MG HECTORand age. That said, they’re uniform for the
most part. The taillamps swing up with the
tailgate and when open, reveal a messy joint
where the bumper meets the body panels.
When shut, there is a rather large gap between
the tailgate and body with daylight squeezing
through. The doors have a huge amount of
plastic cladding at the bottom and so does the
engine bay with the motor sitting low down
in a cavity surrounded by quite a lot of plastic
shrouding. And on some cars the window
chrome surrounds didn’t match.
Is quality an issue? No. It isn’t as good as
a VW, Maruti Suzuki or Hyundai but if you
compare it to a Jeep, Tata or Mahindra — its
rivals actually — it not only is in the same ball
park but in some areas is slightly better too.
There was a small rattle from behind my seat
on the Hector, but the Compass Trailhawk I
tested the same week had a louder rattle from
the right side of the dashboard.
48V mild hybrid on the turbo-petrol
I started with the 1.5-litre turbo-petrol that is
mated to a 48V mild-hybrid system, pumping
out 141bhp of power and 250Nm of torque. The
petrol is available with the option of a twin-
clutch automatic though the homologation
wasn’t complete in time for the media drives
so only the manual was offered.
First impressions — the petrol is refined,
smooth, and unobtrusive. This is a heavy SUV,
1554kg for the petrol, but the 141 horses are
enough to move it in a bit of a hurry. You get a
step up in power at around 3000rpm and the
bottom end is weak but there isn’t turbo lag in
the traditional sense, the power delivery being
quite linear. That said, this engine doesn’t feel
like a turbo-charged motor in the way the VW
Group TSI motors deliver that really strong
surge of power when it comes on boost,Left: Massive sunroof makes the cabin
very airy. Above: Fuel efficiency could
be an issue on the petrol. Above right:
10.4 inch touchscreen works very well and
controls even the air-con