MG HS (2019-2026)
Also referred to as: MG HS 2025 and MG HS 2027.22 reviews
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We now have petrol and hybrid versions of the MG HS in the family and although same vehicle the drive and feel of hybrid vs just petrol are completely different..would recommend test driving hybrid if your looking for one
Year of manufacture 2022, bought new in 2024. On the 12 month service had done about 7000 kilometres. On this service it was suggested I needed new front wiper blades, for approximately $135, I said no. 4 months later they are still fine. 35 degree day yesterday, used aircon for the first time, very disappointed. It was only cool not chilled at… Read more
all. The GPS is bad, plain and simple. Travelling through Patterson Lakes in Victoria and it literally showed the car travelling over the blue squares which were the lakes! It regularly freezes and has to be entered again while travelling. Needless to say I use my phone now. There is an option to turn off the entertainment screen but it randomly starts up again. Driving in EV mode at approximately 70 kph it loses power momentarily then picks up again. Very dangerous, use petrol to overtake and for entering freeways. I would not buy another MG.
Brought a brand new HS ESSENCE 2025. Its a great suv to drive, very smooth and enough power as I say its a crusier not a sports car. I love the suv. The only thing I would suggest to MG is to make the electric blind more thicker to block out more of the heat as possible as I find the blind thin. I honestly dont have any other concerns as I am very satisfied Show details
DANGEROUS... Brought myself a new car with all the bells and whistles... Straight from the start the air con didn't work this was repaired under warranty (still not very good), my main concern however is the transmission it has major issues, it either doesn't take off or rips your head off, AN ACCIDENT WAITING TO HAPPEN - I bring up my concerns at… Read more
every service which are done on time at every 10,000 km to be told they have plugged it in and the computer shows no problems with the transmission... Now I also get to enjoy driving around with a jump pack in my 2 1/2 year old car as the battery (2nd battery) doesn't have enough charge to start it - the MG computer technicians (they cannot be Mechanics as they don't know how to fix a car) have told me again there is nothing wrong with the car...
Love my new car. Had it for 6 months and it has so many features. Drives nice, fuel economy seems good, heated seats, electric tailgate, electric seat adjustment, large visual display screen, sun and moon roof. Looks more prestigious than the price I paid. It’s a great looking car. Show details
Just purchased MG HS Excite, 2024 build, so far great car, although the Pilot feature is a-bit overwhelming, you can turn certain warnings off each time you use vehicle, but comfortable and for the price cannot fault. But will update review as we go along as it’s still a new car Show details
Horrid – Yes, I almost thought I was going crazy. But no, I checked reviews on the mg. Same experience suffered by many. Dangerous vehicle to enter into round abouts and intersections. As it almost stalls. It randomly accelerates without the use of the accelerator. It quite literally stops when driving up a hill. Its braking is on a whole new level of… Read more
what should I expect next....a sponge brake that might slow you,or a hard brake to launch you into the windscreen. It's crude digital systems are erratic. It is an uncomfortable vehicle for a roadtrip. It is also very uneconomical. This vehicle has been the worse driving experience I have endured in 45 years of driving. We recently had to endure a haval. Seems that the Chinese vehicles are cheap for a reason. So for our driving trip of tassie was soured by an unsafe , dysfunctional vehicle. Oh I forgot to mention the suspension. Please see Fred flinstones car. Its about the same.
Death trap waiting to happen – We were given this as a rental car and I returned it one day later due to how unsafe it is. I would never recommend buying this piece of tin junk. I have no idea how it has a safety rating of 5 when it will randomly loose acceleration or have no power on take off (almost had a collision on the roundabout due to it not accelerating and crawling… Read more
despite putting the foot down) and almost decompressing the entire brake to get it to slow down. Do not risk your families life in this car.
