MG launched its all-new medium-sized HS SUV last year, and now it has reached New Zealand dealerships. When I collected it, the sales guys told me it felt like it was 2 generations improved from the previous model. A bold claim indeed. Will it live up to the hype?

MG certainly stands behind its build quality, giving it a 10-year 250,000km warranty, but still pricing it more cheaply than most of its rivals. How will it stand up to a week and over 1,000km of driving?

What We Like and Dislike About The 2025 MG HS Essence

What we likeWhat we don’t like
Comfort
Interior quality
Performance
Handling
Stereo
Value for money
Warranty
Sharp corners on doors
Stereo volume control
More buttons would be nice
Many beeps (this is not unique to MG)

What’s In The 2025 MG HS Range?

There are currently three models in the HS range, starting with the $36,990 Vibe spec. All specs have the same engine – a 1.5-litre turbocharged 4-cylinder which produces 125kW of power and 275Nm of torque. This drives the front wheels via a 7-speed dual-clutch transmission.

All specs include:

  • MG Pilot Safety Suite which covers
    • Adaptive Cruise Control (ACC)   
    • Active Emergency Braking (AEB)   
    • Lane Change Assist (LCA)   
    • Lane Keep Assist (LKA)   
    • Lane Departure Warning System (LDW)   
    • Emergency Lane Keep Assist (ELKA)   
    • Intelligent Cruise Assist (ICA)   
    • Intelligent Speed Limit Assist (SAS)   
    • Blind Spot Detection (BSD)   
    • Driver Monitor Status (DMS)   
    • Forward Collision Warning (FCW)   
    • Rear Collision Warning (RCW)   
    • Rear Cross Traffic Braking (RCTB)   
    • Front Cross Traffic Alert (FCTA)   
    • Direct Tyre Pressure Monitoring System (TPMS)   
    • 7 airbags 
    • Electronic Stability Program   
    • Hill Start Assist   
  • Rain Sensing Wipers
  • Apple CarPlay and Android Auto
  • 12.3″ Virtual Driver Cluster Display
  • 12.3″ Colour Touchscreen
  • LED headlights with auto high-beam
  • Reverse Camera
  • Rear Parking Sensors
  • 6-Speaker Audio System
  • Electrically Adjustable, Heated, Door Mirrors
  • Keyless Entry

The $39,990 Excite adds

  • 19″ Alloys
  • Front Fog Lights
  • PU Leather Seats
  • High-Definition 360-degree Camera
  • Satellite Navigation
  • iSmart phone app – (12 Months Complimentary Access*)

Finally, the $42,990 Essence, as tested, adds

  • Panoramic Stargazer Sunroof
  • Wireless Charging
  • Front Parking Sensors
  • Drivers Seat and door mirror Memory
  • Drivers 4-way Electric Lumbar Support
  • Heated Front Seats (3 levels)
  • Dual Zone Auto Climate Control
  • Power Tailgate
  • 8-Speaker Audio System
  • Rear Privacy Glass
  • Electric Folding Door Mirrors

Along with a 10-year, 250,000km warranty, all models represent excellent value.

2025 MG HS Colour Range

  • Pearl White Metallic
  • Lunar Grey Metallic (as seen on our review car)
  • Diamond Red Metallic
  • Pearl Black Metallic
  • Cashmere Silver Metallic
  • Arctic Blue Metallic

There’s no additional cost for different colours.

For a full list of specs and options available for the MG HS Essence head on over to MG New Zealand’s website

How Does The 2025 MG HS Essence Compare To Its Competition?

There’s a lot of choice in the medium SUV space, and the MG HS punches above its weight for its price

Make/ ModelEnginePower/
Torque
kW/Nm
Fuel L/100kmTowing
Capacity
Boot
Space,
litres
Price
Subaru Forester e-Boxer Sport AWD 2.0-litre 4-cylinder boxer hybrid110/1966.7750/1,200509$57,490
Kia Sportage X-Line1.6-litre 4-cylinder turbo132/2657.5750/1,650543$56,760
Toyota RAV-4 XSE Hybrid2.5-litre 4-cylinder131/2215.3750/1,500542$55,990
Hyundai Tucson Elite2.0-litre 4-cylinder115/1929.0750/1,650503$54,990
Skoda Karoq Selection1.4-litre 4-cylinder turbo110/2507.3750/1,500521$54,990
Nissan X-Trail e-Power ST-L1.5-litre 3-cylinder turbo hybrid150/3306.1750/1,650585$51,990
Mitsubishi Outlander Sport2.5-litre 4-cylinder135/2448.6750/1,600655$48,990

MG HS Essence
1.5-litre 4-cylinder turbo125/2756.9750/1500507$42,990
Haval H6 Ultra2.0-litre 4-cylinder150/3207.4750/2,000600$40,990

Please note that DriveLife does its best to ensure the information above is correct at the time of publication, however, prices, specifications and models can change over time. Please bear that in mind when comparing models in the comparison table.

