Having read Fiver’s recent thoughts on owning an MG5 LR, it reminded me of the enthusiasm and enjoyment of my first few months of driving my 2021 MG5 LR during the summer of 2022.
Sadly, that experience has been not so much dulled as erased by the events of the last year which has seen MG and its agents attempt to address what seemed to be a minor problem with charging and make an epic LR (Long Running) pig’s ear of it.
After finding out I had a problem, it took four months to get the issue properly investigated… and then another five months (and counting…) that I’ve been without the car. Neighbours presume I got rid of the car because my EV adventure didn’t work out and friends and family have stopped even asking if there is any news about the MG…
I was first aware of a charging issue in April 2023 when we had a Zappi charging unit fitted to our new porch. The engineer plugged in the car for the “ta-da!” moment… and nothing happened. We checked the Zappi and my new 15m cable were okay by doing a test charge on my neighbour’s MG4, and both were fine.
I had a think and realised that for weeks I'd been doing big journeys and rapid charging and that I hadn’t used a 7kW charger for quite some time. I tried connecting up to some local public chargers without any success. It seemed that my MG5 was happy with any rapid chargers but wouldn’t play ball with public 7kW or 3kW granny chargers.
On 10th May I took the car to Central Garage in Galashiels, where I’d bought the car (which was still well within warranty). Their diagnostics showed I needed a replacement EVCC but I was told they were on back-order and they had no idea when they would be able to lay hands on one. Given that Gala is about an hour and a half away, they suggested I take it to another MG agent closer to home.
I went to Arnold Clark in East Kilbride on May 18th where they ran their own diagnostic and came up with the same answer – a new EVCC was needed but it would take about 2-3 weeks before they could get one.
I took my car away with me, with no choice but to continue charging it on rapid chargers (expensive and meaning I had to sit with the car at Strathaven Park for hours at a time) and, having heard nothing from Arnold Clark, called the garage back three weeks later for news of the EVCC.
I was told that no part had been ordered because MG had decided that my car needed to go in to Arnold Clark’s for extensive testing (I’d need to leave the car with them for 2-3 weeks). No one had contacted me to tell me that – and my powers of telepathy were obviously not up to scratch – but the three-week delay had taken me into Scottish school holidays; Arnold Clark now couldn’t book me in until August 21st because of staff annual leave. (They only have one EV engineer!)
Getting a bit peeved by this stage, I wrote to MG’s customer services to see if they could help or hurry things along. They couldn’t but I was told that EVCC modules weren’t on back-order at all – they could be ordered by any MG agent on a next-day basis.
In the meantime, we had a holiday in Wales where we struggled to find any functioning public rapid chargers and had one nightmarish journey with the children where we were forced to drive up into rain-lashed Snowdonia with 0km showing on the dash before we could finally get a charge. There were plenty of public 7kW chargers within range of our holiday base but, of course, we weren’t able to use them.
So. I took the car in to Arnold Clark on August 21st and that was the last time I saw it.
Further tests showed it needed an EVCC. That was fitted. It made no difference. Another module and then another were fitted. The bill for parts at this point, I was told by Arnold Clark’s service manager, was in the region of £7,500. Still no resolution.
Eventually, MG despatched their own engineers for a visit to East Kilbride who seemed to have pinned down the snag to yet another charging module. I was told the problem was partially solved but that the replacement unit would need re-coding by the MG guys. They would be in touch the next day.
The call never came.
When I next managed to speak to Arnold Clark’s own engineer, he told me that the re-coding hadn’t made any difference and they were now completely stumped.
Just before Christmas, I was told that MG now thought the problem was on the high voltage side. Another MG engineer visit to East Kilbride would be needed because only MG were trained to deal with high-voltage issues - but MG would only be sending out staff when there was sufficient workload at East Kilbride to justify a visit so in the meantime it was a waiting game…
The latest chapter of this sad tale (and more salt in the wound) came last week (mid-January) when Arnold Clark’s service manager told me MG had updated their systems at the start of the year and unfortunately many of the older cars (yup, mine included) had “gone missing” because their ID numbers hadn’t transferred across to the new system. Those cars were now being re-entered manually (across the UK) and, so far, only two of East Kilbride’s ten “missing” cars had been recovered. Nothing more could be done for my car until it re-emerged on the MG radar...
During all this time, Arnold Clark’s communication has been appalling (and MG’s pretty much non-existent) but during phone conversations about these issues a picture has emerged of a company that’s selling cheap EVs hand-over-fist but failing badly to keep up with repairs and service issues. Arnold Clark in East Kilbride is not the only MG agent caught up in this backlog nightmare, it seems.
Anyway, my initial pleasure at having discovered EV driving has not been completely squashed. We bought a second EV – a Kia Soul – last summer and it has been a joy to drive. Comfortable, well kitted out and great range.
