[kings2306]

Originally Posted by Sidban85

Any update on GNCAP? And any number for ground clearance?

MG's Sales Consultant gave me a figure of 185 mm ground clearance when spoken today and the below mileage numbers..

Guess the dealers have been given these figures by MG today.

[nasir88]

Was reassuring to see the high speed performance and stability of the Astor in this video. The reviewer also praised the same a lot in his video.

However it is very disappointing that there are almost no relevant drive videos or reviews of the 1.5 CVT combo. Hope the performance in that setup is adequate as well (although I am aware it will definitely not be in the 1.3 Turbo league).

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zo1IxSyh8No

[JoBlo]

Originally Posted by nasir88

Was reassuring to see the high speed performance and stability of the Astor in this video. The reviewer also praised the same a lot in his video.

However it is very disappointing that there are almost no relevant drive videos or reviews of the 1.5 CVT combo. Hope the performance in that setup is adequate as well (although I am aware it will definitely not be in the 1.3 Turbo league).

https://www.Youtube.com/watch?v=zo1IxSyh8No

was painful to see the car being thrashed around off-road, but that may be the only way to do a review. Also, I was instinctively ducking my head to get a better view of the road. It was a bit disorienting

[Dr.Naren]

Test drive: MG Astor Turbo Petrol AT

I had been to MG showroom today. There were no other customers to check out the Astor, guess it was due to noon time on a weekday. SA was assigned immediately and TD was also arranged within 10 minutes.













1. Handsome looking car. Good fit and finish. Paint quality is very good.

2. Interiors felt rich and premium. Soft touch plastic and leather inserts are too good.

3. Overall space is good. Rear seat is best for 2 adults and 1 kid. Boot looked small, but it's flat and should be easy to load / unload.

4. Turbo Petrol engine has good punch. The torque converter takes atleast half a second to respond when you smash the A pedal all of a sudden. Shifts were smooth on regular driving.

5. Brakes have good bite and progressive.

6. Handling is decent. Felt better than Creta. Ride quality was OK. The car was very bouncy at 120 kmph on a flyover where the surface wasn't smooth / flat.

7. I didn't get to fully test or explore all the features and ADAS. SA was trying to explain lot of things and I didn't pay much attention . I just wanted to see how it drives.

8. Booking amount is 25k and it's fully refundable.

Something which was very annoying

There is no crawl function and A pedal is very sensitive. It was ok to manage in stop go traffic, I got used to it. But it got very tricky while I was trying to park the car after TD. There was a huge obstacle in front and I could see it using camera. The car won't crawl and it was very irritating to modulate the super sensitive A pedal along with applying brakes.

My S-Cross interiors looked so ancient after MG experience

[Sidban85]

Dealer called me and asked to book directly is that better or will it be better to do that online?

[ridehard]

The silver is looking damn fine on this car! And the fantastic interiors with the feature set on the style MT (base model) is super enticing.
Thinking of booking one blindly, only grey area is the 1.5 MT performance/mileage figures :/

[Sidban85]

Funny conversation: dealer from Bangalore sent price list. It had a component called Essential Kit. On being asked what it contains, they mentioned the usual mats and also the idol.
When asked where I can place the idol, since there is going to be the AI bot there, no answer.

Question for those considering the Astor: any idea where the idol can be placed?

[Col Mehta]

Test drove 1.5 CVT today. A few observations:

• It's smooth! That's the first thing we all noticed. The 3 cylinder turbo unit is also refined and doesn't have any issues with NVH but this 4 cylinder engine is just ridiculously butter smooth. The only gripe we have is that it's a little boomy on higger RPMs. The 1.3 turbo sounds better - more sporty.

• The performance of the engine and CVT transmission is about adequate in city traffic conditions. It's not slow but it's not as fun as the 1.3 turbo either. In D mode, the progress is satisfactory, but tap the A paddle looking for that instant acceleration and you will find that it's not very responsive and lack of outright torque is felt. In Sports mode, the engine feels eager and doesn't feel slow. Overall, it's a decent combo for city runs. For spirited highway drives and quick overtakes, this may feel inadequate.

We also drove Hector CVT. The performance didn't feel very different from the Astor CVT. The Hector has more power but carries more weight so in real world, it offsets that advantage. We have been debating over Hector CVT vs Astor CVT and after today's drive, we realized that spending another 3 lacs for a very similiar driving experience (barring Hector being a bigger car with couple of more usable features such as ventilated seats), isn't the most sensible option. Of course, for some people this proposition might make more sense but it didn't seem worth it. Hence, we would not consider Hector CVT at 21.5 lacs OTR over the Astor which is 18.3 lacs OTR.

