What is the point of the MG app?

Totti1001

Standard Member
Joined
Jul 18, 2025
Messages
37
Reaction score
18
Points
13
Age
61
Location
Germany
Driving
HS PHEV
I am wondering what the point of the MG app is if, after a few hours, I can no longer access the car because it appears to be in deep sleep mode.
It would be important to always have access, especially for heating or cooling the interior. But this doesn't make sense. I can wake up the car with the remote control, but then I don't need an app.
 
I left mine in situ for 17 days. It was fine for about a week. Then went to sleep n

I was interested in seeing if the charge naturally dissipated. It didn't.
 
It's not possible to miss something you haven't used. You can use something stop using it and then miss it or not. 🙂

Fair point. Read about how shite, it was on here. Not arsed about Apps. No intention of using it, and I'm "pretty" sure, I haven't missed owt. Is that better? 😉🙂
 
Yes it is better, however you're not wrong in your sentiment, I used it and it is a waste of time.
I also gave up on Apple Play as it was forever disconnecting, and now I have to re-pair blue tooth every time I get in the car as it never remembers my iPhone.
In my bluetooth I have had to "forget" over 100 pages of connections over the last 18 months.
Screenshot 2025-08-30 at 14.51.27.webp
 
Yes it is better, however you're not wrong in your sentiment, I used it and it is a waste of time.
I also gave up on Apple Play as it was forever disconnecting, and now I have to re-pair blue tooth every time I get in the car as it never remembers my iPhone.
In my bluetooth I have had to "forget" over 100 pages of connections over the last 18 months.View attachment 39433
Did you get your car new or used.
 
Like to point out that the car will wake up if it has signal to the built in slim card and the app server is up and working. If you got your cars new then the dealer should have set this up for you. If the car was secondhand that the app may still be having the previous owner details and needs cleared from the server.
 
Last edited:
I bought it used from MG Dealer with 3500 on clock and six months old.
I looked at the photo and it may keep disconnecting because the app may still have the last owner details on the server. This was a problem at the start of the app and was covered by the MG podcast, you need to get your dealer to get MG to clear the server and you clear your pairing with the car. You can only pair with you car when MG has done their end.
 
Hi it's not a blue tooth connection to the phone. Rather a built in sim. Mine works great I can access the status including starting the heating and cooling before going out. I parked up in a car park and then couldn’t find it easily. Set off the horn and flashers from the app. No complaints at all. It did take me a couple of attempts to bind the car though.
 
On a similar subject, I have bound my Samsung S22 phone to my MG4 at least a dozen times and every time I get in the car and start up, it has lost the connection. Everything about the software in this car is crap and the app is no different. It is flaky, badly-designed, unreliable and in the case of the so-called 'safety features' a massive distraction and downright dangerous. MG Motors should hang their heads in shame and admit that they never tested the systems properly before inflicting them on on us. Software upgrades are an admission of these errors but they don't help much
 
I have my car for nearly a year now and 99% of the time the app has worked with no problem, for every day driving I only have the front braking on which has saved me twice, also the blind spot on the wing mirrors all other stiff is turned off. A bad workman blames his tools.
 
@Sparky2 For the sake of balance, I have had my PHEV for just over 4 months now, and I love it. On the whole, I find the in-car touchscreen works well (once you get used to its minor quirks). I have very few problems/complaints although (I admit) it is not flawless. For example:
  • Twice I got the 'green screen' problem with my 360 camera
  • The USB music playback does not play tracks in a logical order
  • My * shortcut/preset buttons do not work (on the steering wheel) because of a bug in my software version (R46 I think)

However, my phone (Motorola G84) connects flawlessly to the car (via bluetooth). There is an approx 5 second delay after switching on the car, but then everything is connected perfectly, so I can stream music from my phone etc.

I also have added a wireless Android Auto dongle (£20), which again works flawlessly with my phone. After about 10 seconds (after switching on the car) I get the Android Auto screen and it is perfectly aligned with my phone, and I can use music/map applications with ease.

Finally, I admit that the MG Smart app (on my android phone) is a little slow to connect to the car. It relies on an eSim (in the car) connecting to the local phone mast, and (in order to save the 12v battery) it only periodically tries to connect. So long as I am patient, I find that it works 99% of the time (after 1 or 2 minutes of trying).

As for the safety features (bings and bongs, auto-corrections etc) I have no problem with them at all. I leave them at their default settings for each journey. I take the position that you can either go 'against' the tide, or 'with' it. I try to be Zen with the car, and it gives me calmness and serenity. I recommend this way of life to everyone. Accept what you cannot change, and smile at the good things in the world.

So (all in all) not perfect, but in this mad world that we currently live in, my MG HS PHEV 2025 car is one of the best things in it!
 
