the tacho lighting up anti-clockwise but that’s
a graphic on the left edge of the screen, not a
full dial, and the rpm numbers are displayed
horizontally in the same manner as the speed.
On the Hector you tilt you head left so your
eyes align with the speedo numbers and tilt
right to read the revs. Very odd. Also, the dials
are the same for both the petrol and diesel,
with the same 6500rpm redline even though
the diesel doesn’t rev above 5000rpm. In fact
the only difference between the diesel and the
petrol is that a big Hybrid badge pushes the
Internet Inside badging from the tailgate to
the left flank.What do they mean by Internet Inside?
That badge is too much if you ask me. Not
everything needs to be advertised! Anyway,
what the Hector has is an Airtel e-SIM so, as
long as you have network, you can use the
iSmart app on your phone to unlock it, open
the sunroof to let out hot air, on the automatic
you can start the car and cool it down, locate
it, turn on the horn and flashers to find it if you
forgot the pillar number in the mall, geo fence
it and check the health of the car, the fuel
level, tyre pressure and the last trip log. The
system is 5G ready and capable of over the air
(OTA) updates — similar to how our iPhonesperiodically get a notification to update the
OS. Then there’s the ‘Hello MG’ business that
Benedict Cumberbatch has been plugging —
though he’s not doing it right. You say ‘Hello
MG’ and then wait for the system to wake
up and respond back. Only then can you
command it to turn up the volume, turn down
the air-con, open the window (only the driver),
open the sunroof, close the sunroof (not shut,
it has 100 specific commands it recognises)
and even give voice inputs to the navigation.
All of it worked well, except for when I asked
the Hector to navigate us to the Le Meridien
in Coimbatore and after politely asking
‘pardon’ and making me repeat it twice, thesystem finally gave up and said we were out of
network coverage.What’s the quality like?
So many of you asked so I’m addressing this
separately. The cabin feels very well put
together; the screen looks, feels and works in
a high quality manner, there is a similarly high-
quality seven-inch screen between the dials,
the steering wheel is a meaty leather-clad item
with a slightly flat bottom, the seats (while
too soft) have a nice quality feel to the leather,
the top of the dash has a soft-touch finish,
the buttons have a good tactile feel to it — it’s
all pretty good on the inside. You really do
need to look closely to find things to complain
about: the power window switches don’t feel
great and there’s one-touch-down only for the
driver, the flap that covers the USB slots feels
flimsy, the indicator and wiper stalks aren’t
great, the button for the electric tailgate shut
seems hastily cut into the plastic, and there’s
no place to keep a phone (and thus no wireless
charging). In terms of convenience, the spare
well (full size steel wheel) is located under the
floor pan and that will prompt many to call the
road side assistance to change a flat.
On the outside, the panel gaps are larger
than what we’ve come to expect in this dayDriven
The cabin feels
very well put
together; the
screen looks, feels
and works in a high
quality manner