MG4 First Impressions...err Foibles

[MelanieMoxon]

Your comment about the cars not being tested when they leave the factory is spot on, slack build and QC abounds.
I mean, for goodness sake, my car (and others) have had vibration and rumbling that seems to be fixed by wheel balancing!
They’re miles out and, to be fair, dealers shouldn’t really have to check for the likes of that in a PDI.

Yep, I have never had this issue from any other brand, the only car I have ever bought with known issues was a Mk.1 Mondeo on its last legs for £200 that got me through that first few months of post test driving, which I then traded in for a Focus 1.6 on tick and got £1000 for (remember those minimum £1000 part exchange deals?).

I have had cars with issues, dodgy waste gate and synchro's on a Focus ST, dodgy engine on a Mini I bought which showed up after a year, numerous issues on a Mustang GT, though most of those were wear and tear as the car had over 105k on it when I sold it, after 9 years of happy motoring and several years of competitive motorsport. Never anything like this.

 

[Oberoy]

That's nuts, so the bump with the "IR window" on it on the top of the steering column could literally have no camera in it! That is just shoddy, and if that turns out to be the case the car will be rejected and I will name and shame the dealer because its something that should have been picked up. Its a real shame as the car had such potential. I knew that in 10 years or so this car would no way stand the test of time like a Lexus but I went into the purchase knowing that.

FWIW I really wanted the Mini-e (after having a 1.6 Cooper and enjoying it in the past) but the pathetic battery size due to the non BEV specific chassis put me off, during winter I'd be really tetchy about doing the longer drives that I do. The issue is now that if I reject the car (or rather the finance company does on my behalf) I will be left without a car as I doubt I'll be getting my immaculate FMDSH CT200h back any time soon.

Its a real shame as this saga, however minor it might seem has guaranteed them a loss of repeat custom (not just the dealer, the brand as a whole).

For clarity, the ones without the camera have no bump the steering column looks the same as the SE. If yours has the bump the camera will be present.

 

[siteguru]

People have taken photos of the driver display in early Trophys and you can clearly see the IR elements in the housing. (Phone cameras pick these up - try taking a photo of your TV remote for example).

 

[bowfer]

With regard to rejection, which isn’t entirely ruled out yet in my car, the ironic thing is the next owner would have a pretty sorted car.
Oil leak done
Vibration/rumbling done

Taking on a new one would just potentially be starting the loop of oil leaks/vibration again.

 

[MelanieMoxon]

I went out earlier and checked on the demo, car, the IR shows up really nicely on the phone camera.

In other news apparently my car is now fixed! lets hope I have had my glitch for my ownership.

 

[Mr R]

Fingers crossed for you MM… keep us updated on how things go. ??

 

[DavEV]

Our car has the same warning about the drowsiness system fault since the day we picked it up a month ago. It also has the lane keep assist fault light on, it was leaking, and the heating only works if set to 24C or more (and this would take the car to 19-20C). The auto beam lights turn on regardless of other cars, and the drive assitance keeps bouncing me from one line to the other. Android Auto doesn't work properly on either of our phones (Which were both working fine with the previous car).
And the infotainment sucks, and doesn't save half of the settings (and none of the one I use every day).
Very poor quality for a brand new car! Too bad I can't return it after a month and 1k miles but if it keeps going on like this, it won't last long.
On the bright side, though, it's silent on motorway, has a good camera, and drives decently well.

 

[yharry]

I believe there is a software bug in the Driver Alertness system which I have heard MG is working on so the dealers just updating the software before the bug is fixed won't fix anything. I have also heard that some recent Trophy deliveries haven't had the driver alert cameras fitted so they are just like the SE so no Driver Alert fault. Although one dealer told me not to read too much into it because features can go missing on any makers' car if parts are not available and he cited Merc. But I know Tesla does it quite a lot since their specs are shall we say rather fluid. A while back Tesla shipped cars with holes in the trim where the USB should be because in every other respect the car was complete and then once they were in-stock they offered owners to have them retrofitted at service centers if customers asked for the USBs!

I can confirm I took delivery of my orange Trophy last week and it does not have the Driver Alert kit fitted. I asked the dealer about it and he confirmed it’s the case and my car was from the third delivery batch.

 

[BarryH]

That's nuts, so the bump with the "IR window" on it on the top of the steering column could literally have no camera in it! That is just shoddy, and if that turns out to be the case the car will be rejected and I will name and shame the dealer because its something that should have been picked up. Its a real shame as the car had such potential. I knew that in 10 years or so this car would no way stand the test of time like a Lexus but I went into the purchase knowing that.

FWIW I really wanted the Mini-e (after having a 1.6 Cooper and enjoying it in the past) but the pathetic battery size due to the non BEV specific chassis put me off, during winter I'd be really tetchy about doing the longer drives that I do. The issue is now that if I reject the car (or rather the finance company does on my behalf) I will be left without a car as I doubt I'll be getting my immaculate FMDSH CT200h back any time soon.

