[GTO]

Thanks to Abhishek for sending this information in. Heartfelt gratitude for sharing it with other enthusiasts via this page!

Hi Team,

Just wanted to share a few details on the new MG Astor. I have seen the top-end Turbo version today.

1. It would be a flash sale, most probably on 7th October and the booking amount needs to be paid online. As mentioned in the post already by EmpyreanKnight, this would be limited to 3000 deliveries till December 2021.

2. During my visit to the dealership, while opening the passenger side door, the door handle detached from the car body & came entirely in my hand!! I had not applied any additional force to open the door than normal.

3. The headrest when detached from the seat seemed to be of low quality.

4. Overall, the Astor seems great, especially the interior color combination, quality of internal buttons / knobs and the front grill.

5. As per the executive at the showroom, the boot is 360L.

Hope this helps

Abhishek

[KapilD]

Originally Posted by shibulijack

…. To be clear, I don't hate VAG. I don't want them to pack their bags and leave India. …

Like many have mentioned in this thread before me, MG Astor seems to be what Kushaq/Taigun should have been (at least when it comes to perceived build quality and premium-ness). Instead of yapping about the Chinese lineage, I believe we should give credit where and when it's due.

….

As a customer, I would definitely like VAG to be in the market and was pretty disappointed at the departure of Ford. It increases the monopoly and the innovation thirst. Look what Ecosport did to the category we are speaking about! It evolved the category above and below the perceived premium categories.

Now as for the Chinese lineage… which company doesn’t have Chinese stake these days? Almost all companies are having Chinese stake holding.. add to that the hold they have over battery raw materials. Nobody can escape the presence of China. So any sentiments are just sentiments, reality is different.

Even VAG and SAIC share parts, which is evident in MG Astor as well.

The above point of views were to supplement the perspective of the forum member.

And as rightly said, we should judge a product by its quality rather than lineage.

[CircleOfLife]

Originally Posted by shibulijack

You're right about the running cost. Bear in mind, MG ZS 1.5 abroad is supposed to be quite fuel-efficient. So until the official fuel numbers are released, I'd hold my horses on this verdict.

As for the rest of your post, I don't quite understand what you're trying to say. To be clear, I don't hate VAG. I don't want them to pack their bags and leave India. In fact, I was really looking forward to buying Kushaq/Taigun but they failed to impress me the moment I sat inside those cars. Of course, this is my personal opinion.

Like many have mentioned in this thread before me, MG Astor seems to be what Kushaq/Taigun should have been (at least when it comes to perceived build quality and premium-ness). Instead of yapping about the Chinese lineage, I believe we should give credit where and when it's due.

Let's wait for the price reveal and the test drive reviews before debating further. I've said this before and I'll say again, MG Astor could be the new segment best-seller by next year around the same time if the pricing is disruptive (MG has a good track record here). May the customer be the ultimate winner.

I agree with points above as a informed buyer. This is a very good product but one cannot ignore anti Chinese sentiments that flare up time to time. This will impact sales. Social pressure drives many decisions. This where yapping comes for Aam junta.

1.5 NA engine with CVT is a gas guzzler in Hector. It is the same engine in Astor with a lesser state of tune. Mileage might be little better in Astor but not by a big margin. What matters is how much does it give in bumper to bumper traffic where most of vehicles will spend majority of time. 1.3 turbo 4 cylinder with TC there is not much data available. In used car market one will find more Hector Petrol vs Diesel on sale. Reviews are initial impressions and a long term review is upto when one can really pin point strength and weaknesses and pronounce the verdict with due credit.

Preference of Auto vs Manual. Manual holds edge in market. 1.5 NA manual version will be the one to look out for to understand any ASTOR impact on Koreans. XUV700 might be bigger crowd puller.

Annual service cost is not yet known. Yes this will also play its part. Why? Whenever I sold my cars this is a question every buyer asked. What is annual maintenance cost?

Petrol only segment buyer are low in numbers,
this is where market share will be bifurcated and this is the place where Koreans will feel the heat.