Not recommended! – I drive a 2023 Hyundai i30 hatchback manual, which was slightly damaged when a car backed into it. I am driving an MG HS, provided by the insurance company, while my car is being repaired. And I am not impressed by this car. It drives nicely, and power is good, so no problem there. But the controls for basic functions are terrible. To adjust the… Read more
heater or air conditioner, it is necessary to use the touch screen - there are no physical buttons or knobs. You have to take your eyes off the road to turn the damn fan up or down. This is, in my opinion, dangerous and a serious oversight from the designer of this car. Even worse is the cruise control - a stalk under the indicator switch, which is infuriating and dangerous to use. You have to fiddle with it to get it to work. The system in my Hyundai, and even the 2008 Mazda 3 I had before, is much easier and more intuitive to use. The cruise control is “adaptive “, which means it slows down when the car in front of you slows down. This is fine, but the lag when the system automatically takes off is dangerous - it takes ages to get going, and I feel that it would be very easy for a driver behind, not paying sufficient attention, or just impatient, to run into the back of the car. I just put my foot down to avoid this possibility. The brakes are also dreadful, they are spongy and definitely don’t inspire confidence. The car also guzzles petrol, at least compared to my car, though to be fair, it is a much bigger vehicle (it is not a hybrid model). The quality of the trim is also sub standard - the sun visors are flimsy and just feel crappy, and the paint is peeling off on the starter switch on the car I am driving, which has only done 23,000 km. The only positive is that the hill start stays on at all times, unlike the Hyundai, where you have to switch it on every time you start the car. Other than that, I can find nothing nice to say about this car. There is no way I would buy one, nor recommend it to others. Comparing the quality to that of my i30 is like comparing night and day. I believe these cars are cheap, but there have to be better options out there. Buyer beware!
Buy this car if you enjoy being frustrated and wasting time and money – Do yourself a favour and buy a different car! We rented this vehicle for 10 days, we’ve rented many vehicles before, this was the worst. The navigation system is so slow(!!!) and completely unreliable, often giving incorrect directions (like to take a motorway exit, then having to redirect us several kilometres to get us back onto the motorway we… Read more
were supposed to have stayed on), freezing up completely (requiring a system reset after it failed to work again even after 45mins), directing us to the same address repeatedly despite us entering 3 different locations, telling us there were round-a-bouts where there weren’t any, and completely failing to find some addresses or points of interest (eg. Petrol stations or a pizza hut). So we had to figure it out ourselves and ask directions from people. The central touchscreen infotainment system (which includes the only controls for most things) is laggy and glitchy. It can also only be used to control one thing at a time, so we couldn’t adjust the air conditioning temperature at the same time as searching for something on navigation (it also meant that if we needed to see what was coming next driving in the city, we were unable to adjust the A/C or music because we had to click away from navigation and that takes time and changes the screen). The navigation system and the drivers main display would show different speed limits to eachother, so if we’d missed a speed limit sign we didn’t know which one we should trust, neither were reliable. Like many others have mentioned, driving is even less than ideal. The brakes felt weak, I’d hate to see what would happen if you needed to slam the brakes on. It has a poor turning circle compared to other vehicles of similar size and design. The car would randomly drop several gears for no reason and start revving like crazy, so you look and sound like an idiot. These were just some of the things we noticed. We would NEVER recommend this vehicle and would request a different car or choose to rent through a different company if we believed we were likely to be given any MG ever again.
2022 MG HS Essence, don't buy one – We purchased a Dealership loan car with 12k km. 2022 model, 1.5 Turbo Petrol, 7 speed auto. Has all the bells & whistles. Very compfy in the cabin. Heated leather seats, sunroof etc etc. It is when we drive it the disappointments begin. When driving in normal mode, it hesitates on take off, then when on the highway, the throttle is so touchy you… Read more
find yourself speeding without noticing. Speeding ticket waiting to happen. Put it in Cruise control, then the fun really starts. Come to a slight bend in the road and it decides to change gears, not just one, but 2 or more, revs it head off. Come to any incline and it is worse. Al least once every trip it misses speed limit signs, this is especially annoying at the end of road works, doesn't see the end road works sign, and flashes at you because it still reads 40 km/h but it is back to 110 km/h. Fuel economy is rubbish. We took it to the only service dealership in North Tasmania, we were told, that is just how it is. Nothing wrong with it. We are on the highway all the time, this is strictly a City car, not open road car. I know it was cheaper, but it should reach some acceptable standards.
Absolutely disgraceful MG Customer Service – I purchased a MG HS Essence demonstaror from Central Coast MG with approx. 2,200klm. After about 300klms of driving a Engine Malfunction msg was displayed on the console. I took the vehicle to MG at West Gosford and it was diagnosed as a faulty Oxygen Sensor. They didnt have any available and said it may take 2 weeks. I called them 2 weeks later… Read more
and now they tell me it will be 4 to 6 weeks! The dealership service department is now telling ME to contact MG Australia if I want to escalate my issue. This is disgraceful customer service. I have a near 'new' vehicle that I am not willing to drive with this type of fault. No loan vehicles were available. As such, I do not recommend MG.
