MG Astor 1.3 Turbo AT: Ownership Experience

1.3L Turbo AT, while not as good as the 1.5 TSI is sporty and fun to drive in Sports Mode or Manual Mode. In my 1000km with the car so far, it has only missed the right gear once.

BHPian cbrspn recently shared this with other enthusiasts.

Hello Everyone,

This is Aditya, a Software Engineer based out of Mohali! I'm in my mid-twenties now and have had a love for cars ever since I can remember. This thread is currently my second post on TeamBHP, where I've been a silent observer for over 5 years. I recently fulfilled a childhood dream of having a great car of my own. In this thread, I present to you, my Ownership Review and Experience of Ares, my MG Astor 1.3AT Savvy variant.

Likes and Dislikes

This is the one section I believe I'll keep updating as I spend more time with the car.

Likes:

• 1.3L Turbo AT, while not as good as the 1.5 TSI is sporty and fun to drive in Sports Mode or Manual Mode. In my 1000km with the car so far, it has only missed the right gear once.
• Design strikes as classy from a distance, the black color had me drooling!
• Kit is full to the brim, barring some small misses!
• ICE is high tech, Car as a Platform service, while sorta gimmicky, are good to have.
• Very Upmarket and high-quality interior with soft-touch elements, perforated leather steering.
• Front seats are very comfortable to sit on.
• High ground clearance
• Good Driving Dynamics, multiple steering modes and separate Sports mode on GB help make the drive a lot of fun.
• Beautiful Panoramic Sunroof is a hit with my family.
• ADAS is a great addition to the car. Speed Warning/Control, Adaptive Cruise Control, Lane Keep assist come in handy even in city lanes. Works surprisingly well considering your normal Indian road conditions.
• Little functional features here and there such as automatic side cam view when you switch on the indicator at parking/u-turn speeds, blind-spot detection, Auto wipers, etc can really change

Dislikes:

• Silly Omissions like Auto-dimming IRVM, no backseat dome light are silly.
• The stupid robot is a gimmick and serves no real purpose. Voice works without it too. It just sits there and rattles like an idiot on slightly bad roads. Only rattle from an otherwise solid car.
• No reach adjustment on the steering wheel.
• Some ADAS functions, such as Speed Assist Warning reset at every start. It's annoying to set it every time, as there doesn't seem like a good shortcut except 5 taps on the ICE.
• The car shuts down entirely if we press the start/stop button when the engine is running, including the ICE. It's annoying if one thinks of shutting off the engine on a long traffic signal. An easy Stop&Start shortcut would've been nice to have.
• On the connected car variants, the "*" button on the steering wheel directly requests a call from MG Assist. It's easy to make accidental calls sometimes. I would have appreciated a way to assign a function instead. We can use the ICE screen to request a call from MG anyway.
• Back seats are comfortable bucket seats but could do with more thigh support.
• Paint quality probably could have been better. I've been very careful with Ares and make sure my passengers are careful when near Ares, but I noticed a few paint chips near the passenger door in the first 2 weeks of ownership itself. Maybe it's the black color where the chipping is more prominent, or maybe it's the open public parking space where Ares spends her nights.

Here's a quick picture of Ares right after her first wash.

Backstory

Coming from your average Indian middle-class, I spent most of my childhood in entry-level hatches which my father changed every few years, but never changed his buying segment.

We went through the Maruti 800, then "experimented" with the Hyundai Santro, and went on to an Alto and then an Alto K10. This was the first time we were told about getting a new car before it came home. Me and my brother were super excited about this car, reading everything about it on the internet, Actually going on to brag about it to my best friend whose family's beater car was a 2005 Baleno. Looking back, it's funny how hormone-heavy and dumb teenagers can be.

Finally when me and brother attained full 6ft heights and could no longer fit in the back seats, we upgraded to a Suzuki Ritz, and then after much deliberation and debates, a Suzuki Ciaz. After graduation, I got a good job out of college directly, I made up my mind that after a year's saving, I will buy myself a car I desire. This was in 2018, when the heart was very young and the 1.0Tsi Polo ruled every (budget) enthusiast's heart. For one reason or the other, the moment to get the Polo kept getting further away. First, it was parking hassles, then financial senses disallowed the purchase, COVID, etc. In March 2021, my father decided to bid farewell to the Ciaz as it's reliability was going down. Before he could zero down on his next choice, I made up my mind to do something nice for him and asked him to choose any car and I would get it for him. WFH had me saving a ton of money, so this was easy, but it also meant postponing the Polo further. We did our research and did some test drives, zero-ing down on the Hyundai Venue 1.0 SX (dubbed Athena) for my Dad. Here is Athena at a rest stop on one of our road trips.