With limited 3000 units how is it challenging Koreans or VAG or Mahindra? Liked idea of flash sale, very much sticking to tried and tested on how mobile phones are sold. Will create a hype.

I will reiterate ASTOR does look solid built along with lot of kit on offer is a very good proposition on paper. It might not be a corner craver or tickle your bones. Not everyone drives like you stole it

What does it take to be a challenger and top charts in the segment?

Diesel engine. Without this no manufacturer can challenge Koreans in short term. Market still has a preference here.

Number of touch points MG has is way lesser than Koreans. Simply put it forward one needs to sell more. Jo dikta hein waheen bikta hein. MG will sell number in tier 1 cities.

For most buyer in segment if it takes from point A to point B with lot of kit on offer it will sell numbers. Emphasis is on segment else wouldn’t Golster topple Fortuner

MG will price it aggressively initially to grab the attention and also will raise prices periodically. How long will MG continue with lesser profit margins?

Now personally, i liked Astor with preference of ADAS kit on offer, but there is one corner of brain which says suppose one rear ends or front ends the car with so much kit (radar, sensor) what will be repair cost? Privacy and data concerns persist. AI robot which was main attraction atleast in the display car was laggy and didn’t work most of times. Hope such is not the case with ADAS. Does MG pay royalty to parent company like Maruthi does? SAIC is not a charity organisation how is it benefiting by investing? Again these are personal queries.

VAG has its inherent strengths. Interior are not that bad but when pegged with Astor it does look pale.This is just one end of equation not the whole story.

Just putting down my opinion. Debates are reserved for politicians and news channels.

[TheVegabond]

It is not a rumor anymore that it would be a flash sale. Online booking will open on 1st day of Navratri (Oct, 7). You will get something like a token number when you book online and most likely will get the car delivered before Diwali.

I got the information that MG is looking to deliver 4000 cars by year end.

[bwildrd#1]

Originally Posted by CircleOfLife

1.5 NA engine with CVT is a gas guzzler in Hector. It is the same engine in Astor with a lesser state of tune. Mileage might be little better in Astor but not by a big margin. What matters is how much does it give in bumper to bumper traffic where most of vehicles will spend majority of time. 1.3 turbo 4 cylinder with TC there is not much data available. In used car market one will find more Hector Petrol vs Diesel on sale. Reviews are initial impressions and a long term review is upto when one can really pin point strength and weaknesses and pronounce the verdict with due credit.

Hector never came with NA petrol engine. It's 1.5 Turbo from Day 1. There are different gearbox and hybrid options available but no NA engine.

[CrAzY dRiVeR]

Originally Posted by bwildrd#1

Hector never came with NA petrol engine. It's 1.5 Turbo from Day 1. There are different gearbox and hybrid options available but no NA engine.

Guess he means it's the same 1.5 engine as the Hector, but without the turbo. That's also wrong though -

Originally Posted by CircleOfLife

1.5 NA engine with CVT is a gas guzzler in Hector. It is the same engine in Astor with a lesser state of tune.

Correction -
1.5 Turbo used in the Hector is a 1451cc motor.
1.5 VTi engine used in the Astor is a 1498cc motor.

It's not the same engine in a lesser state of tune, or the same engine without a turbo.

Originally Posted by CircleOfLife

MG will price it aggressively initially to grab the attention and also will raise prices periodically. How long will MG continue with lesser profit margins?

Hector 1.5 Turbo DCT top-end Sharp variant costs just 70k more than the Skoda Kushaq 1.5 DSG. I guess that should give a fair indication of Astor's pricing strategy.

