MG ZS EV Shipping Updates

[JSAND59]

So popped into the local MG dealership…a load of new faces?..ask this very nice guy where the manager Tony was..to be told he’d left, asked if he could help, so said I was enquiring about my car, does it still say “shortage, to be built, TBA” yes it did, so we had a chat about this and that, told I would get a car with a sunroof, I said I think it’s a mistake MG scrapping it, he said he thinks so too, maybe down to getting the chips, went on to say, he thinks MG may come out with a ZS special that comes with a sunroof, he said to me that he’s heard about a ship in the channel with loads of MGs on it, said it’s not true and he wished it was, so I go to leave and I say to this guy, (Tim) so are you going to be the new manager for here, “No, I’m the director for the dealership” oh, so your one of the guy that sit on the big table and not a salesman, “well I playing salesman today” said that the Coventry dealership was beating the other 5 that he looks after hands down, also said they are going to start sending emails out, even if it’s to say there’s no change, i said that’s one of the things that annoy me, hearing nothing..bit of news from him…I ordered mine 19/12/21, ordered put in or accepted by MG…28/1/22…so I guess I haven’t been waiting as long as I thought..he’d looked at all outstanding cars and contacted the sales manager for any updates..

forgot to say, as I asked about delivery dates and we had a laugh about them…he did say, he can get petrol one no problem, autos no problem, just all EV that he couldn’t get his hands on..

I don’t think it is too difficult to understand. To be able to build more cars for less cost needs to reduce options on the production line. Having a sunroof is not simply a hole cut in the roof - it is a whole different frame. Definitely a cost reduction exercise on my view - one frame, 2 model variants is less complex than 2 frames with 3 model variants and will enable bigger savings on purchasing common parts in larger quantities.

I have given up with chasing my MG dealer or MG UK for update on car, what’s the point - they don’t know, they can tell me made up estimation of dates or stories about how they know more than my dog knows about what SAICs plans are.
Let’s face it the car arrives when the car arrives - May as well tell the truth that we have not got a clue until we get the phone call to say it has arrived.

We have been told so many times that SAIC make what they feel like without any regard for order books. We would like to believe that there is a chance that they would put some kind of sense to it and link to order books, but I do not think that that will happen. They are not building just for the UK, but the world. Every car they build they can sell.
Once cars have been built all the MG distributors from the different countries try to get them delivered to their country.

The next hurdle is what dealer you choose. If you go via a big dealer you will have a better chance due to them being able to flex minimum quantity supply agreements on MG UK. The smaller dealership is at the back of the queue - they do not get offered 50 or 60 spare cars for stock.

It is good news that SAIC are making more cars - although I still have a wait ahead of me. I ordered in early Jan and there are people still in front of me in the queue who ordered in 2021. Let’s hope we all get our cars soon - After September would be good so that I get a 72 reg.

 

[DrJohnny Fever]

I don’t think it is too difficult to understand. To be able to build more cars for less cost needs to reduce options on the production line. Having a sunroof is not simply a hole cut in the roof - it is a whole different frame. Definitely a cost reduction exercise on my view - one frame, 2 model variants is less complex than 2 frames with 3 model variants and will enable bigger savings on purchasing common parts in larger quantities.

I have given up with chasing my MG dealer or MG UK for update on car, what’s the point - they don’t know, they can tell me made up estimation of dates or stories about how they know more than my dog knows about what SAICs plans are.
Let’s face it the car arrives when the car arrives - May as well tell the truth that we have not got a clue until we get the phone call to say it has arrived.

We have been told so many times that SAIC make what they feel like without any regard for order books. We would like to believe that there is a chance that they would put some kind of sense to it and link to order books, but I do not think that that will happen. They are not building just for the UK, but the world. Every car they build they can sell.
Once cars have been built all the MG distributors from the different countries try to get them delivered to their country.

The next hurdle is what dealer you choose. If you go via a big dealer you will have a better chance due to them being able to flex minimum quantity supply agreements on MG UK. The smaller dealership is at the back of the queue - they do not get offered 50 or 60 spare cars for stock.

