MG (3), any good?

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Fri 24 Mar 2017 18:58
MG (3), any good? - badbusdriver

My eldest son is finally showing some interest in learning to drive (at the age of 19). He has been mentioning various cars and various options, most of which, im not that keen on!. But he is 19 and it is up to him!.

Anyway, i was reading a magazine the other morning and saw an advert for the MG3. List price for the basic model is £8399, 20% deposit, which is just under £1700, then up to 5 years interest free credit with payments of £111.99 per month (over the full 5 years). Seemed like a decent enough deal, and my son likes the look of the car (unusual, as he is very fussy with car looks). Had a look at the car on Honest John reviews, particularly the good/bad section, which showed nothing under bad. Then, to top it off, i found out that despite having a 105bhp 1.5 litre (chain, not belt) engine, it is only group 4 insurance!.

Now i am well aware that they are Chinese and that the interior plastics are pretty low rent, But does anybody know of any real problems or reliabilty issues with them?.

Thanks

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Fri 24 Mar 2017 19:19
MG (3), any good? - SLO76
Way too early to tell how they'll stand up. Though it is a relatively simple straightforward design, no DMF and no turbocharger and the larger MG6 seems to be holding together reasonably well.

However, thanks to crippling depreciation they will cost far more to run overall than the likes of a more expensive Corsa or Fiesta and there are some cracking deals on the Corsa right now. I recently helped my sister in law buy a new unregistered Corsa 1.4 SRi with every toy you could possibly need for less than £9,500 plus managed to get £1,300 for a knackered Fiat Punto against it, about £1,299 more than it was worth. This is a vastly better made and a nicer driving car than the MG and will be worth much more in three years time.

Have to say though, I wouldn't be buying a brand new car for a first motor. He will have minor mishaps with it as he gains experience and a good used car under £3k would surely be a better bet.

Edited by SLO76 on 24/03/2017 at 19:22

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Fri 24 Mar 2017 20:05
MG (3), any good? - badbusdriver

I quite agree with the £3k option SLO, i did tell him that getting a dearer car as a 1st car is not a good idea. And yes, a corsa fitting into that budget would be perfect 1st car fodder. He has his own ideas though, as do most of his age nowadays, think they know everything!.

Not sure how seriously he will be thinking about the MG, i was just interested to know what folks had to say about them.

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Fri 24 Mar 2017 21:04
MG (3), any good? - John F
I wouldn't be buying a brand new car for a first motor. He will have minor mishaps with it as he gains experience and a good used car under £3k would surely be a better bet.

Even that's generous, SL! My sons were grateful for a brace of old Peugeot 309s - OP's budget with decimal point shifted one place to the left.

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Fri 24 Mar 2017 21:47
MG (3), any good? - Fishermans Bend

I'd stick to a limit of £2,000. Both a friend's kids wrote off their cars, by making mistakes a more experienced driver wouldn't, within 18 months of passing their driving tests. Each car, Friesta and Ka respectively, cost under £2000 so it made more sense to throw away cars and start again, otherwise premiums would have rocketed astonomically!

Cousin is in same boat with his eldest, albeit car purchased will be second car for him/wife and a car son can drive. Shortlist:-

Focus MK1

Fiesta

Yaris

Swift

Polo

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Fri 24 Mar 2017 22:08
MG (3), any good? - SLO76
I've a slightly tatty Polo (still) sitting on my drive he can have for £300? No need to worry about carpark bumps, it would probably improve it. In all seriousness though running a banger is all part of learning about motoring. He'll be in tears the first time he bumps a new motor. I learnt a lot from my first motor, a seriously abused MG Metro.

Was offered a very nice low mileage one owner 106 GTi today, if you fancy a laugh getting an insurance quote...
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Sat 25 Mar 2017 00:01
MG (3), any good? - veloceman
I was just about to ask the same question regarding the MG 6.
You can get a 2012 model for less than 4K and a 2015 for less than 7k.
As said above they are a little behind on quality but on reliability alone are they any good?
Is a 8 yr old Insignia/Mondeo any better?

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Sat 25 Mar 2017 00:05
MG (3), any good? - SLO76
I was just about to ask the same question regarding the MG 6. You can get a 2012 model for less than 4K and a 2015 for less than 7k. As said above they are a little behind on quality but on reliability alone are they any good? Is a 8 yr old Insignia/Mondeo any better?

They never sold in big numbers but it does seem like they finally fixed the K series's tendency to smoke its head gasket at ridiculously low mileages. There's a diesel 6 on as a taxi locally but I've yet to ride in it and question the driver but it certainly looks and sounds ok after 3yrs on as a taxi.
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Sat 25 Mar 2017 05:39
MG (3), any good? - oldroverboy.

They never sold in big numbers but it does seem like they finally fixed the K series's tendency to smoke its head gasket at ridiculously low mileages. There's a diesel 6 on as a taxi locally but I've yet to ride in it and question the driver but it certainly looks and sounds ok after 3yrs on as a taxi.

The head gasket "issue" was cleared for production just as MGRover went bust. I'll look for the article in Aronline...... not economic to do on a failed head but zero problems.
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Sat 25 Mar 2017 06:30
MG (3), any good? - jc2

A lot of work was done on the head gasket issue by Ford-who used that engine in the Land Rover during the short period they owned it.

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Sat 25 Mar 2017 07:43
MG (3), any good? - SLO76

A lot of work was done on the head gasket issue by Ford-who used that engine in the Land Rover during the short period they owned it.

Yup, Land Rover cured the issue with an upgraded gasket but was never fitted at the factory, it was and is available to repair afflicted cars permanently post production and wasn't a costly thing to add in production, it was simply an upgraded gasket really but MG/Rover who produced the K series were skint and by that time thinking was on a very short term cycle as management knew the firm had zero chance of survival. The K series was never designed to be larger than 1400cc, with Honda units taking up the role of bulk of the larger engine range but the K was rapidly upgraded to cover initially the loss of Honda's excellent 2.7 V6 when production ended and the costs of the replacement 3.2 were too high so Rover rushed the flawed but smooth KV6 in 2.5 form into the 800 and had to take most early cars back when they all started going wrong. The KV6 was fixed and HGF is actually quite rare on these but the daft triple timing belt set up is hugely costly to replace and most owners neglected it so belt failure is common. Weirdly Kia even used them in the Sedona people carrier. When the link with Honda was broken by BMW's takeover the larger 4cyl K series units were again rushed into being to replace Honda's excellent motors and the weakest K series regarding HGF was/is the 1800 and the 1600 to a lesser degree. Especially the 1800 turbo thanks to the extra heat from the hastily added turbo installation. I've seen these fail at less than 30,000 miles which was wholly unacceptable on a costly modern car and affected owners were put off the brand for life. The smaller 1100 and 1400 are less prone to it, in fact I've never encountered an 1100 so afflicted.
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Mon 27 Mar 2017 22:00
MG (3), any good? - daveyK_UK

the MG3 imporessed me when i had a lift in one, lost of space and equipment for the money.

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Tue 28 Mar 2017 11:01
MG (3), any good? - madf

I encouraged both sons to drive sub £2k cars as their first cars. They turned out to be grateful when they both wrote them off....!!

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Tue 28 Mar 2017 13:39
MG (3), any good? - Gibbo_Wirral

It looks a little like a Skoda Fabia

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