Quirks of the MG5

[Alibro]

My car is in this week have the rust under the bonnet done under warranty. It took a while for this to be agreed.

Great call.
I considered that but couldn't be bothered so rubbed it down and painted with white Hammerite. The bonnet is lifted rarely so it doesn't really matter how neat it is but the Hammerite was the same shade so you wouldn't notice unless you were looking for it.
I'll just put it down to annual maintenance and keep an eye on it as I'm not convinced Hammerite is much good.

 

[Jymbob]

We've owned a top trim 2016 Leaf, and driven basically all variants of the Pre-FL MG5.

When people ask me "what's it like?" my general answer is: it's an affordable family EV, and it was clearly built to a price point.

The "engine" view on the dash is very reminiscent of my brother's old Prius - just a general "look! you're saving money!" screen

Mrs Jymbob could not get on at all with the assistive technology so we're now driving an Exclusive SR with no bells and whistles. My bugbears are mainly about things the Leaf had which our MG doesn't: heated steering wheel, 360 camera, remote app, decent speakers, more than one setting for the heated seats. However, our musts were: needs to do 150 miles, needs to fit three increasingly large children and luggage, needs to be able to carry a 16 foot canoe, and it does all of those admirably, and cost at least 5K less than the nearest competitor, which is a lot to pay for a few niceties, if we're being honest about it.

 

[Gomev]

As Mark Twain said....'you pays your money and you takes your choice!'

Very little in life can satisfy all of our needs at the price we want to pay, compromises that you can live with are the key to being happy with your choice.
Enjoy your motoring.

 

[Alibro]

We've owned a top trim 2016 Leaf, and driven basically all variants of the Pre-FL MG5.

When people ask me "what's it like?" my general answer is: it's an affordable family EV, and it was clearly built to a price point.

The "engine" view on the dash is very reminiscent of my brother's old Prius - just a general "look! you're saving money!" screen

Mrs Jymbob could not get on at all with the assistive technology so we're now driving an Exclusive SR with no bells and whistles. My bugbears are mainly about things the Leaf had which our MG doesn't: heated steering wheel, 360 camera, remote app, decent speakers, more than one setting for the heated seats. However, our musts were: needs to do 150 miles, needs to fit three increasingly large children and luggage, needs to be able to carry a 16 foot canoe, and it does all of those admirably, and cost at least 5K less than the nearest competitor, which is a lot to pay for a few niceties, if we're being honest about it.

As Mark Twain said....'you pays your money and you takes your choice!'

Very little in life can satisfy all of our needs at the price we want to pay, compromises that you can live with are the key to being happy with your choice.
Enjoy your motoring.

While I might moan about the quirks, as I've said earlier my old Merc C Class Estate had a few that were just as annoying.
I was using the C Class for work and for several reasons I wanted an EV, but it had to be capable of 200 miles range, as I would not have time to charge during the day. It is rare for me to drive more than 200 miles any day and charging to get me home is fine so I figured 200 miles range should be OK.
It had to be reasonably young, low mileage, an estate or at least a large hatchback and had to be under £15k. I spent several months looking and the MG was really the only option that fitted all my requirements.
When I went for my first test drive my expectations were low but like I said this was to be a work tool rather than a pride and joy car so I figured I could accept if it was poor quality and a bit rough.
I think as owners we all understand the pleasant surprise I got.

 

[muttywhitedog]

Morning everyone - I have recently bought a 22 plate MG5. I have a couple of questions:

1. Is it normal for the Infotainment panel to not work when starting up, in that the radio doesnt play and I cannot connect my phone via android auto despite it being plugged in using a new USB cable, then it will suddenly come on mid-journey?

2. My battery is supposedly 61 kWh, and yesterday it was showing 45%, so I set it to charge overnight to full charge. The display is showing 100%, but my smart meter is showing I only used 28kWh of energy to charge the vehicle. Is the battery life dashboard display set as a percentage of a lower figure?

3. What is the optimum driving speed on motorways or dual carriageways to extend range, and is it better to drive ECO and "1" when doing so? My vehicle defaults to Normal and "2" which implies that should be best. What do I sacrifice with ECO?

Ive tried downloading the handbook, but I cant find the answers in there.

Thanks!

 

[salty]

Morning everyone - I have recently bought a 22 plate MG5. I have a couple of questions:

1. Is it normal for the Infotainment panel to not work when starting up, in that the radio doesnt play and I cannot connect my phone via android auto despite it being plugged in using a new USB cable, then it will suddenly come on mid-journey?

2. My battery is supposedly 61Kw, and yesterday it was showing 45%, so I set it to charge overnight to full charge. The display is showing 100%, but my smart meter is showing I only used 28Kw of energy to charge the vehicle. Is the battery life dashboard display set as a percentage of a lower figure?

