Team-BHP (https://www.team-bhp.com/forum/)

-   Test-Drives & Initial Ownership Reports (https://www.team-bhp.com/forum/test-drives-initial-ownership-reports/)

-   -   MG Hector CVT Sharp | Initial Ownership Review (https://www.team-bhp.com/forum/test-drives-initial-ownership-reports/237112-mg-hector-cvt-sharp-initial-ownership-review-2.html)

Great debut thread. Really like how you have cut through the clutter and prioritised what is important to you.

Was there any reason you chose the CVT over the DCT? I tested the Hector DCT - and found it too sluggish for my liking. But I do agree that on rear seat room, it was far superior to anything else you can find below the Skoda Superb.

Would not tell people to worry so much over fuel economy. Even for someone who drives to office every day and runs 10,000 km per year, the cost difference between a Petrol Automatic that yields 8 km per litre and a Diesel Automatic that yields 10 km per litre is just ₹35,000 per year. Not something to get fussed about when buying a ₹20 lakh car.

Thank you very much for the appreciation.

Thank you very much. Yes, the Chinese thing is an issue for lots and I guess that is why MG has spent so much money trying to convince people its British. Also the amount of paid comments by MG shills on social media is too much. But I guess they dont have a choice as every post regarding MG has tons of negative comments about the origins of the company.

Thank you very much for your appreciation. I think someone who is looking at buying a Hector will not be interested in the Innova, and vice versa. They both are for completely different usecases. Especially keeping my limited driving in mind, did not make sense to get an Innova which is great as a mile muncher.

Yes, it is VFM. As for the interiors, it would be better to call a MG showroom as they would have the latest information.

Desi Escalade...clap: ,thats too good. Now i will have to start wearing gold rings and get diamond grills in my teeth lol:.
Yes, the CVT is really smooth, but thats where the the comparison to the Verna ends , because having driven an earlier Verna, that car will leave the CVT Hector in the dust.

Thank you. While my wife really wanted a German car, rear space was also important to her. As such , when she sat in the Endevour , she realised that the Germans which were in our budget were lacking in the main thing which was important to us.(Except the X1, but she did not like the looks of the X1 )She was unwilling to increase our budget , and as such plan for Germans was dropped.

And although this will seem blashphemous to the members of this Forum, people who have no interest/knowledge in cars will appreciate the Hector interiors just as much as they would have the interiors of the entry class Germans.

Thank you for your wishes. The only steep portions I have tackled are the Konkan ghats which were no problem for the Hector . On the Hector groups, there are various posts from North Indian members of the trips they have taken , so I guess it should be ok , as long as there are roads and where you dont require 4WD.

Thank you for your wishes and appreciation. I had read that the CVT was for smooth city driving and DCT was for spirited driving. Not sure how true it is, but it helped me make that decision.

Although your thinking about the fuel economy is logical, you would be surprised to see the umpteen posts on Hector groups bemoaning the fuel economy issue. Out of every five posts, three are regarding the fuel economy and asking if it will improve.( as per these posts the economy they are getting is 5-6 km/ltr ) I believe people are buying the car just seeing the ARAI figures, so wanted to emphasise the actual fuel economy for prospective buyers .

Congratulations on a great car, which is somehow,a bit underrated on TBhp.

Can you help me clear out following doubts-

1) How well the auto Hold function works?
2) How good is the sunroof cover, does it make it uncomfortable in these summers.
3) I am looking out for a second car, and feel Hector can be a good alternative. However, I am worried, about the acceleration of the CVT on highways. I won't be driving Hector in pedal to the metal style (as I feel my Ecosport is better for such duties), but how good is the acceleration uptill 100-120 KPH?

Thank you very much for your wishes.

1. Auto hold function works well in traffic. It's begins to auto hold when the car is completely stopped , and a slight press of the accelerator and the car sets off again. There is a slight delay, but not enough that the car behind you starts honking.

2. Sunroof curtain is very good, no sunlight comes through when it is closed. Infact, the sunroof glass is also darkened well, so even with the curtain open it is not uncomfortable.

3. I believe for this you will have to do a TD, as acceleration is a feeling you have to experience. But it picks up speed pretty well once it starts going in fact you will be surprised to hear the 80km/hr speed limit warning chime as due to the smoothness of the engine and suspension and overall NVH you don't realise how fast you are going.

Congrats on the new car. I've picked the same CVT variant (white) and as of today has done about 2300km. My feedback is exactly the same, this is one of the most spacious and comfortable cars in the price range. From a comfort point, I find it even more comfortable that the Innova Crysta. The suspension is just lovely. I'd even go as far as saying that it can be a new benchmark.

