Setting up MG4

[stevegus]

God I hated DSG…
‘Distinctly S**t Gearbox’.
Had it on my 2005 S-line Audi A3 because S-line and DSG were a package, had it again in my 2019 Polo GTi as it was what they had in stock.
I hated what became known as ‘DSG delay’ (easily googled) and I hated the auto-change up at high revs (even in manual mode)
Ended up selling the polo back to the dealer after 5 months.
An EV will be a joy after that jerky pile of rubbish.

Perhaps things changed.

Our traded in 2019 DSG Ateca was a brilliant gearbox. Id only criticise that standard was a bit lazy and sport liked to hold too low a gear when cruising. It was an effortless reliable drive.

Combined with the auto handbrake a heavy press of the brake when in traffic would put on the handbrake and turn creep off. A light foot on the brake when stopping wouldn’t apply the handbrake and you could creep. It gave a choice.

Early DSG may have had reliability issues but mine was great after “only 35000 miles” - quoting one of your recent posts. A friend has had DSG boxes on various golf GTI with no issues. And my son has one on his Fabia.

Its known as an excellent auto box as it simply is.

 

[bowfer]

Perhaps things changed.

Our traded in 2019 DSG Ateca was a brilliant gearbox. Id only criticise that standard was a bit lazy and sport liked to hold too low a gear when cruising. It was an effortless reliable drive.

Combined with the auto handbrake a heavy press of the brake when in traffic would put on the handbrake and turn creep off. A light foot on the brake when stopping wouldn’t apply the handbrake and you could creep. It gave a choice.

Early DSG may have had reliability issues but mine was great after “only 35000 miles” - quoting one of your recent posts. A friend has had DSG boxes on various golf GTI with no issues. And my son has one on his Fabia.

Its known as an excellent auto box as it simply is.

I’m not doubting reliability.
But the DSG delay is something many owners find annoying, as is the auto change up at high revs.
A manual driver can hold a gear at high revs (like between corners)
So why are DSG owners treated like idiots?

 

[Buster72]

In my MG4, I just sit down, press my foot on the brake which puts it into Ready mode, twist the rotary dial to the Drive position and then go. No setting up as I just leave it in Normal with maximum regen.

Exactly that.

 

[IanMK]

I'm moving from a DSG automatic

I predict you'll find the lack of your 'gear stick' and handbrake is really weird. Once I have my seatbelt on I still feel lost at what to do next

SWMBO still expects me to get rid of my other car, an Audi A6 DSG, but I just like driving it so much. Very happy to find that I can operate the brake in the same way in the MG4 with a 'heavy press' to stop the 'automatic creep' mentioned earlier in this thread. Very good for roundabouts, traffic lights and traffic jams.

 

[WonkoTheSaneUK]

I predict you'll find the lack of your 'gear stick' and handbrake is really weird. Once I have my seatbelt on I still feel lost at what to do next

Just wait till you've been driving an EV for a couple of years, and then get given a manual ICE courtesy car - you will have lost that muscle memory!

 

[bowfer]

Bowfer; each to their own, but i disagree on the regen setting: Once you get used to a near-one-pedal driving style, having maximum regen saves energy and, perhaps more importantly, may save a life; while the human shoe-shuffle is going from accelerator to brake, the car is already 'braking' regeneratively, so shaving a metre or few off the total stopping distance; that metre may be an errant three-year-olds head-to-bonnet contact.
Driving 1-p on our honda e on single-carriageway/b/c roads was delightful, why the hell anyone would want to not do that is beyond me. Big roads; yes turn it off. One of the issues many implementations may have, though, is the accelerator response algorithm: a non-linear response with a dead-zone around zero acceleration demand provides a non- kangaroo response and is easy to implement, but it's still early days for ev's yet - and the human element is the hardest bit to satisfy (lol, eh!?)

KH11: of no importance whatsoever, but remember the (current (sorry)) ev's don't have a 'gearbox' in the trad sense, just a single permanently (hopefully) fixed gear and an electric motor that just spins faster for more speed. Hope you enjoy your car; after a million miles stick-shifting, i find nothing enjoyable about the occasional step backwards to the agricultural feel of ice.

One-pedal driving, for me, is just a gimmick.
Each to their own but it should be something a driver has to switch on, not the default.

 

[PhilYerBoots]

I’m not doubting reliability.
But the DSG delay is something many owners find annoying, as is the auto change up at high revs.
A manual driver can hold a gear at high revs (like between corners)
So why are DSG owners treated like idiots?

I'm in the same camp as @stevegus when it comes to dsg gearboxes.
We had 2 early mk2 Leon FRs in petrol then diesel, both with dsg, and loved the option of a relaxing drive for 90% or flappy paddles for some fun in the bends. Then a Cupra, which was a beast with the dsg and 290bhp.
I'm sure there are many more owners of cars with dsg boxes that love them rather than find them annoying, but we can only judge on our own experiences..

 

[mg4mc]

I had a Golf R with DSG and nearly 400 bhp. Loved it, though I did have the DSG sport mode remapped to hold the revs more than standard.

 

[bowfer]

I had a Golf R with DSG and nearly 400 bhp. Loved it, though I did have the DSG sport mode remapped to hold the revs more than standard.

