Trophy for nearly a month

[STG]

Hi Everyone,

Getting the MG4 was a completely different driving experience from my 10 year old 4x4 Skoda Yeti, so with just over 3.5 weeks since getting my new juicy red MG4, here are my thoughts, suggestions and WTF's

Love the smoothness of the drive, the silence and the heated seats. It has taken a while to understand all the systems and how they work.

Love the nippy handling and acceleration. I makes me feel good! As a 18 year old (40 years ago) I always had this little fantasy of getting in my old MG Midget and having to play with switches to set the car up just like what a fighter pilot would of done, now 40 years later I am now doing this in the MG4, it's like a pre-flight checklist of setting up regen, drive mode, air-con, heated seats etc especially when going for a longer drive, for short journeys it's just get in and go.

A few little things bug me though, so if anyone has a few pointers that would be great.

1) When ready to drive and off you go I wish the aircon display would change to the main infotainment screen without me having to press the up button on the display.
2) When playing music from USB and you press the music symbol on the infotainment display why does it always go to Bluetooth Audio and not USB, just having to stop concentrating on driving to press the USB tab.
3) Pressing the icons/buttons on the infotainment screen can take several seconds of pressing to register the press especially when driving, wish the screen was a bit more responsive.
4) Would of been nice if the car's cameras automatically stored the footage onto a SSD or SD Card, would save having to install a dashcam.
5) LED lights in rear cabin, even though I have upgraded the front's to LED and it is BRIGHT there are still places in the rear seats in darkness. I spent a few minutes in the rain last night trying to strap the grandson into his car seat and his straps were in darkness and I not find the buckle etc. (ps it woudls also of helped if I had my glasses on )
6) It would of been nice if there was a cubbyhole in the bottom part of the boot for the granny charger to live
7) It would of been nice if MG supplied a Type 2 charging cable and it would be nice if there was a cubbyhole in the bottom part of the boot for the Type 2 charging cable to live
8) The energy consumption graph on the infotainment display is useless, just have a big graph with min and max grid labels and nothing in between so one does not know what is showing as it's just a small bumpy blue line, it does not even tell you the value of the average line is. Perhaps it's better on the XPower with it's track stats.
9) Media software able to use playlists and recognise folders (and remember them)
10) Talking of remembering things it would be nice if it would keep all the drive settings for the next time you start to drive.
11) iSMART to work a bit better as it can take several attempts to connect sometimes. It may be down to the 4G signal strength as I live is a poor signal area. When the salesman showed me his iSMART the connect to the his car was instant.
12) Bluetooth, at first I thought it was the car being silly and kept dropping as my iPhone worked perfectly on my Skoda Yeti for many years, but it appears it was my iPhone as I decided to upgrade the phone and went with a Google Pixel 7a and this has worked flawlessly.
13) I wish you could change the colour of the car in the iSMART app to red or even upload your own photo to use in the iSMART app
14) I wish you could change the colour of the car in the 360deg overhead camera from white to red
15) I wish MG had put front parking sensors on, they cost peanuts.

These are all incredibly small things and I am really nitpicking. These is the saying you can't please everyone but sometimes it would be nice if the software designers put a little bit more effort in especially seeing most devices in the world are Chinese based and they have great playback facilities, even my first mp3 player 20 odd years ago could have playlists etc.

 

[webhiker]

Hi Everyone,

Getting the MG4 was a completely different driving experience from my 10 year old 4x4 Skoda Yeti, so with just over 3.5 weeks since getting my new juicy red MG4, here are my thoughts, suggestions and WTF's

Love the smoothness of the drive, the silence and the heated seats. It has taken a while to understand all the systems and how they work.

Love the nippy handling and acceleration. I makes me feel good! As a 18 year old (40 years ago) I always had this little fantasy of getting in my old MG Midget and having to play with switches to set the car up just like what a fighter pilot would of done, now 40 years later I am now doing this in the MG4, it's like a pre-flight checklist of setting up regen, drive mode, air-con, heated seats etc especially when going for a longer drive, for short journeys it's just get in and go.

A few little things bug me though, so if anyone has a few pointers that would be great.