- +6
Rental car from Bargain car rentals Cairns not the best – Rented this SUV from Bargain car rentals Cairns Australia. My impressions on 4 day rental Friday - Tuesday the SUV is ok it's got allota bling leather seats, push button start, alloy wheels, wing mirror lights, auto wipers, pilot camera, speed sign detection. The Centre entertainment system is cumbersome with favourite buttons vol, aircond,… Read more
settings, making it hard to switch back to Android auto and aircond. For example everything is touch screen. The pilot camera takes up allot of windscreen real estate making driving difficult, The drivers display is manly a big screen with the Digital Speedo the analogue speedo and Tacco take a side seat it's hard to read allot of the small fonts on the big drivers display including KMs driven. The pilot and drivers screen work hand in hand detecting speed changes but some can be false positives with the Black speed change coming up signs on the Cairns Cook Highway meaning 30/40km are read early sometimes it misses the speed signs change and it shows -- on the screen. Otherwise the main issue is the stalks are European so the indicator is the left and washer on the right I must have turned the washer wipers 52 times. The cruising control stalk are under the indicator stalk and a mistake here with the stalk can be apparent all the time. The performance of the HS on the roundabouts on the Cook Highway in Cairns was poor on default Eco mode to the point I nearly had collisions as putting foot down on accelerator did nothing I had to take to Sports or Manual mode to wake it up. The Car settings menus on the centre vac and drivers are useless and didn't sync. The car was comfortable took it to Mareeba it was sleepy up the range road I had to wake it up in shifting it manual mode. The Car has not centre courtesy light, the SUV had a huge boot and space for a full sized spare but it got a space saver instead, lastly lots of chimes going off for checks could get quite annoying ignored 2 USB ports in front one for Android Apple and the other to charge passenger mobile, rear seats get USB X 2 centre console box gets air-conditioning cooling. Parking in reverse is easy with guided camera but I felt the turning circle of the HS was very heavy compared to my Subaru Forester I had to take a few 3 point turns.i wouldn't buy this MG HS it's too much bling and less refinement and seeing if their design work best with real world driving. Oh halogen headlights and led fog lamps which I found strange.
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- +8
An affordable PHEV, but I'd prefer a full EV instead – The MG impressed me more than I thought it could. Stand outs were the fit and finish of trim pieces, the panels and the accuracy in stitching. The car feels like a solid product, matching its toned exterior design. My biggest gripes were first found around the driver’s side door handle, which managed to get stuck open on multiple occasions. In… Read more
addition, the lag of the screens was a little too much to bear at times.
The infotainment system crashed when making a phone call via Apple CarPlay, and it took far too long just to load up the inbuilt maps, which didn’t even look all that impressive.
Also, MG should have taken the time to fix the grammatical errors found in the warning messages in the driver’s cluster that translate directly from Chinese to English.
Starting from $48,690 drive-away for a plug-in hybrid SUV, it’s an attractive proposition for many looking to move away from pure petrol/diesel-powered vehicles.
Our tester was the more expensive ‘Essence’ trim, priced from $51,690. You get a few more creature comforts, but they’re not entirely necessary. However, they’re a nice touch if you’re willing to upgrade purely for comfort and aesthetics.
On par with Kia, the MG HS Plus EV comes with a 7-year/unlimited kilometre warranty.
MG calls their capped price service program ‘Precise Price Servicing’ with intervals being 10,000km or every 12 months, whichever comes first.
There's a 7-year battery warranty too. And servicing will cost just $2,822 over this period (according to MG’s website).
On electric power alone, you have that traditional EV calmness when puttering around town or in traffic. Whenever you or the car decide to use it, that 1.5L turbo-petrol motor is obvious once engaged but not all that intrusive. Despite packing a more advanced equaliser, audio from these speakers is a little subpar. The audio could be clearer and the bass would sound a lot less ‘muddy’ too.
Even with carrying around a battery pack, it’s extremely easy to smoothly operate the MG.
The brakes feel extremely soft, as if you’re pushing your foot into an orthopaedic pillow. It’s not a bad thing, but it is far from MG's sports car origins.