3. What is the optimum driving speed on motorways or dual carriageways to extend range, and is it better to drive ECO and "1" when doing so? My vehicle defaults to Normal and "2" which implies that should be best. What do I sacrifice with ECO?

Ive tried downloading the handbook, but I cant find the answers in there.

Thanks!

 

[emmrecs]

@muttywhitedog

Welcome!

To answer your questions (based on my experience):

1. No. The Infotainment system should start up with the car booting up. I think you need to have a "firm" chat with the seller/dealer
2. The "useable" battery capacity is just over 57kWh; the remainder is a "buffer" which is never useable.
3. Motorways and Dual Carriageways: 65mph, Personally I now always use ECO and 2. I used to use ECO and 3 but found the KERS braking with 3 was rather too strong for my liking. I've never used Normal or 1 so can't comment on that part of your question.

HTH

 

[Jymbob]

Morning everyone - I have recently bought a 22 plate MG5. I have a couple of questions:

Do you know if it's the MK1 or the MK2?

1. Is it normal for the Infotainment panel to not work when starting up, in that the radio doesnt play and I cannot connect my phone via android auto despite it being plugged in using a new USB cable, then it will suddenly come on mid-journey?

One of the three MG5s we've had (leasing before buying got complicated) exhibited this behaviour quite a bit. It seems to be less likely if you wait for the car to "initialise" before taking it out of park.

There may also be software updates a dealer could install, but no idea how you find out.

(Skipping 2 as I'm not sure what's going on there)

3. What is the optimum driving speed on motorways or dual carriageways to extend range, and is it better to drive ECO and "1" when doing so? My vehicle defaults to Normal and "2" which implies that should be best. What do I sacrifice with ECO?

Probably 55-60 is a good balance between fast enough and efficiency. Keep the needle in the green and try to avoid stop-start driving. Same as a petrol car, really!

Eco Vs Normal changes the acceleration curve and also lightens the steering. I generally drive in Eco all the time and only bother with Normal if I feel the need for quicker acceleration off the line, or when overtaking.

KERS 1-3 is the amount of regenerative braking the car provides when you take your foot off the pedal or deactivate cruise control. Opinions differ on which is most efficient as it somewhat depends on driving style. And terrain. On motorways I tend to use 3 because then with standard cruise control I can drive for miles just cancelling and reactivating it briefly when I catch up with the car in front.

If you're after efficiency tips maybe check out the miles/kWh thread. That's where the serious players are

 

[Pebblefeline]

Morning everyone - I have recently bought a 22 plate MG5. I have a couple of questions:

1. Is it normal for the Infotainment panel to not work when starting up, in that the radio doesnt play and I cannot connect my phone via android auto despite it being plugged in using a new USB cable, then it will suddenly come on mid-journey?

2. My battery is supposedly 61Kw, and yesterday it was showing 45%, so I set it to charge overnight to full charge. The display is showing 100%, but my smart meter is showing I only used 28Kw of energy to charge the vehicle. Is the battery life dashboard display set as a percentage of a lower figure?

3. What is the optimum driving speed on motorways or dual carriageways to extend range, and is it better to drive ECO and "1" when doing so? My vehicle defaults to Normal and "2" which implies that should be best. What do I sacrifice with ECO?

Ive tried downloading the handbook, but I cant find the answers in there.

Thanks!

Hi

1. Yes sometimes, sometimes it’s slow sometimes normal

2. Mine is the same. The gom is a guess and as far as I can see once you get under 50% indicated it becomes pretty cautious. I tend to find I have 5+ kilowatt hours more in my battery than the gom indicates once I get down to 10 to 20%.
This is all a little apocryphal because I’m basing this off how much energy I put in to recharge to 100% rather than any actual knowledge on my part

3. Choose choose the settings the best suit your driving style. Drive with a Lightfoot. Personally, I like normal and kers three.
But that’s just me

The warm weather has helped efficiently madly, my return from Liverpool yesterday was fabulously efficient staying at 65 in the motorway.
Basically best efficiency drive at 50 miles an hour, happy medium between actually arriving and efficiency is probably 65 ish

 

[Alibro]

Morning everyone - I have recently bought a 22 plate MG5. I have a couple of questions:

1. Is it normal for the Infotainment panel to not work when starting up, in that the radio doesnt play and I cannot connect my phone via android auto despite it being plugged in using a new USB cable, then it will suddenly come on mid-journey?

2. My battery is supposedly 61Kw, and yesterday it was showing 45%, so I set it to charge overnight to full charge. The display is showing 100%, but my smart meter is showing I only used 28Kw of energy to charge the vehicle. Is the battery life dashboard display set as a percentage of a lower figure?

3. What is the optimum driving speed on motorways or dual carriageways to extend range, and is it better to drive ECO and "1" when doing so? My vehicle defaults to Normal and "2" which implies that should be best. What do I sacrifice with ECO?

Ive tried downloading the handbook, but I cant find the answers in there.

Thanks!

