[hiren.sharma]

I don't understand why we judge a car by it's origin? Even though it is Chinese, it is solidly put together. Yes, there are some material quality issues but hey, Hyundai's dead steering was never given this much attention.

Even Toyota uses hard plastics all around in Fortuner and Innova, and yet they never squeak or rattle, may be that's the secret.

Anyways, I test drove the Petrol AT today at PPG showroom in Delhi. Yes, the gearbox was silent like DSG, couldn't feel the shifts. However, the MID wasn't showing the current gear, to me this was bit disappointing. And this Combined with petrol motor lag, felt like a CVT. It had the similar rubber band effect like you would expect from a CVT. The gearbox was too eager to upshift. As soon as you start to enjoy the turbo power, it'd switch to the next one. I didn't find this combination to be impressive at all.

I then tried the Petrol Hybrid and loved it for 'no-lag' beginnings.

For me, Hybrid is the pick of the three. I'm sure if driven properly, can easily give more than 13kmpl in city

And oh, the hybrid car had airbag failure warning in the MID :(

[CrAzY dRiVeR]

Originally Posted by amit1agrawal

The plastic in the area where I suppose Isofix child seat will fix is made of cheap plastics with so many scratches.

The part which brushes your footwear is made of hard material. I found it uncomfortable.

Yikes! That first mage of the scratched plastic is nasty. Which showroom is this btw?

Those mats have no place in a car of this price bracket. Hope it's just dealer item and not something MG is planning to provide to owners.

[AirbusCapt]

Originally Posted by Steeroid

Quality issues will come out sooner than later - the veneer is usually very thin on Chinese automobiles. The worry is how many folks that have bought into this fake British story would’ve lost their money by then. A forum like this should educate masses and not add to the chorus as people go headlong for an unknown brand. That much responsibility I believe we owe to those that come here.

The subterfuge shown in positioning the vehicle as something it isn’t is unethical, IMHO.

Don't worry, the official review will clear everything. We just need to wait for it.
Regarding the Chinese, they will never say can't do to any price. They will simply use low quality material and make the product for you. The same Hector would be superb had they launched it at 40 lakhs. At 20 lakhs, they are giving you a veneer of 40 lakh car, but built like a 12 lakh one..

[prakash_ajp]

Originally Posted by hiren.sharma

And oh, the hybrid car had airbag failure warning in the MID :(

There are several disturbing things about this:

i) That a new car had a failure in one of the critical safety feature.
ii) That the dealer didn't care to fix it
iii) And more importantly, that they don't care about the safety of the people driving the vehicle. Typical Indian mindset!

Originally Posted by AirbusCapt

Don't worry, the official review will clear everything. We just need to wait for it.
Regarding the Chinese, they will never say can't do to any price. They will simply use low quality material and make the product for you. The same Hector would be superb had they launched it at 40 lakhs. At 20 lakhs, they are giving you a veneer of 40 lakh car, but built like a 12 lakh one..

And looks like we are already seeing signs of built-to-cost with the airbag failure!

[amit1agrawal]

Originally Posted by CrAzY dRiVeR

Yikes! That first mage of the scratched plastic is nasty. Which showroom is this btw?

Those mats have no place in a car of this price bracket. Hope it's just dealer item and not something MG is planning to provide to owners.

I visited the dealer in Mahadevapura ORR showroom. There is an essential accessories package for about 7k and I suppose these mats are part of it. I would rather not go with essential accessories and buy my own.
The showroom cannot accommodate another car. I wonder whether MG has plans to introduce other cars from it's stable in the Indian market or not. If yes, will they ask dealers to move to bigger showrooms?

[CrAzY dRiVeR]

Originally Posted by amit1agrawal

I visited the dealer in Mahadevapura ORR showroom. There is an essential accessories package for about 7k and I suppose these mats are part of it. I would rather not go with essential accessories and buy my own.

True! Looks horrible! At least decent fabric or 3D mats should have been on offer.

Originally Posted by amit1agrawal

The showroom cannot accommodate another car. I wonder whether MG has plans to introduce other cars from it's stable in the Indian market or not. If yes, will they ask dealers to move to bigger showrooms?

Next launch is the eZS fully electric SUV coming by year-end.

[AGwagon]

OT, Sorry to say this, but this is a constant on any thread on Tbhp which crosses 1000posts effectively before the official review or launch.

While we all are auto enthusiast and in this country filled with people with 'herd mentality' a group, which forms their own opinion and are analytical in their thinking. But we are also plagued by being human, and as humans 'we do not like change', 'we do not like outsiders' and 'we love carrying pre-conceived notions'.

So while the thread may start with full of excitement, information scoops and expectations, as soon as it starts to become over-active for its own good before giving people the chance to really review this in the real world (or the official review), the 'human (tendency)' in us would kick in.

