MG Problems

This might be a tricky one because crash damage is not usually covered by a car’s factory warranty. But if you believe the crash was caused by brake failure, then the manufacturer is potentially responsible for that. Whether that translates to paying for the crash damage is a very grey area, however.

CarsGuide is not able to offer legal advice, but this sounds like a case where you might consider engaging a solicitor to help sort it all out and determine who’s going to pay for what. The first step would be to have the car independently tested to see if the brakes are, indeed, faulty, and tackle it from there. Your state motoring club should have a legal advice department that can help guide you and might be a good starting point.

This problem is more common than you might imagine and applies to a lot of different makes and models. It’s a simple cases of physics, in the end: The petrol is being pumped into the filler neck at a decent rate, sometimes enough for some splash-back to occur as the fuel hits the side of the filler neck and bounces around.

The problem will be much worse if the filler neck can’t 'breathe' (air has to leave the tank for fuel to get in - physics again) so make sure there are no blocked breather lines or holes inside the top of the filler neck.

Beyond that, the best advice is to try turning the fuel nozzle, say, 45 degrees each way from vertical to see if that lands the fuel in a more agreeable place in the filler neck. Either that or you’re stuck with trickling the fuel into the car at a slower rate (the rate of flow of the nozzle is adjustable according to how far you pull it).

The first thing to check here would be how well the door and window rubbers are sealing. If they’re not sealing absolutely 100 per cent, a whistling noise at higher speeds is often the result. This technology has come a long way but, ultimately, it all depends on the rubber sealing the glass and the door against the rest of the car. Inferior quality rubber has been noted in some cases, and other times a single bad batch of rubber has been to blame.

But the first thing to do is open each door and make sure there’s not a small twig or piece of tree stuck in the rubber as this can cause the same problem. At least the latter is easy to remedy.

Very often, a whistling noise caused by air passing over the vehicle is caused not by the window openings, but the actual door openings. If the rubber door seals are from a bad batch or the doors have not been aligned properly on their hinges at the factory, this very annoying whistling sound can be the result. Fitting window-shields to force the air around the window openings won’t do a darn thing if the noise is from the door rubbers, which sounds like what might be going on here.

At least the dealership has admitted that there’s a problem, so stay on top of them until the problem is sorted out. And definitely do not take “they all do that” for an answer. A simple mechanical seal should not be beyond the skills of a modern car-maker.

If you previously owned large capacity non-turbo cars (such as a V8 or large six-cylinder) you might notice that some newer, smaller-engined cars with turbochargers don’t always have the urgency you remember when pulling into traffic or leaving a green light. That said, turbo motors are less laggy than they’ve ever been thanks to new technology and lighter turbocharger internals, but they can still feel as though they’re taking a second to really get going when you put your foot down. But they shouldn’t make you feel like you’re putting your life in danger every time you try to merge into traffic.

Which means you may have a problem with your car or, depending on your expectations, maybe not. Car dealers have a bit of a reputation of delivering the old “they all do that, sir” line when confronting dissatisfied owners, but you don’t need to leave it at that.

You can ask for a written report showing the car’s boost graph and compare that with what the factory says the car should deliver. But an even simpler way is to find somebody else with the same make and model and ask if you can drive the two back-to-back. Perhaps the dealer has a mechanically identical car on their used-car lot that you could take for a test drive. If your car is noticeably slower to launch than the other, then you may have a mechanical or even a software fault that is affecting performance.

The other thing to remember here is that (unless you bought a manual version) your car has a dual-clutch transmission and these can also sometimes feel a bit slow to get cracking when you launch them. Again, the performance of the transmission should be able to be electronically checked and verified, so don’t rule that out, either.

You could be looking at a couple of problems here. Either there’s a recurring problem with the car that is causing the check-engine light to illuminate, or the problem was fixed at one of the four previous service appointments, but the service team has consistently failed to zero (reset) the warning light.

In most cases, these check-engine lights are cancelled via the on-board scanning process which, coincidentally, would also tell you if there’s a constant problem forcing the check-engine warning to light up. Either way, it’s back to the workshop for an electronic vehicle scan to rule out the latter and/or reset the former.

This model MG is designed and set-up to run as an EV for as much of the time as possible. That’s how it saves fuel and keeps running costs and tailpipe emissions as low as possible. To do that, the petrol engine mainly works to keep the battery charged, rather than actually drive the car’s wheels (which it can, but only in limited situations).

So, what you’re probably experiencing is the engine whirring away independently of the car’s actual road speed, as it attempts to keep the battery charged while going up a hill where the energy required is greatest.

There are three different ways to charge your MG ZS EV– two at home and one in public. The first involves a regular 240V wall socket, using a standard charging cable provided by MG. This will take roughly 34 hours at home for the 51kWh battery or 36 hours for the long-range 73kWh battery. Charging costs range between 21 to 36 cents per kWh on average but can vary depending on demand and which state you live in. Alternatively, owners can purchase an AC wall unit which on average costs between $800 to $2000, with additional charges for installation. An 11kW unit will fully charge a MG ZS EV in 7.5 hours or 10.5 hours for the 73kWh battery. If the unit is hooked up to solar power, the cost can be free. MG ZS EV owners can also access public DC fast-charging stations with the maximum output of 100kW. It will take 45 minutes to charge the 51kWh battery at this rate and 36 minutes on the 72kWh unit. Once again, charges depending on demand and where you’re charging, but as a general rule you should never pay more than $40 per charge.

This is another classic example of body-computer-fault behaviour. The body computer on a modern car controls multiple (hundreds, in fact) functions such as the heating and cooling, dashboard, media and entertainments, wipers, lights and, of course, the central locking. If the computer has a glitch, the central locking can develop a mind of its own.

Ultimately, you may need to replace the body computer, but this is potentially a warranty job since your car is a 2019 model and should, therefore, carry seven years of factory cover. Take it back to the dealership and have the situation assessed.

Okay, before you do anything else, take the keys and hide them so nobody can drive the car. If the rear wheels are randomly locking at any speed, you have a major safety issue on your hands and the car should be towed back to the dealership from which you bought it.

The cause of this could be anything from a faulty wheel bearing, a park-brake with a mind of its own or a problem in the transmission, suspension or braking system. But what ever it is, the car can not be driven anywhere in the interests of your and everybody else’s safety.

I would be talking to MG’s Australian customer service department to arrange for it to pick the car up and either sort it out under warranty or replace the vehicle. MG also needs to figure out whether this is a one-off problem, or something that might be a problem in other examples of this model. At which point, a safety recall may even be required.