MG has a new hybrid SUV on the block and it’s a game changer for the brand. But, is it as good as its competitors? Paul Maric puts it to the test to find out.
Hardness tester, noise and lane keeping results: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/121Auf6HGvaBqRToYcuAz94alin7Sw55SpOPECBDlnKE
Skip Ahead:
Intro
Exterior: 00:38
Interior: 02:29
Infotainment: 03:44
Safety Tech: 05:03
Practicality: 05:47
On the Road: 07:53
Driver aids: 13:30
Performance: 14:52
Verdict: 16:40
We review every new car on the market, bust car myths, cover the latest car tech and answer your burning questions.
Whether you need new car advice, purchase validation or simply love learning more about new cars and technology, we are your car experts.
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#mg #zs #review
Hardness tester, noise and lane keeping results: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/121Auf6HGvaBqRToYcuAz94alin7Sw55SpOPECBDlnKE
Skip Ahead:
Intro
Exterior: 00:38
Interior: 02:29
Infotainment: 03:44
Safety Tech: 05:03
Practicality: 05:47
On the Road: 07:53
Driver aids: 13:30
Performance: 14:52
Verdict: 16:40
We review every new car on the market, bust car myths, cover the latest car tech and answer your burning questions.
Whether you need new car advice, purchase validation or simply love learning more about new cars and technology, we are your car experts.
Subscribe to Car Expert: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC7DvMhvy3H7ntEgn9n3xQcQ?sub_confirmation=1
You'll find us dropping new video content three times a week. If you'd like to ask a question about one of our videos, simply leave us a comment. If you'd like to give us any feedback on our content, feel free to email us, or alternatively, hit us up on social media.
Finally, we want this channel to grow with your support and feedback. If there's anything you don't like or would like to see us change, we'd love to hear from you!
Follow us on social media to see what we're up to and to ask any questions!
CarExpert:
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Twitter: https://www.twitter.com/CarExpertAus
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Paul Maric:
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Twitter: https://www.twitter.com/PaulMaric
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/PaulMaric
#mg #zs #review
Category
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MotorTranscript
00:00G'day, I'm Paul. You really do not get many new cars or new SUVs for under $40,000 these days, so
00:06that is why this is kind of a bit of a surprise package. It's the new MG ZS. This is the top
00:12spec. It's the Essence, and it's the hybrid version as well. They've only launched it with
00:15the hybrid at the moment. This is priced at just under $37,000. Drive away for the top spec. If
00:20that is too expensive, the whole range kicks off just under $34,000. So there are a couple of
00:25options there. You can even get it with a white interior like you have on this car here. Now,
00:29today we're going to do a detailed review of this car, so if you do want to skip ahead to
00:32other parts of this review, you can use the time codes that are on the screen, or if you're
00:35on YouTube, you can scroll down and use the chapters below. Let's talk about design. So
00:39optional colours, well under $1,000, which is great news. A lot of car companies will give
00:45you a fairly reasonable entry price and then sting you for things like optional colours and
00:49optional interior colours and stuff like that, but they have been pretty reasonable here.
00:54So in terms of design, they've really sharpened this up. It isn't a huge departure from what
00:58it used to look like, but they have really sort of given it a bit more style at the front
01:01and the rear, and also updated the interior as well, which I think is important. Big MG
01:06logo down the front there. Got that sort of black grille with these closed off sections
01:11off to the side, and then an open section in the centre here. LED headlights, a bit of an
01:16aero element off to the side there. Then around the side here, you're sitting on a set of alloy
01:21wheels with machine finish on the outside there, and a piano black on the inside. It's an
01:2618-inch yellow wheel. A 50 profile tyre, so it should mean that it actually rides pretty
01:30nicely. You have that black cladding there as well. Indicator built into the wing mirror
01:35with a camera there for the 360 camera. No privacy glass, which I reckon is a little
01:39bit disappointing. It really just, I don't know, if you're going to use it as a family
01:42car and stuff, it's just nice to have that already there so you don't need to worry about
01:45sun protection for the kids straight away. You've got a glass roof up the top there, and
01:51then come around to the back with me. Now around the back, you've got partial LED taillights,
01:56ZS Hybrid Plus, because this is, like I said, the hybrid model. This is the other thing that
02:00people don't really realise with a lot of these new cars these days, especially Chinese
02:04market cars. Seven-year warranty is pretty sort of standard. These guys are doing a 10-year
02:08warranty. You can buy this car, and for 10 years, have warranty coverage, which I think
02:14is pretty remarkable, especially when you consider brands like Porsche. Three-year warranty.
