MG HS 2024 review

If there’s an importer more responsible than any for steering increasingly brand-agnostic Aussies into cut-priced, feature-laden Chinese vehicles, its MG.

The 100-year-old brand’s cheap motoring renaissance of recent times has struck particular success locally and parted the sea of buyer resistance that sparked an unprecedented avalanche of budget brands now pitching camp in Australia.

Just 600 MGs sold here in 2017. Last year that figure had ballooned to 58,346 units. Yes, in just six years.

Enter the all-new HS midsize SUV. Still light on the wallet. Still heavy on the window dressing. But even a cursory introduction at the middleweight family hauler at its recent Australian launch strongly suggests that this ground-up revision has lifted its game over the popular if critically mediocre predecessor noticeably. And in a whole slew of areas.

It’s more than just a solid bet of continued success in the showroom for the HS badge. It’s a sign that MG is aiming a rung or two above the properly cheap stuff right in the thick of the volume-selling mainstream.

The new HS arrives as a petrol only – a plug-in hybrid follows in Q1 next year – with conspicuously slicker ‘designed in London’ exterior styling, larger size, sharper presentation and a more upmarket vibe. And it does a fair job of convincing you that it’s now improved the user experience to match heightened expectations.

The ground-up rethink, based off of MG’s Modular Scalable Platform, mightn’t have brought much innovation – you can trace so much of its design and execution to one influence or another. But it’s the amalgamation that comes together particularly nicely for the price band at which the three-variant range is pitched.

MG Australia namedrops “European” a lot at this SUV’s local launch, but let’s not get ahead of ourselves: it’s really competition from Japan and Korean where HS needs to play against in assessment of goodness, quality and execution, even if pricing remains certifiably volume-selling Chinese…

The entry Vibe lobs for $33,990 driveaway and the Essence tops the family tree at $40,990 parked in your driveaway. Our test subject is the mid-range Excite, at $36,990 on road.

All get the same 1.5-litre turbocharged petrol four outputting 125kW and 275Nm, paired to the front wheels via a wet-type seven-speed dual-clutch that replaces the old dry-clutch design.

The MSP underpinnings offer strut front and multi-link rear suspension, all-wheel disc brakes, and wheel size is 18s for the Vibe and 19s for the two higher grades.

It’s a straightforward lineup with solid fundamentals, and where every variant is rated at 6.9L/100km combined – on a 95-octane fuel minimum – and with braked towing of 1500kg. And all versions get the same MG Pilot suit of active safety and assistance, which we’ll get into in detail below.

From there, you just pick your price and how much garnish you want shopping in HS-land…

What are the MG HS’s features and options for the price?

The entry Vibe ($33,990 driveaway) lands with 18-inch wheels and cloth seat trim, but otherwise comes heavily loaded with features shared with the two pricier variants above it. Key highlights include:

• LED headlights and tail lights
• MG Pilot assistance and safety suit
• Adaptive cruise control
• Rain-sensing wipers
• Rear parking sensors
• Heated wing mirrors
• Reversing camera
• 12.3-inch digital driver’s screen
• 12.3-inch touchscreen media system
• Wired Apple CarPlay and Android Auto
• Six-way electric driver’s seat
• Single-zone air-conditioning
• Six-speaker audio
• DAB+
• Four USB-A ports and USB-A to USB-C adaptor
• Spare wheel 

Pictured left to right: Vibe, Excite and Essence

The midrange Excite ($36,990 driveaway) adds the following features:

• 19-inch alloy wheels
• Front fog lights
• PVC faux-leather trim
• Proprietary sat-nav
• 360-degree camera
• iSmart connected services for mobile

The high-spec Essence ($40,990 driveaway) adds the following features above the Excite:

• Panoramic glass roof
• Power-folding heated mirrors
• Front parking sensors
• Rear privacy glass
• Driver’s four-way lumbar adjustment and memory
• Passenger’s four-way electric seat
• Heated front seats
• Dual-zone climate control
• Eight-speaker audio
• Wireless phone charging

The MG HS range is offered in six body colours, with a choice of charcoal or brown interior trim, the latter only on select body colours. 

What is the MG HS’s interior and tech like?

The MG HS exterior design certainly represents handsomely enough for its price points, particularly the Excite and Essence versions sat on 19s. The combination of LEDs, proud ‘family’ grille and repositioned MG bonnet emblem exudes a class two cuts above the comparatively generic outgoing generation.