My humble request for everyone here is to keep things simple and not off-topic. If we have relevant information, experience or a finding please post on this thread and validate your source, but if not please refrain from making prejudice judgements. We are moving to be a borderless world, where India will soon become the 3rd largest and USD 5 Tn, and that would not happen if we do not remain open to the world.

Most people coming to Tbhp or to read our forums come, seeking the same unbiased information, review and experience and I believe that is our duty as members!

Just to add again in one line, the car is more than 80% localized; most features that the India model is seeing, have not been available around in other countries; so they are continuously developing and implementing; this car has been there since 3 years now in various global markets and sold in multiple lakhs; most critical parts have been sourced from top global OEs; for those who don't know the Petrol motor was also co-developed by Suzuki & Daewoo (GM) for SAIC group.

So let's be patient and give the car a proper chance. They are not setting themselves to fail and IMHO feel they have been trying extremely hard to bring a competitive first product to a very difficult Indian market and so far have been more or less on-the-mark.

P.s. MG & Benedict keep saying its a human thing! No disrespect to anyone here!

[vinod_hyd]

Got this pricing from dealer in Hyderabad. MG Secure Elite is apparently mandatory and we cannot take insurance from another company otherwise warranty would be void. I called MG directly to confirm and the call center rep put me on hold to talk to his boss about it.

Can fellow forum members confirm if this is the case? If it is indeed true, we would have to take the same insurance every year until the warranty expires.

MG HECTOR PRICING.pdf

[AGwagon]

Originally Posted by vinod_hyd

Got this pricing from dealer in Hyderabad. MG Secure Elite is apparently mandatory and we cannot take insurance from another company otherwise warranty would be void. I called MG directly to confirm and the call center rep put me on hold to talk to his boss about it.

Can fellow forum members confirm if this is the case? If it is indeed true, we would have to take the same insurance every year until the warranty expires.

Attachment 1891580

I have already told the dealer that I will be taking the insurance on my own, to which he responded that they will try and match the quote, else I can. This is a classic pressure tactic that all showrooms use to pocket the actual and quoted premium difference. You will need to stand firm your ground.

Also the price-list that you have uploaded has a MG Shield Elite built in, which is the most comprehensive AMC and has no exclusions up to the said kms and years. Could it be because of that? Although I do not think they strictly correlate.

[omranga98]

Here is my experience with Hector.
MG showroom South Kolkata.
The sales representative was very polite and gave me enough space and time to spend with the car alone. Since I went on a Monday, the showroom was pretty much empty.
Since most of the points are covered in this thread, I will try only to point out the bad bits of the car that I felt.
Interior
The doors felt heavy. As someone pointed out in the thread that the hinges that they are on are really tight (very cheeky).
Once you sit inside the car, It does give a very expensive visual appeal for it's price until to start touching things. Things look expensive but don't feel rich in quality. The dashboard and the door panels have hard scratchy plastic, the volume buttons under the infotainment system were already a bit loose and shaky. The soft touch portion on the dash has very thin padding behind and feels like one layer of sponge (Does not feel good to touch). Also the(L&R) button to control the ORVM felt very cheap to operate.
Like many pointed out, the under thigh support for the rear seats is not good enough. (My height for ref: 5'8")
The ambient lighting (Mood lighting?) looks tacky in the central console.
The camera quality is not the best but having 360 degree camera is a bliss.
Exterior
I pay a lot of attention to details and here is what I noticed:

There were 3 demo cars in the Showroom. (Black, Red and White)
Black= Sharp 2.0
Red= Smart 2.0
White= Sharp 2.0

The door handles, Chrome bits and flux silver diffuser felt well bolted and had no flex. The red panel connecting the two tail lights look okay-ish in terms of quality. (I feel the car would look better without them). The overall fit, feel and finish of the exterior parts felt good but then these were demo cars. Not sure how these parts will last over prolong usage in the real world.
I did not find any excessively large panel gaps or uneven gaps in the Black and Red one. The paint quality was flawless, even on the inside edges of the doors and boot. But on the white car, the story was a bit different. There were no excessive panel gaps or uneven gaps but I found the paint to be inconsistent. The car was locked so couldn't open the door to inspect the edges of the doors or the boot but managed to click one picture through the gap of the rear door. Notice the picture attached.
These are not external particles stuck on to the body but it was under the paint of the car. I slipped a sheet of paper into the gap to be double sure.
So there is that.
I did not find the wheels to be small but rather the choice of painting the insides of the wheel black, that makes it look small in pictures. Also I think I'll be the only one who did not find this car bad in proportion.
My experience overall with the car was positive seeing the price at which it comes and with the features it offers.
I guess only time will tell us if the car is reliable and built to last.