1) When ready to drive and off you go I wish the aircon display would change to the main infotainment screen without me having to press the up button on the display.
2) When playing music from USB and you press the music symbol on the infotainment display why does it always go to Bluetooth Audio and not USB, just having to stop concentrating on driving to press the USB tab.
3) Pressing the icons/buttons on the infotainment screen can take several seconds of pressing to register the press especially when driving, wish the screen was a bit more responsive.
4) Would of been nice if the car's cameras automatically stored the footage onto a SSD or SD Card, would save having to install a dashcam.
5) LED lights in rear cabin, even though I have upgraded the front's to LED and it is BRIGHT there are still places in the rear seats in darkness. I spent a few minutes in the rain last night trying to strap the grandson into his car seat and his straps were in darkness and I not find the buckle etc. (ps it woudls also of helped if I had my glasses on )
6) It would of been nice if there was a cubbyhole in the bottom part of the boot for the granny charger to live
7) It would of been nice if MG supplied a Type 2 charging cable and it would be nice if there was a cubbyhole in the bottom part of the boot for the Type 2 charging cable to live
8) The energy consumption graph on the infotainment display is useless, just have a big graph with min and max grid labels and nothing in between so one does not know what is showing as it's just a small bumpy blue line, it does not even tell you the value of the average line is. Perhaps it's better on the XPower with it's track stats.
9) Media software able to use playlists and recognise folders (and remember them)
10) Talking of remembering things it would be nice if it would keep all the drive settings for the next time you start to drive.
11) iSMART to work a bit better as it can take several attempts to connect sometimes. It may be down to the 4G signal strength as I live is a poor signal area. When the salesman showed me his iSMART the connect to the his car was instant.
12) Bluetooth, at first I thought it was the car being silly and kept dropping as my iPhone worked perfectly on my Skoda Yeti for many years, but it appears it was my iPhone as I decided to upgrade the phone and went with a Google Pixel 7a and this has worked flawlessly.
13) I wish you could change the colour of the car in the iSMART app to red or even upload your own photo to use in the iSMART app
14) I wish you could change the colour of the car in the 360deg overhead camera from white to red
15) I wish MG had put front parking sensors on, they cost peanuts.

These are all incredibly small things and I am really nitpicking. These is the saying you can't please everyone but sometimes it would be nice if the software designers put a little bit more effort in especially seeing most devices in the world are Chinese based and they have great playback facilities, even my first mp3 player 20 odd years ago could have playlists etc.

This seems a bit strange. I have a Trophy ER, also about 1 month old.
1) Mine does that, just not instantly
3) To me it seems more about being precise. Any horizontal or vertical movement of the finger is seen as a move, not a click
4) In quite a few markets that would be illegal
5) Agreed, I have installed an extra light with some tape
6) There is. Raise the floor about 2 inches, which also makes it flush'ish with when seats are laid down
7) Mine was delivered with Type2, again raise the floor
11) Yes, usually 2 "pull downs" to refresh. A vast improvement on my recent Peugeot, which only worked a couple of times a week
12) Android rocks
13) Agree, but really minor
14) Agree, but really minor
15) Mine has

 

[Bricktop X PWR]

15) Mine has

Front parking sensors you say?

 

[jamherber]

4) In quite a few markets that would be illegal

How do Tesla get around this? - their system is always recording

 

[webhiker]

How do Tesla get around this? - their system is always recording

They are being reviewed

Front parking sensors you say?

Yes, as to memory. You are challenging an old man ?? I will check soonest possible. But there is a front camera, you have just made me unsure of the "beeping sensors" ?

 

[Bricktop X PWR]

Yes, as to memory. You are challenging an old man ?? I will check soonest possible. But there is a front camera, you have just made me unsure of the "beeping sensors" ?

Trust me your not the first!?
I would have swore I had Front sensors for about the first three months of ownership!!

With the front camera there is no real need, but I would have liked them all the same.

 

[Rolfe]

I don't have a front camera, and front parking sensors are right up there in the improvements I'd like to see in the SE. That plus electrically folding mirrors and being able to switch on the fog lights without touching the infotainment screen. (And being able to disable the automatic central locking, which I think is a bug rather than a feature.)

 

[webhiker]

Trust me your not the first!?
I would have swore I had Front sensors for about the first three months of ownership!!

With the front camera there is no real need, but I would have liked them all the same.

I stand corrected!
Even I do not have flipping beeping front parking sensors, "only" a mere camera, with no distance indications.
Clearly I haven't missed it as I hadn't noticed ?
Talking about missings, I would have liked:
10)
And dipping wing mirrors when reversing.

But I have to admit that I bought the cheapest EV (specs compared) on the market, so blame is on me.

 

[Rolfe]

I had dipping wing mirrors when reversing in my last car and its alloys still seemed to have a magnetic attraction for kerbs. I don't really miss them.