It is good news that SAIC are making more cars - although I still have a wait ahead of me. I ordered in early Jan and there are people still in front of me in the queue who ordered in 2021. Let’s hope we all get our cars soon - After September would be good so that I get a 72 reg.

it’s not a big deal to make cars without the sunroof, the SE ZS doesn’t come with a sunroof, I was told MG are offering some sort of deal when they stop making the sunroof model…forgot what he said it was called…but it seems they have put money on the table to dealerships, which surprised him, guess it’s to give discounts out, don’t think it’s going to be as easy to sell MGs without a sunroof and a price increase, which puts them up into other EV out there…on another note…would I buy another MG?…No, don’t think so, I seen a youtube video for an BYD atto, I think it was, I’d be interested in that if it’s not to dear and comes to the UK, it was a Ozzy video…that come with the big sunroof and looks very nice inside..

 

[MrMatt2101]

I don’t think it is too difficult to understand. To be able to build more cars for less cost needs to reduce options on the production line. Having a sunroof is not simply a hole cut in the roof - it is a whole different frame. Definitely a cost reduction exercise on my view - one frame, 2 model variants is less complex than 2 frames with 3 model variants and will enable bigger savings on purchasing common parts in larger quantities.

I have given up with chasing my MG dealer or MG UK for update on car, what’s the point - they don’t know, they can tell me made up estimation of dates or stories about how they know more than my dog knows about what SAICs plans are.
Let’s face it the car arrives when the car arrives - May as well tell the truth that we have not got a clue until we get the phone call to say it has arrived.

We have been told so many times that SAIC make what they feel like without any regard for order books. We would like to believe that there is a chance that they would put some kind of sense to it and link to order books, but I do not think that that will happen. They are not building just for the UK, but the world. Every car they build they can sell.
Once cars have been built all the MG distributors from the different countries try to get them delivered to their country.

The next hurdle is what dealer you choose. If you go via a big dealer you will have a better chance due to them being able to flex minimum quantity supply agreements on MG UK. The smaller dealership is at the back of the queue - they do not get offered 50 or 60 spare cars for stock.

It is good news that SAIC are making more cars - although I still have a wait ahead of me. I ordered in early Jan and there are people still in front of me in the queue who ordered in 2021. Let’s hope we all get our cars soon - After September would be good so that I get a 72 reg.

I think I (and probably others) needed this. I took a break from the forum but then came back and quickly slipped into obsessively checking it, and then saying to MrsMatt 'omg, so and so has received theirs but ordered so and so' or 'ooh a Jan order same as mine has arrived, do you think mines next' like a broken record. She sighs, and says 'it'll be here when it's here, stop worrying '. So I really think there is a lot to be said for that approach. It's a pain in the butt, as I sold my car back in March, but we are coping. It's also painful that my brother got his polestar last week after ordering a few weeks before me. But, it'll be fine. Let's enjoy the sunshine.

 

[Ukchris]

Another one inexplicably way ahead of others (e.g. ordered by SR Trophy in January)

I know how you feel mate.

 

[mokey]

I have stoped chasing MG UK for my car , It will come when it comes.
Ordered mid January and still plenty people on here ordered November 2021 and still waiting.
So I think the earliest I might see mine will be September/November.
Would like to think it wouldn’t run in to 2023 but hay ho what will be will be.

 

[mairita]

Another one inexplicably way ahead of others (e.g. ordered by SR Trophy in January)

Ive identified two reasons why this happens from observing this forum and from personal experience.

Firstly the date you place the order is not necessarily the date that MG approves/puts the order through. So you ordered in November and think thats where in the queue you should be but they put the order through in December whilst someone else who put their order in the same day as you had their order put through before you by MG! This is ridiculous and shouldn’t be happening, it makes no sense why the order doesn't just go straight through when submitted, do they not use internet, and mail each order to China individually ? or maybe use a computer software from a different century!?