That would have been a start, but no one did it when I was looking.
Revo spoke about it but never did

 

[Rolfe]

God I hated DSG…
‘Distinctly S**t Gearbox’.
Had it on my 2005 S-line Audi A3 because S-line and DSG were a package, had it again in my 2019 Polo GTi as it was what they had in stock.
I hated what became known as ‘DSG delay’ (easily googled) and I hated the auto-change up at high revs (even in manual mode)
Ended up selling the polo back to the dealer after 5 months.
An EV will be a joy after that jerky pile of rubbish.

I really liked it. I know the delay you mean, and it's something I'm looking forward to losing in the MG4, but my thought (in nearly 14 years of driving the car) was that this was actually turbo lag. My previous Peugeot didn't have a turbo, and I thought this hesitation in the Golf was that. It's not something that ever seriously worried me.

The car was bought in 2009 and the DSG was fine for my purposes. I don't know what improvements have been made since then.

I think you may be in the habit of doing more sports driving than me. I mainly liked the GTi for its fast acceleration at lower speeds and haven't been in the habit of going mad at higher speeds. In fact this afternoon I ran the car on Sports setting just for a last fling, because the MG4 delivery date was a lot shorter than I was expecting when I filled the thing up with petrol - I haven't used the setting much over the years other than to overtake in a hurry, because it absolutely drinks petrol.

Might go out again this evening. 9am tomorrow the insurance cover shifts to the MG4.

I predict you'll find the lack of your 'gear stick' and handbrake is really weird. Once I have my seatbelt on I still feel lost at what to do next

I had a courtesy car without a handbrake at the point they were still telling me they were going to repair the GTi. That was really, really weird and as you say I was like "what do I do now?"

I think the dial instead of the selector stick is fine, at least the function is still there even if it's performed by a different action. Hopefully I will get used to the handbrake thing.

Just wait till you've been driving an EV for a couple of years, and then get given a manual ICE courtesy car - you will have lost that muscle memory!

I didn't find that when switching to a manual car from the DSG. The muscle memory was all still there. The problem came when I got back into the automatic and started grabbing at the selector stick to change gears instead of leaving it alone or using the paddles.

 

[IanMK]

I think the dial instead of the selector stick is fine

Just wait until you want to do a 3-point turn in a hurry !

At the end of the day I'm sure it will come as second nature, Cars have come on a bit from my first mini where I had a starter button on the floor (and a ridiculous gear stick). I had a company car once with a foot operated parking brake; I don't recall that being a problem (though I was much younger then ).

 

[siteguru]

Just wait until you want to do a 3-point turn in a hurry !

Yeah - it's really quick in the MG4. (I've never accidentally found neutral).

 

[Rolfe]

Just wait until you want to do a 3-point turn in a hurry !

I never thought of that!

At least, given the MG4's turning circle, it's likely only to be a 3-point turn. I once had a Peugeot hot hatch that had a turning circle half the width of a football pitch and got very used to 9-point turns. It was frankly embarrassing in car parks.

 

[Ian Key]

I never thought of that!

At least, given the MG4's turning circle, it's likely only to be a 3-point turn. I once had a Peugeot hot hatch that had a turning circle half the width of a football pitch and got very used to 9-point turns. It was frankly embarrassing in car parks.

In contrast my brother had a Mini and it used to P him off that my Triumph Herald's turning circle of 25 feet was 3 feet less than the Mini's

 

[FiferMG4]

I never thought of that!

At least, given the MG4's turning circle, it's likely only to be a 3-point turn. I once had a Peugeot hot hatch that had a turning circle half the width of a football pitch and got very used to 9-point turns. It was frankly embarrassing in car parks.

Yeah, the tight turning circle was one of the things I liked about the car when I went for a test drive.

 

[Haay]

For the first 10 days after picking up my MG 4 from the dealer I didn't change anything. Just getting used to starting the car and driving off right away. Coming from a 10 year old ICE car with manual 5 gear shift driving the MG 4 is very different anyway. So getting used to the default mode is for me the way to go.

And I'm loving how wonderful it drives! Hardly need the brake pedal with the mode 3 regen active. It's by far mostly one pedal diving for me which I'm enjoying.

 

[KH11]

For the first 10 days after picking up my MG 4 from the dealer I didn't change anything. Just getting used to starting the car and driving off right away. Coming from a 10 year old ICE car with manual 5 gear shift driving the MG 4 is very different anyway. So getting used to the default mode is for me the way to go.

And I'm loving how wonderful it drives! Hardly need the brake pedal with the mode 3 regen active. It's by far mostly one pedal diving for me which I'm enjoying.

I think that will be me initially moving from a manual and never driving an automatic before

 

[Rolfe]

I've been driving a DSG for nearly 14 years so I didn't find the MG4 so terribly different when I did my test drive. But it all gets real at three o'clock this afternoon when I collect the car. I think I'm going to follow Haay's example.

 

[wandle MG4 trophy]

Have driven manual ICE cars all my life. The transition to the MG4 was not difficult. Switch off MG Pilot if you wish till you get used to the handling. Then ALWAYS press the Park button (rotary dial) EVERY TIME you leave the car. And when you leave the car don’t leave the keys in the car.

 

[Wudus]

I am new to the forum, new to automatics, new to electric cars, and just picked up my new MG4 this week. Needless to say I’m loving it and haven’t experienced any faults yet. As a new owner I would like to be able to find what is the latest version of software available so I can nag the dealer for an update when necessary. May be it would be useful to have that in the ‘Hints and Tips section?

For information my MG4 was built 12 Jan 2023 and arrived at the dealer about 4 April 2023. The MPU software is W169-29958-1100R16 and MCU is 69.1.0.9