Potential buyer of MG4 SE

lusitano

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Hi All,
It's been a while since I've been involved in this forum, I've since sold my MG ZS EV 2 years ago.

Anyways on with my question(s), I'm now looking for a second car, to get me to work and back around 60mi, so I short listed a few cars, MG4,BYD Dolphin and even a Leapmotor.

So've I've gone through Carwow and I've got some really crazy(I think) offers for a MG4 SE, £18k for a brand new MG4 SE MY2024, this seems crazy money, so with that in mind I've gone for a test drive, but unfortunately the car was only the old model, no OPD or reverse camera. The BYD DOLPHIN was basically £27k with 0% PCP and top trim was not bad the ride was nice enough to, like the inside felt more spacious weirdly, than the MG4. But both drove nice.

So my question is, why is it so "cheap"? Is there something I should be aware of? Is there software still rubbish or has it improved, I remember MG ZS EV I had to go dealer to get it updated and that was a pain in itself.

Thanks in advance.
 
Hi All,
It's been a while since I've been involved in this forum, I've since sold my MG ZS EV 2 years ago.

Anyways on with my question(s), I'm now looking for a second car, to get me to work and back around 60mi, so I short listed a few cars, MG4,BYD Dolphin and even a Leapmotor.

So've I've gone through Carwow and I've got some really crazy(I think) offers for a MG4 SE, £18k for a brand new MG4 SE MY2024, this seems crazy money, so with that in mind I've gone for a test drive, but unfortunately the car was only the old model, no OPD or reverse camera. The BYD DOLPHIN was basically £27k with 0% PCP and top trim was not bad the ride was nice enough to, like the inside felt more spacious weirdly, than the MG4. But both drove nice.

So my question is, why is it so "cheap"? Is there something I should be aware of? Is there software still rubbish or has it improved, I remember MG ZS EV I had to go dealer to get it updated and that was a pain in itself.

Thanks in advance.
There seems to be a glut of MG4s at the moment.

£8k-9k discounts on the RRP.

My Theories:
Some of them might be older models or ex showroom models that have sat around for a while but some seem to be genuine new ones that have arrived off the boat and don't have buyers.

Hard to work out what is going on. Perhaps we are benefitting from the tariffs being imposed on Chinese cars in other countries. SAIC have spare factory capacity as a result so they are flooding the UK market and decimating the competition.

Whatever the reason, I'd say take advantage.
 
18k is an absolute steal. I'm assuming thats after incentives?
No, we don't have incentives for EVs in the UK.

Many of them (though not all) are pre-registered cars.

In that case you aren't technically the first owner, though most seem to have 5-10 miles on the clock so they haven't been driven by anyone else.

Just looking on AutoTrader and it isn't just MG that are heavily discounted.

The GWM Ora Cat 03 thing. £14k off RRP for some of them. They are overpriced at RRP but like MG4 are currently £18k for a new one.

£10k off RRP for an e-208 (£22k).

Great times for people who want an EV!
 
No, we don't have incentives for EVs in the UK.

Many of them (though not all) are pre-registered cars.

In that case you aren't technically the first owner, though most seem to have 5-10 miles on the clock so they haven't been driven by anyone else.
wow that's an absolute bargain! Over here it's 28200€ (or about £23700) before incentives. MG sure has a lot of room to drop prices still! But we have generious incetives (about £6000) so it evens out i guess.
 
Here's my thoughts, partly as an "insider" but from 30 to 40 years ago.
As an employee we had discounts of 25% on new car RRP. Garages were happy to work with manufacturers like this as they still made 10% - 15% on the sale, plus it added to their "sales incentive" schemes or targets for vehicles sold off the forecourt.

Also there were sales campaigns to get vehicles registered before a certain date, often the month before the reg letters changed. This meant the dealer registered all the available vehicles they had in stock. They get their "bonus" from the manufacturer, but what to do with registered vehicles that looks to the punter to be "old"? You sell it off at a reduced price, or discount!
They've made money from the manufacturer by hitting sales or registration targets, so a 15% or even 10% profit on a genuine sale is money in the bank!
I've known in the past that as an employee, even with the 25% discount, there were "new" vehicles at some dealers that were for sale at a lower price!

So it doesn’t surprise me that there are apparent big discounts on offer, the dealers are still making money hand over fist (They're not charities!). SAIC can produce MGs for next to nothing (look at the penny pinching they've done on materials and features), or perhaps they are selling at a loss and being subsidised? 🤔 :unsure: :unsure:
 
wow that's an absolute bargain! Over here it's 28200€ (or about £23700) before incentives. MG sure has a lot of room to drop prices still! But we have generious incetives (about £6000) so it evens out i guess.
SInce a couple of weeks you can buy a brand new MG4 SR/Standard for around €24.000 in the Netherlands (including taxes etc.). They are really cheap now
 
Hi All,
It's been a while since I've been involved in this forum, I've since sold my MG ZS EV 2 years ago.

Anyways on with my question(s), I'm now looking for a second car, to get me to work and back around 60mi, so I short listed a few cars, MG4,BYD Dolphin and even a Leapmotor.