Second reason is that almost all, if not all, dealerships had put in preorders for cars since the books first opened, they had preorders from November, December, etc. this was allowed back then and there were no fines for unassigned cars to a named customer, up until about end of April/May time i think. So depending on whether the dealership approached had the desired car specs on one of their preordered vehicles you could be lucky to secure one of them and although you may have ordered in April, the actual order of the vehicle was ordered through MG in January! So although someone on here may come and say i ordered 15th April and picking up my car next week, what we don't know is if it was a preordered vehicle, which my money is on that it was, and it may have been earlier on in the queue for production than your car which had an earlier customer order date.

I may be wrong but that’s what I think is happening with all these delivery date discrepancies.

 

[JSAND59]

Ive identified two reasons why this happens from observing this forum and from personal experience.

Firstly the date you place the order is not necessarily the date that MG approves/puts the order through. So you ordered in November and think thats where in the queue you should be but they put the order through in December whilst someone else who put their order in the same day as you had their order put through before you by MG! This is ridiculous and shouldn’t be happening, it makes no sense why the order doesn't just go straight through when submitted, do they not use internet, and mail each order to China individually ? or maybe use a computer software from a different century!?

Second reason is that almost all, if not all, dealerships had put in preorders for cars since the books first opened, they had preorders from November, December, etc. this was allowed back then and there were no fines for unassigned cars to a named customer, up until about end of April/May time i think. So depending on whether the dealership approached had the desired car specs on one of their preordered vehicles you could be lucky to secure one of them and although you may have ordered in April, the actual order of the vehicle was ordered through MG in January! So although someone on here may come and say i ordered 15th April and picking up my car next week, what we don't know is if it was a preordered vehicle, which my money is on that it was, and it may have been earlier on in the queue for production than your car which had an earlier customer order date.

I may be wrong but that’s what I think is happening with all these delivery date discrepancies.

You could be correct on everything but I think that maybe you are still presuming that there is a set process to deliver a car and keep customers updated. If anything, I have learned over the last few weeks it is the not the case - for example.
What we were told is that there was a lot of stock orders and towards the end of March all the dealers were told by MG UK that they had two weeks to put names on stock orders or cancel them. Any name changes after this would result in £1500 fine. This was all explained very clearly on the podcast. My small dealer had the same information and followed this advice and had to cancel the stock orders. The big dealers however did not cancel are still getting stock orders but not paying the fine? Cars2 are still advertising cars both LR and SR in stock. MG UK know about this and advised to me in their email which I posted last week that the cars must be stock orders placed before my order. I could not be bothered to write back and remind them that stock orders were supposed to be cancelled by the end of March.

Some people are informed build status, At sea etc. while others get a call to say a car transporter has just turned up with your car.

Some people have TBA - which we now understand means ‘have not got a clue’ in Chinese. My order is TBA and MG UK tell me from my order number that the car is waiting parts to go onto the production line. One member got exactly the same response and a phone call one week later from his dealer that his car had just arrived at the dealer. How on earth did the car manage to go through production , shipping, import, car transporter in one week? Some people have delivery dates in September , October and beyond. These dates have to be someone making a guess because we have been told that SAIC do not know what parts they will have for the production line so there is no way MG UK or the dealer have a clue which models / colours they will produce.

One person was told by dealer that SAIC have a production line where they make different models each day. I think they were told that they only set up the production line on Fridays to make the ZS model. Not sure if this was told on April 1st?

Some people get chassis number and car registered before the car leaves Shanghai. In some cases have to make payment weeks before the car is in the country. Others wait till the car arrives in Portbury and the rest are done when the car arrives at the dealership.

I think it is safe to say that most cars arrive into the country direct onto Portbury docks where MG UK have an office and team dedicated to receive and dispatch the cars to the dealers. There is a possibility that cars can also arrive in Tilbury but have not managed to find any MG presence at the dock - seems to be a big Hyundai distribution centre from what I could find.
One person has been told that cars are imported into Europe (Holland) and then exported to UK. MG even set up the car to be in Dutch language for when it arrived in the UK - who would climb into a RHD car and think that it needs setting up in Dutch to be driven around the tulip fields with the steering wheel on the wrong side? Just total incompetence.

I read with concern that there have recently been cases on this forum where the Universal joint on the steering came apart leaving the cars without any steering with no warning - this is a major quality concern and no recall to check this serious defect is not on other cars.

