MG3 review and buyer's guide
The MG3 is one of the cheapest new cars money can buy. It’s economical, affordable, popular and pretty reliable, but is there good value to be had at such a low price? Or is it too good to be true?
The MG3 is one of the most popular small cars in Australia and competes with at least 22 different models, from 14 separate brands, but you cannot possibly expect to test drive them all.
In this report we’ll help you drill down into exactly how the MG3 stacks up against its rivals, give you a good understanding of how it’ll work for your transport needs, and importantly, point out the MG3’s flaws so you can make an informed choice.
In the final sales results of 2024, the MG was among the most popular small cars, outselling the Mazda3 and Kia Cerato, selling level with Hyundai i30, and easily besting Suzuki Swift, Mazda2, and Kia Picanto - and it left the Toyota Yaris for dead.
MG3 sold over 12,500 units by the end of 2024, compared with 6000 Suzuki Swifts, 5000 Mazda2s, about 5800 Kia Picantos and only 2000 Toyota Yaris. This should tell you that not only is the MG3 popular, meaning it will have lots of onshore spare parts available in future, but also that it will be desirable in the used market in later years.
Other popular small cars in the last 12 months have been the BYD Dolphin and MG4 as EVs gain popularity in recent years, as well as the stalwart models like Kia Cerato (which became the K4), Hyundai i30, Toyota Corolla and Mazda3.
The MG3 offers young drivers, elderly drivers and parents buying their adult children their first car an affordable, safe, yet also reasonably practical little runabout that is frugal and reliable.
You also get plenty of choice depending on what kind of budget you have. If the kid’s pitching in for their first car using savings from thei casual job, to offset the bank of mum and dad obviously, then perhaps you have enough to consider the hybrid which is spritely enough without being sporty.
But if things are a bit tight and you just need basic transport, the petrol-only versions are ridiculously good value between $24-28K.
You can download the official MG3 specs brochure here >> if want to drill down into more detail about the MG3.
Let’s see what you get for your sub-$33,000.
FEATURES & PRICING
MG3 Vibe | $24,000 driveaway approx. | 1.5 petrol FWD
includes:
Reverse camera, rear parking sensors
Halogen headlights
10.25-inch infotainment touchscreen
7-inch driver’s display
Apple CarPlay & Android Auto
6 speakers
MG Pilot Safety: Adaptive cruise control, intelligent cruise assist, forward collision warning, lane departure & keeping, autonomous emergency braking, intelligent speed assist, emergency lane keep assist, driver monitoring, unsteady driving warning
15-inch steel wheels
Cloth seat
Follow Me Home Lights
Direct Tyre Pressure Monitor System
MG3 Excite | $26,170 driveaway approx. | 1.5 petrol FWD
adds:
16-inch alloy wheels
Space-saver spare tyre
Electric auto-fold door mirrors
Push-button start
MG Pilot Safety: Blind Spot Detection, Rear Cross Traffic Assist
MG3 Essence | $28,250 driveaway approx. | 1.5 petrol FWD
adds:
360° Camera
LED Headlights
Satellite navigation
Leather Steering Wheel
PU & cloth seats
Keyless Entry
Sunroof
DAB digital radio
Auto rain sensing wipers
MG3 Excite | $29,000 driveaway approx. | 1.5 hybrid petrol FWD
includes:
Reverse camera, rear parking sensors
Halogen headlights
10.25-inch infotainment touchscreen
7-inch driver’s display
Apple CarPlay & Android Auto
6 speakers
MG Pilot Safety: Blind Spot Detection, Rear Cross Traffic Assist
Tyre repair kit
Electric Auto Fold Side Mirrors
Cloth seats
Follow Me Home Lights
Electronic Gear Shifter
3 Drive Modes
16-inch alloy wheels
Manual seat adustment: 6-way driver’s, 4-way passenger
Auto rain sensing wipers
MG3 Essence | $32,000 driveaway approx. | 1.5 hybrid petrol FWD
adds:
Pedestrian warning sound
360° Camera
LED Headlights
Satellite navigation
Leather Steering Wheel
PU & cloth seats
Keyless Entry
Sunroof
DAB digital radio
Auto rain sensing wipers
INTERIOR
The MG3’s interior, depending on which variant you’re looking at, is basic and function without being anything remotely close to luxurious. This is cheap mass transport, not an experience in the prestige aisle.
Now that the precident has been set, if you’re considering the top-spec Essence in either the combustion-only or hybrid, you’ll find synthetic leather (AKA vinyl) seats with textured backing, some textured plastic dashboard and doorcard panels (in part), and the obligatory big touchscreen. Cloth seats on the base Vibe and mid-spec Excite will be cooler in sumimer than the faux leather and on that note, the air-conditioning system is decent, even for Australia.
