20 days with 2023 Hector: BMW X5 owner shares 10 things worth knowing

The fuel efficiency of the car is terrible. No wonder it doesn't show the figures on the instrument cluster. MG knows what to hide.

BHPian Mike1010 recently shared this with other enthusiasts.

I have had the Hector 2023 SAVVY PRO AT ADAS for 20 days now. My other current cars are the 2015 BMW X5, a 2008 Accord & Altis. My opinions so far:

EXTERIOR

Decent upgrade though if MG didn't want to invest in designing new tail lights, old Hector Plus tail lights with a very slim joining bar would have been much more contemporary. These tail lights are very garish. Chrome elements in the front grill are too many and too big though the style is nice. And tyre width needed to be at least 225.

INTERIORS

A great job. A good combination of soft and hard finishes. Hard finishes are not cheap looking or rough in feel. Brushed aluminium trim is very modern though poorly fitted at many prominent places. Mood light is a bad joke as it's too bright at night with no intensity adjustment. Can't be switched on at all. Even switch lights are too bright at night and have no intensity adjustments. My 15-year-old Accord has them. ECO button has no light (only a leaf icon by the D mode icon in the instrument panel) so very difficult to check if it is switched on when the vehicle is in neutral. Built-in sunshades in rear doors are a cheap feature and are missed in a vehicle with such a great feature list.

INSTRUMENT PANEL

Good looking. However, too many features are hidden in menus. At least the trip meter and warnings should be permanently visible. And inexplicably - no clock. Navigation mirroring simply doesn't work and always shows trying to correct. TPM info is completely unreliable. Panel brightness sometimes resets to the max when the car is switched off for a few hours. Night brightness setting affects the day setting also. So one is always adjusting it - the first time I have felt the need to do so over my 8 cars in the last 25 years.

INFOTAINMENT SCREEN

Impressively large. 360⁰ camera resolution is very decent and effective. But too much backlight bleed makes it very bright at night and causes poor contrast. Panel needs an immediate upgrade. Still quite slow and touches are error-prone. Whole system hangs frequently and requires restarts. Default music should be Saavan - not USB (or give a choice) & Saavan should load in the background the moment the car is switched on as it takes too much time to start. Should have at least 10 GB ROM (doesn't cost anything nowadays) for own music storage (with playlist recognition) as pen drive blocks data port permanently and intrudes in space. A big, permanent clock and A/c controls on top are sorely missed by all occupants.

PERFORMANCE

Competent. Engine, gearbox and suspension are better than what I had expected reading various reviews. Just don't expect it to perform like a driver's car.

FUEL EFFICIENCY

Horror. Checked it by filling the tank to the brim thrice. Just getting 6 km / ltr, driving mixed in city + highway. No wonder HECTOR is the only current car to my knowledge that doesn't show average in the instrument panel. MG knows what to hide.

SPEAKERS

Best in class. Though MG should specify wattage in the brochure/manual.

APP

Very ambitious in scope though 30% of features don't work at all and another 30% give wrong information - e.g: it shows a fuel efficiency of 8 to 16 km/ltr which is absolutely false. MG server is frequently down. Overall a disaster currently but can very easily be improved.

USER MANUAL

Again a very poor job. A mish-mash of old and new Hector, full of wrong and missing information. English is poor frequently. And no one from the dealer to MG support knows that like all vehicles, Hector will be damaged somewhat if it is not broken in - ie, driven with restrain for 1st 2000 km, as mentioned in the manual. This short changes customer massively.

BHARAT VI PHASE 2 Confirmation

I had taken delivery in March 2023 and paid 50k extra for the RDE version. But MG has still refused to certify that this vehicle is RDE compliant even after numerous emails. Very strange.

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