Seeking Regen and AC Recommendations for New Owner

[HazardLights]

I've finally ordered my Volcano Orange MG4 Trophy LR and after test driving an MG4 this week I have some questions. I think it may be useful to understand the driving style I am coming from as I suspect I will need to change.

My former sports car driving self would be surprised to learn that I have became a very sedate driver that gets a kick out of the improved efficiency of cars and drive very sedately (my, both manual, 2014 Ibiza does 59 mpg and my 2021 Octavia gets 65-68 mpg when I am driving). On the Ibiza I find that even if I completely lift my foot from the pedal it doesn't seem to engine brake but instead the car still provides enough throttle to maintain current speed. I have therefore become very light on the pedal or not at all.

With the MG4 if I lifted my foot completely off the pedal if I remember rightly it would decelerate to varying degrees depending on the regen setting used.

1. Should I be using regen 1 on motorway and regen 3 in busy traffic and regen 2 on back roads where queues are less common?
2. With regen 1 will I still need a little accelerator? It's not a big deal as driving was very, very relaxing once LKA was off (and LKA wasn't as bad as it is on my Octavia although easier to disable on Octavia)
3. Different cars have different humidity/steaming up characteristics. What is a sensible air conditioning balance between AC comfort and efficiency? Do you run AC on all the time? Alternatively do you run the fans without AC except when carrying 4 passengers or in winter? I intend to make liberal use of steering wheel and seat heaters.

Sorry for having so many questions but I want to spend a minimum amount of time fiddling with settings when I start driving my new car as I want my mind to be on the road so I don't have to remove deer from my face.

Thanks,
HazardLights

 

[siteguru]

1. Regen 1 is akin to engine braking in a typical diesel car, and is probably better to use on motorways/fast A roads, as long as you're not using adaptive cruise control (ACC). If you use ACC then the car decides on how much regen to apply to slow down regardless of what regen setting you've set.

Regen 3 is better around town/in stop-start traffic. This is the default setting that car uses on each start.

2. In all cases you can feather the throttle such that the regen mode can be irrelevant.

3. My car's HVAC controls at about 4°C higher than actual. So I have it set for 25°C target and Auto control. However I have the SE so no seat or steering wheel heating.

 

[Anon70]

For regen I tend to use A which lets the car decide how much regen to use based on various conditions (proximity of car in front etc). When I want to clean up the brake discs I will use 1 to force the mechanical brakes to work more than the regen.

One pedal driving (OPD) will also add extra regen above level 3, but is great for stop start motoring.

In general the level of regen and the OPD setting will be down to personal preference and how much control you feel you have with the accelerator pedal (which you get used to pretty quickly).

On a damp day with the climate on auto and ECO you will probably start to get the windows steaming up but a quick blast with the front demist shortcut button sorts this out. the other thing to remember is the temperature is what the car reads at the vents not in the cabin so you tend to need the degrees slightly higher than you might be used to in other cars (I have mine at 24 and auto).

 

[phil99]

Realistically you need to work these all out for yourself. Everyone has different preferences and will prefer things to work in different ways. The way I set the car varies from day to day depending on my mood and what my planned journey is. There is no right answer.

Try it out for yourself in different situations with different settings. Experiment with it, safely of course.

Efficiency isn’t everything. Obviously its relevant, but drivability and enjoyment are factors.