went to the local dealer here in Sydney
key points
anyone own one that can share what your thoughts are?
Bazinga!
Every Chinese made car purchased makes a guaranteed contribution to the CCP's "Lets Invade Taiwan" fund.
Well Done!
Some are worse than others. MG is owned by SAIC Motor that is fully owned by CCP, so all profits go the state. GWM (Haval) is a publicly traded company, so only taxes they pay in China go to CCP, and they recently started to manufacture cars in Thailand.
One question…..do you hate your father in-law?
hate is a very strong word. actually he picked the car himself.
but we are probably going to kick in a few extra thousand for him to get a Kona.
Kona will 100% be a better, more reliable car. A few thousand extra now saves you a lotta headaches later.. And potentially way more money long-term too.
We have one, a ZST Excite (turbo, no glass roof). So far cannot fault it. have had it for about 1.5 years. It's great on fuel even though we have to use 95 or 98. The build quality is not as high as Kia/Hyundai but lets remember where they were 1 car warranty ago. Has lots of tech, generally a generation or 2 behind bigger companies but still very happy.
Only complaints i have:
- I know the fake leather will not age well, no matter how well I treat it. No signs of anything yet, just doesn't feel like it has longevity.
- It's made for skinnier people, which is an odd choice considering the high % of overweight in the country. I'm a bit bigger so get a sore bum after a while in the smaller bucket seat for too long. No other car I've ever been in is an issue, including the smaller MG3 (sister has one).
- The entertainment system needs double the specs. Plugging in android/apple auto and there is serious lag. (not wireless either)
Overall, would still buy and will probably look at another one when we replace the next car, they will only get better. You MUST get the turbo version, you will regret anything less or if you can afford get the HS. Or like others have said look at haval. They're a bit more modern in the design and the interiors and tech is apparently amazing.
I rented a ZST in January for two weeks touring in Tasmania. I wouldn't buy one.
-The engine/gearbox combination was shockingly bad. It had no power under about 2000rpm then you'd get a big kick. It made driving through slow traffic painful.
- When using cruise control going up a slight hill the gearbox would constantly hunt between gears.
- The tyres were surprisingly good and held on well during spirited driving through the mountains in the rain.
- the entertainment system was crap
- the car was a 2022 model and already had rust on the wiper arm. I didn't bother looking anywhere else.
- the seats were comfortable.
You can tell MG are dodgy. Using an ancient 4 speed auto in their cars, and 6 month service interval instead of 12, and silently omitting the fact they require 98 premium petrol. Premium gas, increased servicing, like they are trying to do everything they can to hope the ancient underpowered engine doesn't blow up before the end of the warranty.
Rightly or wrongly, there is still a large bias against the Chinese car brands. Although this is shifting, you need to consider total cost of ownership, including resale value, given you mention your FIL will likely keep the car for 5 years. Personally, I would look for a car that better holds their resale value.
Can only assume the people who buy these are CCP sympathisers.
Around 85% of everything we buy us chinese
Not like a car would dramatically alter anything
I can assure you that 85% of what I buy is not Chinese.
I have an active "vetting" policy to thoroughly investigate all of my purchases.
If I can actually determine what I am contemplating buying is Chinese made, it does not go into "my cart", or it stays on the shelf.
The bigger the cost of a product is, the easier it is to examine where it is made.
Any car is a VERY SUBSTANTIAL purchase, with THOUSANDS flowing to the country of manufacture.
I didn't think that one needs to be a brain surgeon or rocket scientist to understand this, but the statement:
"Not like a car would dramatically alter anything"
does not display much understanding of the real situation.
I won't even buy a packet of Nabisco Ritz cracker biscuits because they are made in China.
Australian made Arnotts Jatz for me thanks.
OK so YOU'RE the EXCEPTION to THE RULE
Food products generally won't originate in China.
MATERIAL goods however WILL.
Do you stop driving a car because the oil is contributing to the Russian war machine or Iran, or Saudis and their poor treatment and abuse of workers?
Nope, which is why i find it strange that people draw the line here.
@Drakesy: That is a lame attempt at deflection, and No, I am not the exception to the rule.
That is why there are "Buy Australian" campaigns and such like.
And as far as petroleum products go, I spend about $40 a week on the end products so about $2,000 per year, and would take many years of purchases to equate to the funds flowing to the manufacture of one new car.
Not much of my $2,000p.a. goes to Saudi Arabia:
"[…..]