Athena is my Dad's favorite car yet, and finally experiencing higher ground clearance coming from the Ciaz sold me to Cross/SUVs forever. On the flip side, with Athena in our garage, I had to tell myself to wait a little more for my own set of wheels. WFH meant I didn't really need a car everyday anyway

Desire is half of life; indifference is half of death - Kahlil Gibran

Fast forward a few more months, I got a promotion and hike at work, which left me with more than enough cash to spend on myself. Add to that my recent enchantment for Road trips, I had more reasons to fulfill my childhood wish and have a car of my own, so I decided to bite the bullet and get myself a car.

The Selection Process

This was the time when the Korean twins were ruling the Crossover/SUV markets, and the VAG twins were showcasing their niggles like a boss, Mahindra took the entire market to storm with the XUV700 and MG shook the 5-seater compact SUV segment with the Fully Loaded Astor. I have had a crush on the Polo (and the Rapid) ever since they came in the market, but now in my mid-twenties, my priorities have shifted from getting a revv happy engine which fuels my heart towards putting comfort first and (to ensure my FOMO doesn't get the better of me in 2-3 years) having a butt-load of features! I wanted to ensure that whatever car I buy, I can keep it for a long time, at least 10 years. The family garage has the sub-4m Athena and a Bike for day-to-day. So my selection criteria were limited to SUVs/Crossovers now, to allow happy cruises on highways, and exploring some not so developed roads during Road Trips without worrying too much about the underbody.

Here are the cars I looked at:

1. The Skoda Kushaq

Pros:

• The 1.5 TSI with a great MT is just a hoot to drive!
• Amazing mileage for a petrol car this size, thanks to active cylinder deactivation
• Skoda's latest design language strikes a good balance between modern and classy

Cons:

• Even the top-end Style seems to be missing a lot in terms of kit. Come on Skoda, for almost 20 big ones OTR, there's not even 360 cams or electric seat adjustment?!
• Sole Skoda dealer in Chandigarh was a huge disappointment. I asked for TD online, no callbacks. Then I went for a TD to the showroom, sales guy straight away said, "TD car is not here, you can look at the display car if you want to buy" and went away.
• Interiors felt a bit downmarket when compared to the Koreans and the Astor
• Too many horror stories on Team bhp about niggles and service issues.

2. Volkswagen Taigun

Pros:

• Again, the 1.5Tsi with a great MT is just beautiful!
• Amazing mileage for a petrol car this size, thanks to active cylinder deactivation
• Much better interior feel than the Kushaq

Cons:

• The top-end GT seems to be missing a lot in terms of kit if we go for the Manual. And I want to stay away from the DSG as much as possible!
• Exterior is a bit tricky. For so long I wanted a Polo, but now it felt that this car feels a bit Polo-ish, typical VW design, just didn't strike the right cord
• Too many horror stories on Team bhp about niggles and service issues.

Having drooled over the Polo TSI for years, it was hard to say no to the 1.5 TSI, it's a dream in this segment, but that's no excuse for the kit. I want this car to last me a long time and kit & comfort are necessary, but it still felt like a bitter breakup. Quite frankly, more than anything else it was the bad experience with the Skoda dealership, along with a plethora of online complaints (both on team-bhp and elsewhere) which made me think twice about getting anything from VAG stable. I've come to thank the universe for the bad experience at the dealership, the 1.5TSI would've been hard to say no to, and the recent report of omitting auto-folding ORVMs would've driven me nuts! High waiting periods had me eliminate the Koreans and the XUV. The Harrier's super-butch looks don't match my now premium-ness-loving brain. That left me looking at the Astor, and my tech-loving self booked a TD at the first chance I had.

The MG Astor TD and booking experience

Unlike Skoda, one button on the MyMG App and I got a call from the MG Chandigarh showroom for a test drive. The SA, Raghav, and Sumit were extremely prompt, and transparent. Raghav came to my house for the Test Drive in 6AT Savvy and we drove around while I kept complaining about the engine not being as good as the 1.5TSi. Raghav smiled and agreed with me that the TSI is the best engine in the segment, and said, the Astor beats VAG twins on literally everything else. If memory serves, the white TD car had close to 8,000 km on its ODO and was a tight car, with no rattle of any kind, the first time I sat in the driver's seat, the comfort level offered by the 6-way adjustable seat was similar to a German, if not better.

In the pre-Christmas holiday TD we did, the entire city had a ton of traffic, and we drove around on some highway sections, some city sections, and even in bumper to bumper for 15 minutes. After the TD, we went to the showroom and discussed pricing, insurance, etc. They had no issues with me getting outside insurance too. At the showroom, i also got a chance to look at one Astor Smart in the beautiful Starry Black color awaiting delivery. It looked a lot I made up my mind then and there, that if I get an Astor, I'll get it in black!

After a little more thought, having eliminated most of my options, I booked the 1.3T Savvy variant in the last week of December, with delivery promised for Q1 2022. When trying to book through the MG app/website, I kept getting errors and I did not want to visit the showroom again with the advent of new COVID cases. Again, Raghav came through here, one message and he quickly arranged payment options, and as soon as the payment was done, he gave me a booking reference, which started reflecting on the app the next day.

Continue reading BHPian cbrspn's ownership review for more insights and information.