All the above information just points to a company that has no real process for Manufacture / quality / delivery / customer care.

Suggest we are buying a cheap car - In order to manufacture and still achieve margin will mean that they need a very lean process with minimal overheads - hence my conclusion that it will arrive when it arrives.

 

[DB Go Rex]

Ive identified two reasons why this happens from observing this forum and from personal experience.

Firstly the date you place the order is not necessarily the date that MG approves/puts the order through. So you ordered in November and think thats where in the queue you should be but they put the order through in December whilst someone else who put their order in the same day as you had their order put through before you by MG! This is ridiculous and shouldn’t be happening, it makes no sense why the order doesn't just go straight through when submitted, do they not use internet, and mail each order to China individually ? or maybe use a computer software from a different century!?

Second reason is that almost all, if not all, dealerships had put in preorders for cars since the books first opened, they had preorders from November, December, etc. this was allowed back then and there were no fines for unassigned cars to a named customer, up until about end of April/May time i think. So depending on whether the dealership approached had the desired car specs on one of their preordered vehicles you could be lucky to secure one of them and although you may have ordered in April, the actual order of the vehicle was ordered through MG in January! So although someone on here may come and say i ordered 15th April and picking up my car next week, what we don't know is if it was a preordered vehicle, which my money is on that it was, and it may have been earlier on in the queue for production than your car which had an earlier customer order date.

I may be wrong but that’s what I think is happening with all these delivery date discrepancies.

You might not be wrong, but in my case I actually submitted my order in December, and the order went in January, so it is actually a January order.

Also Luscombe have been delivering cars way past that initial pre order batch, that they are my supplying dealer, so...

 

[mairita]

You could be correct on everything but I think that maybe you are still presuming that there is a set process to deliver a car and keep customers updated. If anything, I have learned over the last few weeks it is the not the case - for example.
What we were told is that there was a lot of stock orders and towards the end of March all the dealers were told by MG UK that they had two weeks to put names on stock orders or cancel them. Any name changes after this would result in £1500 fine. This was all explained very clearly on the podcast. My small dealer had the same information and followed this advice and had to cancel the stock orders. The big dealers however did not cancel are still getting stock orders but not paying the fine? Cars2 are still advertising cars both LR and SR in stock. MG UK know about this and advised to me in their email which I posted last week that the cars must be stock orders placed before my order. I could not be bothered to write back and remind them that stock orders were supposed to be cancelled by the end of March.

Some people are informed build status, At sea etc. while others get a call to say a car transporter has just turned up with your car.

Some people have TBA - which we now understand means ‘have not got a clue’ in Chinese. My order is TBA and MG UK tell me from my order number that the car is waiting parts to go onto the production line. One member got exactly the same response and a phone call one week later from his dealer that his car had just arrived at the dealer. How on earth did the car manage to go through production , shipping, import, car transporter in one week? Some people have delivery dates in September , October and beyond. These dates have to be someone making a guess because we have been told that SAIC do not know what parts they will have for the production line so there is no way MG UK or the dealer have a clue which models / colours they will produce.

One person was told by dealer that SAIC have a production line where they make different models each day. I think they were told that they only set up the production line on Fridays to make the ZS model. Not sure if this was told on April 1st?

Some people get chassis number and car registered before the car leaves Shanghai. In some cases have to make payment weeks before the car is in the country. Others wait till the car arrives in Portbury and the rest are done when the car arrives at the dealership.

I think it is safe to say that most cars arrive into the country direct onto Portbury docks where MG UK have an office and team dedicated to receive and dispatch the cars to the dealers. There is a possibility that cars can also arrive in Tilbury but have not managed to find any MG presence at the dock - seems to be a big Hyundai distribution centre from what I could find.
One person has been told that cars are imported into Europe (Holland) and then exported to UK. MG even set up the car to be in Dutch language for when it arrived in the UK - who would climb into a RHD car and think that it needs setting up in Dutch to be driven around the tulip fields with the steering wheel on the wrong side? Just total incompetence.

I read with concern that there have recently been cases on this forum where the Universal joint on the steering came apart leaving the cars without any steering with no warning - this is a major quality concern and no recall to check this serious defect is not on other cars.

