MG Hector 2020 Reviews, Price, Images, and Specs

MG Hector Exterior 

The first impression of the MG Hector\’s front end will immediately draw your attention, it\’s very boldface with lots of chrome around the grille, and more still in the bumper, it too follows the recent trend of slim LED daytime running lights placed high up with the headlamps and fog lamps placed lower down in the bumper, I quite liked it but that my opinion.
starts to change looking at the car in profile there are nice touches like the chrome band at the base with Morris garages embossed in it, the sharp shoulder crease, the kink in the window line at the rear, and the floating roof effect, but there\’s just something amiss about the Hector stance and that\’s mostly to do with the 17-inch wheels and tires, that feels far too small relative to the car size and the big wheel arches, it makes it look more like a crossover MPV than an all-out SUV.
The rear is a bit busy with lots of angles and lines and unnecessary reflector strip between the tail lamps rather unconvincing silver panel meant to mimic a real skid plate but these are all subjective things and who knows maybe some people might just like it, Thankfully the look of the interior is far more straightforward and less polarizing.

MG Hector Interior 

Now, The interior of the MG Hector certainly makes a great first impression and that\’s because it\’s high on the wow factor, and of course, it all starts with this vertically-oriented 10.4-inch touchscreen which I\’ll get into later cuz there\’s a lot of detail in there, but it\’s also just the perceived quality in this cabin that\’s so high, there\’s the lovely leather finish on the dashboard, it\’s on the steering wheel, and even the plastics, for the most part, are high-quality, there\’s a good amount of texture and color spreader on the cabin, ok some bits like even on the dash drop a little bit hard and shiny but for the rest of it to touch and feel, it feels good.

It\’s also designed unique and that should be a big draw for a lot of buyers, there are big storage bins in the doors, a little narrow but deep bin under the armrest, and a pair of cupholders, that I wish were just a little bit larger, another area where MG aims to shock and awe you is the equipment list.
There are the usual segments staples like leather upholstery, auto climate control, auto headlamps, and wipers, keyless entry and go, and cruise control, but then it goes so much further it\’s got a full-length panoramic sunroof, power driver and passenger seats, heated wing mirrors, eight-color ambient lighting, and a seven-inch color MID, on the safety front you\’ll find six airbags, disc brakes, all-around traction and stability control, ISOFIX child seat mounts, a tire pressure monitor, and parking sensors at both rear and front, incredibly it\’s also got 360-degree cameras that even give you an overhead view but the image quality on screen leaves a lot to be desired, but there\’s so much more to this 10.4-inch touchscreen which is allied to an eSIM for onboard internet making this another connected car.
it\’s a bright sharp and colorful display but some of the functionality is unintuitive it can take time to load and port touch sensitivity means you have to probe the screen a bit harder than you think, it features onboard navigation, Android Auto and Apple Carplay, and even the Ganna music streaming service with a premium subscription and it\’s all allied to a punchy sounding eight-speaker Infinity audio system with a subwoofer. The physical control buttons are reduced to just five, volume up and down, front and rear defogger, and a home button, which means many functions require you to take your eyes off the road and use the touchscreen like even adjusting the AC there are voice commands to get around this door which I did try it later on what I also got to try on, later on, is the integrated smartphone app which was rather cool now much like the Hyundai Venue we tested recently this MG Hector is also being touted as a connected car and that means it too has a partner smartphone app this one\’s called iSmart and that lets you access a lot of the car\’s features from anywhere in the world. I don\’t have to be standing so close to the car I could be anywhere as long as the phone has an active internet connection and the car uses internet I-sim has enough signal now my favorite feature on the app is the remote control system, it\’s quite simple but it lets you do a few crucial things like locking and unlocking the car for the instance just have to put in the passcode and the other thing you can do is open the sunroof or close the sunroof in case it\’s raining or it\’s too hot which again lock in the password for security and there we go it\’s done now in the automatic car what you\’ll also be able to do is to start the car remotely and also turn on the a/c to pre-cool the car, but because this is the manual and of course it\’s left in gear the car would just stall, if you try to start it so that\’s not an option here but there are also a bunch of other cool features in this app that I\’d like to show you, these include geofencing – that alerts you if your car is driven out of a certain preset radius a find my car GPS feature and smart drive which scores you based on your driving habits and yet despite all that cool tech.

There is one more basic attribute that could draw customers to this MG crossover now will you just look at this I think this backseat might be the MG Hector\’s biggest drum cart because look at the space on offer it is just tremendous, ok I\’m not the tallest person and yes the driver seat is in my position but I had a 6-footer sitting back here earlier and we pushed the driver seat behind and he still had enough room but it\’s not just the actual space which of course there is plenty off but the sense of space you get back here thanks to the huge panoramic sunroof and these massive massive windows not just that the seat itself is quite comfortable very well cushioned not too soft not too hard and of course there\’s this other little trick the clients and comes forward to suit your needs the floor is quite flat so a middle passenger won\’t be too uncomfortable.
There are of course rear AC vents and you\’ll even find a USB fast charging port for your device but with such a vast backseat does it mean that the boot space has suffered well MG did give us an actual boot volume figure its 587 liters. you can be the judge now the MG Hector does have a pretty large boot it opens up with this power tailgate which I can open with the remote or from the inside with the touch of a button but at first glance, it might not seem that big that\’s exasperated by the fact that the loading lip is quite high. you got all your bags over and to it and inside you find a flat loading space but again it feels like they could have been more space still, the truth is there is a bit more space and that comes when you lift this you\’ll find a subwoofer here and you\’ll also find a much bigger loading area back there that you can chuck them odds and ends in where is the spare tires it\’s bolted underneath the car and if you\’re wondering where the boot has such an unusual layout that\’s to accommodate the small third row of seats that comes as an MG Hector Plus.

