The MG3 Hybrid+ is the firm’s new supermini hatchback, and it’s one of the most affordable hybrids you can buy on the new car market. It’s smart to look at, neat to drive and very well-equipped.
Pros:
- Hybrid powertrain impresses for both performance and economy
- Affordable to buy and well equipped
- Pleasant to drive
Cons:
- Small boot and limited versatility
- Some brittle interior plastics
- Safety systems can get irritating
2024 MG3 Hybrid Review
- What is the MG3 Hybrid+?
- How practical is it?
- What’s it like to drive?
- Technology and equipment
- Three things to know
- Which one to buy
- Running costs
- Reliability
- The CarGurus verdict
What is the MG3 Hybrid+?
The new MG3 Hybrid+ could quite possibly be the next chapter in the success story that is MG’s resurgence. It’s fairly common knowledge that the company went to the wall in 2005, and was immediately snapped up by Chinese owners and spent the next few years being a dedicated purveyor of cheap-and-cheerful hatchbacks and saloons.
In recent years, however, the firm’s products have become more and more compelling, with a range of electric cars, plug-in hybrids and SUVs that buyers have found very tempting due to their low pricing and high-value return. This resurgence has now reached such a point that MG is currently battling to break into the top 10 brands for UK car sales, and considering where the firm has come from, that’s mightily impressive.
We can see the MG3 Hybrid+ building on that success, too. This smartly styled little supermini hatchback is one of the most affordable hybrid cars that the new car market has to offer, and that immediately gives it an attractive USP. It’s also extremely generously equipped despite its low price, and its hybrid powertrain promises to deliver exceptionally low running costs. In other words, the new MG is playing to all the same strengths that have made MG’s other recent models so compelling. However, is the all-round package compelling enough to compete in the fiercely competitive supermini sector? Find out in our 2024 MG3 Hybrid+ car review.
How practical is it?
Practicality rating: 2/5 stars
The MG3 Hybrid+ is a bit of a mixed bag when it comes to practicality. There’s no shortage of space up front, and both front seats come with a very decent amount of adjustment. However, the steering column only has tilt adjustment, and doesn’t move for reach. That could hinder some drivers’ ability to find a comfortable driving position. You might find yourself sitting closer to the pedals than you’d like just so you can reach the steering wheel easily.
The back seats are less generous for space, as is usually the case, but compared to other cars in the supermini class, the amount of rear space you get is about average. Perhaps headroom is a fraction tighter than the norm, but you’d have to be well over six feet tall to find yourself struggling. Like with most superminis, the narrow cabin means that the rear seats are better suited to carrying two passengers rather than three, but a third will squeeze in for short journeys (it will be a squeeze, mind).
Where the MG disappoints most in this area is in the boot. The boot space you get totals 293 litres, which isn’t disastrous but is way behind the figures achieved by the best cars in the class, and you also have a large load lip and a slightly narrow opening to contend with. The cargo space can be boosted to 983 litres by folding the rear seats down (again, this figure is no great shakes), but the backrest drops in one single piece, rather than having the 60/40 or even 40/20/40 split of most rivals. This means that bigger loads will take out all three of the rear seats in one fell swoop, while in most other superminis, one or two of the rear chairs might still be usable.
What’s more, the dropped rear seats lie at an angle, and there’s a big, awkward step left in the load floor. We can only think MG took this approach to cut costs, but we wonder how much it actually saved the company when it impacts the overall practicality of the car so fundamentally.
In terms of quality, most of the plastics you encounter are hard and fairly unappealing to the fingertips - not uncommon in this class by any means - but they’re finished in such a way that they look better than they feel. Whats more, the major surfaces are cleverly and effectively broken up by various other trim pieces that add a little bit more colour, or texture, or both, and this manages to give the car’s general ambience a bit of a lift.
What’s it like to drive?
Driving rating: 4/5 stars
As the name suggests, the MG3 Hybrid+ is powered by both an electric motor and a naturally aspirated 1.5-litre four-cylinder petrol engine, and these drive the front wheels through a three-speed automatic gearbox. Now, that’s not very many speeds by modern gearbox standards, and sounds like it could be a bit of a problem from a refinement and performance point of view. However, we’re pleased to report that it really isn’t.
That’s probably something to do with the generous combined output of the petrol engine and electric motor, which stands at 192bhp, but even more impressive is the combined torque figure of 313lb ft. Most of the time, when you’re just bimbling along under a light throttle, the performance at hand feels fairly modest but adequately eager. That’s the case whether you're crawling along under electric power alone, which you can do at low urban speeds, or whether the petrol engine has chimed in to help out.
