MG ZS reviews

I have to say this is my first and last mg. The ride is harsh and noisy the car is very slow and struggles to pull up even the smallest hill and wallows around corners. This is a cheap SUV but sadly that reflects in every part of the car it’s self. I will say that it looks stylish from the outside but when you get inside it all falls apart. The touch screen is very unresponsive and has some questionable features and all the doors locking when you start the car is annoying because you have to press the button on the drivers door to unlock the other doors all the time. The dashboard and trim looks very plastic and cheap and the radio comes on every time you start the car that’s annoying as well all in all a very disappointing SUV from once a good British name.

We bought our electric MGzs used in October 2022. Moving to electric has been a learning experience. 1) charging There are various charging options. As a rule, the faster you charge, the higher the price so you will pay more for charging in the middle of a journey. It makes sense to plan for a long journey and to break a journey after 4-5 hours. In the UK you will rarely get more than 200 miles in that time so the 250 mile range of the car is perfect, allowing the driver & passengers to take a break while the car charges. Over the summer, solar panels & a battery system at home have meant that unless we’ve done a longer journey we’ve been able to charge the car at home for free on the 3KWh slow charger. In the winter we’ve had to pay for the electricity, but it’s still cheaper than petrol. The car returns 3 miles per KWH in summer, about 30% less at zero degrees in winter. In 2002-3 domestic power cost about 27p per KWH or 9p a mile charged at home on full price electricity or about 14p a mile if the weather was freezing. We investigated cheap rate overnight electricity which could have cut this to a little over 3p-5p a mile but calculations showed we weren’t doing enough mileage to justify this. We decided that the option of charging for free on sunshine in the summer works best for us, probably averaging about 6p a mile over the whole year. By comparison an economy petrol car returning 45mpg (=10 miles per litre) using petrol at £1.40 a litre would cost 14p a mile all year round. It seems in 2002-3 that the English national charging network is a little thin. Most but not all motorway service areas offer them. Commercial chargepoint provision follows demand so in theory the more they are used the more will be provided. Unlike domestic prices, commercial electricity costs weren’t capped in 2002-3 and at least one commercial chargepoint provider wrote to apologise to its customers for the prices. Most have come down since as in autumn 2023 it is possible to buy electricity below the price cap. 2) The car The car feels big & comfortable. It looks like a Chinese copy of the Nissan Qashqai. If you want long range, electric cars have to be big as the batteries are stored under the floor. This makes the car very stable and it has that “point & go” type of handling. I haven’t explored its limit, presumably there is one. Starting from stationary can feel a little slow, but once you’re moving acceleration is amazing even in “eco” mode. For some reason the engineers decided to build in creep forward like old style automatics which many drivers find useful for parking & manoeuvring. I don’t like this as it means you can’t do one pedal driving which many other electric cars offer. Energy recovery can be preset for slowing down, but you have to press the brake pedal to come to a stop & push it down further to apply the handbrake. Very easy once you get used to it. The locking system is a delight to use. I wish I could have something similar on our house! Automatic lights, wipers & temperature controls all work very well. Usually all you have to control is speed, steering & indicators. This could make a driver very lazy but if so the safety warnings will wake you up again. My biggest criticism is the siting of the electronic screen display. Its set too low to be safely used while you’re driving, so I leave that to the front passenger. The screen offers a 300 page manual which is too long to bother reading. You can get the manual up on your home computer if you need to know anything. The only thing on screen I’ve needed to switch in urgently while driving has been the front screen demister which can also be activated from one of the piano key type buttons below the screen. They all feel the same so I have to remember its about “middle C”. It clears the screen in seconds. The seats are very comfortable & the imitation leather is easy to clean. I’d like the driver’s seat set a little further to the right. MG should provide a better shelf over the boot, preferably in 2 hinged sections. The manual warns you not to put any weight on it as it might collapse, this can also happen when you try to remove it. There’s nowhere inside the car to put the shelf if anyone is travelling in the back seats. The sunroof is very pleasant if open at low speeds, but go too fast & it sounds like a pack of dogs is following! The car has a long warranty provided you have the annual service, which is little more than a safety check. I guess the cost of the service is mainly an insurance to cover the warranty. In all, I’d recommend the electric MG for its sheer value for money. The downside is depreciation in the first couple of years but that means you can get a good nearly new example for little more than the price of a petrol engined car. A relatively high mileage user who charges the car at home overnight will be well rewarded.