Then there are the prominent “leaping shoulder” body lines that bring – gasp – real character and distinction to the body form. The absence of raw plastic over-arches add a touch of maturity, and while the strip-light rear LED cluster, polite bob-wing and diffuser garnish are all quite derivative, the HS has real sense of occasion and a promise of good things in cabin…

Climb in and it delivers on that promise well, if not exceedingly so. Pride of place are two areas: the dual-12.3-inch floating flatscreen display for touchscreen media and driver’s display, and a fetching, faintly-hexagonal sports wheel reminiscent of that fitted to the MG4 electric.

The interior is confident and well presented, a quite simple and tidy format that foregoes too much frilly excess for maturity (there’s that word again).

The Chinese DNA is apparent though – yes – the Euro influence is clear and more convincing than ever, from the crispness of the double-stitched effect on the door cards to the general ergonomics and control placement, which is evolving nicely for the MG breed.

It feels roomier than the old HS because it is: every dimension has been stretched by a measure or three. But what’s really new for HS is how countersunk the cabin feels – in the first row, the dash and window lines elevate well into the peripheral vision for a sportier vibe that departs markedly from conventional ‘propped up’ SUV seating.

The seats themselves are beaut. They negotiate a nice middle ground between sportiness and leisurely comfort in the contours and are well-shaped and cosy. The padding errs on the soft-ish side, which only favours some buyer tastes, but support is decent enough.

The base model’s cloth trim is pleasant without feeling too hardy, and the faux-leather-like PVC of the higher grades are impressively tactile, though the jury is out on how your skin might fare climbing in on a hot summer’s day. That even the entry Vibe offers electric driver’s seat adjustment is commendable.

Downsides? Frankly, for the money the HS asks for, it’s a tough act to ping.

The dual digital screens have decent resolution and present nicely, but response speed to input and ease of use aren’t their fortes.

Air-con controls buried in screen pages and some clumsy sub-menuing are evident, though these are blights for all manner of makers’ models at all price points these days.

The wheel thumb controls are frankly terrible: cheap flat-top joystick actuators and rudimentary buttons without much logical cause and effect with the software behind either display screens. There’s plenty of room for improvement with the tech side of things…

Perhaps the biggest practicality highlight of the HS is rear roominess. The space in the second row is fantastic. Heaps of knee and headroom, a near flat rear floor, and minted with bench seat that’s as comfy and welcoming as the pews up front.

Rear air vents, dual USB ports and a fold-down armrest with dual cup-holders are all inclusive of the base Vibe’s circa-$34K driveaway price, making the exclusion of these features in rival midsize SUVs asking for much higher outlays seem inexcusable.

The HS growth spurt yields a solid 507 litres of boot space, which is pretty competitive for its segment. This expands to 1484L with the second-row split-folding seat back stowed. The inclusion of a spare wheel rounds out a cabin space that don’t drop the ball too far anywhere and looks and feels complete.

All in all, presentation and functionally is well beyond the make-do expectations brought about by the Excite’s sharp entry price. And this new generation is certainly a closer competitor on merit to the likes of Hyundai and Kia in execution that its forebear.

How does the MG HS drive?

One thing you do notice is that the new HS is not only larger, but it feels more substantial – more robust even – too. It’s particularly evident in the heft of the doors. There’s more solidity and more underpinning integrity.

MG Australia did go to pains at the model’s local launch to point out how much extra sound insulation has been added to the new HS generation: throughout the passenger cell, in the wheel wells, under the bonnet lid, etcetera.

Unsurprisingly, the mid-grade Excite clocks in at around 1.6 tonnes unladen. It’s hefty, though not overly so. The fruitier Essence flagship lugs around an extra 40 kilo brought about by its fuller features set.

So the one-engine-fits-all 1.5-litre turbocharged petrol, with its workmanlike 125kW and 275Nm, does appear to have its work cut out.

But this new unit brings plenty of techy tricks – variable valve timing, variable-geometry turbocharging – and, on road, it proves to offer adequate enough low-end shove to not feel laboured or stressed, even under hard acceleration. It’s a smooth and quiet operator.

What’s perhaps more impressive is its marriage to the seven-speed dual-clutch transmission. MG ditched the older dry clutch design and this time out opted for a wet-type unit. The tangible upshot is that shifts are smooth and the engine-gearbox marriage feels taut and refined. There a real dignity to this powertrain’s operation.

