First of all, keep in mind that I have been married over 26 years, and one of my wife's many fantastic qualities is her amazing ability to find fault with every single part of my driving. In other words, I am used to being told off for being 3 miles an hour above the speed limit, being too close to the car in front etc. Experience has taught me to simply obey her will for a 'quiet life'. In truth, this has made me into a rule-obeying driver, who does not mind being warned when I could drive 'better'.
So, with the above caveat in mind, my honest view on the alert noises is:
- The least obtrusive noise is the 'keep your eyes on the road' reminder. It's very quiet and gentle, with an accompanying small text message on the dashboard. Very rarely occurs (unless you are looking for a radio station for too long, or whatever) and (let's face facts) it's good advice anyway. But (as I say) the 'bong' is very quiet and actually (weirdly) rather likeable (nice tone)
- Also, if you wear sunglasses it will give a very quiet bong to warn you that it can't see your eyes very well. But it's quite a pleasant noise in my view!
- Compared to my old X-Trail, I find the MG's "warning that the car in front is stationary and you are about to hit it" noise is a little too quiet for my taste! My old Nissan used to have a high-pitched bing that really jolted you alert. So therefore I would say that the MG alert for 'getting too close' is not annoying
- However, to be honest, I would say that the speed alert is a little annoying! It will start binging at approx 2-3 mph over the limit (e.g. 32-33mph in a 30mph zone), which (in my view) is a little aggressive. I think that 4mph+ over the limit would be more sensible.
- That said, I compared the speedometer accuracy of my old Nissan to the new MG and (in fact) 70mph in the Nissan is about 68mph in the MG, so therefore driving to the speed limit in my MG is a little faster (in real life) than in the Nissan, so I don't mind too much
However, all of the noises/alerts are fairly 'gentle' in volume/pitch, so it is not something ear-shatteringly awful
- I certainly don't bother to switch off the alerts before I set off to drive, because (overall) I don't mind them at all.
In fact, I reckon that the reason why 'professional reviewers' mention these audible alerts as a 'problem' is because they have to complain about
something, otherwise all car reviews will just sounds like "this is great, this is great....". Same with armchair 'keyboard warriors' who will criticise (e.g. in YouTube comments sections) Chinese cars like the MG without ever actually having driven one. Sure, if you own an MG and don't like it, then feel free to tell everyone. But if you've just got a 'bee in your bonnet' about not liking a type of car/brand etc. (but without ever owning one) then I'll choose to ignore your views.
That's my two cents anyway!