MG - a once proud British sports car manufacturer with a huge following of enthusiasts. Now… just a badge owned by a Chinese company making soulless boxes for people with no real interest in cars. The ZS is literally a box ticking exercise. A parts list. A Far Eastern copycat product built to a price point to meet the demands of a market segment. It wasn’t designed with any passion or soul, no one loved making this car, it just happened. The Chinese did what they do regularly do and look at someone who has designed something nice, in this Mazda, and just sort of copied it with no real care or attention.  As for driving it, the gearbox is a vague as a politician avoiding answering questions on a Sunday morning TV show, the steering is about as accurate as the weather forecast, the suspension feels like you’re driving a bouncy castle, and the performance is, well there isn’t any performance. At speed it feels wobbly and unrefined and just isn’t a nice place to be. Going around corners at anything beyond walking pace you feel like you’ll end up in the passenger footwell. Inside the plastics are cheap and drab, and in trying to disguise this by wrapping parts of the dashboard in a soft of soft carbon fibre effect they’ve actually made it look worse. Then there’s the weird pattern on the seats which looks like the close up of a weave in an 80s suit. Then there’s the infotainment screen which looks like someone clagged a fake iPad on the dash. The interface looks like it was designed in the 90s and lacks a home button… there’s a physical plastic button that looks like ab afterthought. it has a lot of space but no clever storage. It has soft seats that aren’t that comfortable. It has a flat bottom sports steering wheel which is THE most out of place steering wheel ever. It has no place in this car. I can’t find anything good to say. It has a lot of space so suppose. It’s badly designed, ugly, unrefined, wobbly, cheap looking, slow, and basically best described as the car equivalent to some fake AirPods you get from Wish. Do not buy unless you don’t care about cars at all.

Decent car - decent interior for the price. However so unreliable. Cannot get the car to charge properly, leaving us in the morning with less than 30-40 miles. My commute to work is 30 miles so would barely get me there. Risky getting back as it doesn't charge properly all the time. Brakes squealing and screeching already and the windscreen cracked because of the cold weather (definitely not impact as it was over night) MG are useless - cannot get a booking within a month. Going to look at rejecting the car as new cars should have so many issues

Not the most practical car in saloon form, but honestly they are really good fun, the v6 engine sounds lovely and it handles superb. It is well balanced, firm and is a dream to drive. Has a load of character and the zs 180 will definitely be a future classic.

This car is just amazing value for money. We went for the Exclusive model which comes with heated seats reversing camera electric roof and sat nav plus much more. its so simple to drive just select drive or reverse with the circular control and off you go. You can choose three driving modes economy , normal or sports but we drive most of the time in economy which is plenty quick enough and compares well with our previous car a Suzuki Vatara. At speed its quiet but you do hear tyre and wind noise at higher speeds and depending on road surface.It handles well on the country lanes here in Pembrokeshire and I am impressed with the host of safety features. MG included a free home charger (You have to have off road parking to have one of these) which we have just had installed and is much quicker than the plug in granny charger that comes with the vehicle. You do have to buy your own lead for the home charger mine was a 10Mtr new off Ebay for £156. Love the colour Pimlico Blue which is only available on the EV model.Its a spacious comfortable car at a bargain price but I do think its essential to have off road parking in order to be able to do charging at home.

Really pleased. Just done 2000 miles in a little over a month and behaved impecably. I did a lot of research and test drove alternatives but very happy that I have made the right choice for my life style. Good price, good driving position, room for 5, brilliant auto transmission, 7 year warranty, 5 years interest free. Traded in a Kia Venga as it had come to the end of the warranty period. I had not been displeased with the Venga but I can say that this is a far better car. Early days but so far so good.