Under EV power alone, the MG isn’t all that fast. It’s quick to deliver its instant torque, but it’s no Tesla by any means.
It’s calm and collected in delivering its electrons to the road, unlike some other EVs which love to claw for traction.
As a front-wheel drive car, even in the rain, it’s composed and feels planted when putting power down. Once that 1.5L four-cylinder jumps in, you really start to pick up the pace. The combined power is 189kW and 370Nm - plenty of power for an SUV this size. You can get just over 60km of pure electric range from this 16.6kWh battery pack.
0-100km/h is claimed to be 6.9 seconds. Not too shabby.
Power is fed through a 10-speed automatic, which performs flawlessly.
Shifts were hardly noticeable, and relatively seamless. It’s exactly what you’d want in a car that’s intended to get you from A to B as comfortably as possible.
Through corners, the MG feels a little big for its wheelbase. It feels like the body is hanging a little bit over the wheels, creating a more obvious lean and tilt when moving through faster and tighter bends.
The claimed combined fuel consumption is 1.7L per 100km.
I saw figures around the 5-6L per 100km mark. However when utilising that battery, I enjoyed many kilometres of 0L per 100km consumption. EV consumption figures were around the 15kWh per 100km level.
Charging up this battery via the provided charger using a traditional household outlet in the garage allowed me to get a full charge overnight. The battery does drain pretty quickly but it charges just as fast, which is great for the school pickup, when heading to work or for a short trip to the shops.
As MG have packed all of the key interactions of this car into the centre screen, there aren’t a whole lot of buttons. It’s not exactly minimalist, but it does look clean.
Alongside the flat bottom steering wheel, sportier seats in this tester add some much needed visual flair with their combination of suede and faux leather.
A 12.3-inch display for the driver does feel very 2022, and the layout makes the most of the screen, making it easy to read and interact with.
The interior design isn’t exactly stunning, but it is very functional.
There’s 451L of boot space available with the seats up, and there’s a small space under the boot floor for the charger if you need to bring it with you. A flat load floor makes it easy to lug things in and out. Seats fold as a 60:40 split. I'm a little disappointed with that, as I always prefer 40:20:40 in SUVs. But it does give you a decent 1275L of total usable space.
What really stood out for me was just how easy this car was to live with, whether it was the ability to purely run off electric power, reduce the number of times I visited the petrol station, or just how comfortable it was as a daily driver.
The MG HS is an ideal pairing for someone who doesn’t want their car to take away from their day to day life.
Sure, it’s not the MG we remember, but it’s a refreshing offering in a world of rising costs. It offers real value for money with a splash of luxury. Mix in the efficiency and accessibility of an EV drivetrain and it’s hard to look past as a daily driver.
Although, that screen lag needs to be sorted out in an update, because it’s what’s really holding this car back from reaching its full potential.
*Disclaimer - I work for ProductReview as their independent car and motorbike expert. I borrow new cars and motorbikes from manufacturers and owners to review. I am not paid or incentivised by these brands to post reviews. I write and create content to provide insight and information about any new or used vehicle I can get my hands on.
Most horrible rental car to exist – I really suggest anyone to use Uber car share or turu if they want rental cars. The Mg Hs is the most horrible rental or car in general. While this looks like a premium suv for a cheap price there’s a reason why this is cheap. The brakes are so bad feels like driving a 20 year old car. The engine is so underpowered in this car it feels like the… Read more
turbo does nothing. Could not even make it up the drive way, and you may say because of front wheel drive, our Corolla can do it without any problem and that is a 11 year old car. Not to mention how all the parts feel so cheap as they are already scratched and damaged. The dual clutch feels so sluggish when changing gears. Avoid these cars in general and rent you self a Toyota or buy a used Toyota if you are considering to purchase a Mg Hs.
Great car at amazing price – Top level safety specs. Well built. Really competitive price with 7 year unlimited km warranty. Drives well around town and on long trips. Show details
Save Your Money and Buy Something Else – Save your time, money, and stress, and don't buy this car. Yes, the interior and technology are nice, but the power, acceleration, and gear shifting is crap. I have owned my MG HS Excite since January and I have had nothing but problems with it. On day 2.5 it left my work on a tow truck because it went into limp mode and wouldn't go past 25km/hr… Read more
and they weren't able to find the issue. It has also been in 1 other time and is booked in next week because I continue to have issues with its horrible driveability and technology.