There are buttons across the dash, happily enough, including for volume control and engaging the front/rear demisters - and this is especially good for parents who might worry about their kids being distracted by touchscreens while trying to demist the glass. But there are still lots of features embedded in the screen which you might find too potentially distracting.
Apple CarPlay and Android Auto are wired, but it’s also up to you to decide if it’s a good or bad thing that they’ve left a USB-A with the USB-C port in the front centre tray for charging phones. There’s no wireless charging, but that’s entirely okay because any old USB-A cord can simply be left in the car to immediately start charging on startup.
There’s reasonably good legroom for both front and rear occupants, keeping in mind that being a hatchback, headroom will be fine for most people up to about 6-foot-2. Knee room for said six-footer is going to be fine as the driver, but in the back, it’ll be okay for shorter journeys before becoming uncomfy for logner trips. This is the nature of the small car segment.
The knock-on benefit of its compact size, of course, means running costs are low - but we’ll get to that shortly.
What the smallness does mean is good visibility. Most people would presume that being a low small car you ‘can’t see anything up ahead’, but that’s nonesense. Not only is the MG3 quite spacious in terms of its outward vision with no glaring, big-pillar blindspots, but if you adjust your mirrors correctly (out wide so you cannot see the side of the car down the inside of the mirror) then you’re going to eliminate any on-road blind spots behind the B-pillars.
And with a correctly adjusted seat and leaving sufficient forward space to the vehicles in front, you’re going to find the MG3 is quite easy to navigate through city streets, on open freeways and to park as well.
The steering wheel is comfortable and well positioned, adjusting in both rake and reach (something that could easily be compromised at this pricepoint), although it is a bit silly having a flat top and bottom on the wheel. When you take a test drive, do a 3-point turn and see if you have any issue with th wheel sliding through your fingers as you straighten up and manouvre.
Unfortunately, the driver’s display screen does not get any kind of binnacle or shroud to protect it from incidental sunlight, glare and reflections, so you might want to check for that on your test drive as well.
The steering wheel controls are reasonably straightforward to operate, although it’s a bit annoying (possibly) that they too are also piano gloss black and will be washed out by heavy sunlight during the day, particuarly the afternoon. Having said that. you might also become quite adept at using them without having to look at the icon after the first couple of weeks, so there’s that.
The reversing camera is surprisngly good quality for the pricepoint. You won’t be using it to see in intricate detail, but at the very least getting a general sense of what’s directly behind you, checking your proximity to parking obstructions, other vehicles etc.
Make sure you have a proper play with all the infotainment screen functions, connect your phone, use the radio, test the cruise control and get into some other driving environments besides the dealership’s curated test route around the block. Do some parking, get on the freeway and give this thing a real good drive before making your decision.
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ENGINE
There are two basic powertrains in the MG3, and they both use the same combustion engine, just with a little battery and motor on the hybrid version.
Now, this battery is small, it’s only 1.83kWh which is about the same as a Toyota RAV4, and the motor is equally small. The point of these components is to help you get the vehicle going from a standard start because this is the most energy intensive part of driving, in terms of fuel economy.
Getting your maximum 1308kg vehicle (hybrid Essence trim) going from stopped is hard work compared with going from 30-50km/h because in the stationary part you have no kinetic energy.
The hybrid has a maximum power output of 155kW derived from 75kW from the 1.5 non-turbo petrol engine and 80kW from the electric motor combination. (We’ll get to the petrol-only engine in a sec.)
What’s interesting about this hybrid powertrain is that it makes lots of torque. In fact it makes 425Nm of torque, which is almost 200 per cent more torque - but it can only do it when the battery is charged and powering the electric motor, because that motor is what’s making all the torque to give you that spritely shove when you put your foot down at the lights or go for an overtake on the freeway.
But the problem is you do have to rev this little engine to achieve its peak power and torque, because the lack of turbocharging on the petrol side means there isn’t much grunt down low in the revs. It runs what’s called a ‘multipoint injection’ design, which is effectively tuned for fuel economy, not performance.
The upside however is you get an official combined fuel economy test cycle figure of 4.3 litres per 100km for the hybrid - which is about in the middle of competitors like Toyota Yaris, Suzuki Swift, Mazda 2 and Kia Picanto.
But you do need to run the hybrid on 95 RON rpemium unleaded, filling a 36-litre tank.
The non-hybrid version of the MG3 is effectively the hybrid version only with the battery-motor lopped off.
It makes 81kW of peak power at 6000 revs and 142Nm of torque at 4500 revs.
