Team-BHP - MG Hector : Official Review

During the official drive in June, Vid6639 and I took a diesel version up to Kotagiri/Coonoor from Coimbatore. It was very easy to get used to. On the roads around Mettupalaya, it was perfectly fine. On the hillclimb going up - 170bhp+ twisties - a red rag to me, I gave it the beans. The good stuff was that it could overtake slow trucks uphill with ease, when conditions permitted.

The bad news was that it just did not like it. It was like a spouse shrugging and saying "ok, I'll go along with it if you must". My arms ached from the understeer but the tyres surprising held on.

We took the petrol hybrid for the ride down. Less nose heavy but it could not keep up with another Hector diesel in the convoy. It was very unhappy and Vid6639 handed the car over to me. I completed the descent, driving "normally" and it was perfectly fine, your obedient servant. It will satisfy 80% of typical car buyers needs.

Fit and finish was impressive for the price. Some niggles like

The lag in compute intense applications like GPS
Auto wipers during misty rain reacted like trying to catch a flea, one minutes clapping around, and another minute waiting and waiting for water to be detected when right there!
Some loose threads in the stitching!

For a first effort, its not bad but it is no way related to the MG of old

Rating this 5 star. Simply brilliant detail.

When I first saw the ads with Benedict I rolled my eyes over thinking here is one more Chinese company trying to hoodwink us with a brand name change and getting an A List British actor to drive perception of a Chinese product. The Sail twins left a lasting impression of how bad Chinese products can be..

I heard from my colleague who worked in China that the Chinese are not necessarily cheap , but they can manufacture a product in any given price and You get what you pay for.

I first saw MG Hector in the Mumbai airport about 4 months back and was wowed and felt an amazing level of detail for the price had been put into the product. The definitive review from Team BHP further validates the worthiness of the product.

Only miss and this is a big one is lack of Diesel Autobox. Personally when I was on the lookout for a car from a full segment lower, Diesel + Auto was a decidong factor and sone one plonking close to 20 lakhs for a product will expect the convenience an auto box offers.

Unlike Harrier this product has enough grunt and value to be relevant in the market till the time an Diesel Autobox arrives.

A fantastic review to say the least. Thank you for the extraordinary amount of detail and the effort that goes into producing such praise-worthy content. The bar keeps getting higher with new Offical Reviews.

A couple of points come to mind:

1. Will the Hector also suffer from some teething issues akin to what happened to the first batches of XUV 500? The interior quality appears to be better than what XUV 500 offered on its launch. However, there are similarities in terms of misses. The software misses can be easily (hopefully) remedied by OTA updates - the other stuff is TBD.

2. A single dealer in each city philosophy that Skoda also followed when they launched Octavia many years ago is meant to attract new dealers and their investment. However, does it not put the car owners at a disadvantage? Hyundai, for instance, has 5+ dealers in close proximity to each other where I live and it offers peace of mind to visit a different dealer if the experience at a given service setup is not optimal.

Of course, Hyundai has many classes of cars that they sell and dealers won't complain about the competition since the pie is bigger but if MG is going with this mindset to only assign one dealer in a given radius and probably will have to commit to a non-compete assurance in writing when they sign up new dealers - it's just taking away leverage from the customers and placing them on the backfoot to some degree.

Thoughts?

Great review as always clap:

I too think Hector is a perfect example to any car maker, who wants to enter Indian market and taste success. Also got a strong feeling that MG is here to stay.

Quote:

Originally Posted by GTO (Post 4685243)

Poor ol' Maruti is watching with envy as everyone mints money in the lucrative Rs. 15 - 20 lakh SUV segment. Good volumes + FAT margins. Little Suzuki simply doesn't have the talent to make a nice premium SUV in this segment. Now that they have big-daddy Toyota on their side, maybe we'll see something from the alliance in the future.

Regarding Maruti's lack of produt in this segment, What's stopping Maruti from launching the Grand Vitara ? I think the market is matured enough to accept it.

First of all, rated the review 5 stars! Commendable job!!!

Secondly, wow! Just WOW!!! :Shockked:

I'm truly blown away with the feature list and the little nitty-gritties MG has provided! It is hard for me to believe that this is a INR 15-20L car!!! This along with the Seltos, have hit the competition out of the park! While Hyundai might survive this onslaught with the next generation Creta, all the other players must be wetting their pants off thinking about their strategies in this price bracket. MG has hit the right chord with the Hector for the Indian market - bling and feature list, the masses love these and it is not really a surprise as to how they've responded to the launch! Heck, my father would be a proud owner of one!

