sammoj
Established Member
- Joined
- Jul 16, 2025
- Messages
- 99
- Reaction score
- 78
- Points
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- Location
- Newcastle Upon Tyne
- Driving
- MGS5
I have commented on a number of posts about the issues my dealer has had updating the infotainment software on my MGS5 Trophy.
The vehicle was in the workshop for 4 days about 3 weeks ago and they were unable to update it from R23 to R25. It went back in again on Tuesday and I received an email tonight (Thursday) to confirm that after 3 days of MG Technical working on the car it has finally accepted the R25 update and they have also updated other modules to the latest available versions. A total of 7 working days to update the infotainment from R23 to R25! My Hyundai used to do that in 20 minutes after I downloaded the file and stuck a USB in the dashboard slot and locked the car.
I really can't understand why it is so complicated to update software on the MG but the dealer has stuck with it to be fair to them and found a way forward pushing MG hard to assist and I do really appreciate this. This seems to be an issue for many manufacturers lately and is putting pressure on dealers to spend considerable time on applying software updates to fix things that shouldn't need fixing. No wonder they are reluctant to do it.
I know things are much more complex in modern vehicles but I do wonder if they are becoming too complex for traditional dealers and if manufacturers should have teams of software technicians who can properly support them when software issues occur. I really do feel sorry for the dealers who are mostly helpless to deal with software issues but are the front line for unhappy customers experiencing issues and all they can do is act as a go-between with MG. MG Customer services seem to just bounce any requests from customers for information back to the dealers saying 'book in for diagnostic' or 'we are not mechanically trained please contact your dealer'.
I listened to an interesting interview recently from the CEO of Rivian who was explaining how many distributed computer systems are in a modern car and the fact they contain software from many different manufacturers, often where the module manufacturer outsources the software development, and how it all needs to be taken into account when they update any central system they code. No wonder things stop working with each other with so many fingers in the pie. Maybe it is time for a rethink from the ground up, do away with the infamous 12v battery, standardise microcontrollers in subsystems and bring things back in house to ensure control over system updates. Maybe that is why Tesla seems to have a pretty good software update solution and are able to issue quarterly over the air updates.
My nieces Mini Electric ended up in the garage earlier this week due to a failed over the air update so it's not just MG with these challenges.
After driving a Nissan Juke Hybrid for 7 days, which I was grateful for as a loan, it has made me look forward to getting my MGS5 back and going back to smooth Electric driving with decent power and hopefully a working AppleCar Play on R25. The ADAS systems I can work around with MGPilot Custom which is a great feature and I appreciate that even more having driven the Juke which nagged me constantly about going 1 mile over the speed limit it thought I should be driving at which it often picked up from a side road and not the main carriageway.
I do also think NCAP need to rethink their approach to rating vehicles safety when relying on ADAS particularly when their limited testing doesn't account for real world driving conditions. If the first thing we do when getting into our cars is turn off a chunk of these because they are so distracting or irritating then the vehicle doesn't really deserve that rating imho.
Anyway thats my rant over, I would be interested to hear if anyone else has seen similar issues with software updates, MG or otherwise.
John
The vehicle was in the workshop for 4 days about 3 weeks ago and they were unable to update it from R23 to R25. It went back in again on Tuesday and I received an email tonight (Thursday) to confirm that after 3 days of MG Technical working on the car it has finally accepted the R25 update and they have also updated other modules to the latest available versions. A total of 7 working days to update the infotainment from R23 to R25! My Hyundai used to do that in 20 minutes after I downloaded the file and stuck a USB in the dashboard slot and locked the car.
I really can't understand why it is so complicated to update software on the MG but the dealer has stuck with it to be fair to them and found a way forward pushing MG hard to assist and I do really appreciate this. This seems to be an issue for many manufacturers lately and is putting pressure on dealers to spend considerable time on applying software updates to fix things that shouldn't need fixing. No wonder they are reluctant to do it.
I know things are much more complex in modern vehicles but I do wonder if they are becoming too complex for traditional dealers and if manufacturers should have teams of software technicians who can properly support them when software issues occur. I really do feel sorry for the dealers who are mostly helpless to deal with software issues but are the front line for unhappy customers experiencing issues and all they can do is act as a go-between with MG. MG Customer services seem to just bounce any requests from customers for information back to the dealers saying 'book in for diagnostic' or 'we are not mechanically trained please contact your dealer'.
I listened to an interesting interview recently from the CEO of Rivian who was explaining how many distributed computer systems are in a modern car and the fact they contain software from many different manufacturers, often where the module manufacturer outsources the software development, and how it all needs to be taken into account when they update any central system they code. No wonder things stop working with each other with so many fingers in the pie. Maybe it is time for a rethink from the ground up, do away with the infamous 12v battery, standardise microcontrollers in subsystems and bring things back in house to ensure control over system updates. Maybe that is why Tesla seems to have a pretty good software update solution and are able to issue quarterly over the air updates.
My nieces Mini Electric ended up in the garage earlier this week due to a failed over the air update so it's not just MG with these challenges.
After driving a Nissan Juke Hybrid for 7 days, which I was grateful for as a loan, it has made me look forward to getting my MGS5 back and going back to smooth Electric driving with decent power and hopefully a working AppleCar Play on R25. The ADAS systems I can work around with MGPilot Custom which is a great feature and I appreciate that even more having driven the Juke which nagged me constantly about going 1 mile over the speed limit it thought I should be driving at which it often picked up from a side road and not the main carriageway.
I do also think NCAP need to rethink their approach to rating vehicles safety when relying on ADAS particularly when their limited testing doesn't account for real world driving conditions. If the first thing we do when getting into our cars is turn off a chunk of these because they are so distracting or irritating then the vehicle doesn't really deserve that rating imho.
Anyway thats my rant over, I would be interested to hear if anyone else has seen similar issues with software updates, MG or otherwise.
John