Weighing 109kg less than the hybrid means the atmo (naturally aspirated) MG3 in Essence form is very light and carries 9 more litres in its 45-litre tank, but taking 91 RON petrol this time.
But without the battery-motor combination in play, the hybrid would actually only be achieving a power-to-weioght ratio of 57 kW per tonne, which is 10 per cent less than the combustion-only version at 67kW per tonne.
Fortunately, you don’t have to worry about this happening because it has two layers of tech stopping that from happening. If you driver longer distance without much opportunity for recapturing kinetic energy through the brakes or doing lots of hard driving, the hybrid powertrain does have an automatic engine idle and cruise recharging system that feeds some power from the combustion engine to recharge the battery.
You’re going to notice the battery-motor are working primarily at low speeds before the petrol engine kicks in at higher speeds around 40 or 50 to 100km/h. Hard acceleration or hill starts will typically use the battery and motor initially and the petrol engine will kick in quite early as the demand increases.
TRANSMISSION
The combustion MG3 uses a mediocre CVT transmission which stands for continuously variable transmission. This means it’s generally always trying to keep the engine driving in what’s called the ‘power band’, which is the optimal revs for generating sufficient performace for the inputs you’ve made.
So if you’re just driving quietly through regular suburban traffic, it’s going to be expanding a set of pulleys with a steel belt that wants to keep the revs in that power band so you can increase speed as desired, such as if you enter a freeway on-ramp.
CVTs are good for fuel economy and are generally okay without being fantastic to drive in any kind of sporty manner. This is a car for commuting in city traffic after all, not set lap records. The MG3’s CVT does okay. It’s unremarkable with no glaring faults or quirks; it behaves itself and isn’t overly noisy or sluggish - and it’s usually pretty good at making the right gearing change at the right time.
The hybrid transmission on the other hand uses a 3-speed transmission which is quite rare these days. It’s generally well calibrated but can sometimes be a bit jerky or unrefined in certain moderate-speed situations around 30-40km/h and making sudden demands such as a lane-change and heavy throttle application to overtake, for example.
Top-start traffic might also find the transmission going for second gear once you get up to speed again before quickly having to shift down as you brake on approach to the next set of lights. It’s probably not going to be a deal-breaker, but a nuance to try out on your test drive.
FUNCTIONALITY
Ground clearance is a possible issue if your aging parents or learner/probationary driver kids haven’t quite mastered the skills of parallel parking (or lost it entirely in the case of your folks).
You’ve got a maximum of 149mm worth of ground clearance with the MG3 and that’s about the same as Toyota Yaris on 150mm, and Mazda2 on 152mm, and it’s (approximately) a fraction more than you’re get on a Suzuki Swift 120mm, the Hyundai i30 with 140mm and Subaru Impreza with 130mm.
But just remember that we’re talking about a difference in millimetres here. Is 1cm between an MG3 and an i30 that crucial? That’s a question only you can answer, but geenrally speaking in the throws of regular subruban and city driving, it’s probably going to be okay on well maintained city streets.
With only 307 litres of luggage space in the boot, it’s up to you to decide if it’s ever going to be important to have the biggest boot possible for your purchase.
But you might be instered to know it’s actually got the biggest boot capacity among its closest hatch competitors like Mazda 2 (250 litres), Kia Picanto (255 litres), Suzuki Swift (265 litres) and Toyota Yaris (270 litres) - in fact it offers 12 per cent more luggage space than the Yaris.
Where it doesn’t quite offers as much functional space behind the second row seats is against the slightly larger ‘small car’ rivals like Subaru Impreza (345 litres) which is 12 per cent more, or the Hyundai i30 for example with 395 litres (28 per cent more). But the small cars like i30 are also proportionately larger as well, with correspondingly bigger pricetags.
So dropping the rear seats in an MG3 might be the ebst option if you ever have to get something bulky like a TV or moving-out-of-home boxes in there.
There are two ISOFix anchor points and three top tether anchor points for child restraints in the distant future, and there’s just enough storage space in skinny door bins and the centre console to keep most of your nick-nacks.
In the event of a flat tyre, if you’ve gone for the petrol-only version, a space-saver spare is found inder the boot floor. Whereas the hybrid has to make do with a tyre repair kit which consists of a ciompressed container of goop which you spray into the tyre valve to temporarily plug the hole.
Obviously this being a front-wheel drive with skinny tyres for fuel economy, you’re not going to be wanting to park on any grassy hills in inclement weather during some music festival, otherwise you’re going to be needing a tow.
Speaking of which, there is very little chance of doing any significant doing with the MG3 - although it’s not entirely impossible - because it’s rated to only 500kg of maximum braked towing capacity.