 

[STG]

Yes, as to memory. You are challenging an old man ?? I will check soonest possible. But there is a front camera, you have just made me unsure of the "beeping sensors" ?

I suppose I could watch the front camera and say to myself "Beep, Beep Beeeeeeeeep!"

being able to switch on the fog lights without touching the infotainment screen.

So that's where they are, i see it's in the top left of the Infotainment Display. Why there I wonder? was it a late Friday coding decision when someone "Hurry up Fred, just bung the switch somewhere as it's time for the pub"

 

[Rolfe]

So that's where they are, i see it's in the top left of the Infotainment Display. Why there I wonder? was it a late Friday coding decision when someone "Hurry up Fred, just bung the switch somewhere as it's time for the pub"

I think, actually, the spot you tap is convenient in left-hand-drive cars, and they didn't bother to change it for right-hand-drive cars. It's very hard to reach if you have a stiff left shoulder, as I have at the moment, and maybe even if you haven't. It's nuts.

Last night I hit a patch of fog climbing up towards Carluke from Garrion Bridge. I was using Android Auto at the time, so I didn't even have easy access to the infotainment screen. I do have the left star button programmed to the shortcuts menu, for want of anything else to do with it in an SE still on R13. So I pressed the left star button. Nothing. The menu didn't come up in front of Android Auto the way the HVAC menu does when you press the right star button.

So I pressed the home screen button and got that. Bear in mind I'm driving in the dark on a road that is getting increasingly foggy with visibility reducing by the second. I really really did not fancy my chances of reaching over to the far left corner of the screen. So I pressed the left star button again and this time I did get the shortcuts menu. The font is quite small and it wasn't immediately obvious which one was the fog lights, but I did manage to make it out in the end. It wasn't easy to hit the right part of the touch screen either, I think it took me about three goes, wearing gloves with fingers that will activate a touch screen.

It was nasty. I really don't think it should be necessary to pull in and stop to turn on your fog lights, but it might have been the safest way to do it.

 

[Alb]

I had dipping wing mirrors when reversing in my last car...

I've not had a car with wing mirrors for the best part of 50 years!

 

[siteguru]

And people call me a pedant!

 

[STG]

Additional info for #11

I went to try and turn the car on and warm the seat today, I got the iSMART app up and it now tells me that my logon token has expired and I have to re-enter all the details to logon, only problem was that I did not have my glasses on and I was rushing in the house so I gave up warming the seats, swore etc and after I returned home then I did the login again.

Why is it (if it's only with me!) that nearly every time you actually need to do something with technology IT HAS TO SCREW UP, like you are bragging how good something is and you go to show someone the greatness only for it to fail miserably making you look like a dick, yet when your bored and just poking around for the sake of things everything works great!

No, don't get me started on Traffic Lights, why is it (and I have dashcam footage) that everytime I approach traffic lights they have to change to red. One set by us it seems to sense a car coming at night (no other traffic) and it goes to red, then you sit there for 2 mins whislt it's green on the other lanes and no smegging traffic, it got to the point now that the local boy racers just plough through the red lights regardless, even over taking us who are patiently waiting for the lights to go green.

 

[Vingnut]

1. Just turn on the turn signal long enoug to get the camera on or put the car in reverse befor putting it in drive then drive to get ridd of the ac menue. But then you are stuck with cameras on until you got enough speed to make them cancel it selves.

 

[Grriff]

B

Why is it (if it's only with me!) that nearly every time you actually need to do something with technology IT HAS TO SCREW UP,

It's called artificial intelligence.

 

[Jonperry64]

Hi Everyone,

Getting the MG4 was a completely different driving experience from my 10 year old 4x4 Skoda Yeti, so with just over 3.5 weeks since getting my new juicy red MG4, here are my thoughts, suggestions and WTF's

Love the smoothness of the drive, the silence and the heated seats. It has taken a while to understand all the systems and how they work.

Love the nippy handling and acceleration. I makes me feel good! As a 18 year old (40 years ago) I always had this little fantasy of getting in my old MG Midget and having to play with switches to set the car up just like what a fighter pilot would of done, now 40 years later I am now doing this in the MG4, it's like a pre-flight checklist of setting up regen, drive mode, air-con, heated seats etc especially when going for a longer drive, for short journeys it's just get in and go.

A few little things bug me though, so if anyone has a few pointers that would be great.