[vinod_hyd]

Originally Posted by AGwagon

I have already told the dealer that I will be taking the insurance on my own, to which he responded that they will try and match the quote, else I can. This is a classic pressure tactic that all showrooms use to pocket the actual and quoted premium difference. You will need to stand firm your ground.

Also the price-list that you have uploaded has a MG Shield Elite built in, which is the most comprehensive AMC and has no exclusions up to the said kms and years. Could it be because of that? Although I do not think they strictly correlate.

Hi AGWagon,


My first thought was that the MG Secure Elite quoted is the comprehensive AMC plan. The sales rep at the dealership told me that it was a special vehicle insurance package from MG and they still don't have the AMC package pricing and details. Go figure. I think the MG sales rep might be wrong and as you say the MG Secure Elite must be the AMC package.

[ajmat]

Originally Posted by Steeroid

Apologies for the rant, but it worries me that people in the country are going ga ga over a Baojun and are more than willing to cut it slack. We have an automotive tradition that’s as great, and hasn’t been built on plagiarism. It’s come up the hard way.

The Chinese will rule us soon.

Having driven the MG (yes, agree on the *******isation of the name), yes, it totally lacks the design flair of the Tata. The oily bits are stolid and far from engineering excellence. However, the fit and finish is reasonably well executed, I could see nothing wrong.

Fellow hacks and ourselves benchmarked and agreed that the Harrier is a more exciting prospect but all the cars we drove were consistent with their quality inconsistency.

Mechanically, the Baijun is not worth getting gaga about but bringing in new features coupled with competent execution will make it a superior customer experience over Tata. Consumers are like our kids, they want to be connected and have minimal hassles.

If only Tata waited those 6 months!

[Holyghost]

Originally Posted by suchit23

People told here that they had a great experience in terms of SA explaining things and all but ny experience was completely opppsite. Absolutely no one approached me not even a greeting. I couldnt even. Ake out who are employees who customers. No uniform on anyone. It seemed less of a car showroom more of a museum where people just came to see something interesting and take pics. Absolutely ridiculous.
.

Even I had the same experience at Kalyan Nagar showroom last week when I had given my Cruze for airbag recall service. The showroom was next to Chevy service center and hence thought of giving it a visit while my car was getting serviced. I entered the showroom and there were lot of people checking out the 3 cars that were on display. I waited near the entrance door for sometime and no one approached me. There was reception kind of desk with a lady and another person sitting. So I went near the desk, but the lady was on a phone call and was too busy. The person wearing an MG t-shirt seated next to the lady acted as if he was too busy with some paper work. He did glanced at me a couple times but did not bother to speak. I said "Hi", "Hello" a couple of times to that guy, but his attitude made me feel awkward. I stood there for may be one more minute and felt totally unwelcome, uneasy and finally walked out without even checking out the car.

Looks like the popularity of the car/brand has started to affect the showroom staff. I don't think I would like to go there a second time though I am really looking forward for their eZS electric car.

[AGwagon]

Originally Posted by vinod_hyd

I think the MG sales rep might be wrong and as you say the MG Secure Elite must be the AMC package.

I have managed to get my hands on all that the dealer may have on AMCs, mind you that it still leaves some things unanswered and not 100% clear.

Also would like the help of fellow BHPians in getting a recommendation on what package to choose.

As per my estimates for petrol DCT in 50k km, the labour service (albeit last 2) + RSA (5yrs) + Warranty is free (5yrs), so essentially what you would pay for is consumables and the regular service replacements (as per the service schedule attached). Also given what MG is marketing 0.45 paise per km (based on 1lac km), it means roughly INR22.5k for 50k.

However, my very crude and rough calculation tells me that you would spend an estimate of INR40-45k on consumables, parts and labour during the 7 services up to 50k kms.
All this is covered in Classic (minus the wheel alignment, balancing, etc. and wear and tear parts such as break pads, wipers, etc.) which will ideally be not more than another INR15k. This is covered in Premium.
And then this would also require one battery swap, which will cost another INR5-6k (which is covered in Elite).

So in my books Classic @ INR13k will surely be a no-brainer; Premium @55k will only be fruitful if there was even a single scenario of excessive wear with either suspension, clutch, steering and transmission, etc. I feel this plan is the real inflection point, and it will depend a lot on how the car is driven and of course its reliability.

Elite plan @ INR99k is only for those who wish to have complete peace of mind, but still feel it is too expensive when compared with Premium.

I am confused between the Classic & Premium for Petrol. For Diesel I feel Classic is the best option IMHO.

What do others think?

[NAVREVV]

Originally Posted by vinod_hyd

MG Secure Elite must be the AMC package.

MG Secure Elite is an insurance package.