MG Hector First Drive Review Auto car India your notifications
MG Hector First Drive Review Auto car India
First impression is the best way to promote anything. What somebody thinks of you the first time they meet you is likely to attach with them for a long term and that’s true about a car too, well, and just as important. In fact, it’s even more important for the car on the verge of launching, and entire brand. So, say Hello, everyone to the Hector, a car that’s got a lot to prove. It will be launching the MG brand in India and quite frankly it’s also entering a very very tough segment, but they seem to have done their home work and have loaded it to the gills with a lot of tricks up its sleeve, but is that enough? Well we’ve given you a first look of the car before and now we here to do the real deal. We’re in Ooty to drive it but before we go any further, be sure to give this review a like and for more reviews, comparison features and news be sure to subscribe to this blog to turn on all your notifications.
You Can Check at MG Hector Official website here https://www.mgmotor.co.in/vehicles/mghector
The first impression of any car is made when you first set eyes on it and the Hector’s front end will immediately draw your attention, as it’s got a very bold face with lots of chrome around the grille and more still in the bumper. It too follows the recent trend of slim LED daytime running lights placed high up with the headlamps and fog lamps placed lower down in the bumper. Personally, I quite like it, but that opinion starts to change looking at the car in profile, there are nice touches like the chrome band at the base with Morris garages embossed in it the sharp shoulder crease, the kink in the window line at the rear and the floating roof effect, but there’s just something amiss about the Hector’s stance and that’s mostly to do with the17-inch wheels and tires that feel far too small relative to the car size and the big wheel arches that makes it look more like a crossover MPV than an all-out SUV. The rear is a bit busy with lots of angles and lines and unnecessary reflector strip between the tail lamps, rather unconvincing silver panel meant to mimic, a real skid plate, but these are all subjective things and who knows, maybe some people might just like it. Thankfully, the look of the interior is far more straightforward and less polarizing, now the interior of the MG Hector certainly makes a great first impression and that’s because it’s really high on the wow factor. Of course, it all starts with this vertically oriented 10.4 inch touch screen which I’ll get into later cuz there’s a lot of detail in there, but it’s also just the perceived quality in this cabin that’s so high, there’s this lovely leather finish on the dashboard, it’s on the steering wheel and even the plastics for the most part are really, really high-quality there’s a good amount of texture and color spreader on the cabin. Ok, some bits like even on the dash drop a little bit hard and shiny, but for the rest of it to touch and feel, it really feels good. It’s also designed quite uniquely and that should be a big draw for a lot of buyers. There are big storage bins in the doors, a narrow but deep bin under the armrest and a pair of cup holders that I wish were just a little bit larger, another area where MG aims to shock and awe you is the equipment list.
There are the usual segments staples like- leather upholstery, auto climate control, auto headlamps and wipers, keyless entry and go and cruise control, but then it goes so much further, it’s got a full length panoramic sunroof power driver and passenger seats; heated wing mirrors eight color ambient lighting and a seven-inch color and on the safety front, you’ll find six airbags, disc brakes all around traction, and stability control ISOFIX child seat mounts, a tire pressure monitor and parking sensors at both rear and front. Incredibly, it’s also got 360 degree cameras that even give you an overhead view but the image quality on screen leaves a lot to be desired, but there’s so much more to this 10.4inch touch screen, which is allied to an e SIM for onboard internet making. This another connected car, it’s a bright sharp and colorful display but some of the functionality is unintuitive it can take time to load and port touch sensitivity, means you have to probe the screen a bit harder than you think it features, onboard navigation Android auto and apple car play and even the gana music streaming service with a premium subscription, and it’s all allied to a punchy sounding eight speaker infinity audio system with a subwoofer.
The physical control buttons are reduced to just five volume up and down, front and rear defogger and a home button which means many functions require you to take your eyes off the road and use the touch screen like, even adjusting the AC. There are voice commands to get around this door which I did try it later on. What I also got to try on, later on, is the integrated smart phone app which was rather cool. Now much like the Hindu venue we tested recently. This MG Hector is also being touted as a connected car and that means, it too has a partner smart phone app. This one’s called Eye Smart and that lets you access a lot of the car’s features from anywhere in the world. I don’t have to be standing so close to the car. My favorite feature on the app is the remote control system it’s quite simple but it lets you do a few crucial things like locking and unlocking the car. For instance, just have to put in the pass code and the other thing you can do is open the sunroof or close the sunroof in case it’s raining or it’s too hot which again locks in the password for security and there we go it’s done now. In the automatic car what you’ll also be able to do is start the car remotely and also turn on the a/c to pre cool the car but because this is the manual and of course it’s left in here.
The car would just stall if you try to start it so that’s not an option here but there are also a bunch of other cool features in this app that I’d like to show you- these include geo fencing, that alerts you if your car is driven out of a certain preset radius, a find my car GPS feature and smart drive which scores you based on your driving habits and yet, despite all that cool tech, there is one more basic attribute that could draw customers to this MG crossover now will you just look at this, I think this backseat might be the MG Hector’s biggest drum cart because look at the space on offer; it is just tremendous.
