Firestyle Magazine Issue 7 - Spring 2017 | Page 41

I did find the boot to be a little
on the shallow side considering
the size of the vehicle and with
the rear seats folded down
you did have 1300 plus litres of
storage space, and what I was
impressed with, there is a spare
wheel albeit a space saver
but at least the manufacturers
have not gone down the road
of putting a can of foam in the
boot.
From a driving perspective, I
didn’t find the instrumentation
particularly easy or user friendly,
I suppose that is down to not
wanting to read the handbook,
but the facility to access the Blue
Tooth or the phone or navigation
was not the most easiest, but the
quality of sound reproduction
from the radio was very good.
The plastics on the vehicle are
of the old hard old fashioned
variety not the touchy feely type
that we have become used to,
having said that they did what
was re-quired. If you do go for
the entry level vehicle you still are
getting a reasonable amount
for your money. For example
the entry level Explore does
get cruise control, automatic
headlights and air conditioning.
If you want the remote control
central locking, a DAB radio
and Blue Tooth connectivity or
parking sensors then you need to
move to the mid-range Excite.
There is a lot of opposition in this
particular market and the only
real way to explore if the MG
is the one for you is to have an
extended test drive.
of big wheels, but they seemed
to add an attraction, whether I
would spend the £900 that they
cost as an optional extra is another
matter. One item I did not like
were the side sills, on getting out
of the vehicle it was very awkward
not to get the back of your legs
wet or dirty from them, an optional
extra that would not feature in
my specification, sad, because
they do look good but are totally
impracti-cal.
During a week in company with
the vehicle and a considerably
large amount of mo-torway
mileage I found the vehicle to
be a comfortable and easy
companion. The high driving
position gave excellent all round
visibility in and around town
whilst some col-leagues have
criticised the automatic box for
being a bit jumpy or holding
gears and on my test car I found
it performed admirably and
without question. The top of the range GS is well
specified with cruise control,
parking sensors, heating and
adjustable wing mirrors, stop/start
engine system, hill hold, roof bars,
the list goes on and on, and for
the £20,995 in this day and age
I think it represents good val-ue
for money. I suppose the down
side could be the residual price
after 3 years, sadly MG have not
been particularly good in this area
over the last couple of years and
time will see whether or not it will
improve.
I really did like the 18 inch alloy
wheels that were fitted to the
vehicle, I’m not nor-mally a lover The range has a reasonable
warranty of 5 years and that has
to be a big factor.
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