Unintended acceleration in 2024 MG4 Trophy LR

[siteguru]

Personally I don't find that to be the case whatsoever ... I also drive Mrs. Guru's Dacia Sandero, and I drive (and have driven) a variety of Transit-sized minibuses (Ford, Vauxhall, Renault) in the past few months, and going back to the MG4 doesn't feel odd at all.

 

[tsedge]

Well, I've driven an MG4 only once - a test drive in 2022. I remember being alarmed at how easy it was to press both accelerator and brake pedals at once when trying to brake. In fact, I'm sure it was a contributary factor in deciding to back out of the purchase.

I think the problem is that, not only are the two pedals fairly close, but they're offset to the left, compared to many (most?) other cars.

I have big feet and haven't had a problem at all with my MG4.

It is more likely to be about the angle and position people hold their feet in that makes some people susceptible to pressing the wrong pedal.

Time and time again different makers have been taken to court over this issue and it always seems to turn out to be operator error.

 

[Fogey]

Yes, coming from a Yaris, I did find the angles as I described, so it was definitely a concern that this could cause problems - especially as I intended to run both cars. Operator error or not, it's a bit late if you're hospitalised because of differences in driving ergonomics.

The point is that this seems to be a likely explanation for "unintended acceleration".

 

[OriginalBigAl]

When mine was brand new I did several left foot waves at the non-existent clutch , luckily not catching the brake pedal before learning to keep it planted on the footrest. Not really applicable here, but learning some muscle memory as to the different positions and feel of the controls in a new ( different ) car is a requirement of good control. Until then, concentration and a control over, over confidence are recommended.

 

[Fogey]

Are you lecturing me?

 

[Susanna]

Yes my Wife got out to open the garage but it did stay in "ready", the drive is not on a slope, but I still don't understand why the park brake did not auto release, the motor tried to get in motion but the brakes failed to let go.My Wife has a Fiat 500ev and her parking will auto release forward but not in reverse, they have their strande quirks I guess!

I realise this is an old post, but did you take off your seatbelt in preparation for reversing into your garage? If so, that will be why the PB didn’t auto release. It’s a safety feature.

 

[OriginalBigAl]

Are you lecturing me?

Just a generalisation based on my own experience .... but..... every days a learning day!!!
Just as we can learn from your 1 hours driving experience in the MG.

 

[tsedge]

Yes, coming from a Yaris, I did find the angles as I described, so it was definitely a concern that this could cause problems - especially as I intended to run both cars. Operator error or not, it's a bit late if you're hospitalised because of differences in driving ergonomics.

The point is that this seems to be a likely explanation for "unintended acceleration".

Got it. It is quite fair to criticise the design of the MG4 on this basis. It would be interesting to see if anyone has studied pedal positions / sizes / angles and correlated it with these kinds of incidents - there could well be good reasons why people angle their feet in different ways that should be taken into account.

Perhaps the 1-pedal folks are right after all.

 

[ReintjeWA]

I’m actually a little surprised that a modern car with all these safety features lets you accelerate into an object. Perhaps the idea is that you would rather ram a wall than get T-boned by a lorry, but that argument would also work for getting too close to a line on the freeway, and the car definitely won’t let you do that without protest.

 

[decrep]

I'm wondering if it's the Yarris that has different pedal positions?
I do use the foot brake on the MG4 occasionally and it's always felt perfectly natural.

 

[Fogey]

I've driven (literally) scores of different cars over the years, and only ever recall making this observation with the MG4. Also, I do vaguely remember watching, much more recently, one of those YT comparisons of EVs (Carwow/WhatCar/Electrifying etc.) in which someone mentioned an unusual offset compared with the others.

 

[ReintjeWA]

The brake pedal is in line with the steering wheel, but I can’t remember what that looked like in my other cars. All my other cars were Peugeots though so it stand to reason they were all similar to each other, and I found the transition to the MG4 pedals natural and smooth. But of course with the amount of different cars out there everybody will have their own experiences.

 

[Fogey]

You know, I'm wondering - the car I test drove would have been one of the very first MG4s in the country. And I've just been looking at photos (in road test reviews) of the MG4 interior which show the pedal spacing to be just fine - and hard to imagine how there could be interference when operating them. Maybe the pedal locations have changed since early versions?