"A small proportion of imported crude for Australian refineries comes from the Middle East
According to BREE, in 2013-14:
Malaysia is the largest source for Australian crude oil and refinery feedstock imports, alone accounting for 23.7% of total crude imports in 2013–14
Asia-Pacific (including NZ and PNG) accounts for 58% of crude and refinery feedstock imports and Africa accounts for 21%.
Total imports of crude oil from the Middle East was 13%, with all imports sourced from UAE.
[…..]"
https://www.aip.com.au/resources/imports-transport-fuels
Despite your feeble efforts of deflection, I'm not getting the impression that Russian oil is a big proportion of Australian usage:
"[…..]
Russia has so far managed to reroute most of its oil exports from Europe to India, China and Turkey, which happily snapped up cheap barrels and ignored Western sanctions.
But Moscow has struggled to re-route exports of refined product away from Europe after Indian, Chinese and Turkish refiners flooded the market with fuels produced from Russian oil.
[…..]"
https://www.reuters.com/markets/commodities/russia-plans-dee…
Nice try though.
@Drakesy: That is a profound statement.
I am wondering why you would be bringing this well known fact to my attention?
@Drakesy: I'm not an expert on plastic manufacture, but being not difficult to make and would be made in many countries, I am wondering, again, what significance there is to this?
@Leadfoot6: Typical problem of look at me, look at me. Frankly no one cares about your lifestory. This isn't ozwhinge.
yeah its a big step up from my yugo koral… because unlike the rest of the household or spare parts for my eurotrash (not the yugo) nothing is made in china
jokes aside the chinese brands must be beating their cliches and bad press, because they are everywhere from the little hatch to giant cab ute thingy.. i'm not a connaisseur and dont know their logos, i probably would drive a yugo
Bought one for my old folks as they needed a cheap SUV. 2 years on and 40k kms and no issues so far. Don't care about politics, just needed a cheap SUV with good warranty. Would of got Kia/Hyundai but both went up a price bracket.
Just want to state the fact for those China hater, most of the product that you use might be made in China :D :D :D
That is not accurate. It maybe the case like 5-7 years ago but it has changed since. The diversification of supply chain to S.E Asia, subcontinent and even East Europe and South America is an ongoing trend, any sensible business with the knowledge of the sanctions against Russia could learn something from there. Political sentiment aside, even if you are neutral, it is a significant risk. In the end, nobody wants to do business with an unreliable supplier. I hope the authority over there could understand this point to not to do anything out of line.
There would exist no "China hater" if that nation were not perceived to be militarily and diplomatically aggressive.
I remember a time when Australians were "wog" haters and i don't remember them being "perceived to be militarily and diplomatically aggressive". People will make up excuses to justify xenophobia.
Possibly, that time, which you seem to be unaware of, might extend back to World War 2 when Italy was part of the "Berlin Rome Tokyo Axis" and a declared enemy of Australia, the Commonwealth, and the United States.
"The Berlin – Rome – Tokyo Axis was a military‐political grouping of nations that fought in World War II against the Allies
(Great Britain, France, the Soviet Union, the United States of America, Poland, China, and other countries).
The Axis (also known as a Tripartite Pact) aimed to create a geopolitical “new order” based on the domination of Germany in continental Europe, Italy in the Mediterranean, and Japan in the Asia‐Pacific region. However, the composition of the Axis changed when Italy joined the Allies in 1943 – 1944."
https://www.upn.gov.sk/data/files/upn_letak_os_berlin_rim_to…
Does this ring a bell for you?
If not, please go back to high school and study some(any?) modern history.
It will help to broaden your horizons.
At that time of course, China, under Generalissimo Chiang Kai Shek, would do anything to secure help from the Western Powers against Japanese aggression.
@Leadfoot6: You just justified my point and what's even more interesting is that you tried to use "history" as your excuse.
Australians openly discriminated against Wogs (Italians etc) even before WW1 and didn't change abit after WW2 despite the media describing them as victims. Other Mediterranean peoples like Greeks, Spanish, Croatians, Serbians etc were also grouped as wogs despite being victims of the Nazi's and very well discriminated openly until the early 2000's.
Why did you use Chiang Kai Shek as an example considering that he was in the same league of military dicators like Francisco Franco(Spain), Antonio Salazar(Portugal), Getulio Vargas, Jorge Videla. You never heard of the White Australia policy? Did Aborigines have flying saucers which called for their genocide?
