[GrammarNazi]

Visited the MG showroom at Mahadevpura. Got to Test drive the Hector after ~40 mins waiting. In the mean time they served coffee & I checked out a few aspects of the showroom display-car.

• While driving, the steering feedback felt fairly good. It gained weight with speed. IMO it's well tuned - abit light but that really helps mask the size & weight of the car. Steering was thin-to-hold : People with small hands will like it - especially women.
  
  
• Diesel pulls well right from 1500RPM. Very tractable. The showroom had prudently put a thick foam on the driver side (for safety purposes). Couldn't gauge the extent of clutch travel.
  
  
• Exterior Build quality is really good. Panels are tightly fit & gaps seemed even. Seemingly good paint quality - but that could be due to the polished cars whiteness in the showroom lighting.
  
  
• Driver ergonomics are well defined. I immediately found a very good seating position.
  
  
• Interior Fit and finish of plastics are good, similar to Harrier. Every occupant gets XXL knee space. Rather small glovebox though. & There's a small cubby hole below the rear a/c vent - enough to keep a phone.
  
  
• The car is narrow & the interior makes it comfy for 4 healthy people. Tight for a 5th occupant. Another family who had recently booked an Ertiga said interior breadth is similar. IMO The distance between passengers needs to be more to make it feel like a segment higher.
  
  The arm rest section with tiny 100ml water bottles.
  
  
  
• Engine bay was covered in plastic - looks neat from top, but I like it when I can see the parts to check for leakages near the bolts, drive belt, internal rubber hoses etc. Since its all covered, I dunno how reachable the various parts will be. Even the battery terminals were not reachable.
  
  
• The sales guy did not know the warranty details. I asked if it was 5yrs / unlimited kms & he said it's not so. He was out of brochures & price lists. He's only forwarded me the price list via WhatsApp. When I asked for warranty info even later in the evening, he said he'll check & let me know. I wouldn't have bothered but for him saying it's NOT for 5yrs/unlimited kms. Anyway, he might have had a long day.

Overall, it's a good car. IMO it will surely be good in the short term (5-6yrs), but I have serious concerns about long term (6-9yrs) maintenance costs if mechanical components don't age well post warranty repairs & part-replacements.

In India, we often get cars with much lower equipment levels compared to global variants of the same car models. Car makers have always taken top Rupee from us and under delivered in terms of equipment. This car will change the market and we will finally get to see other brands bring their fully equipped cars to India. A big big THANK YOU to MG Motors for this.

Anyway, this is the basic feedback to the best of my knowledge, just for the benefit of fellow members & travellers. Some people prioritise mechanical integrity over exterior design. My priorities could be different from others. Drive safe.


P.S. : When that touch-screen acts up, only MG may be able to service the vehicle. Post warranty period, they can possibly refuse to service unless ALL repairs are as per MGs standards. I'm abit skeptical considering potential long term usability related issues.



P.P.S. : Something seems wrong with a small section of people I see nowadays.

While having a look at the show-room display car, there was this guy who spent almost 30 mins in the driver seat while 2-3 people were eager to see but were waiting patiently. This self absorbed guy was being oblivious of others and even casually answering his office calls sitting around in the driver seat! Post which he was doing nonsensical time pass while showing his 3yr old kid the controls not just once, but 3-4 times over and over again.

When I got my chance to see the passenger side, I casually mentioned to him that one particular gentleman was eagerly waiting patiently for quite a while standing at the driver door. He glimpsed but still chose to stay oblivious & continued his childish antics.

[don_carmaster]

Originally Posted by NAVREVV

Is Seltos not on your list? I also test drove the Hector DCT in Noida and felt that low end torque is dismal and overall DCT felt under powered with no Sports mode on offer. Also, its size for a 5 seater SUV is too huge impacting the FE nos and daily commute on such a bulky car could be a challenge.

