3 new cars MG, Hyundai, BMW

[Krise]

So the title not quite as it seems, started a new job and until I pass my probation period I can’t choose what company car I can have so I am at the mercy of the local national hire chain as to what I get for the first few months.

First car they sent me was the MG



For a modern car this was absolutely terrible, it had just under 5000 miles on it when it arrived on the drive.

Fuel economy was woeful, it had all the options ticked but they are all either to intrusive or didn’t work, the gearbox could never decide what gear it wanted, and then it had complete brake failure on a NSL country lane, luckily about a mile from home so managed to coast back to almost home where it rested at a stop. Luckily I was on a straight piece of road.

That was replace by a white manual version, that broke down on my drive about half an hour after they dropped it of as a replacement.

Next up they sent me a Hyundai Tuscon Hybrid



For a hire car unusually this one was fully loaded, heated and cooled front and rear seats, radar cruise, panoramic roof, the lot.

This is a brilliant car, I really liked it, little smaller inside than I’m used to coming from my XC90 but as a family car brilliant.

Really economical, comfortable, everything worked well, the infotainment looks a little dated but is very modern and the build quality is as good as any of the Germans, I really was disappointed when I had to hand this back as I was doing to many miles and the hire company said I needed something lower mileage as it’s a long term rental.

Que the most pointless car ever

The 118i, I think it’s an m sport


It’s nice to look at, and extremely well put together inside however that where it ends.

The ride is far to firm
The infotainment while works well isn’t that great with many many sub menus
It’s absolute gutless, I mean it has no go whatsoever I live out in the sticks and you need a hell of a lot of road to get in an overtake if there’s a lorry or tractor.

Then this is what makes it pointless for me, the fuel economy on a nice clear run, coasting along on a motorway your going to struggle to see 40mpg maybe get 41 if you cruise at 60, in town it sits around 25/27 I just don’t get it, it either needs to do one or the other well.

I’ll be a the mileage limit for a change on the BMW in a few weeks so I wonder what I will get next !

[Ambleton]

I had one of those MGs recently as a hire car in Sicily. I booked a panda and they gave me this as a "free upgrade" - I nearly had a full on meltdown when they told me.

It was bloody awful!

Was "yours" a 1.5NA?

The 1.5NA was woefully gutless. Any torque/power was only right at the top of its rev range - I'd go as far as to suggest that it was close to being dangerous. Interior quality was awful too.

Edited by Ambleton on Thursday 30th November 16:08

[Krise]

Ambleton said:

I had one of those MGs recently as a hire car in Sicily. I booked a panda and they gave me this as a "free upgrade" - I nearly had a full on meltdown when they told me.

It was bloody awful!

Was "yours" a 1.5NA?

The 1.5NA was woefully gutless. Any torque/power was only right at the top of its rev range - I'd go as far as to suggest that it was close to being dangerous. Interior quality was awful too.

Edited by Ambleton on Thursday 30th November 16:08

I think it was the 1.5, it was slow, gutless and to be honest it was like getting into and driving a car from the early 90’s.

It’s hard to buy a bad modern car these days in reality, quality of car yes, but this is just a bad all round car.

[Sofa]

Ambleton said:

Was "yours" a 1.5NA?

The 1.5NA was woefully gutless. Any torque/power was only right at the top of its rev range - I'd go as far as to suggest that it was close to being dangerous. Interior quality was awful too.

I'm pretty sure all the 1.5's are turbocharged... I know because I've driven far too many of them and swore blind they were NA too based on the utter lack of grunt, until I Googled the actual specs and couldn't find any mention of an NA model. I'm still not convinced, maybe sometimes they forget to hook up the turbo in the factory or something.

I use the same hire provider quite extensively through work and so have driven all of those 3 cars OP- pretty much exactly the same thoughts as you on all of them, although am much more fond of the iDrive 7 than you and thought the 118i rode just about acceptably. I wouldn't complain about a lack of grunt until you get the 116d though, with the M-Sport kit and big rims it's almost embarrassing how slow it is... They do have some decent stuff so you might get lucky, amusingly for a 'budget' brand they used to have loads of M340i's and M340d's which are always fun to get dropped off, although they're all getting quite leggy now so seem to be getting replaced with 330e Tourings and more recently Audi A4's.

[Krise]

Couple of the other guys got 340i’s but their local national hire chains have a lot more selection, I just ticked the send me the whatever box as I didn’t fancy paying the high BIK for the first few months, thinking I would get a small car, it’s literally to drive to work and back in so I’m not that fussed, until the MG struck…twice so I said send me something half decent.

Should be able to order the company car in the newest week or so I just found out, going to go for a Tesla MY performance, most of the other guys that have ordered them have only waited about 3 weeks for a new one so fingers crossed I may have it before Xmas