £23000 about 11 months ago. I understood the depreciation would be big over the first couple of years but that's why I keep my cars for a decade. PCP or leasing is a better idea if one is likely to want a new car every three years.

 

[JonnyG]

............PCP or leasing is a better idea if one is likely to want a new car every three years.

I'd say a personal (or company) lease is the best bet at the moment. There are some cracking deals if you're reasonably flexible on the car choice. No VED to pay, full warranty, no depreciation worries. You can keep nearly all your cash and invest it wisely and watch it grow

 

[Chrisdriving]

Agree on the leasing option, there are always deals on something or other if you just want a cheap car, but i specifically wanted an Orange X Power it took 10 months almost of waiting for the deals i was hoping for.
Flexibility as well, i am on a 2 year lease but i can extend formally or informally up to 5 years so all options open on how long i want the car and even if i wanted to buy it at some point there is an option to allow that.
Quite keen on keeping it, i may buy it at the time when i think they have taken the most chunk of the depreciation out of it themselves.

 

[MelanieMoxon]

Well, its taken over 2.5 years but the car's emergency systems finally almost caused an accident. I was maneuvering around a motorcycle that had stalled in the middle of the lane (road wide enough for 3 cars) and with nothing in front and the car moving no faster than a gentle jog, wallop, it halted quick enough to trigger the ABS. Judging by the horn honking from the van behind that also no doubt anchored on it wasn't a popular decision by the electronic nannies. The sudden surprise certainly raised my heart rate. Oh sure you can say it would have been the vans fault for rear ending me but then they'd say I'd stopped for no reason and I would then have to explain to the insurance company that the car's auto brake system actually applied the brakes.

I now can't wait to be rid of this thing, sadly 2.5 years in is a bit late to reject the car, hindsight being 20/20 I should have rejected it on day one when it refused to lock on me but I decided to give them a chance. I'm going to write to MG about it because in my professional opinion the system is not fit for purpose, not that they will take any notice of that but it might make me feel less cranky.

 

[salty]

Sorry to hear about that. Good luck with your, next car.

 

[pjmmk]

All modern cars do this, unfortunately. It's a side effect of poorly thought out and even more poorly implemented legislation. Only politicians could think that taking control away from the driver without warning for no valid reason is a good idea.

 

[decrep]

And for some reason I suspect those people sit in Brussels making up NCAP rules.

 

[YaR]

All modern cars do this, unfortunately. It's a side effect of poorly thought out and even more poorly implemented legislation. Only politicians could think that taking control away from the driver without warning for no valid reason is a good idea.

They don't all do this. Many cars have better implemented systems with fewer false positive reactions. You can still blame the politicians though, they should have insisted on better minimum standards for these automated systems. MG somehow lucked into having a good engineering team to design the cars, but their software developers are mediocre at best.

 

[LenEV2016]

All modern cars do this, unfortunately. It's a side effect of poorly thought out and even more poorly implemented legislation. Only politicians could think that taking control away from the driver without warning for no valid reason is a good idea.

All modern cars have to have the crap safety systems, some manufacturers are implemented far better than MGs are and if an issue does appear most manufacturers are far more proactive about providing a remedy.
MG UK couldn't give a toss and for the most part (there are some good dealers are out there) the dealerships.follow the company line.

In 35 years of driving I have never experienced a more inefficient aftersales service than I have with MG, the time wasted taking cars into the dealers just for them to look at it then for them to contact MG to see if they are authorised to fix it is a joke.
And that is before we even get into the nonsense of the crap software and the nonsense of trying to get software updates

 

[Tuareg]

And for some reason I suspect those people sit in Brussels making up NCAP rules.

who will also be driving modern cars.

 

[decrep]

who will also be driving modern cars.

No that's a puzzle.

 

[siteguru]

who will also be driving modern cars.

Well, their chauffeurs may be.

 

[Kithmo]

Well, its taken over 2.5 years but the car's emergency systems finally almost caused an accident. I was maneuvering around a motorcycle that had stalled in the middle of the lane (road wide enough for 3 cars) and with nothing in front and the car moving no faster than a gentle jog, wallop, it halted quick enough to trigger the ABS. Judging by the horn honking from the van behind that also no doubt anchored on it wasn't a popular decision by the electronic nannies. The sudden surprise certainly raised my heart rate. Oh sure you can say it would have been the vans fault for rear ending me but then they'd say I'd stopped for no reason and I would then have to explain to the insurance company that the car's auto brake system actually applied the brakes.

I now can't wait to be rid of this thing, sadly 2.5 years in is a bit late to reject the car, hindsight being 20/20 I should have rejected it on day one when it refused to lock on me but I decided to give them a chance. I'm going to write to MG about it because in my professional opinion the system is not fit for purpose, not that they will take any notice of that but it might make me feel less cranky.