 

[pjmmk]

I found the MG remarkably uncomfortable. Took me ages to get the seat and wheel in a position where I didn't feel as if I was contorting to both be relaxed and able see see whare I was going. It's still not perfect and I wonder if they designed it for drivers with different proportions to most North Europeans...

As for the sudden acceleration issue, I've never come across that in any car. Closest I've ever experienced is the brakes being momentarily released when a wheel loses traction under braking - that can happen a lot with our pothole strewn roads. It feels like acceleration but it's really just an unexpected very brief loss of braking.

 

[Wildthing]

I have had my XP 18 months now and in that time had all sorts of strange happenings, but without exception they all came about after failing to wait until the car has fully loaded it's computers. Now before I engage drive I wait until the blue light inside the navigation sign in the Home screen lights up and she says Hello to me, if she fails to give that greeting I know that next time I plug in Zappi she won't even take a charge at Midnight and a trip to the garage in my PJs to press the Home reset will follow, which can be a mite chilly as the garage is not attached to the house! So now I always give her time to load up and had no problems since. Finally, I see no problems with the pedal layout, the car always feels comfortable to me and still the best car I've ever owned and I've had a few since my Riley 1.5 RME in 1967.

 

[neeti]

I’ve had a similar thing this morning in my brand new m4 ev lr trophy Pulling into a parking space at supermarket, came off brake to cruise in to space and car just accelerated and hit car in front right out of their parking spot.
Terrifying the rate it picked up. I keep thinking did I slam on the accelerator but no warnings/ beeping or anything prior to hitting the car, and my foot was over the brake as I tried to slam it on as I realised what was happening so can’t have been

I'm sorry to hear this. Feel free to DM me. The whole process has been pretty grim.

 

[Edd Beesley]

I’ve had a similar thing this morning in my brand new m4 ev lr trophy Pulling into a parking space at supermarket, came off brake to cruise in to space and car just accelerated and hit car in front right out of their parking spot.
Terrifying the rate it picked up. I keep thinking did I slam on the accelerator but no warnings/ beeping or anything prior to hitting the car, and my foot was over the brake as I tried to slam it on as I realised what was happening so can’t have been

Again, most likely explanation is that you were gently riding the accelerator, but gently enough that you were still getting some braking force, and your brain was "busy" in the process of parking. Then when something didn't feel right you pushed your foot down (that you thought was over the brake) and you had a massive dose of acceleration.

 

[securespark]

I was very lucky to inherit (before my Grandad died) his Alfasud. A 1978 Super, it was built for Italians.

It had very short seat cushions for short legged people and the driving position set you far back from the steering wheel (Italians generally have long arms) and the pedals were very close together (they tend to have small feet).

So here was I, 6 foot and half an inch with wide size 12 clod hoppers.

The only bit of the driving position that fitted me was the long arm bit. Usually, if you measure someone's arms from fingertip to fingertip across the chest, the measurement is the same as their height.

My fingertip to fingertip measurement is 6' 4".

 

[Vlyn]

Generally this is the reason I'm not using OPD (One Pedal Driving) with my MG4 Luxury. You get way too used to playing with the accelerator and develop no muscle memory for the brake pedal.

When it comes to parking I'm constantly on the brake and just use the creep mode when lifting off. Anything happens I can just slam my foot down. With OPD you'd actually be on the accelerator (as the car is fully stopped otherwise) so if you get a freight you might depress the pedal.

And hopefully everyone here is only using one foot to drive, there are people who use both feet at the same time, which is madness.

 

[securespark]

I was very lucky to inherit (before my Grandad died) his Alfasud. A 1978 Super, it was built for Italians.

It had very short seat cushions for short legged people and the driving position set you far back from the steering wheel (Italians generally have long arms) and the pedals were very close together (they tend to have small feet).

So here was I, 6 foot and half an inch with wide size 12 clod hoppers.

The only bit of the driving position that fitted me was the long arm bit. Usually, if you measure someone's arms from fingertip to fingertip across the chest, the measurement is the same as their height.

My fingertip to fingertip measurement is 6' 4".

Sorry, I forgot to make my point. It took me a good while to learn to drive this car with clod-hopping feet and pedals that were close together. It was easy to hit the brake and the accelerator together, although it was a manual, so if there were any take off issues, dipping the left hand pedal would sort it.