Zero stars – If you have to drive one of these regularly, you have my deepest sympathy. If you were foolish enough to actually buy one with your own money, you're way dumber that I thought you were before I tried one for myself. And before you get all boo hoo or defensive, shame on you. You could have purchased something way better, but because of laziness,… Read more
ignorance, or sheer tightwad-ness you didn't. Where do I start... The drivetrain is quite simply the most God awful of any car I've ever used. It's lurchy, laggy behaviour is just not acceptable. And the suspension? I don't actually think they fitted springs to this model. I've never had such harsh ride quality around town. And my normal everyday car is a leaf sprung ute! The MG HS has the dubious honour of being the only car ever to make me motion sick (and I was driving) in my 35 years of driving. I literally had to stop and throw up it was that awful. The infotainment is very fiddly to use and only God knows how the cruise control works! I accidentally pulled the lever doing less than 10km an hour , because unfamiliar car, and it sent me rocketing towards parked cars at the mall (I've NEVER known cruise control to activate at such low speeds!) All in all, I really do wonder how a manufacturer can take a bunch of parts, build a car that ON PAPER looks to be really well specced, but in reality drives worse than cars from the 1970's do. Yes, it really is THAT BAD.
Better options out there – Had one of these for 2 weeks as a rental and did over 1000 kms in a mix of urban and country driving. Yes, the MG HS is cheap. Unfortunately, this also shows in the way it drives. If you live in an area where there are stop signs, roundabouts and traffic lights, you will experience frequent jerking, stuttering, surging and serious turbo lag with… Read more
accompanying lack of power as the transmission and engine try to get their act together and find the right gear. If you add hills or stop/start traffic into this mix, things become even worse. The dual-clutch transmission is truly woeful and it's almost like no one at MG HQ took this for a test drive before they let it out into the world. Don't get me started on slow speed maneuvers in underground car parks. Just not pleasant at all and in inner city driving it is really one of the most uncomfortable cars I have experienced. On the plus side, if you only drive country roads (and don't stop between when you leave and when you arrive) then you won't have too many problems and the suspension tune is actually not too bad. In terms of the interior, it's nice but almost all controls are handled through the touchscreen which is very laggy (sometimes up to 10 sec wait when using Android auto). Would prefer good old dials to quickly change heating/cooling functions. Adaptive cruise control works well, although turning it on and off is counter intuitive, and you you can feel surging from the engine if you encounter even small hills while it is on. Fuel efficiency averaged ~8L/100km on my trips. Honestly, there are better options out there. I couldn't live with the way this drives day to day. After 2 weeks, I was more than ready to give it back. If you're in the market for one of these, you'd be better off looking at a used Rav4, CX5 or Sportage for about the same money instead of buying a new one of these.
Good car so far but having very basic Issues which pre delivery inspection could have fixed – I have Bought two MG HS Vibes from Wodonga Car World. Good Service by Anthony Forti and the Team however both the cars have Wobbly Rear View Mirror, Wobbly Shifter Knobs and Rear View Camera Partly Blocked by Rego which should have been fixed at pre-delivery inspection. Nothern MG fixed the Rear View Mirror issue but not the other Two apparently… Read more
other two issues are inherent to the model. It is still a month that I bought the cars rest looks ok and will post any further issues.
great all rounder – so far the car has lived up to all that was promised , its got good power and it does the EV milage it states 63 km its perfect for the trips to work and around so far my fuel saving have been great, you do need to be diligent about charging it in between trips its mainly my to and from work car love the 360 camera , love the internal sound when… Read more · 1
running on EV it so quiet music sounds so good , its pilot feature is hard to trust but has not let me down at all, love this car , 2yrs on and still very happy with my choice my fuel usage is at 1.2 ltr per 100 km , the only upgrade i would like is my apple play should be blue toothed not cable reliant ,and that's how hard its been to find fault with this car
Very nice car indeed – We had this car now for close to 2 years. We had the usual quality reservation regarding Chinese made products, but given the excellent value and overall look and feel we got decided to risk it. We had no issues to date, knock on wood, and the quality look and feel are Mercedes class I would argue. So if you wondering about MG, we are very happy and would do it again
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