That said, no matter how many useful/useless features there are in a car, I'd prefer one that is mechanically sorted and I'm pretty sure the Hector isn't. The amount of "Internet Inside" is a perfect recipe for many things to go wrong. Also, did I mention that the exterior design is mostly "yuck"? The Duster and Harrier would still be my choice (yes, even with their own set of problems) but their already abysmal sales would be halved since the masses would prefer the Hector over them. Seltos and Compass are more expensive which is Hector's real trump card, pricing!

To summarize, I'm happy that MG and Kia are redefining the rules in the INR 15-20L price bracket and while their current crop of cars are not really my thing, I will surely be cheering for them because I'm eagerly waiting for what they could do with the INR 5-10L price bracket!!! :thumbs up

Quote:

Originally Posted by Asish_VK (Post 4685329)

Regarding Maruti's lack of produt in this segment, What's stopping Maruti from launching the Grand Vitara ? I think the market is matured enough to accept it.

Lack of good engines available to them in India that can do justice to the car's potential while still keeping cost in correct bracket.

Lack of planning to localize it at right time to ensure low cost. By the time it arrives, it will have a gang of incumbents to fight with. MSIL has been very short sighted and has handed over the segment in a jewel studded gold plate to others.

A well written review. Caters to all the questions I had and then some I didn't even think of.

The hector sure has drawn more petrol SUV buyers than any other SUV offered in India till now. What struck me the most was the torque on offer in the turbo-petrol engine and it's refinement. During a very short test drive, engine noise was absolutely undetectable in the evening rush hour traffic. The engine seems to be a GM / Daewoo derived engine. S-tec series engines have the 3 letter naming system starting with 'L'.

Another thing it did was that it got me thinking seriously about hybrid power-trains, albeit the mild version on offer. Till now, they were out of my reach and I never considered them as an option. This was the first time I tried it hands on and thought of how hybrids can help petrol engines come closer to achieving diesel engine fuel economy numbers.

Great review and a fantastic first product by MG!

I am just worried about all the electronics in the car with plethora of sensors; would be a test for MG's commitment to train all those service personnel, failing which we will see a huge number of disgruntled Hector owners in 3-5 years down the line!
Not to mention the "internet inside" and host of remote controlled features potentially inspiring novel ways from carjackers!

Amazing Review and I think this is one of the most awaited Official Reviews in recent times in addition to the Kia Seltos which is awaited as well.

Kudos to blackwasp, Ajmat & Vid6639 for the great job :thumbs up

Hope they bring in the Diesel AT soon to remain relevant. Tata is bringing an AT for the Harrier and Jeep has claimed to include an AT in the lower variants of Compass as well. We need to wait and watch what they do with the pricing once the BS VI Engines are included.

Wow. This review is simply fantastic. The attention to detail is mind blowing. There is absolutely no one other than this forum who can highlight the exposed mechanism when the seats are reclined all the way. Top notch.

Hector is a good car. I will soon be switching over to an SUV from a sedan and Hector is on the top of my list. However, the missing diesel AT is a blocker. 5.7 kmpl (as highlighted in another thread) for a petrol automatic is abysmal. Hope they good out with a AT soon.

Thank you Blackwasp.

Excellent Review, I think this is the longest review on the forum - means, Hector offers so much to the buyer :)

MG has set a bench mark for others, we should wait and watch for the competition's reply. Hector can be a good family MUV, till they add a AWD to call it a SUV, along with a Diesel automatic it will bring more people to the showroom.

Amazing review, brilliant detailing as well.clap: As GTO mentioned in his reply I always feel sorry about Maruti for not bringing the Grand Vitara with 1.6 DDiS they used in old S-Cross at this time where a lot is happening at sub 20 Lakh market in India. There are a lot of them competing here in the UK roads with the popular Crossovers like VW T-Cross, PSA C4, Honda HRV and even Duster (from Dacia in the UK and Europe).

What happens to the electronic parking brake in the following scenarios?

Scenario 1: Wire cut by a mouse in case of a parked car on an incline? Is it fail safe? i.e. in case of a disconnected wire, brakes will take the engaged position?
Scenario 2: If it is operating in fail safe mode for scenario 1, what will happen if wire is disconnected in a moving car? Will the hand brake engage?
Scenario 3: Scenario 1, but malfunction due to low battery (very likely scenario in India)?

I wish somethings stay analog, too much digitization is getting irritating to be honest!