Back home now from Holiday.
On Car Ferry Deck, Dunkirk to Dover
First Charge to 100% at home overnight shows projected range of 292 miles.
Showing the average consumption for the trip, which varied from stuck in traffic to Unlimited Autobahn.
The Speed limit indicator shows - - - on the unlimited autobahn.
It went crazy at one stage and decided the limit was 240 so I tried to get there but only got up to 185kmh (115mph) before traffic got in the way. Photos of dashboard taken by wife as I was driving.
Trip distance Bristol MG Dealer via Calne to Dover. Calais to Basel, Friedrichshafen, Stuttgart, Bruges, Dunkirk Ferry terminal.
Dover to Croydon then home to Calne in Wiltshire 1645.7 miles total.
Car fits in my single garage with both doors open. (It's the same car as other pics, my personal numberplates arrived whilst I was away).
Things of note:
Inbuilt Satnav worse than very first TomTom I ever owned, and worse than any other car I have owned with built in satnav.
Used ABRP to plan, but not good for navigation. It took me straight past the motorway services I was supposed to charge at and dumped me in the middle of a woods behind the next village.
I started manually adding the waypoints from ABRP into the car satnav as I like the mini display next to the speedo with distance and time to run to next waypoint, however you can only add maximum 5 waypoints and can't edit whilst driving (Whilst I was driving my wife was trying to add further waypoints as the ones we'd passed dropped off.)
The inbuild database is garbage, It couldn't find Dunkirk Ferry Port and took me to the Marina which is 10km the wrong side of Dunkirk. We abandoned it and followed the signs instead, which wasn't easy as it was early morning and dark and the signs in Dunkirk town pointing to the Car Ferry are white with black writing and unlit.
The speed limit indicator needs serious development work. As well as indicating 240 at one stage (is there anywhere in the world where 240 would be a valid number in any road speed measurement?)
I kept wondering why it was changing speed limit so often when I was in roadworks etc, and basically I worked out that if it sees a sign such as a 50 limit, if it doesn't see another sign for some distance it automatically resets to the default limit for that road. A couple of times I thought I must have missed the end of the restriction, sped up and could easily have got a speeding ticket when I saw the next sign still with the restriction.
For instance on the Southern stretch of the M25 in UK they have got 50 limit signs on the overhead gantries, but the cyberster is set to a shorter difference between signs so half way to the next gantry it resets the in-dash sign to 70, then back to 50 when it reaches the gantry. This is bloody annoying, potentially dangerous and needs to be fixed.
Having been in Software Development since 1980 some of the software glitches should never have passed testing, this is basic software 101 and the type of thing I used to see when I went to a business in the early days and the boss said his nephew had developed their IT systems during the school holidays. God help us if any of the developers employed by MG ever worked on Life Critical medical systems or aircraft or air traffic control systems..
Unfortunately in my vehicle experience, MG are not alone in having crap software in their cars. I am concerned that the powers that be are pushing us into compulsory control of speed etc within vehicles whilst the technology is not fit for purpose.
In spite of my negative comments above, I love the Cyberster, as I am only 5ft 6" I don't have the seat and driving position issues that all of the 6ft plus road testers have commented on. I did two long drives in a day each, from Calais to Basel, and from Stuttgart to Bruges. Only stopping every 1.5 to 2 hours, to recharge, both car and occupants.
After a week of ownership, and a baptism of fire getting to know how things work, This is probably one of my favourite cars I have owned so far. (This is my 81st owned Car) It eats up the miles comfortably with the roof down or up and after 7.5 hours driving in a day I can still get out without aches and pains all over. It is a fitting replacement to my previously owned Bentley Continental GTC 6.0 convertible.
We had quite a few people taking pictures of the car, and chatting to us about it.
I am looking forward to many happy roof down drives to come.
I have joined the MG Owners Club so will see some of you at the club events.
Eddie Evans
