I tested a standard range model on Friday. As background I am coming from a 9 year old manual gearbox ICE with hardly any driver tech. The learning curve for the MG4 will be significant but fun!
Looks
Modern and sporty. I only saw black which was nice, and white which was showing the dirt already
Ease of driving
Get in, press the brake and turn the gear selector to drive and you are good to go.
There’s no dedicated key cubby so you can keep the rather chunky key in your pocket
Driving in traffic was a doddle as unlike a manual ICE, there’s no clutch, gear or handbrake to operate.
Acceleration was very brisk when needed.
Seemed quiet enough around town
I couldn’t get the car brake to engage automatically when I was in stop/start traffic - maybe I was not pressing the brake pedal hard enough?
Sadly I didn’t get the chance to test most of the options and settings or get onto a fast dual carriageway as I only had the car for about 35 minutes
Exiting the car
Exiting the car was not brilliant because of the very wide door sills. Worth checking out if you have limited mobility or are worried about getting the bottom of your trousers or legs dirty in bad weather. However, am sure you will soon find a technique to avoid the sills.
Instrumentation
There’s a lot going on in the two panels which will take a while to get used to.
The two displays were crisp and bright (though the weather was overcast)
Screen sensitivity could be better. Sometimes I needed to press the screen twice to register my input - it's certainly not iPad standard but it is acceptable.
Apple Car Play set itself up in a couple of seconds and I had Google Maps running on the big screen - looked great.
Cabin
Although the roof liner is dark it does not in my opinion make the car unduly dark or claustrophobic.
The car felt roomy.
Storage was OK but the glove box was on the small side, however as there is no printed handbook there will be room for your fingerless driving gloves!
Boot
Big enough for my needs - eg couple of small suitcases
Build quality
The doors were satisfyingly heavy and gave a nice clunk when closed.
The inside did NOT feel cheap or full of scratchy plastics
There was a bit of a rattle somewhere near the main instrument panel
The seats were comfortable and had no obvious signs of rucking or poor stitching. I’m not sure about how durable they will be. I will investigate seat covers later.
Visibility
I had been concerned by the small rear window but rear visibility was good through the mirrors.
I could not see the front of the bonnet from the driving seat (but this is common these days) however when I sat in the Trophy I raised the height of the seat and got a much better view of the bonnet. As with every car I’ll need to experiment with seating position and steering wheel adjustment (which was excellent)
Service Plan
Likely to be a tad under £100 for the first year (and a bit less if you have done low mileage). Service interval will be one year
Trophy
After the drive I sat in a Trophy model but didn’t drive it.
The electric seat adjustment on the driver’s side was excellent.
I was not convinced by the 360 camera - it was not as good as the one in a Leaf I test drove a year ago.
The Trophy boot has a false bottom which easily fitted the charging cable (in a nice MG branded bag) with quite a bit of shallow space all around to spare.
The voice control needs a smart phone to operate as it is not a stand-alone feature of the car.
Conclusion
I was very pleased with the car and reconfirmed my order for a Trophy.The dealer is expecting stock at the end of October and the end of November and “some’ in December but he has no idea yet about variants and colours.