Brought home an MG ZS EV Excite variant: Initial impressions

I chose Excite for the VFM features. I was not constrained for budget but felt spending 4L more on the exclusive variant was not worth it.

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We brought home a candy white ZS EV Excite variant early Jan 2023

The booking experience with MG folks was pretty good. A few things that I noticed:

• MG showrooms are run centrally (by Jubilant) so there is no one dealer being pitted against the other. This is both a good thing and bad. Good because the experience is consistent (consistently good as of now) and bad because the dealers don't compete for business

• My booking to delivery was 3 weeks with everything fairly transparent. I was not pushed for any extras - essential kit or dealer insurance

• The delivery experience was okay - nothing too great and not too bad either. In the showroom they did not explain the car much, rather MG sends someone home for a demo and I did not have time for that later on. I did not miss the home visit as I figured most things myself and nothing better than this thread.

As soon as I got to know the VIN number and Engine number (when car was billed) I attached the car to the iSmart app. It turned out the main job of lady giving delivery of the car was to get iSmart app set up. When I told I had been tracking the car past few days she was quite surprised and did not have much to speak about the car.

The car - The experience of the car is pretty much as what has been captured in the review. A few of my observations:

What I like

• Super silent, smooth with good ride quality. On speed breakers and potholes the stiffness can be felt.
• Interior quality is top-notch, equivalent to Skoda or perhaps a bit higher
• Implementation of features like child lock of windows is what it should be i.e. the driver can operate and rear seats cannot. In Honda City, child lock is almost like a master switch which once enabled does not allow even the driver to operate the windows
• The buttons are backlit
• All windows are auto-down. Driver side is auto-up

The misses

• Space is a bit less compared to the length of the car - this is true for the rear seat space as well as under-thigh support
• The boot space is a nice cuboid but the space is lesser for the size of car this is. My reference is our other car Honda City. While the space might be at par with Seltos / Creta (never considered) but lesser than what I expected.
• The seats are comfortable. Lumbar support could be better
• IRVM does not have auto dimming
• AC performance is severely hit in "eco" mode
• There is rattle from right A-pillar - very annoying in a silent car

Overall, I get a realistic range of 325-360 km to full charge. I don't baby the car but don't drive pedal to the metal either. For reference my Honda City CVT would give 10-12 kmpl for comparable runs.

Excite vs Exclusive

I chose Excite for the VFM features. I was not constrained for budget but felt spending 4L more was not worth it. For the first time (among my 4 car purchases to date) I have not chosen the top variant. Looking back, do I miss the Exclusive variant? I don't miss the panoramic sunroof or faux leather seats but I do miss auto-folding ORVMs, blind spot detection and if I sit in the back seat I might miss the arm rest. Considering the 4L difference I don't regret buying Excite variant at all.

Other nice things about the MG experience:

• The team is courteous and quite professional. They do follow-up but are not pushy.
• I booked slot for first service and they provide free pick-up and drop for 10 km distance - impressive. I have dealt with Maruti, Honda and Skoda to date and I can say that at the moment MG has customer service high up in priority. If they can sustain this I am sure they will find many brand advocates.

I do intend to take the car for <250km inter-city travel before I get the confidence of taking it for longer drives. I should be able to do that soon and will update my experience here.

I might also have a chauffer in which case this car would be fantastic - no jhik-jhik if the driver runs AC for a long time while waiting or driving in wrong gear and the ability to track the car using app etc. etc.

Overall this is a nice purchase and I am quite satisfied with the variant too. Will update here as I experience the car more.

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