Its a real shame as this saga, however minor it might seem has guaranteed them a loss of repeat custom (not just the dealer, the brand as a whole).

Not exactly "the bump with the "IR window" on it on the top of the steering column could literally have no camera in it". If the bump is there then the sensor/camera is there. What I'm saying is that some Trophy cars, according to a dealer I spoke to, are coming through without the bump at all just like SE cars. They told me it is either because MG hasn't sorted the issue or simply because the parts aren't available and therefore they are shipping them rather than delaying customers' orders. this is I'm told not uncommon for most manufacturers to do. You'll probably find a statement on promotional material and contracts saying the manufacturer has the right to change the spec. and you hope of course that means it will improve the spec., but not always the case.

 

[siteguru]

Some might argue that this is an improvement .......

 

[BarryH]

Some might argue that this is an improvement .......

Personally, I do.
Rather than have some flaky camera watching my face to see if I'm paying attention I'd take a better MG Pilot disengagement and stop system if the driver fails to respond to the second warning to hold the steering wheel as the LEAF ProPilot does for example.

 

[DavEV]

Personally, I do.
Rather than have some flaky camera watching my face to see if I'm paying attention I'd take a better MG Pilot disengagement and stop system if the driver fails to respond to the second warning to hold the steering wheel as the LEAF ProPilot does for example.

Oh we miss the Leaf ProPilot, it was much better than the MG one!
We would also happily live without that camera, who knows if that's even recording somewhere (we hope not!)

 

[BarryH]

Oh we miss the Leaf ProPilot, it was much better than the MG one!
We would also happily live without that camera, who knows if that's even recording somewhere (we hope not!)

I guess the down side of the LEAF is the 50 kW max CHadeMo Rapid and "Rapid-Chargegate" due to the "Passive" battery (non)-cooling. Otherwise it is very good EV

 

[bowfer]

I guess the down side of the LEAF is the 50 kW max CHadeMo Rapid and "Rapid-Chargegate" due to the "Passive" battery (non)-cooling. Otherwise it is very good EV

Rapid gate only applies to the 40KW model, doesn’t affect the 62.
And for those of us who don’t use public charging the differences between the Leaf and 4 are even fewer.
Despite some thinking the 4 drives like a sports car, it absolutely is not a significantly better handling car than the Leaf.
Take it from someone who hits top speed in their car most nights, with hard braking and cornering as well.
It really just comes down to the interior for me, the 4 being much more modern.
The analogue Speedo and small centre screen in the Leaf, with old fashioned graphics, is the killer - I got so tired of that.
Maybe the exterior looks as well, although I improved those a lot on my Leaf by fitting 18 inch Qashqai wheels.

 

[DavEV]

We had the 40kW one so we're happy with the bigger battery/range now. We liked the Nissan tech and were hoping for the Ariya not to cost that much MG4 looks more modern than the now EOL Leaf, of course, but the software is not as good as it should be unfortunately (it's not even able to switch light/dark mode automatically!)

 

[Fossil]

Thanks and commiserations to all the contributors who have been so unlucky with their cars.
I ordered a white trophy in August and rejected it due to the drowsiness fault, when it arrived, I told the dealer to reorder me a replacement fault free one,
but after reading this thread does one exist?
I am now thinking of purchasing from another manufacturer as I don't want the hassle of getting a new car repaired.
And as stated what's going to happen at trade-in time.

 

[DavEV]

Thanks and commiserations to all the contributors who have been so unlucky with their cars.
I ordered a white trophy in August and rejected it due to the drowsiness fault, when it arrived, I told the dealer to reorder me a replacement fault free one,
but after reading this thread does one exist?
I am now thinking of purchasing from another manufacturer as I don't want the hassle of getting a new car repaired.
And as stated what's going to happen at trade-in time.

It seems quite common now to deliver incomplete cars, I think even Polestar is doing that. And I get it, it's not a critical part, and it can be retrofit once available, so it's better to deliver the car without it than having to wait many more months. Although delivering a car with a fault is very poor (and even worse, the dealership knew about it but they didn't tell me, nor offered me anything for it!)! Can I even sell the car with a fault on, should I need to??

It's a good car to drive but sadly it's full of bugs (every day we discover one basically, last being the heated steering wheel turning itself off when turning on the car - our only hope is that, being all software, they'll fix it soon), and with a bad infotainment system.
We're not happy with that but for less fussy people it would be just fine (and V2L is handy for those who like camping!)

 

[Shengis]

I’m picking my new car up today. Shouldn’t have read this thread! ?

 

[MelanieMoxon]

My car is still at the dealers, they have apparently searched on the database for the R30 software update that fixes the pre-production software message and cannot find it, they are talking to MG technical about it apparently.

 

[DavEV]

I’m picking my new car up today. Shouldn’t have read this thread! ?

Lol! I'm sure you'll be fine, I like honest complaining just everything was working well with the Leaf while not quite with this.. for the price (compared to others) it's an overall good car, just need to get used to how it works