Hypothetically, by the time you fit a 30kg towbar, then take away the max kerb weight of 1308kg from the 1766kg gross vehicle mass, and then you add your driver at (let’s say) 80kg, you’re left with only 298kg of potential payload and this little MG3 is going to be working hard. But then you have to take away the towball download of 10 per cent which in the case of a 500kf max capacity leaves you with 248kg of weight you can put in the trailer.
If your leaving-home 20-something kids find themselves needing more space in the boot for roadtrip holidays with friends etc, a set of aftermarket roof rails are a good option with a luggage basket from any local automotive retail store.
DRAWBACKS
There aren’t many drawbacks to small cars, aside from the bleedingly obvious. They’re small, they’re light and they’re compromised in terms of interior space, noise, vibration and harshness - and boot capacity.
So obvoiusly if you’re doing a big shop, you’re going to use what most people use for extra stowage: the rear footwells, the backseat and the front footwell. Just make sure you clip a seatbelt over anything you sit on a seat to keep it restrained like you would a person and that way if you have to brake hard, things don’t go flying around the cabin and possibly injuring you.
The skinny tyres are going to be less grippy in wet conditions or in heavy emergency braking applications compared with wider-tyred small cars or SUVs, and it needs to be said that small cars like Picanto, MG3 and Yaris are nimble, they don’t hold the road as well in corners.
Also, don’t go into this purchase expecting anything in the way of lucuries. There are no heated or ventilated (cooled) seats with electric adjustment and memory settings. There’s not much in the way of soft-touch plastics, nor is there dual-zone climate control or wireless phone charging.
And keep in mind having to refuel with 95 RON premium petrol is going to offset the notional cost savings you might expect from getting a hybrid with its fuel-saving electric acceleration at the lights.
Lastly, being such a cheap car, don’t expect its resale value to hold particularly well in the immediate one to two years of ownership. A 2023 MG3 Excite being traded in is going to get about $10,000 today (or about $12-14K privately) having sold for just $21K only two years ago. But the longer you own the MG3 for the less of a depreciation hit you’re going to take because of the use and mileage you achieved with it.
MAIN COMPETITORS
MAZDA2 ‘GT’
Kerb weight: 1120kg | Claimed fuel economny: 5.3L/100km(combined) | Power-weight ratio: 72kW/t
Boot size: 250L | Price: $32,300 (approx. driveaway) | Current sales: 305 units /mth
SUZUKI SWIFT ‘Sport’
Kerb weight: 970kg | Claimed fuel economny: 6.1L/100km(combined) | Power-weight ratio: 106kW/t
Boot size: 265L | Price: $32,000 (approx. before ORC) | Current sales: 238 units /mth
TOYOTA YARIS ‘ZR Hybrid’
Kerb weight: 1100kg | Claimed fuel economny: 3.3L/100km(combined) | Power-weight ratio: 77kW/t
Boot size: 270L | Price: $36,000 (approx before ORC) | Current sales: 218 units /mth
KIA PICANTO
Kerb weight: 900kg | Claimed fuel economny: 6.0L/100km(combined) | Power-weight ratio: 69kW/t
Boot size: 255L | Price: $25,000 (approx driveaway) | Current sales: 705 units /mth
MG3
Kerb weight: 1308kg | Claimed fuel economny: 4.3L/100km(combined) | Power-weight ratio: 119kW/t
Boot size: 307L | Price: $32,000 (approx before ORC) | Current sales: 418 units /mth
CONCLUSION
The MG3 is a highly affordable, reasonably functional ‘light’ or ‘micro’ car that does a lot with very little. Certainly it’s quite heavy for its class by several hundred kilos in some cases, but it’s also got plenty of pep thanks to its punchy little hybrid unit.
What’s interesting is that it has taken a big swipe at the mirco car hero we know as the Toyota Yaris in terms of reputational affordability and value-for-money. The MG3, frankly, makes the Yaris hybrid look like a complete rip-off and pretty mediocre in terms of outright performance - not that performence is what you’re seeking for a potential first car for your young-adult kids or aging parents. But it’s nice to know that it’s got some kick in reserve if it’s every needed, such as for overtaking or getting all their stuff out of your house.
The Kia Picanto seems to be the one key model in this segment the MG3 cannot surpass in terms of value, popularity and quality, which is entirely fair enoughg, The Picanto is a proper little rockstar car and should absolutely be on the top of your cheap, tiny car shopping list.
Just make sure you have a proper play with the MG and take a substantial test drive to make sure it doesn’t do anything in the distraction or operation domain that is a no-no for you as a concerned, considerate parent.
After all, you’re probably putting money into this thing as well and you don’t want it going to waste.
