MG MG5

This is a review after 1 month of ownership. Although purchased as a new car, it didn't come with any manuals, but the dealer sent me a pdf version which might have been the official one.

THE GOOD: #1. Seats, driver position: This is a very comfortable car to sit in and to drive, with lots of seat and steering column adjustments available.

#2. The acceleration, braking and handling are excellent.

#3. The setup of these (e.g. regenerative braking level, responsiveness of accelerator) is easy via the main, infotainment touchscreen.

#4. The range: Really does look like 400Km is practical for planning purposes, provided speed is limited to 80kph most of the time.

#5. Considering the above, this is pretty good value for money, once you have organised your workarounds for the bad points below.

THE BAD: #1. The "Manual", which is supplied in the downloadable mobile phone app. This seems to have been written by the system computer nerds, without input from anyone who has every tried to use the car and without any non-nerd editing. Instructions for charging the main battery may be your first port of call, and you won't get much help, unless you like tracing first through the index and then through several dozen pages of circular references. It will tell you first to switch off the power - but not how to do this, and it's not obvious (actually, what you have to do is lock the vehicle and then unlock it again to open the the charging port flap - but don't sit in the driver's seat as that will reconnect the main battery). If you need to find out how to find or use any feature, the most effective way may be to ask Google or ChatGTP or Claude. For basic functions, there are some great 3rd party U-Tube videos.

#2. Switching from Drive (Forward) or Reverse to Park, getting out of the car and walking away DOES NOT TURN OFF LIGHTS OR RADIO. The car will not give you any warnings or reminders. If you want to leave the car unlocked, the best way may be to lock it and then unlock it again. There is a "Power Off" touch control in one of the infotainment sub-menus, but this doesn't have any noticeable effect other than disconnecting the main, high-voltage LiFePO battery from the12v system, allowing the 12v battery to run flat and disable the car.

#3. Storage space is not quite so good as it might seem at first sight, with zero provided in the half-empty front compartment (bonnet), and a depression in the floor of the rear hatch which can be covered by a lid if you need a flat storage space - but that lid doesn't seem tough enough to handle my 30-40Kg SCUBA gear!

#4. Rear vision: (a) Just adequate in daylight with no rain, but the tiny rear wiper covers a totally inadequate area, half of which is obscured by the centre rear headrest, and (b) THERE IS NO REVERSING LIGHT!! Only a tiny reversing indicator light to satisfy regulations. - and the dealer warned me that fitting a usable reversing light would void the warranty. So reversing into an unlit driveway at night, the wing mirrors will show only blackness, vision through the rear window is limited to the distance, and you're totally dependent on the dim light reaching the rear camera - which may not show obstacles to the sides. The 360deg camera system is not useful under these conditions either.

#5. Collision Avoidance: There is no front proximity detector, so although there is protection against collision with obstacles at the rear, objects hidden below bonnet level at the front may not always trigger alarm or braking, nor will an accidental creep forward in a traffic queue.

#6. Automatic Speed Limit Detection. This seems to use the A.S.* system both to receive input from some online map and to try to detect numbers in the camera views and guess whether (a) the images really do contain numbers, and (b) whether those numbers are intended as speed limits. It works about 70% of the time, which is really good. However, it hallucinates 30% of the time, which is not quite so good, especially if it suddenly tells you the limit has increased to 100 in an 80 zone or decreased to 40 in a 100 zone. (and see #8)

#7. Driver Interface screens and buttons. This is where the MG really falls down. Everything seems to be designed to draw the driver's attention away from the road ahead. The driver's central information screen is cluttered with low-priority inessentials, road speed is shown half way down the screen in less than generously sized numbers, any preset speed is off to one side, and pride of place is given to the vehicle's frequent new guesses at the local speed limit. All the controls except lights and wipers are instantaneous-type push-buttons, so there is no tactile feedback, and the status of the control has to be found by searching the screens. The automatic speed limiter and standard adaptive cruise control are controlled by 2 buttons on the left of the steering wheel which control many of the "driver assist" features, and their functions change according to the order in which they are pressed, the direction they are pushed (5 directions for one button, 1 direction for the other) and how long they are pressed. The driver can easily be surprised when the button which had just been used to initiate cruise control now changes to speed limiting. Just to confuse matters further, automatic speed limiting did suddenly self-enable after it had been turned off. I am sure there is a control sequence somewhere to enable/disable this function, but I can imagine nasty accidents during overtaking. Changing set speed on adaptive cruise control can be a trap: a single tap increases/decreases by 1kph, but holding for more than a second triggers accelerating 5kph steps - so you can quickly find yourself accelerating to 20 kph or more beyond your target - and meanwhile you are looking down to the left instead of at the road ahead.