Very reliable car, excellent road holding and pretty nippy. Suspension is a little hard but the benefits are apparent when cornering at speed. Not the most spacious of cars but very nice interior and panel display.

I LIKE MY MG IT IS A GOOD ALL ROUND CAR WHICH AS NOT LET ME DOWN PERFORMANCE IS GOOD IT LOOKS GOOD THE FINISH COULD BE BETTER FUEL COST IS A LITTLE HIGH BUT FOR A 13 YEAR OLD CAR IT IS NOT A BAD CAR.

My MG is 10 years old and has cost me very little apart from fuel. It doesn't look it's age and has been outstandingly reliable.

The good bits: A skateboard with a 2500cc V6 squeezed in, oh what fun! And a wheel at every corner that makes you just want to push it by another 10mph every corner. So, driving it is fun - there's a reason this model of car has it's own racing series. Around 30 mpg isn't too bad either, even when you play in the 4000rpm+ fun zone from time to time. It continues to work, apart from a clutch release bearing getting more & more whiney (until the £450 repair bill), it has not let us down. For £2k (Feb 2012), with 69k miles, in tidy condition it is really a good deal. Plenty of enthusiasts & spares around. The bad bits It's a British car, so expect bits of flimsy plastic to fall off & various electrical bits to fail/work intermittently/ behave as if possessed by an attention deficit disorder poltergeist.... I had to buy a set of 16" wheels within a week of buying the car, the original 17" low profiles give a ride quality a roman chariot builder would be put to death for.

Considering the underlying design of the car dates back to a late 80s Honda, MG did a wonderful job of making a sweet handling and generally practical car. OK, the head gasket went and the ECU packed up, but both covered under warranty so no complaints there. If you're looking for a car with gadgets, go somewhere else - It's got air con, ABS and a CD player. That's it. I like my cars simple and I like them that give you feedback and not isolate you from everything. That way I know when i'm pushing too hard. Aside from the slightly high running costs (32mpg, spares not being cheap) then it's a solid buy.

I have had this MG from new and have no reliability issues with the car. This is my daily drive and although now 9 years since I purchased the car, my MG is still a pleasure to drive every day. I get excellent MPG for a large engine car which is consistently around 35 MPG. The tyres typically last 3 years so do not have to replace these too often. The ride is on the firm side but does not jar my body over the all to familiar pot holes in Suffolk. As this is a 5 door I can load lots of different shapes into the car, yet the leather seats are very supportive and comfortable front and back. I would recommend this car to drivers that are the press on style but with family needs. Enjoy.

FANTASTIC CAR ALL ROUND FINISH GOULD BE BETTER NEVER LET ME DOWN AND GREAT PERFORMANCE VERY PLEASED WITH THE CAR IT IS SO UNDER RATED THE V6 ENGINE IS SMOOTH AS SILK AND THE ZS LOOKS GOOD EVEN TODAY IT TURNS HEADS

I purchased this car when my previous car died. It wasn't as if I had much choice in the matter - I needed a car and this one was for sale with the right length of MOT and service history. Having only owned it a few months I must say I am more than surprised by the performance. It's very nippy, has enough power and acceleration to make driving a pleasure. It tackles hills fairly well and handles well in different road conditions. A little prone to drift on corners when moving at speed, but that's maybe because it isn't as heavy as my last car (a Rover 75 estate). I miss the suspension of my old car as on this car it's a little 'solid' making speed bumps (when taken at the correct speed) feel a lot more of an obstacle for example - in terms of feeling bumped around. I am a big guy so one if the concerns was room behind the drivers seat, Again I was a little surprised there, it is roomier than it looks. Have driven from Cornwall to London a couple of times i can say that long journeys are OK and the car can maintain a steady speed. Am currently averaging 120 + miles on £20 of petrol - this is a better way of thinking about consumption for me.