MG has had the Hector, the Hector Plus and the Gloster and those are typical SUVs and
now there's a fourth member to join the MG family, more crossover than the ideal typical SUV and that
is this. Welcome to India, the MG Astor. Of course, as I mentioned,
more crossover than SUV in its typical sense, but, it's a sharp looking thing, isn't it?
Now why it is called the Astor, there is still a ZS badge behind, on the boot
and that's because this is essentially the MG ZS that we've seen as an EV in India, this of course,
is the fuel powered version. Now, this essentially is the facelift version of what the MG ZS is and
it is much sharper, now as I mentioned, so you get these new headlamps which have these lovely little
crystal LED embellishments all over it, they look really really cool, you get this new grille
and this is what MG calls a Celestial design language, now, of course that's marketing spiel,
but in real life, in the way it looks, especially in this really rich red colour,
it's a sharp looking car.
You also get these big 17-inch alloy wheels which are, in typical,
2021 fashioned, multi-toned with this brushed and black finish
and one of my favourite little features, the red brake callipers.
Remember that ZS badge I talked about earlier? Well there it is. Of course it still has this new
Astor badging all over and the boot opens very much like a VW with the badge opening this way,
but on the whole, maybe the exhaust, fake exhaust tips could have been done away with,
but on the whole, it's got a whole bunch of details that are really cool. Remember those
LED elements in the headlamps? They've moved those same LED elements in the tail
lamps as well. So all these bejewel little pieces, almost Bentley like, isn't it?
I could stare at this all day, it's got so many little different lighting elements in it.
And I am a complete sucker for small details, so here's something that I thought I'd talk about.
Remember the rear wiper that has the cap that gets getting stolen, look this,
it's all integrated into one little piece and people can't steal it.
For MG, yes of course been talking about how sporty the Astor is in general
and when you get in, that sportiness is exuded by a whole bunch more by the interior. Now the
interior is red, on a sub Rs. 20 lakh car you get soft touch everything and this red leather,
it is really high quality on the dashboard, or red perforated leather on the seats, and in general
like nice big chunky steering wheel as well. In general, this feels and looks like a much much,
much more expensive cabin, instead of a sub Rs. 20 lakh car. It feels like a Rs. 60-70 lakh German
performance SUV and that's saying a lot isn't it? Of course, if you're not a fan of the red,
which you should be, you can get an all black interior or you can have a lighter
coloured palette because of course, Indians, we love our beige and our whites don't we?
And that brings us to the little robot in the room,
this.
Hello, Astor. I am listening.
Tell me who Freddie Mercury is. Freddie Mercury was a Bristish singer, songwriter, record producer,
and lead vocalist of the rock band Queen. Okay I'm going to shut it there because it's
actually going to go on and on. What it actually is, well, it is a bit of a gimmick, but it is a
cool gimmick to have because instead of putting your idol there, which you would normally do,
you have this little robotic AI thingy, which will answer your questions. Now,
of course, you might not get bored in your car, but there is a chance that your kids
in the backseat might drive you completely crazy by asking Astor here a whole bunch of questions,
but, on the process at least, they'll learn a thing or two, isn't it?
Now, there are a whole bunch of things to talk about in the screen as well, so,
you get a whole bunch of settings in the way the screen looks and the screen itself,
the 10.1-inch screen, it's a lot more smoother, a lot more responsive, a lot
sharper, and very high definition as compared to what early MGs used to have. They had a bit of a
lag issue in the early cars, I can tell you for a fact, all of that is completely thrown in the bin,
this screen is really really good. You of course get themes, you get a lock screen where you can
put your picture, of your family, this of course has some diyas right now but you're gonna have a
picture of your family or your dog or of your car, a MG Astor Inception, maybe, but on the whole,
there's a whole bunch of stuff that you can do, if you go to vehicle settings, you can also go
to EPS which is electronic power steering, and just like a Tesla gives you a whole bunch of
choices of how your steering feedback, you want it to be urban, for as light as you want to get,
normal and dynamic if you want to have that slightly more feedback. So, the Astor does
give you a lot of options to play with, and I haven't even got to the ADAS functions yet.
Adaptive Cruise Control, lane assists in various forms, automatic braking,
rear cross traffic alerts, and a lot more is what the Astor has to offer. And just as we mentioned
in our shorter first look video, this inclusion of ADAS now in the Astor will make a whole bunch of
competition sit up and take notice as at the end of the day, these features do make a car a lot,
lot safer, and not only in terms of a crash rating, but also in realtime on-road scenarios.
Okay, then let's quickly wrap up with the engine options and unlike the Hector,
this does not have a diesel, which of course will offend a lot of people because Indians still love
the diesel engine, but you do get a choice of two petrol engines, now, the less powerful but the
bigger engine is a 1.5-litre naturally aspirated motor which gets 110hp and 144Nm of torque.
That comes with a manual option or it comes with a CVT, the smaller but more powerful engine is a
1.4-turbo and that gets 140hp, and gets 220Nm of torque and I think that's the one that I want to
get my hands on. That engine also comes with a good old fashioned torque converter automatic,
so, it'll probably be very, very reliable as well. What do you think of it? I think it looks quite
sharp, isn't it? Oh, I really need to get a new word in my dictionary, isn't it? I've been saying
sharp all this while cause I genuinely think this is a nice looking car, I like the way it looks in
well, in the greater scheme of things.
So there you have it, everything you need to know about
this new MG SUV, we will get our hands on it very soon and we will bring you that first drive review
as soon as we can in our typical PowerDrift style. Thank you so much for watching. Keep
that subscribe button pressed and the bell icon activated, we'll see you soon.