[Artyom]

I would need some suggestions from the members based upon their experience.
Would it be a wise decision to buy Astor for my dad as against a tried and tested vehicle like Venue which we have already finalized but are waiting for the prices to be revealed for Taigun & Astor? Now I understand we cannot compare Venue with Astor in terms of specs but again both of them tick all the boxes which we are looking for. Do you think it's a risk buying a relatively new product as against a tried and tested product. As compared to Astor I would rather put my money on Taigun as VW has been on the market for some time and repairs and issues have a possibility of getting fixed in a shorter span of time as compared to MG which is a new player. Astor, Venue, Taigun(All In Automatic versions) tick all of our boxes which is causing this confusion. What would the forum suggest I should do? All in all, I want my dad to have relatively trouble-free ownership. He is a senior citizen and as such the thought of him being stranded gives me creeps although his 80% travelling will be in the city and 20% inter-city trips, not more than 400 km. Thanks in advance.

[marathp]

Originally Posted by KapilD

Now as for the Chinese lineage… which company doesn’t have Chinese stake these days? Almost all companies are having Chinese stake holding.. add to that the hold they have over battery raw materials. Nobody can escape the presence of China. So any sentiments are just sentiments, reality is different.

Very True. Even Volvo Cars are owned by Chinese (Zhejiang Geely Holding Group) now!!

[mayukh42]

The car looks splendid, and as many people have rightly pointed out, resembles Mazda CX-5. It is ok to copy good things. MG had my curiosity, but Astor now has my attention (after a famous movie dialogue ).

Red interiors are refreshing; I never liked beige interiors in cars (the industry figured this, so some of them offer black interiors only on top variants nowadays, commanding a premium over beige).

Diesel and MT combination slowly seems to be achieving cult status. Would have loved if MG offered that too. But dieselheads are a minority now.

The one thing which I will watch from sidelines, being a driving enthusiast, is the "Internet Inside" or "AI Inside" bling. A car communicates with the driver through its drivability and handling. That is enough, and other things are always for the co-passengers, in "good to have" category, but will never be a requirement for me.

The debate here about security and cloud providers have been healthy, and I would like to add my 2 cents as a software engineer in cybersecurity. Neither AWS nor Azure nor GCP are 100% safe. They just provide enough tools to build a solution that is as safe as any other solution in the market. And they "all" do, so one is not more secure than other. It depends a lot on the implementation. It is perfectly possible for an insecure solution to exist on AWS, and their terms/ conditions absolve them if an issue happens. Cloud providers take liability of the platform, not the solution.

While LTI is a reputed brand, we do see the flawed implementation of the new tax portal by Infosys as we file returns (I had to login 3 times because simple things like preview/ print were not working and the web page froze). Infosys has a bigger footprint than LTI, but that does not guarantee anything.

No security solution is foolproof. What differentiates one from another is whether one has followed the best practices and did not come up with a custom untested solution, and how much we as end users are aware of what we need to do and not.

It may sound paradoxical, but first step towards preventing leak is to not generate unnecessary data. The most secure solution is to not be connected when you don't need to.

[CircleOfLife]

Originally Posted by CircleOfLife

I agree with points above as a informed buyer. This is a very good product but one cannot ignore anti Chinese sentiments that flare up time to time. This will impact sales. Social pressure drives many decisions. This where yapping comes for Aam junta.

1.5 NA engine with CVT is a gas guzzler in Hector. It is the same engine in Astor with a lesser state of tune. Mileage might be little better in Astor but not by a big margin. What matters is how much does it give in bumper to bumper traffic where most of vehicles will spend majority of time. 1.3 turbo 4 cylinder with TC there is not much data available.

Originally Posted by CrAzY dRiVeR

Guess he means it's the same 1.5 engine as the Hector, but without the turbo. That's also wrong though -


Correction -
1.5 Turbo used in the Hector is a 1451cc motor.
1.5 VTi engine used in the Astor is a 1498cc motor.

It's not the same engine in a lesser state of tune, or the same engine without a turbo.

Thank for pointing out the discrepancy in my post.

Reserve my opinion on mileage based on 91 RON fuel and day to day traffic conditions.

[McLaren Rulez]

Originally Posted by Artyom

I would rather put my money on Taigun as VW has been on the market for some time and repairs and issues have a possibility of getting fixed in a shorter span of time as compared to MG

As a VW owner and seeing the reliability disaster that is the Kushaq, I'd actually pick the Astor. MG ranks better in terms of customer service than VW and both products are equally new.