#8. Alarm and warning sounds. In addition to voice warning of speed limit breaches, there are 2 different alert sounds which confuse the driver in response to all manner of events. Often there is little to indicate the source of the irritation. Sometimes, there is an inscrutable indication on the instrument display - such as "Warning: Ready Mode", which turned out to be an unsecured passenger door when attempting to change from Park to Forward.

#9. Mobile Phone Call Interface. Why this is generally pretty good, one unexpected feature is that incoming calls disable the camera system when parking - even when not accepted.

* A.S. : often misnamed A.I. but that's still in the future: there are specialist, algorithm-driven systems, and then there's A.S. Personally I'd rather trust H.S. (human stupidity), because it's more predictable.

MG Australia Fails Its Customers – My Brand-New Car's Rear Windshield Shattered Without Cause! – I bought a brand-new MG5 Essence, trusting MG’s 7-year unlimited warranty, only to face a shocking issue—my rear windshield shattered on its own, without any impact, touch, or reason. When I reached out to [Name Removed] (MG representative), I was given an absurd excuse: “It happened because the weather is hot and you used the A/C.” Seriously? A brand-new car should not fall apart due to normal weather conditions!

To make things worse, MG Australia’s customer care ignored me completely—no apology, no solution, nothing. It has now been over 10 days, and my car is still off the road, leaving me stranded with zero response from MG.

This is beyond unacceptable. Is this how MG treats its customers? A car company that refuses to stand behind its own warranty? I demand accountability! @MGMotorAus, fix this now!

#MGAustralia #MGFail #ConsumerRights #LemonCar

A lot of car for a bargain price – This car is awesome. I’ll put up the 2 negatives first being the reverse camera is unnecessarily bad, and the turbo lag is terrible if you don’t know how to game the double clutch auto. But outside of that we love this car! 4.6lt to the 100km on the freeway at 110km/h is exceptional. Even around town it’s sub 5.5lt/100km. The interior is premium, the power is great and the price is fantastic.

A refreshingly affordable new sedan offering...but hold on buying one for now – If you have a restricted budget, and want a new sedan with a 7 year warranty, there are few better options than the MG5. But you need to wait until MG implements new safety improvements before buying one. The good things about the MG5 include its feature list. It gets dual digital displays, although the drivers display is a blend of two types of LCD display.

It gets premium feeling seats, aggressive styling, a turbocharged motor and a dual-clutch gearbox.

You get drive modes too! There's also plenty of space in the second row, despite its compact exterior. And it also packs a generous boot too.

The lack of a telescopic steering adjustment was an annoying exclusion that made it slightly less comfortable to commute in than a car with this type of adjustment.

I also felt like I was sitting fairly upright compared to other hatchbacks and sedans I've driven recently. I'd certainly welcome a kit or update to allow you to sit further down in your seat.

It's a bit more fun to operate than MGs SUV range, but despite it's sporty exterior, it's still not as capable through corners as something like a Hyundai i30 Sedan N-Line (which is a lot more expensive).

A big issue however, was the news that the MG5 essentially failed its local safety testing here in Australia. ANCAP deemed to be a 0 out of a possible 5 stars, when rating the MG5.

MG is capable of building cars that will rate a 5 out of 5 with ANCAP. MG has announced it's going to upgrade the structural integrity and safety equipment provided in the MG5 sometime this year. It's unclear if the car will be resubmitted for ANCAP testing.

For value's sake, I'm rating this a 2 out of 5. But for safety's sake and in the interest of buyers, I would avoid any MG5 made before MG implements these safety upgrades to their car for the Australian market.

*Disclaimer - I work for ProductReview as their independent car and motorbike expert. I borrow new cars and motorbikes from manufacturers and owners to review. I am not paid or incentivised by these brands to post reviews. I write and create content to provide insight and information about any new or used vehicle I can get my hands on.