Quirks of the MG5

[M44LCY]

I'm used to hitting the left arrow button I have to do it so often.

Yes there is great info from those screens.


Thanks for this, I didn't realise the OK button would clear it.

Another quirk is the short term mileage counter resets quicker than I'd like.
I do 3 or 4 jobs per day for work so am onsite for a couple of hours at a time and every time I get in the car it has reset. My last car took around 8 hours to reset which was better.
It means although I have a total miles per kWh count since trip counter last reset (currently 3.9) and one for the current journey I don't get one for the full day.
It's not a big deal but would be nice to know how economical I've been on a given day.


True. I'm sure the FL model has quirks too but how many of the PFL quirks have been sorted in the FL?

The "current journey" quirk still applies in the facelifted version. In every other car I've had, you manually reset both interim & long term trips. Much better than a seemingly random (elapsed time at rest?) auto-reset.

 

[Wibble]

I love the rear wiper not working if you are already in reverse before you turn it on. Really handy first thing in the morning.

 

[Jomarkh]

I love the rear wiper not working if you are already in reverse before you turn it on. Really handy first thing in the morning.

If you then use the front wiper it should turn the rear on too

 

[Alibro]

Ours is the same age as yours but we've had it from new so had plenty of time to get used to the quirks.


I guess it's a matter of personal preference. I hate the digital speedo; I'm not blind, I don't need my speed displayed in a font and size that can probably be read by the driver of the car behind, particularly when I already have that information on the left of the screen! I like the traditional needle speedo and when we briefly looked at changing to the FL model and had a test drive, I hated the all digital dash. Messy and confusing I thought!

Not saving settings is the biggest annoyance though; was that fixed in the FL?

What I also dislike is the nagging noise that comes from the left seat when you put it in sport mode and boot it. Does anybody else get that?

After almost 3 years of ownership I wouldn't say I love the car but it is proving incredibly practical, exceptionally cheap to run, and very reliable. Hopefully I'm still saying that in 3 weeks when it goes for it's first MOT!

I just find it difficult to see what speed I'm doing with the analogue speedo as the needle covers the small numbers. Maybe it's an age thing or my seat adjustment makes it worse or maybe just getting more grumpy with age.

Having to change to eco mode every time is a pain and I often forget to do it resulting in a quicker than intended take off. but the biggest bugbear is the HVAC defaulting to AC on when you hit auto. What is that all about? In all of my cars for the last 20 years I have deliberately kept the AC off most of the time as I don't like icy cold air blasting in my face, unless the temp is above 25C and that is very rare in Ireland, the vast majority of the time I use AC is to clear the windscreen.
So to have AC on by default in an EV is (in this country) just stupid.

I tend to get that nagging noise from the passenger seat too. Mmmmmm


After four weeks of ownership I am liking the car more and more, it's no Merc but does everything it needs to very well.

Here is another quirk that is not unique to the MG5. Terrible screen design on the infotainment system!

The radio has the ability to display lots of information like name of show, current track etc but can you see it? No, you have to press an obscure button that takes you to a horrible screen where that is the only thing on display and to do anything else you need to go back.
For me one of the joys of DAB and modern FM is having all that information displayed and the screen has loads of free real estate but the designers chose to hide it.
They also decided that 6 channels on the main display was enough for anyone when there was plenty of room on the screen for 8 or 10. There are a lot more than 6 radio stations that I want to save and see displayed.
And the big heart symbols with a number are just unnecessary nonsense taking up space and causing clutter.

 

[Geoffers]

For me the bugbear is the vent controls. Why two buttons to do one job? I can never remember which button to press for the shortest route to the setting I want to get to. This is not helped by the info screen putting up a massive fan speed indicator and pointless picture of the seat but only a tiny indicator of the setting, all lasting just a couple of seconds which I don't have time to focus on when driving. All un-necessary tech in my view when a simple rotational knob would do the job (as in my good old Skoda!).

 

[Gomev]

For me the bugbear is the vent controls. Why two buttons to do one job? I can never remember which button to press for the shortest route to the setting I want to get to. This is not helped by the info screen putting up a massive fan speed indicator and pointless picture of the seat but only a tiny indicator of the setting, all lasting just a couple of seconds which I don't have time to focus on when driving. All un-necessary tech in my view when a simple rotational knob would do the job (as in my good old Skoda!).

At least there are buttons

 

[Alibro]

For me the bugbear is the vent controls. Why two buttons to do one job? I can never remember which button to press for the shortest route to the setting I want to get to. This is not helped by the info screen putting up a massive fan speed indicator and pointless picture of the seat but only a tiny indicator of the setting, all lasting just a couple of seconds which I don't have time to focus on when driving. All un-necessary tech in my view when a simple rotational knob would do the job (as in my good old Skoda!).