Neither will match up to the fuss free Hyundai experience but the product, in both cases, seems to make up for that.

[CircleOfLife]

Originally Posted by Artyom

I would need some suggestions from the members based upon their experience.
Would it be a wise decision to buy Astor for my dad as against a tried and tested vehicle like Venue which we have already finalized but are waiting for the prices to be revealed for Taigun & Astor? Now I understand we cannot compare Venue with Astor in terms of specs but again both of them tick all the boxes which we are looking for. Do you think it's a risk buying a relatively new product as against a tried and tested product. As compared to Astor I would rather put my money on Taigun as VW has been on the market for some time and repairs and issues have a possibility of getting fixed in a shorter span of time as compared to MG which is a new player. Astor, Venue, Taigun(All In Automatic versions) tick all of our boxes which is causing this confusion. What would the forum suggest I should do? All in all, I want my dad to have relatively trouble-free ownership. He is a senior citizen and as such the thought of him being stranded gives me creeps although his 80% travelling will be in the city and 20% inter-city trips, not more than 400 km. Thanks in advance.

With automatic Taigun are you referring to 1 liter with TC or 1.5 with DSG?

If it is 1 liter with torque convertor then i would say following.

Wait till you see variant positioning of MG Astor vs Hyundai vs Taigun. Warranty on offer and service requirements also should factor in.

You haven't stated what is your preference ADAS VS Non ADAS version. More electronic usually mean more chances of failure.

Trouble free ownership is relative. There is no guarantee that one will never end up with a lemon across any brand.

Bengaluru has good VW dealerships. I personally didn't have any issues. MG being relative new brand and have set the right cord initially with buyers.

Preference for tried and tested formulae favors Hyundai.

New product and platform is never niggle free. This doesn't mean every vehicle will have niggle either. One need to be open to this aspect and make decision.

[Artyom]

Originally Posted by CircleOfLife

With automatic Taigun are you referring to 1 liter with TC or 1.5 with DSG?

If it is 1 liter with torque convertor then I would say the following.
You haven't stated what is your preference ADAS VS Non ADAS version. More electronics usually mean more chances of failure.

.

Appreciate your response brother.
My dad is in Punjab and my priority is to get a vehicle that has all the safety features(The venue top model has 6 airbags and other safety features) which gives me peace of mind.
Since the priority is a minimum of 4-6 airbags I assume usually it's the top model which will have these and as such will also have the ADAS in built.
We are targeting the 1.0TSI AT version

[manpreetsj]

Originally Posted by McLaren Rulez

As a VW owner and seeing the reliability disaster that is the Kushaq, I'd actually pick the Astor. MG ranks better in terms of customer service than VW and both products are equally new.

Neither will match up to the fuss free Hyundai experience but the product, in both cases, seems to make up for that.

Since COVID, I have got two annual services done for my Elite i20 & in both services my experience with two different service providers has been very poor in Gurgaon.
It seemed as if the intent was to generate a bill >10-15K even if no issue was there in car.

In fact in last service, 1 day after service AC stopped cooling. On calling up service guy, he confidently said which part may actually be having problem & resolved it in 1 hour with 6K bill. It can't be a mere co-incidence that it stopped working just after car service.

I feel Hyundai and Kia are in a position where they have started exploiting their dominance. I would any day prefer to go ahead with MG or M&M for next car, hoping they wouldn't have mala fide intent like the Koreans.

[Artyom]

Originally Posted by manpreetsj

I feel Hyundai and Kia are in a position where they have started exploiting their dominance. I would any day prefer to go ahead with MG or M&M for next car, hoping they wouldn't have mala fide intent like the Koreans.

So that is something which most companies will do if the customer is not aware or will try to inflate the bills at any cost.Not that i am blaming you but that is the general practice.

I agree that shifting to a different brand or a new brand such as MG has a higher probability that customers will not get cheated but its just a matter of time that they will also go down the same path.

Nonetheless at this point in time MG seems to be a safer bet i guess.