May I first respond, with the utmost respect, to Jto. I am not a "bad workman" and I do not blame "my tools". I have restored a number of classic cars over the last 40 years or so and have therefore learned not to blame my tools. I am 73 years old, an IAM Advanced Driver and held a racing licence for saloon cars for several years. I know how a car works and how to drive one. The IAM strapline is "skill with responsibility" which means that the responsibility for controlling a motor vehicle depends on the skill of the driver, not some badly-programmed computer. If the seriously-flawed front collision software has "saved you twice" I would respectfully suggest that you are not looking where you are going. Most vehicles on the UK roads today do not, thankfully, have cameras all over the outside designed to take the responsibility for looking out of the windows away from the driver and replace it with a useless picture on a screen inside the car. A reversing camera is useful and cruise control on the motorway is useful but everything else is just misplaced technology which does not work. Unlike the cruise control in my 1999 Jaguar XKR, the cruise control in the MG4 cannot be deployed with out all the other dysfunctional crap switched on. The cameras in my MG4 cannot read speed limit signs and cannot tell the difference between a stationary vehicle, a moving vehicle, a lamp post, a tree, a cyclist or a pedestrian. It cannot tell the difference between a patch of new tarmac, a puddle and a hole in the road so occasionally slams the brakes on for no reason at all

I am absolutely delighted that HStrophyPHEV20 derives "calmness and serenity" from having his car take over Zen responsibility for the control of his car. Perhaps the roads in Buckinghamshire are all smooth and wide with a white line down the middle and kerbs on each side. Up here in rural County Durham, the roads are narrow, potholed and most of them have no white lines and grass verges on each side, often with the added interest of grazing sheep and lambs. If you are daft enough to leave the wretched ELK system active, a drive along these roads is like a game of Russian roulette with the dysfunctional cameras and software unable to make any sense of the terrain and bombarding the driver with a succession of audible warnings accompanied by pulling the steering all over the place. How this setup has been allowed to be described as a 'safety feature' is beyond me. It turns what would be a good car into a dangerous piece of machinery controlled by seriously defective cameras and their associated software. There is no "skill with responsibility" at work here, it is a failed attempt to enable the car to be driven by blind idiots in order to obtain an NCAP 5-Star safety rating. There is no substitute for looking out of the windows and operating the car's controls yourself. The whole concept of a touchscreen replacing perfectly functional knobs, buttons and switches which can be operated without taking your eyes off the road is a totally bonkers retrograde step for safe control of the vehicle. Good luck with trying to convince me otherwise. Happy motoring folks
 
@Sparky2 - Very entertaining :)

You make a good point - I had not really thought about the quality of roads. 99% of my driving is on either motorways or main roads in town centres. There has been very little B/C road 'rural' driving. This has probably helped the car's systems mostly work 'as intended' for me.

Totally agree that modern car's propensity to auto-steer is very alarming to the driver, and I hate it when it occasionally happens. As far as I can recall, it has only really occurred 2 or 3 times, when on the motorway. The scenario seems to be I am in the inside lane, just about to overtake a lorry, with a car behind me in the middle lane. I indicate, the drive behind sees this, and then moves to the outside lane to give me room. I move to the middle lane (to overtake) but the steering wheel drags me back to the inside lane. Rather alarming the first time it happens, and I wish the car didn't do it, but (with all the other troubles in the world) I just take it on the chin and move on.

Finally, clearly we drive different cars (my HS 2025 PHEV compared to your MG4) so naturally the software/hardware will be different, so perhaps this is a factor too.
 
I think you are right. The 'driverless' cameras and software were clearly developed on a test track with clearly-defined margins and markings. It was also assumed that every lane change would be preceded by use of the direction indicators which we know is largely optional for most drivers, especially on motorways. My son-in-law drives a Tesla which has an even more bonkers touchscreen than the the MG4. He regularly reminds me that modern cars are not designed for the likes of me, they are designed by and for the touchscreen generation with tiny attention spans and little or no experience of manual gearboxes, wind-up windows, knobs, buttons, switches or dials on the dashboard. Modern cars are becoming like giant smartphones with wheels and seats but I fear that the effective removal of control over the car's behaviour from the driver will make the roads less safe, not more safe, as is the intention. Like many Oldies, I am an Analogue Man in a Digital World
 
Being in a digital world, doesn't bother me as such. (Although some is way beyond me) The digital stuff I do understand, l like. As long as it works as it should. Which in a lot of cases, unfortunately, it doesn't. 🙄🤪
 
Support us by becoming a Premium Member

Latest MG EVs video

First Look: MG IM5 & IM6 – Premium EV Saloon & SUV Unveiled at Goodwood!
Subscribe to our YouTube channel
Back
Top Bottom