[PART 1 of 2]
Hi guys !
First of all, my apologies for not replying to your queries and concerns with proof. I totally agree that if I was in your shoes, I would also be sceptical about someone who has posted their first post here, and given out such a bad review of a new car, and then didn't turn up to defend their claims.
This is going to be a lengthy post, so brace up.
A little about my cars first. I have a BMW GT Sport Diesel (2016), Innova Cysta ZX Diesel (2019), Seltos GTX Diesel (2020), XUV 700 AX7L Petrol (2021) and the MG Hector Plus Petrol (2023).
One of the questions someone asked was - how did I get the car so quickly. Basically, we were looking for something in the range of 20-30 L. We tried Compass (didn't like it), Superb (OKish), Octavia (Okish), Seltos (Amazing, but 1 month waiting time), Harrier/Safari (pretty basic), Had a horrible prior experience with Maruti, so didn't want to even consider, Innova Hycross (wanted petrol hybrid, but loooong waiting). So, we went to the MG showroom, saw the car, liked what we saw, took a very small test drive (more on this below), and booked a SILVER car on 23rd Jan (wrong dates in the original post - sorry !). Got a delivery time of 1 month. Were told that a WHITE color car was standing with them - the customer's loan was not being passed by the bank - so if the loan is not passed by tomorrow (24th Jan), we can offer that car to you. On 24th, got the call early morning that the other guy's loan is not going through, so if you want the car, it's yours. We abandoned our wait for the silver color, and went to the showroom on 24th Jan, and got delivery by evening after completing formalities.
Since we wanted the car before 31st March, we had also booked a silver Seltos just in case our original Silver Hector Plus was delayed beyond 31st March. Cancelled the Seltos booking eventually.
Another question being raised was - Why didn't I notice these things during the test drive. The answer is - I was given an unregistered vehicle for a test drive. It was not a TD vehicle, but a vehicle which must have been sold to someone else later. Since it was not a TD vehicle, agency guys wanted to have as less KMs on the odo as possible, so took a TD of about 2 Km - and you can very well imagine how much you a gauge in a TD of 2 Km.
On the morning of 24th, before delivery, I did a thorough PDI, the Odometer reading was something around 25-30 km. So, my car was not a TD vehicle or a used vehicle. It was brand new in all aspects.
On this being a "hit job" - I am not into Automobiles as my profession. I have no affiliations or hard feelings about MG. I have absolutely no skin in the game for me to try and tarnish their brand.
I clicked the videos/pics on 19th, but typing this today on 23rd night. The current reading on the Odometer is 2,653 Km.
Some more observations since the last post :
1. The Audio system is
BONKERS !! I drive the car almost daily, but always have other people with me, so can't really turn up the audio. 4-5 days ago, I had a chance to do about 100km alone, and got absolutely blown away by the deep lows and crystal highs of the audio system. I tip my hat to the audio team. Recommendation to all - Listen to any and all songs from the album Paper Trail by TI. It's from 2010ish, but still as awesome as it was back then.
2. Auto turn indicators are a nice touch, but for us Chandigarhians, they are a bit of an issue since we have to traverse Roundabouts, and the car just keeps on giving random left/right signals all the time while you are navigating the roundabout - indications which are not the correct direction where I'm going to go.
3. Fuel efficiency is pathetic. I'm getting 7-8kmpl on a 50-50 mixture of city and highway driving with a reasonably light foot - never crossing 90-95 in the last 1,000 km.
4. I have noticed that the screen takes a lot of time to turn on when the car has been parked for more than 2-3 hours. BUT if you start it in less than 2-3 hours, 50% of times it turns on quickly (2-3 seconds), but the rest 50% is again the long wait.
5. 50% of times when I turn on the AC, I hear a 0.5 second phusshhhh sound from under the car - like pressure being released. Don't know why.
6. About 20% times when the car is accelerating, around the 60-70 kmph mark, there is a clanking sound from under the car with a small jerk. Don't know the reason, but it certainly is not the sound of some rocks hitting the car floor.
As proof, I have uploaded a few videos of the car to Youtube (didn't know where else to upload). Links below : (Please click on the links since Youtube seems to have converted some videos into shorts, and their thumbnail isn't showing here. There are a total of 6 videos)
Ventilation -
Fuel Lid -
Traction Control -
Screen start time - 40 second delay before I can use the screen ( 00:12 to 00:51 in the video) -
Fonts -
Screen Off - Buttons issue -
Photos of my car are below :