It was new car time for my Wife (again) after a strange 12 months of car swapping.
She had a 2017 Dacia Logan MCV 1.5DCi for 2 years or so but decided in Spring 2023 that the Logan wasn't 'cool' enough and bought a 2015 Mini Cooper instead. The Mini was an awesome car, but very quickly my Wife realised it was totally impractical for child duties. So she traded that for a 2014 Ford B-Max in August 2023.
The B-Max was a great car, they're heavily based on the MK7 Fiesta and I had plans to try find a written off 5 door Fiesta ST and do a full drivetrain and suspension swap. BUT... my Wife decided once again the B-Max wasn't 'cool' enough and wanted something else. She came across an offer currently ongoing on a brand new MG ZS and decided she wanted one. The only input I had was deciding which of the two engines to order.
There was three combinations of engine and gearbox to choose from. There was a 1.5 chain driven, port injected, naturally aspirated petrol engine with a 5 speed manual. Or there was a 1.0 TGDI engine with a 6 speed manual or 6 speed automatic. Naturally as the BITOGer that I am, only the 1.5 would do!
It's a very quiet and smooth engine. I believe it has some GM history? But it's totally gutless and so far, abysmal on fuel. Once you get it above 4000rpm or so it starts to move a bit but honestly, it feels very asthmatic. The only other good thing is there is huge amounts of space around the engine in the engine bay. A clutch change looks an absolute doodle as there's just so much room to wiggle the gearbox about in there!
Not particularly impressed with the customer service from the supplying dealer. A few days after my Wife picked it up she drove down to Swindon and back (~200miles) to see her Girlfriend and phoned me up complaining that she wasn't impressed with the way the car was on the motorway and it felt very 'floaty'. Thought I'd just take a look when she got it home and...
Looks like someone got a little excited during the PDI!
Recommended tyre pressures...
I mentioned adjusted the tyre pressures and mentioned it to the sales person who was quite uninterested. I didn't know if I should be a total a-hole and demand new tyres considering the tyres say max 44psi. But decided to just leave it where it was.
Then a couple more days later the radio stopped working. I told my Wife to phone the dealer who told her she could bring it down on the 22nd April for diagnosis, she wasn't happy about this but isn't a confrontational person so just booked it in and left it at that. I wasn't happy at all and ended up phoning myself and was told by the service advisor that was the absolute soonest they could have the car in for diagnosis. I ended up quite sternly telling them to leave a message for the salesman explaining the situation and tell them I'll be returning the car for a refund as expecting someone to wait 3-4 weeks to have a fault repaired on a car that was less than a week old was totally unacceptable. Weirdly, they phoned me up 10 minutes later and told me to bring it down the next morning. That turned out to be a cable had fallen out behind the head unit. It really annoys me when you have to get assertive and angry to get a reasonable and fair solution to things!
I can't help but compare it to my Duster as they are both the cheapest SUV's available right now and in the same class.
Things I like...
- The interior feels better put together than the Duster and generally looks more upmarket.
- The interior is also quieter at speed.
- Seats are comfier than the Duster which I feel are too short on the base.
- The infotainment screen is also nicer to look at and more touch sensitive than that on the Duster.
- There's a lot more rear legroom than the Duster.
- 8 way electric drivers seat! I love how you can fine tune your seating position with electric controls.
- The boots more practical than that in my Duster.
- Steering wheel is much nicer than that in my Duster.
- 7 year/80,000miles warranty is an absolute win!
Things I dislike...
- It's awful on fuel. So far it's averaged 27.4mpg (~20mpg's in US currency) and it's spent most of it's time on the motorway.
- It's so slow and gutless at low RPM.
- It's FWD. Why? What's the point? You take a car, ruin it's handing, comfort and fuel economy by jacking it up and then handicap it with front wheel drive. Arghhh.
- The instrument cluster is an absolute mess and generally hard to read and navigate.
- The infotainment system is slow to respond and again is just hard to navigate compared to the one on the Duster.
- Fake leather just feels and looks terrible. It's just perfectly smooth and flat with no grain or any effort put in at all.
- It has a key! Why doesn't the top of the range model have keyless start? The Duster has keyless entry and start.
- The suspension is ROCK HARD and doesn't handle particularly well. In fact my Wife was driving my Duster yesterday and commented on how lively the Duster felt compared to her MG ZS.
So would I buy one? I wouldn't. I personally think the Duster is a far better buy and a much nicer drive. BUT my Wife is happy with it so that's all that really matters. The good news is we got a free 4 year service plan so I have no intention of touching it for a long long time.