MG Hector Test Drive

MG Hector Petrol Engine 

we\’ve been copping at this parked car for too long let\’s go for a drive this is the mild hybrid petrol version powered by a 1.5-liter turbocharged four-cylinder engine with 143 horsepower and 250 Newton meters of torque aided by a 48-volt electric motor which does provide some electric boost. it also features brake energy recuperation to charge the additional lithium-ion battery and fuel-saving engine stop-start although this didn\’t engage even once during our drive overall though it\’s a decent powertrain with good refinement and smooth power delivery.
It does however feel a little weak before the turbocharger kicks in and I was starting to feel this on this narrow twisty road, the weak bottom end is showing in conditions like this and I find myself shifting down to second and even first sometimes to tackle some of the sharper uphill corners. what\’s more because there was quite a lot of traffic that day I wasn\’t really able to pick up the pace on this particular stretch but it was at least a good test of the handling as for the dynamics of the MG Hector well let\’s just say it\’s not a car that wants to be driven enthusiastically the suspension is very soft to the car goals that are quite a lot under steering – it feels quite slow and light I really quite disconnected from the road the advantage of course is that it makes it much easier to maneuver at lower speeds, but try and have a little bit of fun with this on a windy road and you come away, a little bit disappointed after the beautiful but crowded mountain road we managed to make our way onto the highway to stretch the Hector\’s legs with no passengers on board the petrol hybrid version felt adequate but during overtaking maneuvers it felt like it could have done with a bit more punch, but then if it\’s a highway cruiser you want you are probably better off with the diesel.

MG Hector Diesel Engine

The diesel engine in the MG Hector is actually quite a familiar one it\’s the 2-liter four-cylinder MultiJet diesel engine you find in the Jeep Compass and the Tata Harrier which is interesting because they should be some of this cars closest rivals but as is often the case each company that uses the same engine tends to tune it a little bit differently for their car so here like the Jeep Compass it makes the same 170 horsepower and 350 newton meters of torque but it feels quite a lot different the first thing you notice is that it feels a little bit more refined than it does in the Jeep sure it is still audible but it\’s a lot quieter, there\’s also a certain refinement of the way it delivers its power you don\’t get that same solid whack as you get in the compass and I\’m pretty confident that when we test it against our equipment it won\’t be as quick as the jeep Compass either what you get instead is a far more relaxed and more linear power delivery so the power comes in more gently and frankly that suits this car demeanor just fine

It\’s not one of those cars that you want to push really hard in the first place, it\’s far more relaxed and it does a great job of just cruising and I\’m sure it will be great with a full load of passengers and luggage the 6-speed manual is geared quite tall in the interest of fuel economy and at lower speeds you might feel a bit of hesitation and a need to shift down but out here it feels right at home another thing I can tell you while driving out here on the highway is that this car doesn\’t give you that same sense of solidarity that you get from other cars in this class for one the suspension is set up really really soft so while you are really comfortable at low speeds it doesn\’t move you around quite a bit at higher speeds and that\’s not very reassuring also not very reassuring is this very very light steering that just doesn\’t give you enough confidence you feel a little bit of play in it and a bit of looseness and that\’s not what you want out of the highway other things of note is the brakes which have a good feel of the pedal and offer a good amount of light, the fuel economy figures MG claims as per ARAI certification a 17.4 kpl for this diesel and 15.81 kpl for the petrol hybrid, we didn\’t get to test the non-hybrid petrol which will come in manual and DCT auto guises but the acclaimed economy is 14.16 kpl and 13.96 kpl respectively.

So, now that we\’re on a more relaxed cruise on the highway I think I can explore a few more of this car\’s features. Now said it before I\’m never a fan of when they take away all the physical buttons from a touchscreen infotainment system and that is kind of the case here but MG tells us that it\’s voice command system is very very intuitive and very very helpful so I\’m going to try it out:-

hello MG : I\’m listening huh – can you please turn up the fan speed : increasing fan speed

not bad but let\’s try another one

hello MG : I\’m here – you please set the temperature to 21 degrees : temperature is set to 21 degrees Celsius

MG Hector Pricing 

Like I said at the start the MG Hector has a lot to prove in our market it\’s a relatively unknown upstart a classic British brand reborn under Chinese ownership although prices priced very aggressively at Rs 12.18 lakh for the base Style petrol manual and Rs 16.88 lakh for the top-spec Hector Sharp diesel manual, the MG Hector offers fantastic value for money. It will be going up against the Tata Harrier and Jeep Compass two very strong competitors its approach.

Conclusion

However, It is very different from those two where their focus seems to be on delivering that big brawny classic SUV appeal Hector aims to give you more features, space, and an easy driving experience some will knock it for not looking or feeling like SUV enough but others might appreciate that it simply isn\’t taking that route what they like is its bold blingy face the acres of room in its back seat. It\’s cushy light and its vast if at times gimmicky equipment list only time will tell if the Hector and indeed MG can deliver on things like durability after-sales care and spare parts and service costs but with a wide network of showrooms and touchpoints in the works they seem to be covering their bases for now all we have is this first impression and boy has it been a strong one.