What are the buttons on the left of the steering wheel for?

[CatherineB]

Hi there

I've had my Holburn Blue MG4 Trophy for 2 months now. I'm building quite a list of really irritating "features", not to mention lacks of feature that my 2018 Nissan Leaf had, and even the 2009 Ford S-Max I had before that. Most of those are things I see regularly come up on this forum so I won't mention them here.

One thing that does puzzle me, though, is the controls on the left side of the steering wheel. I can use those on the right to control various options, and I understand all or most of those, plus how to scroll through the menu to pick the one I want. I can use the two "star" shortcut buttons, one on the left and one on the right. But when I press or toggle the centre button on the left, or any of the up/down/left/right buttons on the left - nada. Ditto for the other button that looks like it promises to switch on/off the LKA - fat chance. There is no mention of these controls in the instruction manual.

The one things I love about this car are the colour, the range, and its honesty about range - aside from that, I would swap it for my (sadly squashed by a tractor) Leaf any day of the week...

So, my dumb question for the day is: what on earth are these buttons for? Why aren't they working? If they don't work, who thought it was a good idea to put in a load of potential functionality that is completely wasted? I feel like this really should be me being dumb, so please prove me so by explaining what use they are!!!

Thx
Catherine

 

[KH11]

Hi there

I've had my Holburn Blue MG4 Trophy for 2 months now. I'm building quite a list of really irritating "features", not to mention lacks of feature that my 2018 Nissan Leaf had, and even the 2009 Ford S-Max I had before that. Most of those are things I see regularly come up on this forum so I won't mention them here.

One thing that does puzzle me, though, is the controls on the left side of the steering wheel. I can use those on the right to control various options, and I understand all or most of those, plus how to scroll through the menu to pick the one I want. I can use the two "star" shortcut buttons, one on the left and one on the right. But when I press or toggle the centre button on the left, or any of the up/down/left/right buttons on the left - nada. Ditto for the other button that looks like it promises to switch on/off the LKA - fat chance. There is no mention of these controls in the instruction manual.

The one things I love about this car are the colour, the range, and its honesty about range - aside from that, I would swap it for my (sadly squashed by a tractor) Leaf any day of the week...

So, my dumb question for the day is: what on earth are these buttons for? Why aren't they working? If they don't work, who thought it was a good idea to put in a load of potential functionality that is completely wasted? I feel like this really should be me being dumb, so please prove me so by explaining what use they are!!!

Thx
Catherine

I think the star buttons on the left and right have to be set up by using the infotainment screen. I think on YouTube there’s a chap called Burl Solomons who has done some videos on how to set them up

 

[CatherineB]

I think the star buttons on the left and right have to be set up by using the infotainment screen. I think on YouTube there’s a chap called Burl Solomons who has done some videos on how to set them up

I can set up the star buttons, as I said. It's all the other buttons! Thx

 

[Rolfe]

I thought these buttons were used to access functions on the Trophy that the SE doesn't have, and was slightly narked that they included buttons on the SE that were never going to do anything. But if they don't do anything on the Trophy either? I'm all ears.

 

[jonney]

Voice assistant, ACC/TJA switch and favourite setting on Trophy.

 

[KH11]

Voice assistant, ACC/TJA switch and favourite setting on Trophy.

It might still be worth looking at Burl’s channel as I think he covers what they do as well

 

[RichardC]

 

[Rolfe]

That's handy, thanks. I've never used the cruise control, but now I know how if I want to try it.

I note the only feature he flagged as Trophy-only was the 360 camera. What about the voice controls? I didn't think they worked on the SE, but what do I know?

 

[Diggsy]

That's handy, thanks. I've never used the cruise control, but now I know how if I want to try it.

I note the only feature he flagged as Trophy-only was the 360 camera. What about the voice controls? I didn't think they worked on the SE, but what do I know?

No voice controls in the SE, at least none in mine anyway. The cruise control is what I would call a little brake happy. Tends to jab the brakes when traffic slows, rather than allowing the motor to steadily slow. I didn’t like it. Admittedly it was a lot better with the regen set to adaptive, so maybe a little experimenting is needed to get the best experience out of it.

 

[Rolfe]

Some people have discussed this in another thread, and identified a set of settings that seem to work quite well I believe.

 

[jonney]

No voice controls in the SE, at least none in mine anyway. The cruise control is what I would call a little brake happy. Tends to jab the brakes when traffic slows, rather than allowing the motor to steadily slow. I didn’t like it. Admittedly it was a lot better with the regen set to adaptive, so maybe a little experimenting is needed to get the best experience out of it.

Yeah I found the same with ACC, especially on a hill. Must give it a go on adaptive though.

 

[Deleted member 9692]

The cruise control is what I would call a little brake happy. Tends to jab the brakes when traffic slows, rather than allowing the motor to steadily slow. I didn’t like it. Admittedly it was a lot better with the regen set to adaptive, so maybe a little experimenting is needed to get the best experience out of it.

Agree. I have a loan MGZS EV at the moment. Theres lots I don't like with it but the ACC is very much smoother braking than my MG4. I'm sure a s/w update would improve the 4 but will they bother, who knows?

 

[PeteC]

Yeah I found the same with ACC, especially on a hill. Must give it a go on adaptive though.

I tried ACC with adaptive regen and couldn't really feel much difference. It still braked very enthusiastically! Will be interested to see if others find it better.

 

[Diggsy]

Agree. I have a loan MGZS EV at the moment. Theres lots I don't like with it but the ACC is very much smoother braking than my MG4. I'm sure a s/w update would improve the 4 but will they bother, who knows?

Yeah, they really need to sort that, otherwise it’s a little bit of a pointless feature. I’d assume like you say, a software update could sort it. Surely the regeneration could kick in and just slow the car that way, then apply the actual brakes only if necessary…

 

[siteguru]

I tried ACC with adaptive regen and it was better, but not great. I then set Sport mode and ACC was waay better.

 

[PeteC]

Yeah, they really need to sort that, otherwise it’s a little bit of a pointless feature. I’d assume like you say, a software update could sort it. Surely the regeneration could kick in and just slow the car that way, then apply the actual brakes only if necessary…

Sorry, I should have said that the car slowed very enthusiastically. Regen does kick in but not very progressively by the feel of it, and then maybe the brakes join in.

I tried ACC with adaptive regen and it was better, but not great. I then set Sport mode and ACC was waay better.

I'll have to try that sometime. It would be good if ACC was more useable.

 

[CatherineB]

Thanks for that. I think I must have ACC switched off somewhere else; I do vaguely remember these things from when the dealer showed me round, but I'm not interested in ACC or, indeed, the car controlling anything (the LKA drives me nuts, too). Whatever I've done to it, they do nothing now!

Shame the same buttons can't be put to alternative uses, like on the right, but there you go.

 

[ok86]

My wife had a bad experience with the Traffic Jam Assist the other day there was some ice on the road and we think it thought the ice was a line on the road and it started pulling her towards the middle line on a dual carriageway. I've also made a video on the steering controls and how to activate and deactivate the cruise control settings incase anyone new to the MG4 get a shock ? We've stuck with ACC for now and manually switch off the LKA whenever we go on the motorway or country lanes. Needs a lot of work.