The sports mode is very much there in the DCT model. It changes not the tune of the engine.. but holds the gears longer .
Move the shifter towards right when youre in D mode to shift to the Sports mode

[Lambydude]

Took a test drive of Hector DCT from Jubilant JP Nagar Bangalore yesterday. I bought an Octavia TSI in March and there was a hidden intention of doing a comparison.
Must say that If I hadn't bought Octavia, I would have definitely gone for Hector. The reasons are

1. Fit, Finish and Build quality - The car is very well put together and the doors close with an almost European like thud. Bonnet is heavy and they have used good quality sheet metal. Paint quality is also good
2. DCT and Engine- dual clutch transmission works very well. Cannot figure out when the gear shifted. Engine is very refined. However 1.8 TSI DSG feels more powerful.
3. Ride quality : Plush ride quality and better than harrier
4. Steering : Is light but weighs up when speed increases. Car is very easy to maneuver. Very good visibility all around
5. Touchscreen and ICE : The connected car feature is excellent. Music sounds really good and is on par with Harrier
6. Boot space : 575 L boot is huge and has a very good layout as well
7. Price: 21 lacs on road Bangalore for top end DCT
8. Delivery period : already 4 months waiting in Bangalore
9. Features : lot of additional features like 360 deg camera, boot close switch, ambient lighting etc.
10. Warranty : 5 years and unlimited KMs. Wow!
11. Voice operated Panoramic sunroof

A few negatives (subjective)
1. Plastics - Hard plastics on top of the dashboard. However soft touch material in front of dashboard and arm rests.
2. Acceleration - Maybe I'm spoilt by 1.8 TSI, but Hector DCT felt not too eager to pick up speed
3. Under thigh support - A bit more under thigh support would help especially in the second row.
4. Auto dim IRVM/ORVM : Not auto dimming
4. Service centers: As of now only 2 in Bangalore. Ecity and one in North Bangalore.
5. Brand image : Chinese car?

If you are not bothered by the 'chinese car' image, Hector gives great value for money.

[aarvee]

Took a test drive of the Petrol DCT. Went to Gurgaon MGF showroom right in the morning today, but had to wait for a while for the TD. Wait time is quite understandable, given the popularity. Request fellow TBHPians to call and book for TD before proceeding to the showrooms.

Coming straight away to the TD: Found the car highly responsive, much much better than Jeep 1.4 DCT. Driving in the traffic seemed like a breeze; sudden requests for power were treated well by a gust of high output. Didn't notice any significant delay in upshifts and downshifts. The turbo seemed to be well tuned to the engine. The gear shifts were quite smooth and DCT appeared working well. Handling was smoother than expected and potholes didn't bother that much, though I noticed that rear suspension seemed to jump a bit when going over speed bumps.

I also tried the manual mode and found the car to be happily responding to accelerator inputs.

Best thing for me was that the car didn't seem bulky to drive at all! What appeared big and wide outside appeared to be well in control like a well designed urban SUV.

Only thing that bothered me was that the MID showed 4.9km/l as the fuel efficiency. Understand that TD cars show low mileage due to poor handling etc, but the compass I TD'ed showed 8.5km/l.

The electronic parking brake works well and kicks in automatically every time the car comes to a standstill.

Wait time claimed is 3 months for P and D manual and about 5 months for DCT.

Lets see what others say about their experience.

[dhruvwali]

Test drove the petrol DCT sharp today. Coordinated with my sales rep(already booked the car on 9th June) beforehand.

Reached at 10.20 am and was the first for the day for the TD.