02:18It's like, well, how much confidence do you have in your car if you're only doing a three-year
02:23warranty? So let me know what you reckon in the comments section below. Do you like the
02:26design of the updated ZS? What do you think about the pricing? Let me know your feedback
02:29in the comments section. Righto, so we're inside the ZS. This is what the key looks like. You've
02:33got lock, boot, unlock, and then MG on the back. It is a proximity-sensing key, so you can
02:40leave that in your pocket, and then you've got a start-stop button just here. So I mentioned
02:45in the intro that, you know, you don't get much in the way of new SUVs these days for
02:51under $40,000 drive away. This being the top spec with the full glass roof, you can option
02:56it with this white interior as well. I know, it just seems like really good value for money.
03:02Big infotainment system. You know, if you do just want a new car with a long warranty,
03:06it just ticks all of those boxes. So what is it like once you're in here, though? And it
03:11all feels fairly pleasant. Like, all your surfaces are soft touch. All of this stuff
03:16is soft touch. It, I don't know, just appears to be a nice vehicle. So, yeah, from that point
03:21of view, it's pretty good. In terms of your touch points, nice and soft there. Soft on
03:25the door as well. How soft are they? We've got our durometer. We've tested the main surfaces
03:29in this cabin. If you do want to see how this car compares to others that we've tested
03:32before, there is a link in the description below. Now, what about your build quality? Let's
03:37have a little look here. So, it all feels nice and solid. It's what the door slam sounds
03:41like. Now, infotainment. You've got a 12.3-inch display in the centre there. It is a touchscreen.
03:49Then a smaller display ahead of the driver. I'll run you through this first. So, pretty
03:53cool to see this has in-built satellite navigation. It means you don't have to have your phone
03:57paired if you don't want to. So, you can run satellite navigation regardless of that.
04:02You also have remote connectivity as well. So, you can actually connect to the car remotely
04:08to see the status of it, which I think is a great feature. Again, something you're going
04:11to find on more expensive vehicles, but standard here at under $40,000, which is great.
04:17Sound system, six-speaker, AM, FM, DAB, digital radio. Sound system's okay. Sort of nothing
04:23too crazy. On the smartphone mirroring front, you've got Apple CarPlay and Android Auto. Both
04:29of those require USB connectivity, which is a bit disappointing. I would have liked to
04:33see wireless smartphone connectivity for a modern car these days. But once you do plug
04:38it up, full-screen integration there of Apple CarPlay. And same story with Android Auto as
04:44well. You're getting full-screen integration as well, which is good. Now, over on the other
04:49screen ahead of the driver, you've got digital gauges off to the sides here, but that central
04:53display is the one that is the digital one and that you're going to get all your changeability
04:58on. So you sort of scroll through those menus and pick stuff that you want to on that screen.
05:02So safety features, you've got autonomous emergency braking with pedestrian and cyclist detection,
05:08manually dimming mirror. Would have liked to see an auto dimming mirror at this spec. Blind
05:13spot monitoring built into your wing mirror. You have radar cruise control with a semi-autonomous
05:18steering function that we're going to test a little bit later on. On the parking front,
05:21you've got rear parking sensors and a 360 camera. I'll show you what that looks like.
05:25So reasonable quality. You can see there, that's the rear view. And then we can switch. Actually,
05:32yeah, front view is not that good. Side view is actually not too bad. And then rear view is pretty
05:39reasonable as well. And you can also see the distance from the object down the bottom here
05:42as well, which is pretty good. And this is what the horn sounds like.
05:47Now, let's talk about practicality. And we'll start off with your connectivity. You've got 12 volts
05:51outlet, USB-C port, USB-A port, no wireless phone charging. In terms of other storage,
05:56sort of reasonably sized centre console there. Like this, you can actually adjust the size of
06:01your cup holder. So if you do get a bigger drink, you just sort of move it around a bit so it doesn't
06:05move around too much. In addition to that, you've got a sunglasses holder up the top here and a
06:11reasonably sized glove box as well. And climate, what does that look like? So you've got a single
06:17zone automatic climate control headed seats for the front two rows of seats as well,
06:22which is pretty nice. And you've got electric seat adjustment for the driver. So you can go
06:26forwards, backwards, your backrest can go forwards and backwards. And you can only lift the seat.
06:31You can't sort of adjust the front and the back independently. Passenger seat is manually
06:35adjustable. You've got manual lumbar adjustment as well. Steering, a bit of a weird one. It only offers
06:40tilt adjustment, no reach adjustment, which I just find really quite strange. And then on our reach test,
06:46all of this stuff is pretty easy to reach while you're driving. Now, second row, what's it like?
06:51Actually pretty surprising. So knee room, I'm sort of up against the seat, but not in the seat.