I’m still looking forward to being re-acquainted with my MG5 but I’m pretty sure that when the next change of cars is called for, I won’t be contemplating an MG!
Sadly, that experience has been not so much dulled as erased by the events of the last year which has seen MG and its agents attempt to address what seemed to be a minor problem with charging and make an epic LR (Long Running) pig’s ear of it.
After finding out I had a problem, it took four months to get the issue properly investigated… and then another five months (and counting…) that I’ve been without the car. Neighbours presume I got rid of the car because my EV adventure didn’t work out and friends and family have stopped even asking if there is any news about the MG…
I was first aware of a charging issue in April 2023 when we had a Zappi charging unit fitted to our new porch. The engineer plugged in the car for the “ta-da!” moment… and nothing happened. We checked the Zappi and my new 15m cable were okay by doing a test charge on my neighbour’s MG4, and both were fine.
I had a think and realised that for weeks I'd been doing big journeys and rapid charging and that I hadn’t used a 7kW charger for quite some time. I tried connecting up to some local public chargers without any success. It seemed that my MG5 was happy with any rapid chargers but wouldn’t play ball with public 7kW or 3kW granny chargers.
On 10th May I took the car to Central Garage in Galashiels, where I’d bought the car (which was still well within warranty). Their diagnostics showed I needed a replacement EVCC but I was told they were on back-order and they had no idea when they would be able to lay hands on one. Given that Gala is about an hour and a half away, they suggested I take it to another MG agent closer to home.
I went to Arnold Clark in East Kilbride on May 18th where they ran their own diagnostic and came up with the same answer – a new EVCC was needed but it would take about 2-3 weeks before they could get one.
I took my car away with me, with no choice but to continue charging it on rapid chargers (expensive and meaning I had to sit with the car at Strathaven Park for hours at a time) and, having heard nothing from Arnold Clark, called the garage back three weeks later for news of the EVCC.
I was told that no part had been ordered because MG had decided that my car needed to go in to Arnold Clark’s for extensive testing (I’d need to leave the car with them for 2-3 weeks). No one had contacted me to tell me that – and my powers of telepathy were obviously not up to scratch – but the three-week delay had taken me into Scottish school holidays; Arnold Clark now couldn’t book me in until August 21st because of staff annual leave. (They only have one EV engineer!)
Getting a bit peeved by this stage, I wrote to MG’s customer services to see if they could help or hurry things along. They couldn’t but I was told that EVCC modules weren’t on back-order at all – they could be ordered by any MG agent on a next-day basis.
In the meantime, we had a holiday in Wales where we struggled to find any functioning public rapid chargers and had one nightmarish journey with the children where we were forced to drive up into rain-lashed Snowdonia with 0km showing on the dash before we could finally get a charge. There were plenty of public 7kW chargers within range of our holiday base but, of course, we weren’t able to use them.
So. I took the car in to Arnold Clark on August 21st and that was the last time I saw it.
Further tests showed it needed an EVCC. That was fitted. It made no difference. Another module and then another were fitted. The bill for parts at this point, I was told by Arnold Clark’s service manager, was in the region of £7,500. Still no resolution.
Eventually, MG despatched their own engineers for a visit to East Kilbride who seemed to have pinned down the snag to yet another charging module. I was told the problem was partially solved but that the replacement unit would need re-coding by the MG guys. They would be in touch the next day.
The call never came.
When I next managed to speak to Arnold Clark’s own engineer, he told me that the re-coding hadn’t made any difference and they were now completely stumped.
Just before Christmas, I was told that MG now thought the problem was on the high voltage side. Another MG engineer visit to East Kilbride would be needed because only MG were trained to deal with high-voltage issues - but MG would only be sending out staff when there was sufficient workload at East Kilbride to justify a visit so in the meantime it was a waiting game…
The latest chapter of this sad tale (and more salt in the wound) came last week (mid-January) when Arnold Clark’s service manager told me MG had updated their systems at the start of the year and unfortunately many of the older cars (yup, mine included) had “gone missing” because their ID numbers hadn’t transferred across to the new system. Those cars were now being re-entered manually (across the UK) and, so far, only two of East Kilbride’s ten “missing” cars had been recovered. Nothing more could be done for my car until it re-emerged on the MG radar...
During all this time, Arnold Clark’s communication has been appalling (and MG’s pretty much non-existent) but during phone conversations about these issues a picture has emerged of a company that’s selling cheap EVs hand-over-fist but failing badly to keep up with repairs and service issues. Arnold Clark in East Kilbride is not the only MG agent caught up in this backlog nightmare, it seems.
Anyway, my initial pleasure at having discovered EV driving has not been completely squashed. We bought a second EV – a Kia Soul – last summer and it has been a joy to drive. Comfortable, well kitted out and great range.
I’m still looking forward to being re-acquainted with my MG5 but I’m pretty sure that when the next change of cars is called for, I won’t be contemplating an MG!