Impressions -
- in D mode there is enormous turbo lag and pickup is slow
- The S as per the sales advisor is sequential mode , essentially a manual mode. Didn't get to try it out.
- Can disable the creep mode by a button
- Electronic parking feature is cool and effective
- For pottering around in the city it is more than adequate
- AC is adequate. In 38 degrees heat the already hot car took a few minutes to cool and rear passengers were happy too
- The handbrake area in case of auto is much higher than in MT. But this is good as all buttons are easily accessible
- Parking sensors and cameras work well to aid in parking this beast. Camera quality left a lot to be desired though. Not sure how it will perform in the night
- Braking was good
- Suspension was not bad at all. I'm used to i20 and Honda City, compared to that the suspension is great!
- Noise insulation is phenomenal, engine is pretty silent too
- DCT was not jerky for me.. I'm used to amt and torque converstors and CVTs though.
- The paint quality and sheet metal quality is excellent. I thumb pressed the metal on various angles of the car and there was absolutely NO flex. Compared to other cars I've owned/driven this was pleasantly surprising.
- Even though the width of the car is more than my Honda City the rear seat bench width is lesser. 3 'healthy' people can't fit in comfortably. 2 adults and a child will easily fit in.

Will definitely go ahead with my booking and changed the color to Blaze red(earlier had booked burgundy).

Will book and test the seltos too but the dimensions are a little too small for my liking.

P.s. - I see people talking about FE of the car. I didn't see instantaneous FE display in the MID. Instead I saw average speed display. Did I miss anything?

[Shreyas_H]

I saw this advert today in the Times of India.



I guess something seems off about the dimensions, have they made Benedict smaller? Or blown up the car size?


I plan to test drive the petrol automatic soon, encouraging to see the comments here by other BHPians.

[AnandB]

Haha yeah, that picture is the opposite of what i felt about dimensions of Hector from its other pics. Looks smaller in most pics but in real it's not.

[urajkumar]

I went to book a car for my friend today (petrol automatic top) and was told waiting time is 5 months and 22k bookings already. Still he went ahead and booked it. The car looks big from front while the side and back profile is not great. The driving position is superb and the reclining seats are awesome. The drive is smooth and no noise felt inside the car(petrol). All in all a compelling buy for just 2 lakhs over creta with the panaromic sunroof

[Guna]

Originally Posted by urajkumar

I went to book a car for my friend today (petrol automatic top) and was told waiting time is 5 months and 22k bookings already.

This is crazy but this just goes to show that the Hector has far exceeded the expectations of a common buyer, while we (Bhpians) are still skeptical and unsure about few things.
I have a observation/question on the touchscreen. Looks like the entire screen is not usable and thee is thick (1 inch?) black frame around. Now the claimed 10.5 inch, does it correspond to the outer frame (physical) or the inner (usable) frame?

[NAVREVV]

Originally Posted by dhruvwali

- The S as per the sales advisor is sequential mode , essentially a manual mode. Didn't get to try it out.

True! That’s what SA told me as well. So essentially there isn’t a sports mode like we have in a DSG.

[gopalnt]

What does this statement mean? "Buy back at 60% AT AN ATTRACTIVE PRICE "? Isnt that contradictory?

[sreejinair]

Originally Posted by gopalnt

What does this statement mean? "Buy back at 60% AT AN ATTRACTIVE PRICE "? Isnt that contradictory?

It sure is, what they probably mean is a maximum of 60% of ex showroom price, roughly a maximum of 50% of the OTR pricing or less.

[jailbird_fynix]

MG Hector 7-seater to be launched by Mar 2020

"Price of the MG Hector 7 seater variant will be about Rs 50k to Rs 1 lakh more than the 5 seater variant."

Details

[Vid6639]

Originally Posted by gopalnt

What does this statement mean? "Buy back at 60% AT AN ATTRACTIVE PRICE "? Isnt that contradictory?

You need to pay a small amount at the time of purchase to avail of the guaranteed buy back is what it probably means.

Like they have for mobile phones, assured buyback value.

As GTO mentioned 60% of ex-showroom is not that great of a buyback price anyways in 3 years.

[indian21r]

Originally Posted by Vid6639

As GTO mentioned 60% of ex-showroom is not that great of a buyback price anyways in 3 years.

60% ex-showroom is too low. It is less than 50% of on-road price (taking tax rate of 12%). I initially read it as 60% on road and thought that is a good deal.