As it turns out, though, the powertrain has plenty left in reserve. Plant the accelerator, causing both power sources to hook up at the same time, and the car is suddenly bestowed with an impressive injection of acceleration, and actually feels quicker than its official 0-62mph time of 8.0 seconds would suggest. That sort of treatment means you hear more from the petrol engine than you do normally, but it never becomes too raucous, and when you’re treating the car more gently, engine refinement is actually really good.
It’s a fairly pleasant little car to drive in other ways, too. The suspension has a firm-but-fair setup, so although it’s not the plushest-riding car of its type, it smoothes over scruffy surfaces with reasonable competence, so it doesn’t feel jittery or unsettled. And, the smart body control you get from the stiffness of the suspension also helps keep the body well tied down, so it doesn’t feel floaty or bouncy over an undulating road, and it's stable on the motorway. The other payoff for this is very good suppression of body roll in corners, and that, combined with the car’s low weight of around 1,300kg (not bad considering that it’s packing hybrid technology), helps the car feel reasonably agile.
It’s not perfect in the handling stakes, mind. Despite the pointy feel of the car, the front tyres don’t actually provide all that much grip compared with many rivals: even at fairly moderate cornering speeds, you’ll hear the fronts chirping away as they try and bite onto the Tarmac. It doesn’t feel dangerous in any way, it’s just that many rivals feel grippier and more assured. The steering is a bit odd as well: it’s really light at the lowest urban speeds, but you don’t have to be going a lot faster before a whole bunch of weight is dumped into it and it becomes curiously heavy. The self-centring action is rather too strong, too. That said, you do get a decent amount of genuine feedback through the steering wheel, which is a bit of a rarity these days.
Technology, equipment & infotainment
Technology, equipment & infotainement rating: 4/5 stars
The MG3 Hybrid+ is offered in two trim levels, and even the entry-level SE car is given an impressively vast amount of standard equipment. You get 16-inch alloy wheels, automatic halogen headlights with LED daytime running lights, electrically adjusting and folding door mirrors, remote locking, four electric windows, climate control, rear parking sensors, and a reversing camera.
That’s plenty to be getting on with, but even so, the range-topping Trophy specification doesn’t cost a vast amount more, but does add some desirable features including part-leatherette upholstery, LED headlights, keyless entry, rear privacy glass, rain-sensing wipers, heated front seats, a heated steering wheel, and a 360-degree parking camera.
Both versions of the car have the same infotainment system, which brings together Bluetooth, DAB radio, integrated satnav, Apple CarPlay and Android Auto, plus a six-speaker sound system. You also get three USBs in the front (one in the rearview mirror to power dashcams easily) and one in the back.
You get two digital screens, one 7.0-inch driver display behind the steering wheel, and a 10.25-inch central infotainment screen. The former isn’t massively configurable given the type of system it is, and it can look a little cluttered, but otherwise it’s fairly clear and easy to read thanks to the sharp graphics. The latter is a vast improvement on MG touchscreen technology of old, with handy shortcut icons, sharper graphics, useful tiles on the home screen (through which you can change certain settings without having to delve into that particular sub-menu) and menus that are generally more logical. However, it’s not perfect. Some functions are still buried rather too deeply within the structure of menus and sub-menus, and the signposting can be rather ambiguous at times. The screen sensitivity is a bit hit-and-miss, too.
Three things to know
- As well as the safety gear you expect such as six airbags and electronic stability control, all MG3 Hybrids come with a suite of driver assistance tech called MG Pilot. This includes automatic emergency braking with pedestrian and cyclist protection, lane keep assist, lane departure warning, adaptive cruise control with traffic jam assist, intelligent speed limit assist, and driver attention alert. Trophy trim adds even more functionality including blind spot assistance and rear cross traffic alert.
- Now, this all sounds tremendous in theory, but the reality can be rather less appealing. Like many cars with such systems, your driving experience is accompanied by a constant cacophony of various bongs and beeps, alerting you to things that simply aren’t a problem. If the car thinks you’re getting too close to a white line on the road (you don’t actually have to get very close at all!), it bongs at you. The very nanosecond your velocity strays a single mile-per-hour over the speed limit, it bongs at you. It starts to feel like you’ll get bonged at if you so much as breathe in and out. You can turn these systems off if you so wish, but this takes quite a bit of faffing around with the touchscreen. And, the systems are automatically reinstated every time the car is turned off and restarted, so if you want to turn them off, you have to turn them off every single time you drive the car.