1. Happens to me sometimes, I guess I should have listed as one of the Quirks. Try it for a week or two and if it doesn't improve take it to your dealer.
2. What emmrecs said seems to make sense since if you do the maths of miles per kWh and miles remaining it never ads up to 62kWh
3. The optimum speed on a motorway is that which you are happy to sit at but will give you the range you need.
I'm happy at 65mph but I'm an auld f@rt. you may not be so happy at that speed.
65mph should give over 3 miles pkWh, 60 a bit more, 55 more again and so on.
Some would be tearing their hair out at those speeds so it's really up to you.

 

[smokie]

65 can be a good speed on motorways round here. I'm quite good with lane discipline and tend to move back to the slower lane once I've passed something in it. Then again I often find myself undertaking middle lane people rather than swinging right out to lane 3 even though I'm on a constant 65. And while it may feel slow, you often easily catch up with the speeders at the next roundabout or lights or traffic jam.

I generally leave it in Normal (I keep Sport strictly for fun!!) and if I remember put the braking on 3.

I suppose it's fair to say if I'm likely to need public chargers on my journey I am more miserly - and, conversely, if I know I can get home I really don't worry that much (within reason) if my consumption isn't optimal.

 

[Pebblefeline]

The mg5 speedo is spot on accurate, no 10 percent allowance.

So 65 in the mg5 is pretty much the same as indicated 70 in a lot of other cars

 

[Alibro]

The mg5 speedo is spot on accurate, no 10 percent allowance.

So 65 in the mg5 is pretty much the same as indicated 70 in a lot of other cars

I've found the digital speedo is spot on but the analogue one (which is stupidly difficult to read) is a little more optimistic, not by much but maybe by a few percent.

 

[Pebblefeline]

Yeah sorry thinking of the digital

 

[MickeySw]

2. My battery is supposedly 61Kw, and yesterday it was showing 45%, so I set it to charge overnight to full charge. The display is showing 100%, but my smart meter is showing I only used 28Kw of energy to charge the vehicle. Is the battery life dashboard display set as a percentage of a lower figure?

If all the data you provided is correct, then it looks like you've been sold a pup and your car has a 53kWh SR battery.

55% of (useable) 48 kWh is about 26kWh. The charging process isn't 100% efficient, e.g. you need to supply more energy as seen by your smart meter.

The same math for a 61kWh battery: 55% of (usable) 57kWh would be 31kWh without any losses.

 

[Pebblefeline]

If you aren’t sure look at the label on the battery look across from behind the passenger side front wheel.

It will give you a serial number which shows the capacity

It is more likely that the gom is underreporting

 

[Gomev]

Morning everyone - I have recently bought a 22 plate MG5. I have a couple of questions:

1. Is it normal for the Infotainment panel to not work when starting up, in that the radio doesnt play and I cannot connect my phone via android auto despite it being plugged in using a new USB cable, then it will suddenly come on mid-journey?

2. My battery is supposedly 61 kWh, and yesterday it was showing 45%, so I set it to charge overnight to full charge. The display is showing 100%, but my smart meter is showing I only used 28kWh of energy to charge the vehicle. Is the battery life dashboard display set as a percentage of a lower figure?

3. What is the optimum driving speed on motorways or dual carriageways to extend range, and is it better to drive ECO and "1" when doing so? My vehicle defaults to Normal and "2" which implies that should be best. What do I sacrifice with ECO?

Ive tried downloading the handbook, but I cant find the answers in there.

Thanks!

1, No
2, Difficult to say, probably repeat a couple of times starting from lower state of charge.
3, Drive at c. 65-68 mph, as has been said this is the same as 70 on most cars that overread. KERS 1 is definitely the best option on faster roads such as dual carriageway and motorways. It takes more energy to speed back up than you gain by any regeneration slowing down. Eco mode made the steering too light for me at motorway speeds so Normal for me, but down to personal preference.
My Kona uses 'smart regen' when on ACC, i.e. it manages the regen level itself and completely turns off regen when cruising only applying it when actually slowing down.

 

[Alibro]

If you aren’t sure look at the label on the battery look across from behind the passenger side front wheel.

It will give you a serial number which shows the capacity

It is more likely that the gom is underreporting

If you fully charge the car and reset the trip counter then the GOM will let you see what the car is. I can't remember the exact number but something like 230 miles or more means 62kWh. I don't know what a 53kWh car will show.

 

[muttywhitedog]

Thanks for the tips folks. Ive just done a recharge, put 23kWh in after 83 miles of in town, dual carriageway and A road driving using ECO and 2 and it works out at 3.61 miles per kWh, although the on board computer shows 4. I'm happy with either TBH.

 

[Coulomb]

it works out at 3.61 miles per kWh, although the on board computer shows 4.

The 23 kWh you put in was presumably measured at the wall. Not all of that energy went into the battery. The 4 miles per kWh is presumably per kWh that came out of the battery.