You have to wonder if the people who design these systems ever drove a car in their lives. And I'm not just talking about MG here as other cars I've driven have equally stupid displays.

 

[Alibro]

Does anyone know how the dash decides what the speed limit is?
If I drive along the M1 Motorway towards Belfast the dash displays 70 as the speed limit but If I drive along the same motorway away from Belfast the dash displays the National speed limit symbol and flashes if I drive more than 60mph. Same road just driving in the opposite direction.
Today I was on an A road miles away from a motorway and the speed limit displayed was 70mph.
As I mentioned earlier the satnav seems to know when I'm on the M1 but the dash seems to be very confused.

 

[Verdigris]

It's the front-facing camera. It's been rendered largely useless, in Wales, since the speed limits were altered, as it either sees through the overlays on the large signs, and renders 20mph as 60mph (because it also sees the 30 underneath) and can't see the small repeater signs at all.

 

[kevin ellard]

It's the front-facing camera. It's been rendered largely useless, in Wales, since the speed limits were altered, as it either sees through the overlays on the large signs, and renders 20mph as 60mph (because it also sees the 30 underneath) and can't see the small repeater signs at all.

Also Lewisham.

 

[Alibro]

It's crying out for some of that magic light fixing sticky tape. It's brilliant stuff for nasty persistent lights that you need to make dissappear.
Any safety feature that is wrong so much of the time becomes the opposite of a safety feature and is now a liability.

 

[Richard P]

I got myself in a pickle yesterday by trying to put the car in Drive before it was ready!
Got the dreaded HV warning and it took several attempts to get it going.
Methinks a little patience is in order from now on.

Having said that my last car was a 2012 Merc C Class and if I tried to turn the key in the ignition too quickly the same thing happened. OK it's not really a key and the ignition is not a switch like we would know it in old cars but it still failed to start and I had to turn off and start again but a bit slower.

I've found if you press P , foot on brake and press Stop/Start again the it says Ready and you're up and running.
For months I've been repeatedly pressing the Stop/Start on and off until it came up Ready - now saving vital nanoseconds ?

 

[PaulFireblade]

I drove a PFL for a week and really liked it, my first experience of an EV. Loved the smooth power delivery and the smooth ride which could be due to extra battery weight low down.

so ordered a FL. as I preferred the overall design. I think the lack of rotary knobs for heater control and volume were a big mistake in the facelift but other than that I much prefer facelift.

Remembering driver mode, re-gen & auto brake is annoying and in some ways auto brake is worse as sometimes it remembers and then another time you pull up at lights and it moves. At least with the other two functions you know they always re-set.

I really am enjoying the car and having changed to Octopus Go I get 5 hours charge at 8.5p/KWH overnight so just over 2p per mile.

I think the MG is superb value, my local garage seems helpful and friendly. I also have a top of the range almost new XC90 and my previous car was a Range Rover so unfair comparison but in my opinion the MG5 holds its own.

The one thing I do miss is blind spot protection.

 

[Alibro]

Can someone please explain the auto headlight dip?
My PFL seems to do this when I first start driving but it's not always as quick as I'd like so I dip the lights myself and can't get the auto dip to happen again.

 

[Alibro]

Can someone please explain the auto headlight dip?
My PFL seems to do this when I first start driving but it's not always as quick as I'd like so I dip the lights myself and can't get the auto dip to happen again.

So after driving in the winter for a while I figured out the auto dip cannot be explained because it has a life all of it's own and does whatever it feels like which mostly meant trying to P*** me off. The main beam comes on when it town with street lights and pedestrians all around. Multiple times I decided it was too slow to dip so I hit the stalk approx 1 millisecond after it finally decided to dip thereby putting full beam back on and blinding oncoming traffic. On one occasion it decided to go back to full beam even though I was on a motorway with cars all around, then after a few moments did it again, and again, resulting in me constantly having to watch for it being on full beam all the while with steam coming out of my ears!
Systems like this are meant to make driving easier and less stressful. Auto dip is supposed to let you forget about the lights and chill but when they are as ropey as this one they do the opposite, so it is now disabled and normality has resumed.

However I have another gripe!
I know you're shocked that a grumpy old man like myself would find fault in anything but I have decided that the person who designed the parcel shelf is a complete moron who never drove to the shops to get groceries. When loading the boot you cannot lift the parcel shelf flap up out of the way because it's not designed to go that way, nor can you push it down fully. It's the worst designed parcel shelf I've seen in over 40 years driving. To pack groceries against the rear seats you have to hold the parcel shelf flap with one hand while manoeuvring the bags with the other.
Most of the time I've had the car I've had the rear seats folded down (with the rear seat base removed as that's the only way they fold even remotely flat) so the parcel shelf wasn't in the way but recently I've had it back in place so the poor design has come to light.