So've I've gone through Carwow and I've got some really crazy(I think) offers for a MG4 SE, £18k for a brand new MG4 SE MY2024, this seems crazy money, so with that in mind I've gone for a test drive, but unfortunately the car was only the old model, no OPD or reverse camera. The BYD DOLPHIN was basically £27k with 0% PCP and top trim was not bad the ride was nice enough to, like the inside felt more spacious weirdly, than the MG4. But both drove nice.

So my question is, why is it so "cheap"? Is there something I should be aware of? Is there software still rubbish or has it improved, I remember MG ZS EV I had to go dealer to get it updated and that was a pain in itself.

Thanks in advance.
It is a good car, yes you need to take into account that it is 'cheap' you don't get toys like heated seats and steering wheel, adaptive rear view mirror etc. And before this year you didn't get a reversing camera and sat nav.

I would say probably wait for the new SE models ie the ones with a reversing camera to be 6 months old and then get one.

Unfortunately theres no real easy way to tell them apart on Autotrader.
 
SInce a couple of weeks you can buy a brand new MG4 SR/Standard for around €24.000 in the Netherlands (including taxes etc.). They are really cheap now
wow that's amazing! Do NL have any incetives for EVs?

In our country MG actually raised the price for 1000€ a few months ago from 27000€...

I guess with 24k€ +7.2k€ incentive, that car become really really cheap.
 
There are massive discounts on the GWM Ora Cat 03 as well.

Some big drops on the e-208 as well.

Theory 1: Older models need discounting
So one theory is that these are older models which were a big step on the earlier generation (Zoe and leaf).

However, now there are lots of exciting new models (R5, KEV3) so these older models now seem very unexciting.

Theory 2: Chinese subsidies
perhaps they are selling at a loss and being subsidised? 🤔 :unsure: :unsure:

This is also very plausible. SAIC and GWM are state enterprises.

When the state is running industries who really knows what anything costs?

China has historically had a technique of dealing with rivals such as the Mongol hordes - ply them with luxuries so they become lazy and uncompetitive. China was always the big brother in the region so they would ultimately always have that size advantage even if they were outmanoeuvred in the short term.

China has done something similar with many industries, such as steel.
 
It is a good car, yes you need to take into account that it is 'cheap' you don't get toys like heated seats and steering wheel, adaptive rear view mirror etc. And before this year you didn't get a reversing camera and sat nav.

I would say probably wait for the new SE models ie the ones with a reversing camera to be 6 months old and then get one.

Unfortunately theres no real easy way to tell them apart on Autotrader.
Doesn't the new SE have a rear wiper? This quote i got was from carwow, I also enquired the spec, rear camera etc and they confirmed it is.
 
Lots of reasons for manufacturers to put incentives on EV sales but one of the big ones is the £15,000 fine per car under the target figure.

Manufacturers can also cross sell their sales, so someone like Tesla who make zero ICE cars have an EV surplus they can sell to others. If you are MG and want to minimise your fines and maximise potential to sell off quotas then knocking even £10k off a new car still leaves you in profit
 
SInce a couple of weeks you can buy a brand new MG4 SR/Standard for around €24.000 in the Netherlands (including taxes etc.). They are really cheap now
Here with the EU/government grant and dealer discount it's around €17,500
 
Lots of reasons for manufacturers to put incentives on EV sales but one of the big ones is the £15,000 fine per car under the target figure.

Manufacturers can also cross sell their sales, so someone like Tesla who make zero ICE cars have an EV surplus they can sell to others. If you are MG and want to minimise your fines and maximise potential to sell off quotas then knocking even £10k off a new car still leaves you in profit
Yes, this is no doubt part of the calculation.

In practice manufacturers won't pay the full fine because they will buy credits off other manufacturers for much less than £15,000. I doubt we will know how much as it will be kept between the companies.

Nevertheless, even if it is only a few hundred pounds a credit, it represents free money for the companies that exceed the quota and sell their credits.
 
Hi All,
It's been a while since I've been involved in this forum, I've since sold my MG ZS EV 2 years ago.

Anyways on with my question(s), I'm now looking for a second car, to get me to work and back around 60mi, so I short listed a few cars, MG4,BYD Dolphin and even a Leapmotor.

So've I've gone through Carwow and I've got some really crazy(I think) offers for a MG4 SE, £18k for a brand new MG4 SE MY2024, this seems crazy money, so with that in mind I've gone for a test drive, but unfortunately the car was only the old model, no OPD or reverse camera. The BYD DOLPHIN was basically £27k with 0% PCP and top trim was not bad the ride was nice enough to, like the inside felt more spacious weirdly, than the MG4. But both drove nice.

So my question is, why is it so "cheap"? Is there something I should be aware of? Is there software still rubbish or has it improved, I remember MG ZS EV I had to go dealer to get it updated and that was a pain in itself.

Thanks in advance.
I have a SE SR and it is a great car and is easily the best value for money MG4. You will love it.
 

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