The 2022 MG HS Trophy edition is a special car. We're now living in a time where people are opting for vehicles with smaller tanks and gone are the times where one could use their big SUV as their daily driver. In our region, the MG HS would be put in the category that many would consider as "a second car". Something you take to do the groceries, take your kids to school, or go to the office. I had the MG HS for a f few days and the car has impressed and to some degree even surprised me. The brand has been making a few good hits and with the 2022 MG HS Trophy edition, they swing big and knock it off the park.
What MG have built here is a basically a practical midrange SUV, one that has its charms, is a looker and most importantly they have priced it right and it's definitely affordable for a SUV. Now affordable doesn't mean cheap. The car feels very premium to the touch. Inter Emirates Motors offers two variants of the MG HS, the two wheel or four-wheel drive 2.0T DCT. I got to test the later by taking it for a cross state Road trip over the Eid break, so the vehicle was pretty much packed to the brim with tourists and baggage and there's a lot to say on the driving experience but first the basics.
Interiors
The steering is leather covered and almost all the interior is covered with a soft plastic and leather across the dashboard and doors. The seats are trimmed nicely and for a long trip of 4 hours, the journey was very relaxing and while MG has this reputation of being a Chinese brand, the interiors in my opinion emulate the feeling of a plush European car.
And in addition, there's also dynamic lighting, you can set it to a few preset colours, but you can also get the car to change colour based on the mode you're on which is a nice touch. The plenty of room for passengers but the boot space is a bit less for my taste and maybe that's me coming with a bias from bigger SUVs, but I did wish the boot was bigger. However, for a small luggage of four people and a couple of bags of shopping and food but you're not going to be taking your relatives to the airport with this car anytime soon.
Infotainment
Moving to the infotainment screen, there's Apple CarPlay and Android Auto and six speakers radio The 10.1 screen however can lag a bit. Android Auto for me lagged a few seconds in using Waze but Google Maps worked just fine. Also, a weird quirk I found was that air conditioning just lagged when phone calls came in. I'm going out on a limb to say that this was an exception rather than the norm given that the car had passed through multiple phone devices connecting to it. It becomes a concern given that air conditioning is accessed via the screen rather than a physical control so technically if you get a phone call, you'll have to wait.
Other than that, most of it was easy sailing, it's a smart system and perhaps a bit much so and maybe I'm stickler for physical controls. With Android Auto, I used majority of that system on my travel and looking at the map and much larger font on the HUD made it easier to look at while you're on the move. Speaking of things easy to look at, the panoramic sunroof makes it
Performance
So how is it to drive? It's comfortable, handles nicely and I drove between the sport, eco, standard and of course a very shiny red button that says super sport that pushes the HS to its maximum potential. Powered by a 2.0-litre High Efficiency Turbo Engine, the MG HS will zip across. Delivering torque of 360Nm and with a maximum speed of 210km/h. The trophy edition also has paddle shift controls that you can use in super sport mode.
The wheels are 18" diamond cut alloys and they look quite sleek. There is however the times where the car would be sluggish when the car comes to a stop or has to drive slowly, I had to turn off some of the eco features because I found the car jerking in subtle ways but when I did the ride was much smoother and finally of corse fuel consumption which is a serious concern for the region, it's a small tank by comparison and 55L will see you spend over time for trips but the point here is that you're spending less all things considered.
A great overall experience
But all these things are something that you can overlook because of the very attractive price point. Despite some obvious cutbacks, the safety features and tech make the MG HS 2022 a very viable buy. It's a good daily driver and for long city trips with a family of four, this car was an enjoyable experience. Inter Emirates Motors manages the MG brand and to their credit have done that well and have expanded several showrooms across the country managing the legacy of the British born brand so their customer service thus far has been phenomenal in this regard.
The base model starts at AED 79,900 and the four-wheel drive goes for AED 96,900 and it's definitely worth looking into if you're looking for a daily drive.