I did a similar thing attempting to go around a bus that had stopped at a bus stop, but I didn't blame the car, I think it was just because I got too close to the bus before deciding to pull out.
I find you have to give parked cars etc a wider berth than you would normally do and weave around them slowly on the narrower estate roads and preferably whilst decelerating, if you're accelerating it thinks you're going to hit them. It's just a case of having to adjust your driving techniques to suit the car, which thinks it's bigger than it is.

 

[Chrisdriving]

Well, its taken over 2.5 years but the car's emergency systems finally almost caused an accident. I was maneuvering around a motorcycle that had stalled in the middle of the lane (road wide enough for 3 cars) and with nothing in front and the car moving no faster than a gentle jog, wallop, it halted quick enough to trigger the ABS. Judging by the horn honking from the van behind that also no doubt anchored on it wasn't a popular decision by the electronic nannies. The sudden surprise certainly raised my heart rate. Oh sure you can say it would have been the vans fault for rear ending me but then they'd say I'd stopped for no reason and I would then have to explain to the insurance company that the car's auto brake system actually applied the brakes.

I now can't wait to be rid of this thing, sadly 2.5 years in is a bit late to reject the car, hindsight being 20/20 I should have rejected it on day one when it refused to lock on me but I decided to give them a chance. I'm going to write to MG about it because in my professional opinion the system is not fit for purpose, not that they will take any notice of that but it might make me feel less cranky.

Driven several cars and trucks that act similar, if you want super touchy slamming brakes on try any of the modern MAN 7.5 tonners.
Luckily on most of these systems, MG included the accelerator over rides the AEB if you depress it further so it is easy to avoid incidents,
So if it activates just press the loud pedal and it immediately disengages the braking .

• Overriding AEB:
  In situations where the AEB system activates but the driver determines it's not necessary or a false alarm (phantom braking), they can override it by pressing the accelerator pedal.
  
  
• Safety Considerations:
  It's vital to use the accelerator pedal to override AEB only when it's safe to do so and when the driver is in full control of the vehicle.

 

[OriginalBigAl]

Has anyone managed to be alert/ ready enough to actually perform that override? It has never happened to me , but I imagine the shock / surprise is such that the accelerator is not the first natural reaction even though the continuing forward momentum acting on your body is pushing on your right foot . The natural "panic" response would be to jump even harder on the brake until you could have the wits to assess the situation.
Training yourself to override the AEB might not be advantageous to little Johnny who has just chased his ball into the road.

 

[Everest]

I did a similar thing attempting to go around a bus that had stopped at a bus stop, but I didn't blame the car, I think it was just because I got too close to the bus before deciding to pull out.
I find you have to give parked cars etc a wider berth than you would normally do and weave around them slowly on the narrower estate roads and preferably whilst decelerating, if you're accelerating it thinks you're going to hit them. It's just a case of having to adjust your driving techniques to suit the car, which thinks it's bigger than it is.

"just a case"?... Bu66er that for a game of soldiers - you shouldn't have to adjust your normal driving style as a workaround for a poorly designed system that clearly hasn't had enough testing in the real world (*).

My non MG vehicle does not exhibit this type of problem and it has not been mentioned in the marque's forums... but phantom braking seems to be a feature on this forum going back many years. MG seem to have finally improved LKA - when are they going to address AEB?

(*) Caveat... unless your 'normal driving style' has resulted in you hitting several busses and parked cars over the years, that is

 

[Chrisdriving]

Has anyone managed to be alert/ ready enough to actually perform that override? It has never happened to me , but I imagine the shock / surprise is such that the accelerator is not the first natural reaction even though the continuing forward momentum acting on your body is pushing on your right foot . The natural "panic" response would be to jump even harder on the brake until you could have the wits to assess the situation.
Training yourself to override the AEB might not be advantageous to little Johnny who has just chased his ball into the road.

Several times yes, very instinctive, and if Jonny’s ball was going into the road i would hope to see it before AEB reacted anyway.
The system on MAN trucks is very sensitive, if a car is turning left in front of you and it thinks you are not yielding back enough it will alarm and brake, the second it does it and knowing i am not going to hit it i push down on accelerator and it cancels with no real drama just bloody annoying, my Tesla acted similar and i treated it the same way.

 

[Chrisdriving]

"just a case"?... Bu66er that for a game of soldiers - you shouldn't have to adjust your normal driving style as a workaround for a poorly designed system that clearly hasn't had enough testing in the real world (*).

My non MG vehicle does not exhibit this type of problem and it has not been mentioned in the marque's forums... but phantom braking seems to be a feature on this forum going back many years. MG seem to have finally improved LKA - when are they going to address AEB?

(*) Caveat... unless your 'normal driving style' has resulted in you hitting several busses and parked cars over the years, that is

Tesla phantom braking?
Mine was much worse than the MG4.