Edit:
I still love the car and totally accept the reason I bought it was because it was cheap therefore I have to accept there will be some, ahem! Compromises, but it won't stop me having a moan about them.

I've found if you press P , foot on brake and press Stop/Start again the it says Ready and you're up and running.
For months I've been repeatedly pressing the Stop/Start on and off until it came up Ready - now saving vital nanoseconds ?

I've now got into the habit of hitting the start button then putting on my seat belt and by the time I've done that the car is ready to go.
I used to always drive off while fitting the belt but that was a bad habit anyway so no big deal to change.

 

[Silver estate]

I've now got into the habit of hitting the start button then putting on my seat belt and by the time I've done that the car is ready to go.
I used to always drive off while fitting the belt but that was a bad habit anyway so no big deal to change.

Unless it decides to not connect high voltage battery and you’ve got to put back in neutral and press start button again
Re your head light problem I always ran with normal light setting and manually do main beam

 

[Alibro]

Unless it decides to not connect high voltage battery and you’ve got to put back in neutral and press start button again
Re your head light problem I always ran with normal light setting and manually do main beam

When I hit the start button the display brings up the MG badge, then does an animation of scanning the car before the Ready comes up. Once the animation has completely reached the bottom of the display you're good to put it into Drive. Since I figured this out I've never had it fail to connect the HV battery.
Note you also need to press relatively hard on the brake pedal the whole time.

In any electric car there is a sequence that must happen before the HV contactors are enabled. It checks for issues like a short between the HV battery and the car chassis, then enables the precharge resistor relay (plus negative contactor) so there isn't a huge inrush of current into the inverter capacitors and only after the capacitors are at full voltage the main positive contactor is enabled so the DC to DC, heater etc can now work and the car can be put into drive.
All this takes a couple of seconds hence why we have to wait which is perfectly acceptable.

However why MG didn't disable the Drive/Neutral/Park knob to prevent the issue you're referring to until after this check was complete is beyond stupid!

 

[VincentB]

Anyone else crazy enough to prefer driving in Eco mode?
I started using it this week for the first time and find I prefer the lazier throttle response.
It means I can lean my foot on the throttle in a more relaxed way.

Back to whinging today I cleaned and painted the rusty bits under the bonnet. I'm not sure what's going on there apart from uber thin paint but it's something I've never had to do before in 40 years motoring. And this is the newest car I've owned by a lot. My last car was 12 years old when I traded it for the 2021 MG5

Here's another but not a whinge this time.
The digital speedo and the analogue speedo give different readings!!!
The digital speedo is very accurate as it seems to be driven by the sat nav but the analogue speedo on the other hand reads the normal 1 or 2mph faster than you are actually going.
Something to bare in mind for those of us who like to push our luck with Mr Plod.

Yes, I've also recently noticed some signs of rust around some of the pre-drilled/pre-cast holes at the front of the bonnet on the underside. I've not paid a lot of attention to them yet as was setting off on a journey when I noticed, so I don't know how widespread it is. I'm presuming a lack of paint around the edge of the holes. However, this shouldn't happen on a car that is less than three years old and has only around 6,000 miles on the clock. I don't recall any or barely any such rust on my 23 years old Astra which had close to 90,000 miles on the clock.

 

[Alibro]

Yes, I've also recently noticed some signs of rust around some of the pre-drilled/pre-cast holes at the front of the bonnet on the underside. I've not paid a lot of attention to them yet as was setting off on a journey when I noticed, so I don't know how widespread it is. I'm presuming a lack of paint around the edge of the holes. However, this shouldn't happen on a car that is less than three years old and has only around 6,000 miles on the clock. I don't recall any or barely any such rust on my 23 years old Astra which had close to 90,000 miles on the clock.

I think it's the same in all MG5's so everyone should check for it and sort out. James and Kate found the same 11:06 into this video.

 

[Jomarkh]

Yes, I've also recently noticed some signs of rust around some of the pre-drilled/pre-cast holes at the front of the bonnet on the underside. I've not paid a lot of attention to them yet as was setting off on a journey when I noticed, so I don't know how widespread it is. I'm presuming a lack of paint around the edge of the holes. However, this shouldn't happen on a car that is less than three years old and has only around 6,000 miles on the clock. I don't recall any or barely any such rust on my 23 years old Astra which had close to 90,000 miles on the clock.

My car is in this week have the rust under the bonnet done under warranty. It took a while for this to be agreed.