S5 arrived today as planned - couple of questions.....

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The day arrived and the S5 is now on the drive having had a successful trip back from the dealership. What a day to pick it up on - torrential rain this morning. Still, a good thorough water test and visibility test!! Shocking weather though....

I have a couple of quick questions....

1) Auto lights - so far, no sign of them turning on. With the MG4, it only took a slight light shade difference and they'd be on, probably because I had the light sensitivity settings on the highest available. I haven't seen any light sensitivity settings on the S5, and the lights didn't come on during the really severe weather I had to drive home through - quite dark, and rain and spray everywhere. In those circumstances, should I assume a manual light operation is needed? I had to turn them on manually this morning, cos the auto lights weren't going to come on by themselves despite the dark conditions.

2) I get the Custom Settings within the MG Pilot stage and how to save them. There's also a custom setting for the mode which I've used and set, but the settings aren't remembered. When I get back in the car, the Ecco/Normal etc is not remembered, and the brake regen setting defaults to 1. Normal, or is there a way to save the custom settings for these bits?? I know in MG Pilot you press and hold to save settings, but that doesn't seem available to the page with the custom mode settings.

Thanks for any help in advance, and am looking forward to enjoying this part of the forum now that the S5 is here!!
 
As another owner who previously had the MG4 it's surprising some of the differences but familiar at the same time.

The auto-lights on the MG4 were better in my opinion and like you I've found they are not as good at recognising grey conditions. They will need turning on manually in those conditions but remember to turn them off when you lock the car.
 
I found the autolights on my MG5 to be insensitive to the point of being useless in twilight

I fully concur with this! Anything less than almost total darkness seems to not trigger them to work!
The auto-lights on the MG4 were better in my opinion and like you I've found they are not as good at recognising grey conditions

I can't comment on the MG4, never having owned one (though I did briefly have access to one as a loan car whilst my 5 was being serviced) but I had a test drive earlier today in an S5 and was quite surprised when the lights activated when the ambient light could best be described as gloomy, but certainly not dark as would be needed in the older 5 to make them work.
 
Beware when you use manual headlights, as @Ian Key says remember to turn them off before getting out as you don't get a warning when opening the door! Why did MG forget this?!!
Thanks for this.....can confirm that nothing has changed. Still no warning bong if the lights get left on.....
 
I have another question which arose earlier this eve....
Related to the lights - only in this instance, the auto dimming of the main 12" display that didn't happen!!
Wow, is that thing bright in the dark!!!
Earlier, when I was putting the lights on manually in the rain, the display would automatically dim a little.
Tonight, the auto lights kicked in - great, they're working! Except that the display didn't dim.
Research so far shows that there is a memory setting that remembers what level the light display setting is during the day and whatever setting you want at night time.
Only I haven't yet figured out the configuration method.....
Any pointers in that direction would be gratefully received. I am aware of the Light mode and Dark mode choice, and tonight, my workaround was to switch to dark mode......
 
Re the display brightness, you have to change it manually!

Had my S5 for two weeks after switching out of a ‘25 plate ZS 51kWh, the S5 is infinitely better but have little or no DAB or FM radio regardless of country or city driving! I'm having to reset it daily by doing a head unit restart by pressing the home button.
 
Welcome to the S5 family. I am also less than a week old owner and still learning the quirks etc. It appears that you cannot turn off the voice notification warning when you go 1mph over without totally turning off the speed recognition system. Still trying to find out if this is a bug or the actual feature.....
 
Funnily enough I picked mine up today from Richmond MG Guildford. Good drive home, although a motorboat would have been a better option for a lot of it. Quite impressed so far. The sales guy, Charlie Swayne was very good. Walked me through the basics. I'd already loaded the MG app. And setting it up took a few minutes. I found that the phone wasn't charging properly as it wasn't in quite the right place. But it did get pretty hot!
The other couple of things I missed from its Mitsubishi predecessor were intermittent rear wash wipe & auto dipping interior mirror.
 
Funnily enough I picked mine up today from Richmond MG Guildford. Good drive home, although a motorboat would have been a better option for a lot of it. Quite impressed so far. The sales guy, Charlie Swayne was very good. Walked me through the basics. I'd already loaded the MG app. And setting it up took a few minutes. I found that the phone wasn't charging properly as it wasn't in quite the right place. But did get pretty hot!
The other couple of things I missed from it Mitsubishi predecessor were intermittent rear wash wipe & auto dipping interior mirror.
My wagon came from Richmond MG Southampton.....decent deal too!! And yes, a motorboat mode would have made great sense today. MG definitely missed a trick there!
 
I have another question which arose earlier this eve....
Related to the lights - only in this instance, the auto dimming of the main 12" display that didn't happen!!
Wow, is that thing bright in the dark!!!
Earlier, when I was putting the lights on manually in the rain, the display would automatically dim a little.
Tonight, the auto lights kicked in - great, they're working! Except that the display didn't dim.
Research so far shows that there is a memory setting that remembers what level the light display setting is during the day and whatever setting you want at night time.
Only I haven't yet figured out the configuration method.....
Any pointers in that direction would be gratefully received. I am aware of the Light mode and Dark mode choice, and tonight, my workaround was to switch to dark mode......
As far as I remember you adjust the display brightness with the lights off and again after turning the lights on and it remembers the two settings. The alternative is to swipe down from the top of the screen and turn the display off.
 
Welcome to the S5 family. I am also less than a week old owner and still learning the quirks etc. It appears that you cannot turn off the voice notification warning when you go 1mph over without totally turning off the speed recognition system. Still trying to find out if this is a bug or the actual feature.....
Go into the satnav settings and turn it off in there - I missed that as well!
 
The other couple of things I missed from its Mitsubishi predecessor were intermittent rear wash wipe
The S5 Trophy does have an intermittent wiper setting on the rear wiper ?.

S5 Rearwipe 1 2025-10-21 at 13.43.22.webp


S5 Rearwiper 2  2025-10-21 at 13.43.42.webp
 
As far as I remember you adjust the display brightness with the lights off and again after turning the lights on and it remembers the two settings. The alternative is to swipe down from the top of the screen and turn the display off.
This was the fix - I had tried it, but it didn't seem to have worked. When I read your post, it was clearer, and I spent five mins sorting this morning. Auto dim worked with manual light changes and then later it worked when the auto lights were engaged. Thank you - issue fixed!
 
Welcome to the S5 family. I am also less than a week old owner and still learning the quirks etc. It appears that you cannot turn off the voice notification warning when you go 1mph over without totally turning off the speed recognition system. Still trying to find out if this is a bug or the actual feature.....
It is possible to set up a percentage over the speed limit, I have mine setup for 10% I think, so it reminds me at 33mph in a 30 etc.
 
Not sure which I prefer yet.....the MG lady telling me I'm speeding, or my wife of nearly 40 years (this Sunday) informing me most delicately that I need to SLOW DOWN!!!!!!
 
Not sure which I prefer yet.....the MG lady telling me I'm speeding, or my wife of nearly 40 years (this Sunday) informing me mist delicately that I need to SLOW DOWN!!!!!!
The first one could possibly prevent you getting 3 points on your licence and a fine, but on the other hand, the second will just give you a short term headache ! 🤣.
Your choice 😵‍💫.
 
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