MG Astor test drive: Checked out the ADAS Level 2 feature too

The Advanced Driver-Assistance Systems (ADAS) feature on the MG Astor is a boon in most conditions, however, drivers can disable it, if required.

BHPian sandeepmukunda recently shared this with other enthusiasts.

I can help you ease any fears of ADAS in my TD review below

I took a TD of the 1.3 turbo petrol today.

TL; DR

Summary: Excellent city crossover with all the right bits and some nitty-gritty that aren't deal-breakers over the competition. I love it, gonna put my money down on this one.

All the feedback comes from someone who drives a 2012 i20 petrol manual Asta variant everyday.

The TD car was Aurora Silver exterior with Sangria Red and Black interior, beyond the black version, I believe silver looks best in this car probably after the fiery red colour.

I am 5' 10", I love to sit real low in any car for a better driving experience, that applies the same for my i20, but adjusting the driver's seat position to the lowest, makes the console disappear behind the steering wheel, so that's a negative, I had to set it in middle position to make it visible, also you can offset this by adjusting the steering, but this gets closer to your legs, not optimal, due to this, the ride height is higher, this does help shorter folks, but not me. The driver console was excellent to look at even with the factory protective sticker on, which speaks of clarity (looking at your cheap jeep compass digital cluster which has an ugly light bleed)

The engine sounds really good on startup, love the purr of the engine, frankly, it doesn't feel like 3 cylinders, I have driven a 3 cylinder 1.1 lt diesel of grande i10, u can distinctly tell that's a 3 cylinder but not in the Astor, it feels like a regular 4 cylinder, just like my i20.

Lower end power is real nice, but the gearbox gets confused when you lift off and throttle again, there is a momentary pass that can be disappointing for stick drivers, the shifts are really smooth, no jerks, and the speed is very progressive and linear as expected, in comparison Jeep Compass Petrol AT sucks big time, that's the worst gearbox, so slow to react for upshifts or downshifts. This gearbox gets the job done, I never felt the need to slot it in the manual for the shifts, I drove for around 15 km (perks of being the first person to TD it at 9;30 am).

From a NA 1.2 I drive every day, this turbo 1.3 is superb, literally, the linear speed increments and the smooth shifts just make the driving experience more enjoyable, what I didn't enjoy though is the vocals of the engine as the RPM grew, this gets real loud, frankly, I wasn't expecting it, but it's fine or probably I pushed it too much, I can a bit of an aggressive driver sometimes, my i20 has been forgiving.

Road Noise is nicely filtered, cabin NVH is excellent except when the engine roars at high RPMs, the A/C cooling is excellent, as expected and it is very accurate in cooling or warming the cabin as the temperature is adjusted, I did not miss the ventilated seats due to the excellent cabin cooling. The unbranded 6 speaker setup sounds real good, no in your ear thumping bass here, good sound stage, neither feels intrusive nor excellent. Just gets the job done. I paired my phone over BT for streaming Spotify on the highest stream settings, given the Bluetooth codec hardware setup, the sound quality can differ over CD/drive music. Or even the built-in Jio Saavn app. So it's a 4/5 media setup.

The car is very easy to manoeuvre with urban steering settings, weighted steering modes don't bother me, as I drive a thumb flicking capable steering setup in my i20, so any setup works for me. The car is not large or anything for its proportions for driving through tiny Bangalore lanes ( the benchmark is Skoda superb, that car felt even easier than my i20 to manoeuvre in tiny lanes).

The driver seat provides excellent bolstering, feels just right, likewise the passenger seat, the second-row middle seat sucks, there is no other way about it, the other two seats are just right, so this is actually a 4 + 1 kid setup than 5 adults setup, 5 can take a journey, but the middle passenger will sit almost upright and a bit awkward forward position fighting for his/her legroom with the other two folks, and broad shoulder folks will need to share their shoulder spaces when three sit abreast. So be wary of this, heck my almost 9-year-old i20 had a better bench than Astor, I believe this is strictly designed as a four-seater, but I am perplexed about why is the car so wide, yet so tight on the inside. (I20 - 1710 width, Astor - 1809 width).

Any car pundits in here can explain this?

Sunroof gimmicks don't work for me, so didn't even bother about it.

And now the Elephant in the Room, ADAS level 2 setups, I didn't go into the drive thinking about these functions, there is a good reason for that, good technology should never be intrusive nor need our constant inputs, it should just work to helps us.

The car on startup had its lane assists disabled, blind spot, rear cross-traffic (RCT) alert, front collision setup(FCA) were enabled.

RCT worked its charm as I was reversing the car, shows nice warnings, heck I was even more scared than the ADAS, as I freak out driving someone else car as I was reversing it.

Next up, Blind spot assist, this was really useful as I was changing lanes, it can be intrusive if the amber light on your ORVM can itch your OCD. This was more useful than I thought, cause I can miss a speeding biker easily while changing lanes.

FCA is similar to my anxious self, the system worked as I did, when I had to hard break when a teenage scooter rider took a hard right in front, I instinctively did hard brake, by then the FCA also took over to do the braking, I was driving less than 40KM/hr. So ADAS is a boon, not a devil here, so any apprehension among old folks that aren't ready to adopt new tech, ADAS is always aapke saath. No worries, if still, it sucks, you can disable all the driving aids.

With all done and dusted, in the end, my heart fell in love with the Gloss Black variant, loved the design truly, so whatever it is, this car is getting my hard-earned money. No going back now, anyway it's been 9 long years since I bought a new car.

And folks, you guys need to stop the Chinese sentiment, if those idiots want to listen to my mom arguing with me over why I should stop spending money on useless gadgets or shiny new tech, I would be glad that they listen to the typical south Indian emotional drama and die of heartache. Also, privacy is a myth in this digital age, so stop fussing over it. Heck, go read about the fiasco with Apple and its employee's privacy.

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