06:56Tow room is excellent. Headroom is really good as well. Keep in mind, I have my driver's seat pretty
07:00far back. So if you do have that a little bit more forward, you actually have a decent amount of room
07:03here, which is pretty surprising. Air vents down the bottom here, a single USB-A charging port. You've got
07:09map pockets, ISO fix points there as well. No centre armrest, no adjustability for this row of seats.
07:15You've got that excellent full glass sunroof there as well. Now, window test, does it go all the way
07:20up and down? So it's auto up and down. So close. Actually, no, just auto down, manual up. Now, cargo
07:28space. Let's have a little look. So you've got 450 or thereabouts litres to work with. A decent amount of
07:36storage under there. So no spare tyre, you've just got a tyre repair kit, but it's not too bad. You've got
07:40storage off to the side there as well. Show you what it looks like with our bag in there. So there
07:45it is there. Pretty reasonable. Now, if you do want more space, you can drop that second row. Gives
07:50you about 1,500 litres worth of cargo space to work with.
07:53So we've just hit the road in the ZS hybrid. Let's talk about the drivetrain first. So this is kind of a
08:03similar drivetrain to what they're using in their other products. So it uses a naturally aspirated
08:081.5 litre four-cylinder petrol engine that makes 75 kilowatts of power, 128 newton metres of torque.
08:14Really not a great deal to move, you know, something like an SUV. But it's paired with an electric motor
08:20that then increases that total output. And that electric motor is feeling maybe 100 kilowatts,
08:24250 newton metres just from the electric motor. That gives you a combined output of just under
08:29160 kilowatts of power and over 450 newton metres of torque. That is a lot of torque. And look,
08:36when we talk about torque, it's the feeling that you get, the push in your back when you accelerate.
08:42Typically higher torque figures like that are reserved for turbocharged or diesel engines.
08:46And with a diesel engine as an example, you're really only getting that for short
08:49bursts because it's through a sort of narrow rev band. Whereas here with a hybrid drivetrain,
08:54it's able to deliver that as electricity effectively. So throughout the gearing,
08:58as long as you're sort of importing torque to that electric motor, it is pushing you along.
09:03Now it is mated to a very odd transmission. It's a three-speed hybrid transmission. And what you find
09:09is there are random intervals where it's doing weird stuff. So right now we're sort of just puttering
09:15along and it's sort of doing 1400 RPM. If you roll out of the throttle, it's able to switch that
09:21internal combustion engine off depending on load conditions. And then you're able to run along on
09:25electricity alone. So if I come to a stop, and it's only a small battery, it's like a 1.8 kilowatt
09:31hour battery. So what you can see here is that when you slow down to a stop, it's switching the engine
09:35off and then it will switch it back on as required. And depending on how much battery you have,
09:40it's a bit hard to see with the glare, but the battery's quite low there. And depending on which
09:44drive mode you're in as well, it will change the way that the response feels behind the wheel.
09:48So, you know, it is a sort of fairly decent system. Where it really fell apart when we tested it in
09:53the MG3 was that it had dead spots when you really got up it and you were draining that battery
09:59and you were relying on the internal combustion engine to work with that three-speed automatic.
10:03It was kind of just a bit laggy at times. So we'll see what that's like when the speed picks up.
10:08But from a just drivability in and around town point of view, it actually feels quite nice and
10:12pleasant and quiet as well, which is the important part. Now let's talk fuel economy. So MG claims a
10:17combined average of about five litres per 100 k's. We're sitting on between five and six, which to me
10:23is a good middle ground to be in for an SUV this size. That is really low amount of fuel to be using.
10:30The only catch is that it does require 95 ron premium unleaded fuel. Now let's chat about ride. So the ride,
10:37I think they've done a really good job with this. MG's really weren't that well-tuned when it came
10:43to ride and handling, but it is something that they've well and truly evolved over the past few
10:48years to the point where it actually feels really nice behind the wheel when you're driving in town.
10:52If we jack the speed up to 130 here, let's see what it's like on our sine waves.
10:59Yeah, nice. You've got a degree of comfort there, but it's not too soft. It's not too firm. It's just
11:04where it needs to be. So you're getting that sort of slightly sportier feel behind the wheel,
11:09but it still retains all the comfort that you need, which I think is great.
11:12Okay, let's go for a bit of a faster drive around the track here. We do this back-to-back,
11:16same way in all the cars that we test, just to see what they're like once you sort of get up them and
11:21this has some mumbo. That is a lot of torque for this car and you can certainly feel it behind the
11:26wheel. Steering feels good. It's stuck into the throttle right here. You've got decent traction from
11:35the tires as well. It's just this gearbox is just a little bit weird. Like right now, it is absolutely
11:42woofing along. Wow, that is really good. But then when you go to access the pedal again, it kind of
11:50has exhausted itself sort of fairly quickly and no one's really going to be driving like this, but
11:55it has got some go. And from a sort of body control point of view and just a sort of handling
12:02point of view, I've actually done a good job with this. It sits nice and flat. Got plenty of
12:08traction available with this tire package as well. Yeah, it's just like right now I'm flat to the board
12:15and you can see the speed isn't really increasing at all, despite being flat to the board. And then
12:20at some point it will grab its next gear or lower gear or something and then it speeds up again. So
12:26it's a bit of a strange setup. Okay, so back to normal mode. Let's have a little look here on our
12:31bumpy road and see what it's like once we get to 90k's now, which is the speed we do this at.