Coming back to the booking - we have booked 1.3 turbo AT Savvy variant, but still evaluating 1.5 CVT as my son is a sedate driver and might not need that extra power. It's a tough call. The CVT saves us close to 1.7 lacs over turbo AT and returns (hopefully) better FE, but it offers just about average performance. It's a mind vs heart decision and I would let my son to take the final call as he would be driving it primarily. I'm happy with my humble 6 year old Creta diesel AT .

[Gotcha]

MG is quite inconsistent. Some Astors have the "Morris Garages" badge in the front and some don't. Also, still no news about availability of 1.5 MT base model for test drives.

[Transmission]

Originally Posted by Dr.Naren

There is no crawl function and A pedal is very sensitive.

It must be the auto-hold function kicking in. It was noted earlier by someone else too - but there is definitely a creep function.

Originally Posted by Gotcha

Some Astors have the "Morris Garages" badge in the front and some don't.

Thats the optional bling (paid extras).

[Dr.Naren]

Originally Posted by Gotcha

MG is quite inconsistent. Some Astors have the "Morris Garages" badge in the front and some don't. Also, still no news about availability of 1.5 MT base model for test drives.

"Morris Garages" badge is an optional accessory.

Originally Posted by Transmission

It must be the auto-hold function kicking in. It was noted earlier by someone else too - but there is definitely a creep function.

Hope you are right, but the car never moved without A pedal input.

[TheStRyder]

Originally Posted by Dr.Naren

"Hope you are right, but the car never moved without A pedal input.

Thats the Auto Hold function.

I generally use the Autohold feature when traffic is less as it gives rest to the right foot at traffic signals and turn it off for creep function in bumper to bumper traffic

[manpreetsj]

Originally Posted by Col Mehta

Hence, we would not consider Hector CVT at 21.5 lacs OTR over the Astor which is 18.3 lacs OTR.

Coming back to the booking - we have booked 1.3 turbo AT Savvy variant

Appreciate your feedback on Hector vs. Astor. I am still waiting for TD. Somehow flagship dealership of MG doesn't have Turbo Astor available for TD since Saturday. How can Co. not have new car at flagship store?! Maybe they want people to book Astor and TD later. Hence, ensuring good booking nos. (That's the trend lately)

Just one observation, the Astor Savvy is priced closer to 19.7L which has only 1.5L difference vs. Hector Sharp CVT and not 3L. It's space and comfort vs. a bit of fun driving. If it was 3L difference, I wouldn't have been confused. MG should have priced Astor in line with Hector.

[das_ren_auto]

Originally Posted by Dr.Naren

Test drive: MG Astor Turbo Petrol AT
There is no crawl function and A pedal is very sensitive.

Hi, in fact I have also done back to back test drive of CVT &Turbo from the same showroom. First I have driven the CVT model. The car was effortlessly crawling at 6 kmph and I had to use brake to slow it down. Since it was available in CVT i did not check the same in Turbo.
I think if auto hold is on then it will not crawl. There is every chance that in your td vehicle it would have been on.

[Col Mehta]

Originally Posted by manpreetsj

Appreciate your feedback on Hector vs. Astor. I am still waiting for TD. Somehow flagship dealership of MG doesn't have Turbo Astor available for TD since Saturday. How can Co. not have new car at flagship store?! Maybe they want people to book Astor and TD later. Hence, ensuring good booking nos. (That's the trend lately)

Just one observation, the Astor Savvy is priced closer to 19.7L which has only 1.5L difference vs. Hector Sharp CVT and not 3L. It's space and comfort vs. a bit of fun driving. If it was 3L difference, I wouldn't have been confused. MG should have priced Astor in line with Hector.

You are welcome, dear!

This is new, basis our experience, it's the CVT which is not available for TD in most of the showrooms. We had to drive for more than an hour to Lajpat Nagar to get the CVT TD. Please try dealers in Delhi, all of them have turbo variant (I see your location is Gurgaon).

The comparison is drawn between CVT variants of the Astor and the Hector. Both of them offer similar driving experience while the difference is more than 3 lacs. The turbo Astor, on the other hand, is a far better engine and I'm not sure if comparing it with CVT Hector is apt, even though the price difference is not more than 1.5 lacs. We found Hector a little too big for our use and the interiors didn't appeal either (Astor has spoiled us ). But I feel you.. ignoring Hector at this price point is difficult. I say, take back to back TDs of CVT variants of both the cars and try the turbo Astor at the end. You wouldn't want to go back to the CVTs if you are a keen driver.

Good luck

Ps: Hector DCT and CVT are priced similarly. But I wouldn't recommend DCT for two reasons - super low FE and potential unreliability of transmission. Plus it's reported that it's not as fun as other DCTs in the market.