1) When ready to drive and off you go I wish the aircon display would change to the main infotainment screen without me having to press the up button on the display.
2) When playing music from USB and you press the music symbol on the infotainment display why does it always go to Bluetooth Audio and not USB, just having to stop concentrating on driving to press the USB tab.
3) Pressing the icons/buttons on the infotainment screen can take several seconds of pressing to register the press especially when driving, wish the screen was a bit more responsive.
4) Would of been nice if the car's cameras automatically stored the footage onto a SSD or SD Card, would save having to install a dashcam.
5) LED lights in rear cabin, even though I have upgraded the front's to LED and it is BRIGHT there are still places in the rear seats in darkness. I spent a few minutes in the rain last night trying to strap the grandson into his car seat and his straps were in darkness and I not find the buckle etc. (ps it woudls also of helped if I had my glasses on )
6) It would of been nice if there was a cubbyhole in the bottom part of the boot for the granny charger to live
7) It would of been nice if MG supplied a Type 2 charging cable and it would be nice if there was a cubbyhole in the bottom part of the boot for the Type 2 charging cable to live
8) The energy consumption graph on the infotainment display is useless, just have a big graph with min and max grid labels and nothing in between so one does not know what is showing as it's just a small bumpy blue line, it does not even tell you the value of the average line is. Perhaps it's better on the XPower with it's track stats.
9) Media software able to use playlists and recognise folders (and remember them)
10) Talking of remembering things it would be nice if it would keep all the drive settings for the next time you start to drive.
11) iSMART to work a bit better as it can take several attempts to connect sometimes. It may be down to the 4G signal strength as I live is a poor signal area. When the salesman showed me his iSMART the connect to the his car was instant.
12) Bluetooth, at first I thought it was the car being silly and kept dropping as my iPhone worked perfectly on my Skoda Yeti for many years, but it appears it was my iPhone as I decided to upgrade the phone and went with a Google Pixel 7a and this has worked flawlessly.
13) I wish you could change the colour of the car in the iSMART app to red or even upload your own photo to use in the iSMART app
14) I wish you could change the colour of the car in the 360deg overhead camera from white to red
15) I wish MG had put front parking sensors on, they cost peanuts.

These are all incredibly small things and I am really nitpicking. These is the saying you can't please everyone but sometimes it would be nice if the software designers put a little bit more effort in especially seeing most devices in the world are Chinese based and they have great playback facilities, even my first mp3 player 20 odd years ago could have playlists etc.

Hi STG. I'd be interested to hear your views on the MG4 vs the yeti now you're a few months down the line and have had a chance to get used to the MG4 idiosyncracies. We are currently trying to decide between a Yeti and an MG4.

 

[Anon70]

We are currently trying to decide between a Yeti and an MG4.

Not quite a Yeti but I did have a Roomster a few cars back and would say you are looking a 2 completely different propositions. We got the Roomster as at the time it was one of the few cars that could fit 3 child seats in row 2 (even the Yeti could not do this as there is a slight variation in how the seats move).

The Yeti is going to be far more versatile in terms of space arrangements and if you go for the auto (which I had in my Roomster) then there maybe times when it guesses which gear to be in incorrectly.

You also have all the differences in ownership experience between an ICE and EV vehicle and that is a learning curve for any first time EV owner.

I would say it depends what you need the car to do and what sort of driving experience you prefer.

If you want a car that just gets on with it in a smooth, quite and fairly rapid way the MG4 is the way to go. If you want an adaptable load lugger that you intend to take on trips over 200-300 miles on a regular basis and maybe to locations where the charging infrastructure is not the best then the Yeti is the way to go.

 

[Jonperry64]

Thanks. Yes, I realise they are apples and oranges so I guess it was a bit of a silly question. We've always had load luggers in the past - usually diesel estates. The natural thing for us to do is go for the same again and the yeti seems to be well reviewed and is known for its reliability. It is still sought after, despite production ending on 2017,and the used prices reflect that. However, with our kids having flown the nest we don't really need such a vehicle. I'm a bit of a techie and I'm quite keen to experience an EV however my wife is more of a luddite and just wants a vehicle that is reliable and you can just get in and drive! We would be buying outright rather than leasing so I'm slightly concerned about the depreciation of EVs. Will it be basically worthless in 10 years?! Decisions, decisions!

 

[Ian Key]

Why not see if a local dealer will let you have an EV for an extended test drive or see if you can hire one near to where you are.
Depreciation that is a totally unknown quantity but if you can charge at home the amount you save in fuel will more than cover that cost and it would only take another fuel crisis, as happened a few years ago, to make EVs very desirable.