All the above information just points to a company that has no real process for Manufacture / quality / delivery / customer care.

Suggest we are buying a cheap car - In order to manufacture and still achieve margin will mean that they need a very lean process with minimal overheads - hence my conclusion that it will arrive when it arrives.

I agree JSAND59, MG are all over the place, nothing with them makes sense, their incompetence knows no level. They have a seemingly good product which they have managed to sell over and beyond but have extremely poor execution from production all the way to delivery. Dealerships are as useful as the head office, they’ve all been made into clowns, noone knows what’s going on, one week they say September next they call to say car is here. Utter chaos!!
For me for sure first and last MG, never dealing with a Chinese company again..i tried to overcome the prejudice when first ordering the car because it was so good on paper but frankly regretting it now! Funny thing is that MG doesnt seem to care about the massive brand damage they are sustaining with all this non-communication and utter mis-management. I’ve seen longer delays with German brands but the most vital thing is constant communication, with minor updates to why there is a delay and at least some form of customer care, which is absent with MG, hence why we all here theorising and ship watching as to what is happening next!

Anyways the car will come when it comes, in my post I was only trying to make sense of the non-sense with an observation Ive made on order date-delivery discrepancies, not accounting for the rest of the shambles.

 

[DB Go Rex]

Suggest we are buying a cheap car - In order to manufacture and still achieve margin will mean that they need a very lean process with minimal overheads - hence my conclusion that it will arrive when it arrives.

Absolutely, I was never in under any illusion here - this is a £16K budget ICE car with an expensive battery and some nice toys to dress it up.

I actually wanted an ID3 but back in December there was some major price hikes on leases and within a day of me deciding to sign up to something, the ID3 was out of price range and the only two left were the eC4 and the MG ZS.

I wish I'd taken the eC4.

Too late now.

 

[mairita]

You might not be wrong, but in my case I actually submitted my order in December, and the order went in January, so it is actually a January order.

Also Luscombe have been delivering cars way past that initial pre order batch, that they are my supplying dealer, so...

Yes exactly that’s what I said, the order doesnt actually go through when you’ve put it through or on the odd occasion it may do ? no sense what so ever but it happened to me too. I was told I was ordering a stock order from December but even their stock order went through in January? Why this happens is anyones guess.

 

[Mike SOS]

I order last September 2021 told mid March 2022 delivery. Change to end of May, then end of August/ September. A week later end of June then to 6th July and now the car has arrived at MG dealer but takes 2-3 days to prepare for collection. Finger crossed 13th July. It certainly mess you about when to start the insurance date. Then had the dam cheek to tell me they only give you a 100 mile free charge.

 

[Vipar]

Mike sos. Which dealer ? I am in Bexley.

 

[Ukchris]

I agree JSAND59, MG are all over the place, nothing with them makes sense, their incompetence knows no level. They have a seemingly good product which they have managed to sell over and beyond but have extremely poor execution from production all the way to delivery. Dealerships are as useful as the head office, they’ve all been made into clowns, noone knows what’s going on, one week they say September next they call to say car is here. Utter chaos!!
For me for sure first and last MG, never dealing with a Chinese company again..i tried to overcome the prejudice when first ordering the car because it was so good on paper but frankly regretting it now! Funny thing is that MG doesnt seem to care about the massive brand damage they are sustaining with all this non-communication and utter mis-management. I’ve seen longer delays with German brands but the most vital thing is constant communication, with minor updates to why there is a delay and at least some form of customer care, which is absent with MG, hence why we all here theorising and ship watching as to what is happening next!

Anyways the car will come when it comes, in my post I was only trying to make sense of the non-sense with an observation Ive made on order date-delivery discrepancies, not accounting for the rest of the shambles.

I must agree with you and jsand59. It seems that mg head office are about as useful as a chocolate fire guard, and SAIC are close behind, being as useful as a chocolate tea pot.

 

[Vipar]

What about a handbrake on a rowing boat ????

 

[JSAND59]

New starters at MG to sort out the delivery problems (after they have finished the wall)

 

[DK1083]

Ordered 15/11/21 and heard nothing ?

