Review
MAGIC MG
Radically-improved MG3 is quick supermini that’s a great price and fills the Ford Fiesta shaped hole in the market
It’s almost identical in size to a Fiesta and well-equipped for today’s world
GOODBYE Fiesta. Hello MG3. Ford left a Fiesta-sized hole by killing off Britain’s favourite car.
Everyone but Ford seems to know this was a bad idea.
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We still need small petrol cars to carry on what we’ve been doing for years with zero delay.
Just top it up and go. Easy.
Not everyone can afford electric.
Not everyone wants an SUV.
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Enter the radically-improved MG3 supermini.
It’s almost identical in size to a Fiesta, well-equipped for today’s world, and priced to sell.
The base 1.5-litre petrol, manual gearbox and 102hp, will cost £16k.
The one you really want is the 1.5-litre petrol/electric combo with 192hp at £18k.
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It will do short runs without waking the petrol engine.
The battery recharges itself on the go.
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So there’s no faffing about with a plug.
And MG reckons you’ll get 64mpg. It’ll be quick too.
The hybrid arrives in April, the pure petrol in October.
All versions have twin-screen technology, satnav, reversing camera and Apple CarPlay, plus MG’s brilliant seven-year warranty.
A sportier XP-Line trim, much like Fiesta’s ST-Line, is likely to follow later.
MG product chief David Allison said: “MG3 is a huge opportunity for us.
“With Fiesta exiting the market, I’m sure Ford will do everything it possibly can to get those customers into something else, a Puma probably. But not everybody will want to do that.
“If they wanted to try an MG3 I think they’d be very pleasantly surprised.
“We want to be as disruptive with MG3 as we were with MG4. The intention is to give customers the option to have a hybrid powertrain at the same price they would pay for a combustion car.”
In other news, MG is working on a £20k electric MG2. But it won’t be here until summer next year.
Allison said: “There’s a magic combination of range, size and price and if we can hit all three, then I think we’ll nail it.”
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At the other end of the scale, Chinese-owned MG will unleash the Cyberster roadster in June.
Roof down and 544hp. The fastest-ever MG, in the firm’s 100th birthday year.
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