But work it does: the 6.9L/100km consumption claim is decent if unremarkable and around town this climbs to 8.9L claimed. It also demands 95-octane premium fuel.

Performance is solid – the forthcoming PHEV version, one expects, will be the quicker pick – but where it shines is in drivability. In what seems to be unwavering form for this HS, the game is lifted here for the breed, if not to a plateau that necessarily pushes it to the sharp end of its segment.

The ride and handling balance errs toward the softer side if realistically not to any real fault.

It’s reasonably planted and surefooted, its suspension rounding off the edges of the surface below and providing keen compliance across larger speed bumps. It’s only over sharper, low-speed humps – car parks and the like – where the suspension gets slightly unruffled.

There’s not a sporting ounce in its character though, frankly, so what? The balance of the chassis tune in strong favour of ride comfort really ought to appeal to the vast majority of the type of buyers opting for a value-laden midsize family hauler. MG has made the right choice here.

Bundled up, the HS experience, even on the larger 19-inch wheels, brings a combination of quiet running and fatigue free manner that presents more maturity – there’s that word again – and a nice added premium veneer.

The HS perhaps doesn’t need to be this pleasant on road to win potential buyers over for this sort of money, but it’s commendable that is it.

Is the MG HS a safe car?

Kudos to MG Australia for loaded all three variants of the HS with the same fulsome array of so-called MG Pilot safety and assistance tech. The list of features as applied to the entry Vibe is truly impressive.

These features include:

• Adaptive cruise control
• Traffic jam assist
• Lane change assist
• Lane departure warning with lane keeping assist
• Blind spot monitoring
• Overspeed warning 
• Driver monitor
• Forward collision warning
• Autonomous emergency braking
• Rear collision warning
• Rear cross traffic alert with braking
• Door opening warning
• Tyre pressure monitoring
• Seven airbags, including a front-centre airbag

According to ANCAP, the outgoing HS is a full five-star-rated model in petrol guise (the PHEV version was untested). And while the rating is ongoing according to ANCAP, it remains to be seen if this all-new model will actually carry over the rating in perpetuity.

Of course, a big red flag – and huge point of critical contention right now – is not the quantity of the assistance tech fitted but the quality of the calibration. Especially with any price-savvy model launched of late.

After a brief taste of the HS at launch, the SUV gets a cautionary thumbs up for general system calibration. The overspeed warning was hyperactive at times and the forward collision system is a little too enthusiastic. 

But there were no other small gremlins during our launch assessment, let alone the large major issues constantly cropping up in many Chinese and Indian sourced vehicles entering the market.   

What are the MG HS’s ownership costs?

The headline act with ownership is MG’s relatively new 10-year warranty. Of course, the caveat here – as it is with rival Mitsubishi’s decade-long assurance – is that it has a kilometre-cap, albeit a long 250,000kms across the 10-year ownership stretch.

Interestingly, servicing is also capped for ten years if in sync with 15,000km annual servicing intervals. In other words, through to 150,000kms.

The fixed servicing pricing ranges from $274 through to (gulp) $1647 per visit across the ten years – it appears much pricier than, say, Toyota’s RAV4. Of course, rivals who cap pricing for shorter durations could well become much more expensive to service outside of the promoted capped periods.

Again, consumption is 6.9L/100km claimed on a minimum of 95-octane fuel. It’s not the cheapest thing to run at the browser.

The honest verdict on the MG HS

It’s fair to say that this new generation lifts the HS game in almost every critical department. And given that it springboards off from a hugely popular predecessor that’s ho-hum in all manner of areas, this all-important new model ought to continue its success for MG.

It’s not merely impressive that the HS is an all-round nicer machine, it’s that it remains at a price point that undercut the competition it clearly wants to challenge, not merely in sales but on real merit.

Value? It’s really solid, if not almost remarkable when it comes to the entry Vibe. We look forward to getting that variant in particular through the Chasing Cars garage.

As for the Excite on review, we’re inclined to think that it’s gone from a logical shortlister if you’re on a tight budget for the old version, to a short lister against any mainstream midsize SUV in this newcomer.

No, it doesn’t change the game…outside of perhaps how much kit you get for the outlay in the value stakes. Nor does it represent any midsize SUV benchmarks.

But it’s good. And a signal that China is really starting to get on top of its game in areas it hasn’t to date.

This is as strong a sign as any that Chinese motoring is eyeing the evolutionary progress and stature of Korean motoring that, at a time not long ago, was considered nothing more than the cheapest option with a new-car smell.