MG looking into popular hatch safety issues

MG says it is investigating an issue with its MG3 hatch.

The Chinese brand recently addressed safety shortfalls found in an early crash test that led to it receiving a three-star (from a maximum five-star) ANCAP rating in 2024, by adding a centre airbag, a driver monitoring system and improved collision avoidance capability.

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Back in June, the new MG3 was originally awarded a three-star ANCAP rating, with the safety body marking the hatchback down for its lack of a centre airbag, marginal results for child occupant protection, excessive head movement for adults in the back seats, and a higher risk to the front seat passenger’s legs in a crash.

It was also penalised for a lack of reverse auto braking, driver monitoring, and inadequate auto braking performance for crossing pedestrians.

At the time, MG said it had taken ANCAP’s feedback on board and was in “active discussions” with its SAIC parent company, and subsequently released an upgraded version (cars built from 30 April 2025), which went on to achieve a revised four-star rating in both ANCAP and Euro NCAP.

However, according to Euro NCAP, the updated MG3’s right-side seat adjuster of the driver’s seat failed in its testing. The safety body said this caused it to “twist halfway through the impact.

“This movement exacerbated the loads on the driver dummy’s right leg and protection for that part of the body was rated as poor. This in turn, meant that MG was precluded from demonstrating the protection offered to occupants of different sizes sitting in different positions.”

The safety body also said the driver’s head bottomed out the airbag against the steering wheel, and head movement exceeded the test’s thresholds, rating head protection as poor.

On top of this, Euro NCAP noted the 10-year old dummy in the rear bottomed out the airbag on the impact side of the C-pillar, resulting in “high injury values” to the head and chest. In addition, it was noted the MG3 does not have child presence detection system.

Despite this critical failure the Australasian New Car Assessment Program (ANCAP) and its European counterpart (Euro NCAP), upgraded the car's score to four stars.

Now MG said it is reviewing the outcome of these tests, stating to date it has not received reports of any similar failure on MY24 and MY25 cars delivered to Australia.

It added it is "committed to a rigorous review of this assessment and stands ready to take any necessary actions in the best interests of our growing family of MG owners and drivers in Australia,” suggesting it is ready to roll out further updates to versions of the MG3 launching in the future, with “information to be released in due course”.

The MG3 and MG ZS small SUV currently have four-star ANCAP safety ratings, with the MG5 small sedan wearing a three-star rating. The rest of MG’s line-up, including the just-launched U9 ute, have maximum five-star ANCAP safety ratings, aside from the new range of IM luxury EVs, which are yet to be assessed.

The IM6 mid-sizer has been rated to Euro NCAP protocols, where it achieved a maximum five-star score, with high scores across all criteria.