Same here or thereabouts…?

 

[Rockjaw]

You could be correct on everything but I think that maybe you are still presuming that there is a set process to deliver a car and keep customers updated. If anything, I have learned over the last few weeks it is the not the case - for example.
What we were told is that there was a lot of stock orders and towards the end of March all the dealers were told by MG UK that they had two weeks to put names on stock orders or cancel them. Any name changes after this would result in £1500 fine. This was all explained very clearly on the podcast. My small dealer had the same information and followed this advice and had to cancel the stock orders. The big dealers however did not cancel are still getting stock orders but not paying the fine? Cars2 are still advertising cars both LR and SR in stock. MG UK know about this and advised to me in their email which I posted last week that the cars must be stock orders placed before my order. I could not be bothered to write back and remind them that stock orders were supposed to be cancelled by the end of March.

Some people are informed build status, At sea etc. while others get a call to say a car transporter has just turned up with your car.

Some people have TBA - which we now understand means ‘have not got a clue’ in Chinese. My order is TBA and MG UK tell me from my order number that the car is waiting parts to go onto the production line. One member got exactly the same response and a phone call one week later from his dealer that his car had just arrived at the dealer. How on earth did the car manage to go through production , shipping, import, car transporter in one week? Some people have delivery dates in September , October and beyond. These dates have to be someone making a guess because we have been told that SAIC do not know what parts they will have for the production line so there is no way MG UK or the dealer have a clue which models / colours they will produce.

One person was told by dealer that SAIC have a production line where they make different models each day. I think they were told that they only set up the production line on Fridays to make the ZS model. Not sure if this was told on April 1st?

Some people get chassis number and car registered before the car leaves Shanghai. In some cases have to make payment weeks before the car is in the country. Others wait till the car arrives in Portbury and the rest are done when the car arrives at the dealership.

I think it is safe to say that most cars arrive into the country direct onto Portbury docks where MG UK have an office and team dedicated to receive and dispatch the cars to the dealers. There is a possibility that cars can also arrive in Tilbury but have not managed to find any MG presence at the dock - seems to be a big Hyundai distribution centre from what I could find.
One person has been told that cars are imported into Europe (Holland) and then exported to UK. MG even set up the car to be in Dutch language for when it arrived in the UK - who would climb into a RHD car and think that it needs setting up in Dutch to be driven around the tulip fields with the steering wheel on the wrong side? Just total incompetence.

I read with concern that there have recently been cases on this forum where the Universal joint on the steering came apart leaving the cars without any steering with no warning - this is a major quality concern and no recall to check this serious defect is not on other cars.

All the above information just points to a company that has no real process for Manufacture / quality / delivery / customer care.

Suggest we are buying a cheap car - In order to manufacture and still achieve margin will mean that they need a very lean process with minimal overheads - hence my conclusion that it will arrive when it arrives.

well I understand where your coming from but a mate of mine has just traded in his mg 5 for a new one having done 50.000 miles without any issues. I think that speaks for itself. The horror stories are few and far between. And when you compare reliability to other manufacturers Saic are head and shoulders above a lot of others.

 

[DB Go Rex]

well I understand where your coming from but a mate of mine has just traded in his mg 5 for a new one having done 50.000 miles without any issues. I think that speaks for itself. The horror stories are few and far between. And when you compare reliability to other manufacturers Saic are head and shoulders above a lot of others.

I think the ZS is too new to get an overall picture on reliability. The steering column thing is hopefully a glitch, but older models like the MG6 etc. don't have a good rep for sure.

There is the long warranty as well I suppose, but quality isn't all about whether it's going to start falling apart in 3 years.

 

[JSAND59]

well I understand where your coming from but a mate of mine has just traded in his mg 5 for a new one having done 50.000 miles without any issues. I think that speaks for itself. The horror stories are few and far between. And when you compare reliability to other manufacturers Saic are head and shoulders above a lot of others.

Agree with you. Unfortunately we hear all about the bad news where people have problems and not so much about the people who have a good experience. When I read the thread where the steering came apart with no warning and then saw the response from the dealer I did find it concerning.
I have had issues with cars but never the steering wheel column failing.