And of course...
She had a 2017 Dacia Logan MCV 1.5DCi for 2 years or so but decided in Spring 2023 that the Logan wasn't 'cool' enough and bought a 2015 Mini Cooper instead. The Mini was an awesome car, but very quickly my Wife realised it was totally impractical for child duties. So she traded that for a 2014 Ford B-Max in August 2023.
The B-Max was a great car, they're heavily based on the MK7 Fiesta and I had plans to try find a written off 5 door Fiesta ST and do a full drivetrain and suspension swap. BUT... my Wife decided once again the B-Max wasn't 'cool' enough and wanted something else. She came across an offer currently ongoing on a brand new MG ZS and decided she wanted one. The only input I had was deciding which of the two engines to order.
There was three combinations of engine and gearbox to choose from. There was a 1.5 chain driven, port injected, naturally aspirated petrol engine with a 5 speed manual. Or there was a 1.0 TGDI engine with a 6 speed manual or 6 speed automatic. Naturally as the BITOGer that I am, only the 1.5 would do!
It's a very quiet and smooth engine. I believe it has some GM history? But it's totally gutless and so far, abysmal on fuel. Once you get it above 4000rpm or so it starts to move a bit but honestly, it feels very asthmatic. The only other good thing is there is huge amounts of space around the engine in the engine bay. A clutch change looks an absolute doodle as there's just so much room to wiggle the gearbox about in there!
Not particularly impressed with the customer service from the supplying dealer. A few days after my Wife picked it up she drove down to Swindon and back (~200miles) to see her Girlfriend and phoned me up complaining that she wasn't impressed with the way the car was on the motorway and it felt very 'floaty'. Thought I'd just take a look when she got it home and...
Looks like someone got a little excited during the PDI!
Recommended tyre pressures...
I mentioned adjusted the tyre pressures and mentioned it to the sales person who was quite uninterested. I didn't know if I should be a total a-hole and demand new tyres considering the tyres say max 44psi. But decided to just leave it where it was.
Then a couple more days later the radio stopped working. I told my Wife to phone the dealer who told her she could bring it down on the 22nd April for diagnosis, she wasn't happy about this but isn't a confrontational person so just booked it in and left it at that. I wasn't happy at all and ended up phoning myself and was told by the service advisor that was the absolute soonest they could have the car in for diagnosis. I ended up quite sternly telling them to leave a message for the salesman explaining the situation and tell them I'll be returning the car for a refund as expecting someone to wait 3-4 weeks to have a fault repaired on a car that was less than a week old was totally unacceptable. Weirdly, they phoned me up 10 minutes later and told me to bring it down the next morning. That turned out to be a cable had fallen out behind the head unit. It really annoys me when you have to get assertive and angry to get a reasonable and fair solution to things!
I can't help but compare it to my Duster as they are both the cheapest SUV's available right now and in the same class.
Things I like...
- The interior feels better put together than the Duster and generally looks more upmarket.
- The interior is also quieter at speed.
- Seats are comfier than the Duster which I feel are too short on the base.
- The infotainment screen is also nicer to look at and more touch sensitive than that on the Duster.
- There's a lot more rear legroom than the Duster.
- 8 way electric drivers seat! I love how you can fine tune your seating position with electric controls.
- The boots more practical than that in my Duster.
- Steering wheel is much nicer than that in my Duster.
- 7 year/80,000miles warranty is an absolute win!
Things I dislike...
- It's awful on fuel. So far it's averaged 27.4mpg (~20mpg's in US currency) and it's spent most of it's time on the motorway.
- It's so slow and gutless at low RPM.
- It's FWD. Why? What's the point? You take a car, ruin it's handing, comfort and fuel economy by jacking it up and then handicap it with front wheel drive. Arghhh.
- The instrument cluster is an absolute mess and generally hard to read and navigate.
- The infotainment system is slow to respond and again is just hard to navigate compared to the one on the Duster.
- Fake leather just feels and looks terrible. It's just perfectly smooth and flat with no grain or any effort put in at all.
- It has a key! Why doesn't the top of the range model have keyless start? The Duster has keyless entry and start.
- The suspension is ROCK HARD and doesn't handle particularly well. In fact my Wife was driving my Duster yesterday and commented on how lively the Duster felt compared to her MG ZS.
So would I buy one? I wouldn't. I personally think the Duster is a far better buy and a much nicer drive. BUT my Wife is happy with it so that's all that really matters. The good news is we got a free 4 year service plan so I have no intention of touching it for a long long time.
And of course...