Chinese cars

MG ticks/ticked a lot of boxes financially which is the extent a lot of people care really, and tends to review well "for what it is" and what it is able to deliver. On paper it was done the "right way" for the western view of a Chinese car, ie the combination of Western and Chinese strengths....supposedly (not quite the level Geely have managed to maintain an image of but their western market products tend to be pricier). It has tried to stay as close as these things can to a hatchback rather than a CUV/SUV ethos. They have a 2 seater due on the same platform, even if unsuccesful that gets a kudos for me for even trying. To me it all seems reminiscent of what Honda tried with the E/the roadster concept but Honda probably released that platform too early.

We shall see what import/duty changes/political posturing does to these vehicles as well as longer term usage statistics for them.
 
Not great looking though. They completely lost it with the back end. Aesthetics are something Chinese designers don't seem to be able to get right.
 
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lordrobs said:
Personally, as it stands today, I wouldn't buy an MG because of it's ownership but they are selling like hot cakes so I'm obviously in a minority.
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out of curiosity where was the phone /computer you post here on manufactured, or what about your TV or trainers?.
don't get me wrong you are 100% entitled to boycott who you choose and god knows china government sucks.

but just curious why cars are an issue because of their ownership?
 
bigmike20vt said:
out of curiosity where was the phone /computer you post here on manufactured, or what about your TV or trainers?.
don't get me wrong you are 100% entitled to boycott who you choose and god knows china government sucks.

but just curious why cars are an issue because of their ownership?
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As I've already mentioned, I've got a Redmi phone. I don't have a problem with buying from China.

I just wouldn't choose to spend 30k on a car from a subsidiary of a Chinese state owned company. The fact that the brand used to be a British sports car manufacturer and is now used to sugar the budget Chinese offerings from SAIC is a lesser but still present consideration.
 
mg3 hybrid seems like more Chinese things to go wrong for long term ownership versus a 2nd hand toyota hybrid, or a straight cn ev , namely - battery/transmission/motor.
prefer a sub £20K used MG4 .. if you can get an extended warranty .. local garage was offering extended 2yr warranty on used ICE's carcareplan.co.uk @ £600
(researching maybe not worth the paper they are written on though if you might get held to account on incomplete service record by previous owners;
"Our assessor has advised us after reviewing all the new information, according to the information we have, you purchased the vehicle in March 2021 and had the following service performed in June 2022, so it was 3 months overdue. We have no service history prior to June 2022, and it is the customer's responsibility to ensure the vehicle is maintained in accordance with the manufacturer's service schedule."
)

tv is japanese & asic trainers vietnamese
 
Never owned an MG but noticed their petrol models have really poor resale value, not sure about ev models
 
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bigmike20vt said:
as opposed to European and American build quality?. plenty of crap from there too.

Chinese cars are just like everything else. there is a whole range of quality you can get good or bad.
just like a lot of quality stuff comes from there but so does all that plastic Poundland crap. but who is at fault there.... them for making it or us for buying it?

edit .. ninja'd
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Yes of course, but it seemed from the reports it was rather a big problem. Tesla are also having huge problems with the stupid Cybertruck.

I've had German cars for the last 20 years, aside from wear and tear I've had nothing major, certainly not rust and no major software issues.

At heart I just have a huge problem with what China is doing in the world and I don't want it dominating / taking what's left of manufacturing from us or Europe. So on that basis alone I won't buy a Chinese car no matter how good it is. But if they are crazy good value for money I understand why many others will.. and that's what China will do, and at some point will do it right. Just hope it's a few decades off.
 
that is fair enough. But a lot of it is bought on ourselves.... No one forced the west to ship almost all it's manufacture over to china (and then try to blame china for their high energy use whilst they manufacture all our crap)
also no one forced the west to not keep up. I am not just talking about EVs and china. tho legacy car companies dragging their feet about them whilst China just got on with it is a really good example, and now China are miles ahead esp with battery manufacture.

but for instance (something my dad constantly moans about).. the UK use to be world leaders in motorbike manufacture , but they refused to update as technology went on. for a while they still did ok by the name alone even tho their bikes were heavier,.slower and more expensive than the competition but eventually people realised the likes of triumph , Norton and BSA just were not very good any more and the companies laughed at originally were better all round.
imo the likes of VW etc will be ok for a while as they trade on their name, and some of the high marque companies will likely survive, but I will be very surprised if they all do, or at least if the name survives they will be bought out.

originally it was honda / suzuki / (Datsun (Nissan) (with cars))

more recently Kia / Hyundai

A decade from now BYD, Geely, SAIC (MG) I think will be the same as Kia / Hyundai are now
 
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bigmike20vt said:
maybe it's changed but my understanding was MG Ice cars pretty poor, MG EVs much better.
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I think being an EV is just hiding the problems tbh. It's much easier to make with less moving parts. Especially when you can just steal the designs (China's usual way of doing "research")

But there will be missing corners somewhere. Usually it's things like rust protection and parts being made of cheese.
 
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I think a lot of the buyers of the likes of MG aren't bothered about rust proofing or necessarily longevity. They know they'll be getting rid of it it in the 7 year warranty period.
 
Manbatius said:
I think a lot of the buyers of the likes of MG aren't bothered about rust proofing or necessarily longevity. They know they'll be getting rid of it it in the 7 year warranty period.
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(I have no idea of the answer to this) but the MG ZS relaunched in the uk in.... was it 2017? ish? (could have been a bit earlier am not sure).

what is the state of those cars now ? from what some have said in this thread if they are that bad they should be starting to show some serious rust issues now (i remember some fords in the 1990s were going rusty within 5 years so if these are worse than that..........................)

if those early relaunched MGs however are still fairly rust free underneath then i guess they are not that bad...... but if they are............................

(edit I googled and there are a couple of threads about rusting MGs but not that many and they were from 2018, they could have improved since then)
 
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We had a MG5 for 6/7 months and I can't fault it at all;

It was cheap, available for order/delivery when we where told we'd have a 18 months wait for VW ID (tail end of COVID).

We now have a KIA Niro and again couldn't fault it at all other than the super small boot, I'd consider another MG EV as a second car.
 
kkelly said:
We had a MG5 for 6/7 months and I can't fault it at all;

It was cheap, available for order/delivery when we where told we'd have a 18 months wait for VW ID (tail end of COVID).

We now have a KIA Niro and again couldn't fault it at all other than the super small boot, I'd consider another MG EV as a second car.
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If the main issue with them is lack of galvanising then i dont suppose those kind of issues will show until the car is over 5 years old. I fully admit its a very valid concern. The main point of EVs is they are better environmentally, but this is absolutely not the case if penny pinching a few hundred quid on manufacture costs means the cars are fit for scrap at 10 years old because of rust.

Mud sticks as well. I had a 1998 fiat. Fiat were (according to the main dealer and i havent fact checked) the 1st mass produced car company to galvanise their car bodies to stop rust, but even so, even now decades later they still have the reputation for being rust buckets even tho it isnt the case any more.

but that reputation earned in the 1980s is still their to a degree.
 
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