Few common observations and other feedback:

- Same mileage figures. About 7-8 in city and under 12 on highways. At the time I took to the highways, the vehicle had done only 200km in city. I drove from Bangalore to Kerala - tank to tank mileage on that trip was just about 11kmpl. I don't drive very hard, but on the open roads, I'm comfortable at cruising somewhere between 100kmph and 120kmph. First service has been done post this trip, not yet done a highway drive after that. I don't think there is any improvement in fuel efficiency though.

- On my Bangalore to Kerala drive, I too got the check engine warning light. Car had done only about 550km on the odd in total at the time. I spoke to MG support line and even another MG service advisor I knew, and they told me its safe to continue the journey as long as I didn't feel any engine jerking or performance issues (I had none of those). After I reached my destination, I took it to MG service centre the very next day to get this checked, they said the fault pointed to something to do with the catalytic converter, however, physical inspection revealed no issues. They reset the sensor and I've had no issues since. A warning light showing up on such a new car was a big concern, but help being available via phone was quite re-assuring. The experience at the service centre was also top class.

- Safety : we had a close call on the Theni to Cumbum stretch. An idiot on a Luna decided to cross the road despite seeing a fast moving SUV coming towards him. I had to jam the breaks ... believe me it was a scary experience as it was too close. However, the car held its ground, I was able to manoeuvre well despite the speeds, and the ABS and stability controls brought us safely to a halt. Its hard to describe in words, but I'm now reassured that the safety features work well.

- The one thing I wish MG did better - their touch screen. The I-smart device is average at best. It has too much lag and takes too long to boot up and be operational once vehicle is started. It can take upto 30 seconds to be fully operational. This is a big disadvantage especially if you have reverse out from a parking lot. The camera views come on however, the image and the guide lines have to play 'catch up'. They are delayed. This happens only if you are using the 360 degree camera option (or reverse) right after starting the car. And yes, the clarity of images that come up is very average. The aftermarket camera I fixed on our other cars give a much better image. I also felt that the apps are not optimised for use by a driver, its just the mobile app ported there. Could have been better.

- The voice controls ('Hello MG') is .... ummm .... not good enough. In the world of Aexa and Siri, 'Hello MG' is a let down. But it is useful to control the AC as there are no physical controls for the same.

- The steering lacks feedback from the road, however, the power steering is so smooth it makes it very easy to drive. In my opinion its tuned for a perfect city experience.

- Though there is an AC vent for the rear passengers, there are no separate controls for the same. This would have made the experience better. The car still relies on the front AC vents for proper cabin cooling. Front passengers will never complain ... however, on a hot day, unless the front vents are also focused to cool the rear, the rear passengers may feel like it takes too long to cool.


Despite some of these faults I am quite happy with the car. It's an extremely comfortable family car. It's easy to drive and the engine and CVT transmission is extremely smooth. The cabin is well insulated and the car itself feels built like a tank. I went for the Hector over the Creta ... I have no regrets.

Congratulations on the Hector! The car IMO satisfies 95% of the goals it has, and hence the success. I am on the lookout for a second car, and Hector is one of the favorites. Currently my dad has a Ecosport S variant with SYNC 3.0 touchscreen, which has very good response and is well loaded. If compared with the SYNC 3.0, how would you rate both the touchscreens out of 10?
I have seen many reviews stating that the voice commands work very well atleast for the basic commands, like setting temperature, navigation, calling etc. Is this not the case?

It's not as intelligent as Alexa or Siri. Quite often I wind up repeating commands. And I don't have a heavy accent ... I've got a neutral accent :)
Another thing which I forgot to mention is that the 4G signal on my car never seem to go beyond 1 bar. So this could be one reason why processing is slow. I don't know how much of it is done off air. Any way, if you've used Alexa/Siri at home, the interaction feels quite natural. It's not the case here. So most of the time, I've got my phone connected and I rely on Siri to search for music, and I still prefer google maps over Tom Tom.

Thnak you and congratulations to you too.


Interestingly on the Hector Whatsapp groups, recently have seen mileage figures of around 13-15 km/ltrs for DCT and CVT. Even seen a 17 km/ltrs. Those cars have apparently run more than 10 K . Not sure if the mileage increases in due course or these are anomalies.

Exactly the same happened for me. An experience which could have soured the ownership experience, was instead turned into a positive experience due to the MG Customer Service. They should be commended for that.

