Considering buying a ZS EV - Any advice?

[AndyH]

Hello all - Just joined, hope this doesnt break any forum rules.

My daughter is considering buying an ex-demo MG ZS EV Excite. She has a daily commute of 80 miles (round trip), all motorway / dual carriageway. There's no option to charge at work. I dont think this should be an issue, but would welcome some owner's perspective.

We already have a zappi (v1) charger installed and would need to make sure that the BMS update was present on the car so that we can charge overnight.

We've watched hours of YouTube videos, and I've spent some time reading forums. Is there anything we should watch out for?

The ex-demo Exite is toward the top of her budget, but is it worth considering something new? She has a 11 year old car that is hopefully "Swappage"able, but it seems to be hard to get a price out of the dealers for that - the advertised price for a new Exclusive on Swappage is "up-to" 23,715, but we've been quoted 23,860 for the Excite on Swappage - which is more than the Exclusive.

Any thoughts would be most welcome.
Thanks,
Andy

 

[KasEV]

Get a new exclusive if you can. Otherwise phone around other MG Dealerships all over the UK to see if you can get a better deal on an ex-demo or customer no-show exclusive. If all fails, ask the dealer to push the price down. Due to Covid demand is not high and there is a lot of customer no-shows as people are having to keep older cars till financial situation improves.

 

[AndyH]

Get a new exclusive if you can. Otherwise phone around other MG Dealerships all over the UK to see if you can get a better deal on an ex-demo or customer no-show exclusive. If all fails, ask the dealer to push the price down. Due to Covid demand is not high and there is a lot of customer no-shows as people are having to keep older cars till financial situation improves.

Thanks KasEV - much appreciated.

 

[Kithmo]

I think there's also the fact that the new reg comes out in less than 2 months and some tend to hang on till then. There should quite a few 20 reg cars available, as the dealers pre-stocked some and have a set of allocated registration numbers for them.

 

[Dazza]

If the exclusive is cheaper have it more toys to play with and I have had no problems with mine. Coming up to 4000 miles now and no updates done yet. Seriously love this car, mind I only commute 40 miles a day round trip and the odd trip into the wilds when the daughter and I both have time off to grab a lunch.

 

[SteeveeLeevee]

Good swappage deals on right now, get the exclusive and enjoy silent pollution free motoring. My EDF tariff gives me 90 hours per week of 8p per KWh. The last time I checked my charging it worked out at 1.8p per mile, that is miles cheaper than petrol/diesel.

 

[AndyH]

Thanks everyone for replies. She (we) had a test drive today and were impressed with the car. She's going to have a ring around the dealers to see if anyone can come close to the ex-demo Excite, but with the scrappage taken into account a new Exclusive would be £4000 more, and ex-demo Exclusives are only slightly less than new. She is struggling to justify the jump in cost against the extra toys.

 

[Mark Holmes]

Thanks everyone for replies. She (we) had a test drive today and were impressed with the car. She's going to have a ring around the dealers to see if anyone can come close to the ex-demo Excite, but with the scrappage taken into account a new Exclusive would be £4000 more, and ex-demo Exclusives are only slightly less than new. She is struggling to justify the jump in cost against the extra toys.

Trust me it’s worth it, go for the exclusive model and you won’t be disappointed.

 

[AndyH]

Trust me it’s worth it, go for the exclusive model and you won’t be disappointed.

What do you conside to be the selling points for the Exclusive over the Excite. The only thing that jumped off the page was the reversing camera when we looked at the specs.
Cheers,

 

[Frank]

Hi,

I have the excite and unless you really like the few extras that the exclusive give you over the excite (safety wise the excite is got the main things you need) go ahead and pay the extra but overall you are buying into the electric drive train and there is NO difference in that between the Excite and Exclusive. Our weather, sunroof!!!, reversing camera, look where you are going, the excite has reversing sensors, all you need in my opinion, same with the blind spot facility, mirror, signal, manoeuvre generally makes this superfluous. Folding Mirrors, not needed. I am only stating these facts as you mention that even the excite is at the top of you daughter's budget and at the end of the day it is the electric drivetrain that is the main attraction. The exclusive does give you more but at an extra £4000, is it worth it, I am not too sure.

 

[AndyH]

Hi,

I have the excite and unless you really like the few extras that the exclusive give you over the excite (safety wise the excite is got the main things you need) go ahead and pay the extra but overall you are buying into the electric drive train and there is NO difference in that between the Excite and Exclusive. Our weather, sunroof!!!, reversing camera, look where you are going, the excite has reversing sensors, all you need in my opinion, same with the blind spot facility, mirror, signal, manoeuvre generally makes this superfluous. Folding Mirrors, not needed. I am only stating these facts as you mention that even the excite is at the top of you daughter's budget and at the end of the day it is the electric drivetrain that is the main attraction. The exclusive does give you more but at an extra £4000, is it worth it, I am not too sure.

Thanks Frank - that's pretty much her thinking too. She's sold on something electric; considered

• used Zoe (rejected due to mostly battery leases, mostly type2 AC rapid charging)
• new Zoe (rejeted due to price a little too high, have to go up trim levels to get CCS charge port)
• used Leaf 40kWh (rejected due to lack of thermal battery managment, smaller range, but still quite liked it)
• new e-208 / e-corse (too expensive)

She likes the shape of the ZSEV, its a bit bigger than the others - feels a bit more substanial which is no bad thing when doing motorway miles. Even in the base version it has all of the safety features she could want (other than perhaps blind spot detection and reversing camera, but she's not had any of those in the past, so wouldnt miss them.) I think she'll be more than happy with the Exite, and £4000 in the bank.
Cheers,

 

[ARvanHAS]

@Frank don't know if you forgot the other extra's, or maybe there's a difference with what's included in the version which is called Exclusieve in the Netherlands:
better seats with heating,
the glass roof,
17" wheels with Michelin tires instead of 16" wheels with Bridgestone tires,
the blind spot warning system in the side mirrors,
A better soundsystem.

I guess it will make the difference when stelling the car in a few years.

 

[GordieG]

I would definitely shop around for an Exclusive - when I ordered mine at the end of last year there was less than £2k difference and the extras were well worth it! Due to Covid I only took delivery last month but absolutely love it. As KasEV and Kithmo both suggested, there should be plenty of dealers around the country with available stock and an interest in cutting a deal.

 

[SteeveeLeevee]

Whichever you go for make sure you have the latest software updates. There is rumoured to be another coming in August that you might be asked to pay for, would be a good idea to get it included in any deal now.

 

[AndyH]

Hello all - thanks very much for the considered responses.

Between us, we rang around some dealers to see if we could beat the ex-demo Excite deal, with a used/ex-demo/scrappaged/new Exclusive, but the total amount to move-up spec was almost £3000. Looking at the differences, daughter decided that she'd rather go for the Excite, which is a huge step-up in features than she already has.

She's due to pick up the car later today! - the dealer tried to install the Comfort update yesterday, but said that they were having problems with the MG servers, and will keep trying today. If they're unable to install today they said that they'll either re-arrange collection or make an appointment to install it another day, but they said they were hopeful that it would get done today.

 

[Mark Holmes]

Congratulations