Australians joined the war in Korea, Vietnam, Afghanistan, Iraq without having any prior interactions what so ever other than the call from the United States. The US has been very successful at creating fear magnitudes bigger than reality.
about week ago got a rental zst with only 40 k's (brand new), took it down great ocean rd, apostles, from Mel with a mate it was a - f**k around, find out day, clocked about 700k's -
my take on car - got a alot of fancy bells and whistles, adaptive cruise etc etc , small engine which is economical -but lacks power/ torque. its perfect for urban zip around. Fuel economy is up there. Brakes didn't fade on the winding bits and rubber grippy.
Drove a MG zst for 2 months while waiting for my car to be repaired (was rear ended).
Was interesting to drive initially and eventually figured out that it was basic as. The "infotainment" was absolutely crap house. Everything felt like it was made out of plastic.
Kia Rio, bigger than Picanto. Think the name sucks but decent car still
hi guys
just found someone on the group is talking about issues with brand new MG having issues
"The side view mirrors close in at times. 4-5 times in 22,000 km"
Sounds like a very minor problem that OP wants to take to VCAT…..
Just bought a ZST yesterday, delivery in 1 week.
I did avoid the 1.5L CVT mess however. Didn't like that at all.
Nothing of note to add at the moment, but I'd be interested to hear people's experiences who have owned one for 3 years or more
Wouldn't buy an MG.
We bought a CX-5 2.0litre new for the wife and have had it almost 10 years. Thinking to buy the same again soon. How boring, I know.
Oh, and of course I have a VW CC V6 as should be the case for an Ozb'er.
Driven 2019 - 2022 models due to work. Each model has been an improvement over the last. Fewer things rattle, their in-house infotainment package is terrible.
Based on the 2022 model, maybe another 5 years, maybe.
Rumour is that they'll be delivering them on troop transporters by then.
Sister in-law has had one for a year. It’s broken down once, no idea what the problem was but the dealer fixed it.
The centre info screen is terrible to use when I tried it. Sister in-law still can’t really figure it out.
I have rented this car couple of times. In my opinion, the infotainment system is a bit clunky and slow. The features are quite good for the price but I will not buy it.
I will consider Haval instead.
I have a MG ZST. I like it. Drives A to B.
7 years road side assistance and warranty.
It goes for maintenance every 10.000 km. In 2 years has not required any parts.
I am happy.
It is my second MG. My first one was a MG ZS, which was parked and hit by a lexus (destroyd both cars).
Haha, for those haters where can you get a car with similar specs for less? I am not a fan of the Chinese cars apart from BYD but for value and money it's the best out there at the moment. Unless of course you looking to spend 20k more for an RAV4…..
If you’re on an absolute tight budget/income with no room to move and accept the fact things may go wrong down the track then that’s the way it is. But if you're in no hurry and can save extra cash for something better, I think that’s the best route to go.
Why does everyone want to help the CCP?
Buying MG is just stupid unless you’re a Chinese
I bought my wife the MG HS Essence x last year.
It has been in twice for the known failure of the driver control panel which was eventually replaced at my insistence and has behaved itself eversince.
Panel alignment is average to good, paint finish is ok but no where near as good say as a Mazda or Mitsubishi.
Where the MG fails to impress me is the very poor implementation of the DCT transmission, terrible when engine still not up to temp and laggy even when up to temp.
MG HS essence x is 2ltr turbo.
That said if you have test driven the car and happy with the features to cost ratio at least it will come with 7year warranty.
Remember though the resale value of MG's here in Aus compared to cars not manufactured wholly in China will be very low.
Its a real pity the MG name wasn't taken on by someone who would put a modern spin on the old classic MGs.
Obviously wouldn't be high volume, but they could ask quite a premium with the demand for classic cars nowadays.
Pure junk. Avoid MG.
All I'm interested in is what did you say to negotiated the price from $20K after trade in down to $15.5k?
nothing much.. really.
i knew they work on change over price. so i just started low my initial offer was $14K change over,,,
and made my way up $500 bucks everytime he counter offered, until we came to that figure, shook hands on the deal,
signed on the dotted line for a deposit.
then the following week decided to buy the seltos instead, and cancelled the MG, and moved the deposit onto the Kia, all through the same dealer and sales guy.
as he honoured the trade in value of $12K as part of the negotiation for the MG.
you would do that on cars like MG, or cars that have been on the market for a little while where there is stock
couldn't get a discount for the KIA, as that was a car on order and brand new..
everyone should buy MG!!
I support CCP not because I like the Chinese gov but I would like to see Chinese people suffer lol
I dunno about the ZST but the ZS is the biggest pile of Shit I’ve driven in a long time and I pity anybody who spent money on one.