- There’s one bong, however, that puts all the MG3’s myriad other bongs into the shade, and that’s the bong for the speed camera warning function. On approaching a camera, you’re notified of its existence by piercingly loud beeps that are separated by approximately a second, and this starts approximately 40 seconds (we counted) before the camera even comes into view, which is a bizarrely long time. There’s barely any visual indication about what the beep is about, either, so the first few times it happens before you work it out for yourself (it took us a while), you wonder what the Dickens is going on. It actually sounds like some sort of extremely loud countdown, and so it starts to feel a bit like you’re driving along in a random Hollywood movie, waiting for the counter to get to zero before some manner of nuclear device goes off. Which can be quite unnerving on the school run. Mercifully, this can be disabled (although again, it means several minutes of faffing with the touchscreen), and even more mercifully, when you turn this function off, it stays off.
Which one to buy
- If you want a properly affordable hybrid supermini: The MG 3 Hybrid+ is a really compelling choice. It’s good-looking, well-equipped and nice to drive, plus does a great job on performance and economy. The SE will do for most, but we could understand if you wanted to upgrade to the Trophy for the extra goodies.
- If you want something more mainstream: The excellent Renault Clio can also be had for similar money, and it’s fabulous to drive, practical and decently equipped. However, the money merely gets you a petrol-powered version. A hybrid is offered in the form of the Clio E-Tech, but it’s considerably more expensive.
- If you don’t know one hybrid from another: The Suzuki Swift can also be had for a reasonably similar sum to the MG, and Suzuki will tell anyone who listens that it’s ‘hybrid as standard’. However, it’s a mild hybrid rather than the full hybrid that the MG is, and that means the hybrid system amounts to little more than a posh starter motor, and so is nowhere near as sophisticated and nowhere near as economical. Indeed, there’s debate over whether mild hybrids are hybrids at all.
Running costs
Running costs rating: 5/5 stars
Hybrid tech isn’t exactly new in the small car market: cars like the Toyota Yaris hybrid and Honda Jazz hybrid have been offering it for years, and have been joined more recently by rivals like the Mazda 2 Hybrid and Renault Clio E-Tech. Other rivals include relatively low-cost, high-value superminis such as the Hyundai i20, Skoda Fabia and Vauxhall Corsa.
However, the good news is that the MG3 Hybrid+ has all of them licked for purchase price, regardless of powertrain, and is one of the most affordable hybrid cars you can buy on today’s new car market. The entry-level SE car looks very tempting at a shade over £18,000, while the range-topping car isn’t much more expensive at a shade over £20,000, and you get a good slice more kit for the money.
You’d expect low running costs from most hybrids, and the MG3 certainly obliges. The official WLTP fuel economy figure is 64.2mpg, while official CO2 emissions stand at 100g/km. And those don’t seem to be pie-in-the-sky fuel consumption figures, either: we saw upwards of 60mpg during our time with the car, and that’s without trying particularly hard.
Insurance groupings stand at 23 for the SE and 24 for the Trophy. Many rival superminis are classified much lower than this, and so will command much lower premiums, although those don’t have either the MG’s power level or complicated hybrid tech.
Reliability
If you take a look at the 2023 What Car? Reliability Survey, you might worry a little about MG’s performance in this area. The brand finished 25th out of the 32 carmakers considered, which isn’t exactly a stellar result, and the study stated that aside from the MG5 and MG ZS EV, all other MG models included performed relatively poorly in their respective categories, the all-electric MG4 being the worst of the bunch.
The MG3 Hybrid+ is too new to have featured in that survey, and it’s built on an all-new platform and has an all-new powertrain. You can look at this in one of two ways: on the one hand, all that new tech is untried and untested, and on the other, you’d hope that the new tech would avoid the problems of the old tech. Either way, we’ll have to wait a while until more data becomes available before we can get an accurate picture of the MG3 Hybrid’s reliability.
It is encouraging, however, that the car - like all MGs - comes with a relatively generous seven-year, 80,000-mile warranty. Service intervals, meanwhile, are every 12 months or 15,000 miles, whichever occurs first.
The CarGurus verdict
Overall rating: 4/5 stars
The MG3 Hybrid+ is a very decent little car that does a lot of things rather well, but that’s let down a touch by a few annoying details. On the plus side, it has smart styling, it’s temptingly affordable to buy, it’s very well equipped, it’s reasonably spacious for passengers, it’s pleasant to drive, and the hybrid powertrain does well for performance, refinement and economy.
Gripes include a small loadspace that’s not awfully versatile, some iffy interior plastics, some residual infotainment niggles, and some over-nannying safety systems. But, by and large, these aren’t significant enough to take the shine off the MG3 Hybrid+ overall. If you’re looking for your next supermini, and you fancy an affordable hybrid, then certainly give it a look.
Bodystyles: Five-door supermini hatchback
Rivals: