| Test drive | MG3 |
Key Facts
Model tested: MG3 Style VTi-Tech
Pricing: £9,999 basic; £11,231 as tested
Engine: 1.5-litre four-cylinder petrol
Transmission: front-wheel drive, five-speed manual
Body style: five-door hatch
Rivals: Ford Fiesta, Kia Rio, Skoda Fabia
CO2 emissions: 136g/km
Combined economy: 48.7mpg
Top speed: 108mph
0-62mph: 10.9 seconds
Power: 106hp at 6,000rpm
Torque: 137Nm at 4,750rpm
Our view:
It's all too easy to review a modern MG and just damn it with faint praise. The unspoken caveat that seems to linger above the reborn marque like a Sword of Damocles is that they're bargain-built, cheap Chinese cars that are only acceptable if you're prepared to swallow fairly sizeable quality compromises.
But this simply isn't true. Having tried all of MG's (admittedly limited) range in recent weeks, including a potential EV model due for the UK, the Longbridge offerings are actually pretty competent and up there with their contemporaries, save for a few glaring deficiencies - such as the lacklustre cabin in the MG6, which is otherwise a good car.
The MG3 is newer than the 6, of course, and having spent a week with a top-spec Style model with a few styling additions, it's clear that the 3 points to a brighter future for MG; one where it can be mentioned in the same breath as Kia and Hyundai, two previously scorned brands that are now creaming in the sales.
This Style's USP is that it retails for a quid less than ten grand. For that, you get a surprisingly roomy five-door hatch equipped as standard with such luxuries as 16-inch 'Cut Diamond' alloys, cruise control, auto lights and wipers, electric windows all round and electric, heated mirrors too, reverse parking sensors, air conditioning, Bluetooth, a USB port, DAB radio, Hill Hold Control, LED daytime running lights and a modestly uprated stereo system, among other safety and comfort-related items. OK, reeling them all off like this might be a bit Generation Game, but it does prove that you don't have to put up with windy windows and a cabin akin to a stalag for your £10k outlay.
The interior is plain and a tad behind the times in terms of tactility, but by the same score it's much closer on quality to some of its 'mainstream' rivals than the cabin found in the MG6 is to comparable cars. Having seen the interior of the EV and the forthcoming MG5, it would appear that SAIC is quickly learning that substandard plastics will not be tolerated in markets brimming with soft-touch dashboards and TFT touchscreen controls, and you can expect MGs in years to come to at least match the Koreans on this score, if not some European marques.
One area where the MG3 is right up with the zeitgeist is personalisation. Aside from the Tech part-leather trim (£500) and piano black interior pack (£99) inside, all the options on this car were exterior tick-boxes to make it look appealing. Cherry Bomb paint (£395) was teamed with the Trophy White exterior graphics (£199) and the cringe-inducing (as a name) 'White on the Tiles' wing mirror caps (£39). The net result is a neat and tidy-looking car, obviously more Asian in its design than European but one that drew plenty of - mostly positive - attention from other road users. Put it this way, MINI would charge you about three times the sum total of these options to do the same to one if its cars and so the MG's styling efforts are to be applauded.
It cannot be avoided that a 1.5-litre, normally-aspirated engine making 106hp and mated to a five-speed gearbox is the sort of drivetrain technology that went out when Ocean Colour Scene were still reasonably well known. But it's not a terrible engine/gearbox combo by any stretch of the imagination. The transmission itself is smooth and short enough of throw in operation to make it pleasurable, even if the ratios seem weirdly spaced - you can get into fifth by 40mph without the car labouring, which suggests short gearing at odds with an engine that isn't keen to rev. Push it out to the 6,750rpm redline and you'll be greeted with a raucous thrashing that would make anything from the Volkswagen Group blush. I'm all for naturally aspirated engines, but this 1.5 could really do with a light-pressure turbo to take the strain off it. Try and drive it like a cutting edge modern car and you'll find its lack of low-revs torque a frustration; you need to be constantly alert to shifting gear to keep it zinging forward.
The other drawback is a fidgety ride, which is most noticeable on relentlessly ridged surfaces (think those bits of UK dual carriageway that are coated in airfield concrete from 1948). It does settle down on the better sections of our road network and proves to be a fine car to traverse the smoother motorways in, provided you don't want to be doing 90mph all the time.
The chassis, though, shows real sparkle. MG appears to have nailed steering feel better than many supposedly bigger marques we can think of, which is an appealing trait. That the car also resists understeer well and feels perky through a series of challenging bends is hugely promising for the future, although the brake pedal could do with a touch more early-travel bite. However, the Style's ability is also hugely promising for a more powerful version - the MG Trophy we saw at the MG90 celebrations at Silverstone in June might well have been dressed up as a 'club racer' car, but it's not hard to envision its 207hp turbocharged version of the same 1.5-litre four-pot making its way into an MG3R or similar in the near future - it would only need around 160- to 170hp and a £15,000 price tag to cement a genuinely astonishing comeback for a brand that looked dead and buried a decade ago.
Overall, the MG3 is a commendable car. It's not as comfortable as its big brother 6, but it does have a nicer interior and arguably sharper looks. It's very cheap without feeling utterly cut-price and there's enough to adore about the chassis' handling capabilities that means you could just about tolerate its firm ride. It's by no means a class leader but it's certainly a viable alternative to something expensive and Germanic that has far less cabin space and standard equipment.
Alternatives:
Ford Fiesta: ahead of the 3 on every parameter you could wish to measure it on, but of course the MG is usefully cheaper.
Kia Rio: probably the benchmark for MG - Kia's transformation into a hugely competitive brand is something for Longbridge to hope to emulate in years to come.
Skoda Fabia: you won't get anything like the tech and performance for this cash, as the Fabia range starts at £9,945, but the Czech car is a very, very competent package.