Ok, I’m not the tallest person and yes the driver seat is in my position but I had a 6-footer sitting back here earlier and we pushed the driver seat all the way behind and he still had enough room but it’s not just the actual space, which of course there is plenty of, but the sense of space you get back here thanks to the huge panoramic sunroof and these massive, massive windows, not just that the seat itself is quite comfortable, very well cushioned, not too soft not too hard and of course there’s this other little trick; and it comes forward to suit your needs, the floor is quite flat so a middle passenger won’t be too uncomfortable; there are of course rear AC vents and you’ll even find a USB fast charging port for your device but with such a vast backseat does it mean that the boot space has suffered well. MG didn’t give us an actual boot volume figure, but you can be the judge now- the MG Hector does have a pretty large boot, it opens up with this power tailgate which I can open with the remote or from the inside with the touch of a button, but at first glance, it might not seem that big; that’s exasperated by the fact that the loading lip is really quite high. You got all your bags over and to it and inside you find a flat loading space, but again it feels like there could have been more space. Still the truth is, there is a bit more space and that comes when you lift this up.
You’ll find a subwoofer here and you’ll also find a much bigger loading area back there that you can chuck them odds and ends in where is the spare bolted underneath the car and if you’re wondering where the boot has such an unusual layout. That’s to accommodate the small third row of seats that are coming in 2020. This is the mild hybrid petrol version powered by a 1.5 liter turbocharged four-cylinder engine with143 horsepower and 250 Newton meters aided by a 48 volt electric motor which does provide some electric boost. It also features brake energy recuperation to charge the additional lithium ion battery and fuel saving engine stop start. Although this didn’t engage even once during our drive overall though it’s a decent power train with good refinement and smooth power delivery; it does however feel a little weak before the turbocharger kicks in and I was starting to feel this on this narrow twisty mountain road.
The weak bottom end is really really showing in conditions like this and I find myself shifting down to second and even first, sometimes to tackle some of the sharper uphill corners; What’s more, because there was quite a lot of traffic that day, I wasn’t really able to pick up the pace on this particular stretch but it was at least a good test of the handling as for the dynamics of the MG Hector. Well, let’s just say it’s not a car that wants to be driven enthusiastically. The suspension is very soft to the car goals, that are quite a lot under steering – it feels quite slow and light I really feel quite disconnected from the road. The advantage, of course, is that it makes it much easier to maneuver at lower speeds but try and have a little bit of fun with this on a windy road, and you come away a little bit disappointed after the beautiful but crowded mountain road.
We managed to make our way onto the highway to stretch the Hector’s legs with no passengers on board. The petrol hybrid version felt adequate but during overtaking maneuvers it felt like it could have done with a bit more punch but then if it’s a highway cruiser you want, you are probably better off with the diesel. The diesel engine in the MG Hector is actually quite a familiar one. It’s the 2-liter four-cylinder Multi Jet diesel engine you find in the jeep compass and the Tata area which is interesting because they should be some of this cars closest rivals, but as is often the case, each company that uses the same engine tends to tune it a little bit differently for their car. So here, like, the jeep compass, it makes the same 170 horsepower, but it feels quite a lot different, the first thing you notice is that it feels a little bit more refined than it does in the Jeep.
Sure it is still audible, but it’s a lot quieter. There’s also a certain refinement of the way it delivers its power. You don’t get that same solid whack as you get in the compass and I’m pretty confident that when we test it against our equipment, it won’t be as quick as the jet. Either what you get instead is a far more relaxed and more linear power delivery so the power comes in more gently, and frankly, that suits this cars demeanor just fine. It’s not one of those cars that you want to push really hard in the first place. It’s far more relaxed and it does a great job of just cruising and I’m sure it will be great with a full load of passengers and luggage. The 6-speedmanual is geared quite tall in the interest of fuel economy and at lower speeds, you might feel a bit of hesitation and a need to shift down but out here it feels right at home. Another thing I can tell you while driving out here on the highway is that, this car doesn’t give you that same sense of solidarity that you get from other cars in this class for one the suspension is set up really really soft so while you are really comfortable at low speeds, it doesn’t move you around quite a bit at higher speeds and that’s not very reassuring, also not very reassuring is this very very light steering that just doesn’t give you enough confidence. You feel a little bit of play in it and a bit of looseness and that’s not what you want.
Out of the highway, other things of note are the brakes, which have good feel of the pedal and offer a good amount of light, the fuel economy figures @mgclaims as per a RAI certification. A 17.4 and KPL for this diesel and 15.81 KPL for the petrol hybrid. We didn’t get to test the non hybrid petrol which will come in manual and DCT auto guises but the acclaimed economy is 14.6 and 13.96 KPL respectively. MG tells us that it’s voice command system is very very intuitive and very very helpful. MG Hector has a lot to prove in our market. It’s a relatively unknown upstart. A classic British brand reborn under Chinese ownership although prices weren’t revealed at the time of this review. It will be going up against the Tata Harrier and Jeep Compass, two very strong competitors; its approach ,however is very different to those two; where their focus seems to be on delivering that big brawny classic SUV appeal, the Hector’s aim is to give you more features, space and an easy driving experience. Some will knock it for not looking or feeling SUV enough but others might appreciate that it simply isn’t taking that route.
What they like is, its bold blingy face, the acres of room in its back seat, it’s cushy light and is vast, if at times gimmicky equipment list only time will tell if the Hector and indeed MG can deliver on things like durability, after sales care and spare parts and service costs; but with a wide network of showrooms and touch points in the works, they seem to be covering their bases; for now all we have is this first impression and boy has it been a strong one.
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MG Hector Car Review 