Three to the fore!

New Car Review
MG3 BadgeMG3 Badge
MG3 Badge

MG3

by Jonathan Crouch

The MG3 supermini has a lot of convincing to do in a very tough corner of the market. It certainly looks good and there’s a punchy 105PS engine under the bonnet.

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MG3

Efficiency admittedly isn’t up with the class best but extra equipment and lower pricing compared to direct rivals mean that many potential buyers may not mind that. An interesting new small car arrival.

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The MG3 was designed with the intention of being fun to drive, the chassis having been subjected to many thousands of miles of testing on European roads.

The first cars offered to journalists to drive in China were rather harshly sprung but MG promised to fit springs and dampers that offered a more supple feel for UK roads.

The engine is a 1.5-litre 105PS four-cylinder unit that naturally drives the front wheels. There’s nothing revolutionary about the suspension which is fairly standard set-up with MacPherson struts up front and a torsion beam at the rear. You also get a drive-by-wire braking system and an electrically-assisted power steering set up.

The exterior styling looks quite smart, if maybe a little supermini-generic in a way that could have been produced from one of many manufacturers in this sector if you covered the badges over.

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Still, because the MG3 looks to undercut many of the established names, this rather blended styling is perhaps to its credit.

It continues the design theme introduced on the MG ZERO concept vehicle and the company claims it’s “a distinctive statement of modern British style designed to target young and style conscious buyers”. Make of that what you will.

The interior will come as a welcome relief to anybody who’s a bit baffled by the complexity and deep technology of many modern superminis.

Climb out of a Peugeot 208, with its self-parking system and tablet computer style central infotainment system and, without being unduly blunt, it’s very different.

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Still, the MG3 is tidy inside with seats that look and feel very Volkswagen.

There are a few white touches around the stereo, on the steering wheel, the door pulls, handbrake and gear lever but aside from that, everything is uniformly grey.

Sit in the back seats and you’ll find the front seats are sculpted to improve leg room, while the rear headroom is genuinely impressive.

It’s early days yet but there is a spark of promise for the MG3. The five-door shape squeezes a lot of styling into its four metre length and if the price and equipment levels can be made to work for British buyers, it might well get a warm reception, though of course MG has a long way to go in this country before it can mix it with the big names.

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With more power to call upon, the MG3 promises to be a far more effervescent steer than, say, an entrylevel Skoda Fabia, but the downside of this is that economy and emissions figures aren’t going to be class competitive and in this market that matters a lot more than a brisk 0-60 time.

Still, there remains a subset of younger buyers who will want the zippiest thing for their money and the MG3 might well be it. I’ve heard of many worse sales hooks than that.

FACTS AT A GLANCE

CAR: MG3 range

PRICES: from £9,995 [est]

INSURANCE GROUPS: tba

CO2 EMISSIONS: 159g/km [est]

PERFORMANCE: 0-60 8.9s/top speed 120mph

FUEL CONSUMPTION: 47mpg [est]

STANDARD SAFETY FEATURES: tba

WILL IT FIT IN YOUR GARAGE? Length/Width/Height mm 4015/1728/1520

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