12:38Yeah, look, this has a sharper edge to it now. You can certainly feel that as you're hitting some of
12:42these corrugations. Here's our condensed sine wave as well. We'll see what this feels like.
12:49Yeah, it is falling into all those divots. So while it has a slightly firmer edge to it,
12:53there is still that sort of level of comfort there. So they've gone for a tune that is
12:57slightly sportier than it is on the soft edge. Now in terms of road noise, there is a bit of
13:03road noise that comes into the cabin. I think that's due to a lack of sound denning. It's not the end of
13:08the world, but really on coarse chip surfaces, you're going to notice it the most. And this is
13:12how it went when we put it up against our calibrated sound meter. If you do want to see how this car
13:17compares to others that we've tested before, there is a link in the description below.
13:21So what about your visibility? So very good visibility down the front there. The wing mirrors
13:25are nice and big as well with a blind spot monitor built into them. Visibility at the back is good as
13:30well. Now time to do just a little bit of testing with the semi-autonomous system. So we do this at 70k's
13:35an hour on the bowl here. We use our three outer lanes and we'll see how it performs in each of the
13:40lanes. The outermost lane is the hardest one for it to achieve because basically it has to input the
13:47most steering torque to hold it within its lane. So we'll set that to 70k's an hour. The steering
13:54wheel's gone blue there as well. So it's now steering for us. You do still have to input steering
13:59every now and then, otherwise it will beep at you and annoy you. But yeah, first lane here is doing a good
14:04job, keeping us fairly centre to that lane. Jump over to the next lane.
14:13Okay, there we go.
14:17Yeah, it's not too bad there. It sort of veered towards lane a little bit but it's sort of gone
14:20back towards the centre which is pretty good. And we'll try it in the outermost lane. So this is
14:25the one where it will struggle the most to achieve what it needs to achieve. So it's gone blue. I'm going
14:31to gradually let go of it. Gone blue. I'll just gradually let go of the wheel. Let's see what
14:37it does. It's not liking that because it's going blue and it's changing back again. I'll try it one
14:44more time. No, no bingo. So lane one and two it was fine. Just that third lane it wasn't wanting to
14:51play ball with us. Okay, time to do some performance testing. So official zero to 100 time is just under
14:58nine seconds. So I'm going to pop this into sport mode. We'll switch off stability control.
15:04Okey dokey. Here we go. We're going to go from zero all the way through to 120. So we can get our 80
15:08to 120 overtaking time as well.
15:10Here we go.
15:21Gee, it gets along all right once it's up and running. There's 100 k's an hour and then it's doing its
15:28weird gear shift for 120. So all right, let's see how that went. That actually felt really quite strong
15:35once it got off the lines. So zero to 100, 7.79 seconds. So that is well clearer the official
15:42time. About like a full second, maybe I wrote that down wrong. And then 80 to 120, 6.11 seconds. So
15:49again, it was that gear shift that kind of was made a little bit weird there. But those figures are
15:53actually pretty decent if you ask me. Okay, let's do a stop from 100 to see what the brake and tyre
15:59package is like. Here we go. 100 to zero, 2.94 seconds, 41.02 metres. So not too bad, but not
16:17great either. So you're looking for a sort of stopping distance between 35 and 40 metres. So
16:22that is just outside that range, but not the end of the world. Now, how quickly does it go in reverse?
16:28Here we go. God, it is moving. All right, so it's 60 kilometres an hour. So MG ZS Essence Hybrid. What
16:43do we reckon? Look, I think that they've done a great job here in terms of value for money. You're
16:47getting heaps of features inside the car. You're getting that 10-year warranty. It's pretty quick
16:51as well for what it is. I was quite surprised by that. So it ticks all of those boxes. Would you spend
16:56for the top spec? I don't know. The base model actually kind of has a fair bit of stuff in
17:00it already, so you don't necessarily have to fork out for the top spec. The car itself is
17:04actually really good. So let me know what you reckon in the comments section below. Have
17:07you driven one of these? Do you own one? What do you reckon? I'm keen for your feedback.
17:11If you did enjoy this video, please make sure you like it and you share it with your mates. But
17:15until next time, take it easy.
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