[quote=djjohn;5072375] The one thing I wish MG did better - their touch screen. The I-smart device is average at best. /QUOTE]

I recently had an OTA updates which have slightly improved the lag. Not a huge improvement , but there is hope that there may be improvements in the future. Anyway for me have decided to just live with the lag.


Every car has faults , but as you said the overall experience is positive.
As regards to the Creta, on a recent trip drove the family Creta for one hour, and the same car which seemed spacious before seemed cramped to the entire family. If space is a requirement, then I believe the Hector is well above the Creta/Seltos.

The voice commands work well for basic functions, but are mainly for the person driving the car. If you try to use the voice command from the rear seats, it will mostly not recognise unless you really raise your voice.

OT, but now songs can be searched for on the Gaana App using voice commands. Works better for ENglish songs rather than Hindi songs.

I really wish they had paid money to Amazon/Google/Apple to replace their own voice recognition software. It would have really put the car over the top, but seeing as no other car manufacturer does it, am sure there are difficulties in that.

As for the touch screen and voice commands and other Internet Inside gadgets, I have adopted the attitide that these are extra toys and expect them to not work perfectly. Then when they actually do work ( which they usually do ), I am pleasantly surprised.:)

Congratulations on your new purchase !!!
In the price breakup you have mentioned insurance amount as 45k (1+2) . Which insurer you have opted for and also what are the addons you have in your policy ( e.g Zero Dep, Engine protection etc.).

Congratulations on your purchase and the very well written review. The Hector seems to be well designed keeping in mind requirements from an Indian perspective. And their Sales reflect that.

Since Hector is the only vehicle which offers both the CVT and DCT on Petrol, what made you choose the CVT? Did you test drive both? Is the CVT more relevant for the city kind of drive. And DCT for highways.

Hi Rohan - I wanted to thank you for this thread which played some part in our decision to get ourselves a Hector Sharp CVT last Saturday.
We wanted an easy to drive, spacious and comfortable car, and zeroed in on the Hector over our earlier preference of a Harrier XTA+. We found the Hector easier to drive, ergonomically and feature wise better, and significantly more comfortable for all occupants, although the Harrier was a lot more powerful.

One question - how do I disable the 80kmph warning? Whereabouts I live, I am almost always driving in the 90-110 kmph range.

You cannot disable it.

Sorry for the late replies... Been sailing on board and had lost touch with this thread.


Thank you for your compliments.
As per my research and conversations with others, positives of DCT are enhanced driving experience especially in highways, while negative is there might be problems in the future especially if driven a lot in gridlock traffic. While the CVT doesn't give the same driving experience, but wins out reliability wise. As a non enthusiastic driver who lives in perpetually gridlocked area of Mumbai, CVT was an easy choice for me.

Thank you for your wishes and congratulations on your purchase. Wish you many miles in your new vehicle.
Pressing the OK button on the steering wheel mutes the 80km/HR chime as far I can remember.120 km/HR chime can't be muted.

Unfortunately I do not have the policy handy with me to give all the details. Will try to get it and check. As of now all I can say is the policy was through the dealership, and had to negotiate and actually leave the table to get them to agree to this price.

ONE YEAR /7000KM UPDATE

So have had the Hector with us for one year, and 7000 relatively stress free kilometres. Of this around 5k have been on the highway, and the rest city.
It continues to do what it does best, which is ferry our family around in great comfort.
As i am not currently in India, second service(1 year/10k) was carried out using pick up/drop.
Bill was zero because of the package. Not really technically savvy to understand what all was done, so can't comment on that.

Also our previous car, a swift was driven only around 15k in the five years it was with us, while have already done 7k in the Hector. I guess it has changed me from a reluctant driver to a guy who enjoys driving ( or maybe it's because I've spent 20 big ones on it, and I damn well can't let it sit in the garagerl:)

OT: My elder brother has lived in HK for the last eight years, and absolutely loves driving. However, due to the parking space issues he doesn't have a car there, and hasn't had a long drive in a car in ages. So he was especially excited to drive the car when he came down to India before i left . So Goa was planned, and six of us with full luggage got into the car. The look of disgust on his face when he floored the accelerator at a signal and the car didn't move for a few seconds was meme worthyrl: . Suffice to say he wasn't impressed with the gadgets. This car really won't impress an enthusiast.
However for us normal people, it took six of us with a full load of luggage 12 hrs straight to Goa in comfort, and delivered us there fresh and ready. Which is exactly what it was bought for.

It's been a great year with the Hector, and hopefully will have more updates when i get back to India.