Why I chose the MG Astor over the VW Taigun and Skoda Kushaq

The car looks so beautiful that even after parking it I keep turning back to look at it just one more time!

BHPian hakunamatata recently shared this with other enthusiasts.

Silver Super comes home!

Finally, we got delivery of our Silver Super Astor on Sunday.

MG Astor was the first car that I test drove in late November. And it was love at first sight! Both me and my wife just fell in love with the celestial front grille design and the super-premium interiors. However, at that time only EX variants were available. We were not interested in EX as we did not want to miss out on safety features such as traction control and ESP. So, we did not book the Astor and decided to check out the other options.

In the next few weeks, we test drove several other cars. Some of the contenders are listed below:

Hyundai Venue N-Line: The sporty design looks good and the car comes fully loaded to the gills. Premium badging and interiors also add to the plush feel. However, the car fails miserably on the safety front.

Volkswagen Taigun: Super solid build quality and the peppiest engine out of all the vehicles that I drove. The infinity tail lights look amazing as well. However, the resale value and reviews for service center near our place were not very encouraging.

Skoda Kushaq: The car feels sturdy and drives well. Great interiors. However, the company has recently replaced the fabulous looking 10inch infotainment display with an 8inch piece, which looks horrible and outdated. It completely ruins the aesthetics of the otherwise wonderful interiors.

Toyota Hyryder: Amazing “mini-Fortuner” type design. The car looks very appealing from the font. Superb mileage is like cherry on the cake. We almost bought the Hyryder. We had booked it at two showrooms in Bangalore.

However, neither the SA nor the managers at Toyota had any clue when we can expect the delivery. Every time I asked, they gave a different timeline for delivery. However, the waiting period turned out to be a blessing in disguise. While waiting I learnt that many of the interior parts in the Hyryder (such as AC vents and steering wheel) have been taken from the Maruti Brezza and feel really low quality. Also, the NCAP safety rating for this car is still awaited. So, we cancelled both the bookings.

Even after taking several other test drives, it felt as if the heart was still stuck on the MG Astor. So, I called up MG showroom again three weeks later to check if they had any non-EX variants. And to my surprise they had several options available! So, without wasting any time, we went to the showroom and booked our vehicle the same day.

From Day 1, our experience with MG Motor India has been phenomenal. MG Motors kept us updated at each and every step of the delivery process. I was also able to see my delivery confirmation on the official MG app. We booked on 11th December and got the delivery on 18th December with all the accessories. No aftermarket work required.

In my first few days of ownership here are the initial observations:

The good

• Killer looks - The car looks so beautiful that even after parking it I keep turning back to look at it just one more time! It is parked next to a BMW 3 series and yet it has more presence than the Beemer in our apartment parking lot.
• Best interiors in the segment - This has to be the best part about this car. We also bought company fitted seat covers as shown in the pictures. These seat covers further add to the premium feel.
• Crisp audio- Although the Super variant comes with just 2 speakers and 2 tweeters, the sound quality is unexpectedly good.
• Comfortable ride - The ride quality is quite comfortable. The car has slight body roll, which one can also feel while cornering. However, the softer suspension tuning makes bad roads feel like a walk in the clouds.

The bad

• Laggy Infotainment System - The infotainment system takes its own sweet time to respond to your commands. Even the reverse parking camera takes 2-3 seconds to show up when you put the car in reverse gear. I hope this can be fixed with a software update.
• Clanking noise on bumps - This is specific only to our vehicle. Every time the car goes on a bumpy road, the boot starts making a strange clanking noise. The SA visited today to understand the issue. It seems that one of the nuts in the back seat was not tightened properly after putting the seat covers. This will be fixed in the next few days.
• Overall, it has been a wonderful experience and going for the Astor feels like a great decision. Looking forward to adding many more happy miles in the coming days.

Cheers!

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