First Impressions Of The 2025 MG HS Essence

The new HS is a handsome car, even in the dark grey of our review car. The front grille has grown wider and the all-LED lights are slimmer, giving the HS a much more modern and slightly more aggressive face.

The side profile is much improved, with more shape to the body panel, giving a more coherent flow from front to rear. The 19” alloys suit the side profile well and aren’t so big that they dominate the look.

At the rear, everything is more angular, with a full-width red LED strip running right across. The silver lower diffuser might be a little much, but it’s fine I guess. There’s two large, fake exhaust trims at the bottom corners, which I’m not a big fan of. The real exhausts are underneath, pointing downwards.

Overall, the new HS is a much sharper, more modern design which looks bigger than the old one even though it’s actually only a few millimetres longer and wider.

What’s The Interior Like In The 2025 MG HS Essence?

The interior of the HS is where things have really moved on. It’s completely different to the previous generation and thoroughly modern, with its two large 12.3” screens, joined together in a single housing. It’s almost Tesla-like in its simplicity, with just a row of five physical buttons under the central touchscreen. The screens themselves are bright and clear with great resolution, and the UI is clean and simple with a white backdrop, reminiscent of Tesla, Hyundai or Apple. At night it flips to night mode with a black background, and all of it works well and is easy on the eyes. The UI is quick to respond, a massive improvement over the previous generation.

The MG HS Essence has a 360-degree camera system, which is based on four cameras, giving a top-down view and it will auto-switch the main view depending which way you’re moving. The resolution is great and if you turn on the transparency setting it will fill in the space under the car as you drive, so you can see where the lines are underneath.

The driver’s display is simply laid out with three main areas, there are three different cluster layouts and five options for what you want in the centre of the display. There’s also a “focus mode” which shows just the absolute basics. Fuel level and rev counter are numerical displays tucked into the bottom left corner.

The circular vents are gone, replaced with nicely integrated rectangular ones, which have a good solid feel to the adjusters. In the centre console under the touch screen are two cup holders, two USB ports, and a power socket. Behind them is a normal leather-trimmed gear shifter, and buttons for the parking brake. There’s a small armrest/centre cubby at the back, and in front of that there’s a Qi wireless charging pad. The lid of the cubby mostly covers your phone when in use and it’s out of your eyeline when driving, which is a great feature. Its surface is rubberised with little raised lines and my phone never moved at all from its spot.

The cabin feels light and airy, the pillars and headliner are covered with cream fabric and there’s a full-length glass roof to let lots of light in. It was stonking hot all week so we kept the electric blind shut most of the time, but it’s transparent enough to let in light without the burning heat. The front half of the glass will slide back to give a massive open roof if that’s your thing.

The glove box is a decent size for your road-trip lollies and drinks, and the door pockets are also generously sized.

The general fit and finish of the cabin is really very good indeed. There’s synthetic leather lining the dash and all of the upper trims and touch points, with contrasting red stitching. The centre console is padded where your knee might rest against it, and it doesn’t flex at all. I’ve noticed a few cars recently where there’s a fair amount of flex and creak in the way they’re built so this gives the MG HS a reassuring quality feel in comparison. I didn’t look up any pricing information until after I’d spent a couple of days in the HS, and my guess was that it was a 50-55k car.

The wheel is an unusual shape with a flat bottom and top. It’s trimmed in perforated leather and nicely shaped. There are physical buttons and thumb-joysticks for menus and dash settings, cruise control and stereo. These are logically laid-out and easy to get used to.

Both front seats are electrically adjustable in the Essence spec, and there’s memory for the driver seat, including mirror positions. The seats themselves are comfortable – I drove almost 800km in a day, and didn’t have any discomfort, aches or numb-bum moments. Definitely a win there! The side bolstering is plenty to hold you in at the speeds you’re likely to corner in an SUV.

The back seats are similarly comfortable, with plenty of leg room, flat floor in the centre, and no complaints from my teenage passengers on the 350km run to drop them in Wellington. They chose not to sit all-three in the back as there wasn’t quite enough shoulder room to be comfortable over the long distance. Headroom was plenty for an over-6ft 14-year-old to fit! The teens were glad of the rear USB charging ports too.

Moving to the boot, its flat-floored 507-litre capacity was plenty for all of their bags, and the side pockets with retaining nets were perfect for carrying my camera and snacks. Under the boot floor there’s a big chunk of polystyrene over the space saver spare, and there are cubbies moulded into that for storing all of those odds-and-ends that we carry in our boots.

The boot is electrically opened and closed, from a button on the outside or the remote. There’s no physical button inside the car but if the car is on, there’s an option in one of the menus to open the boot.

What’s The 2025 MG HS Essence Like To Drive?

The MG HS has Comfort Entry set as default, which moves the driver’s seat back for more room to get in, then forward when you start the engine. This can also crush the knees of a tall person sitting behind you. Some people love this, but it irritates me no-end so the first thing I did was disable it.

My daughter seems to have inherited my clumsiness, as the first thing she did on jumping into the car was catch her lower leg on the corner of the passenger front door. The lower trim is stiff plastic, and comes to a sharp point right where you might catch your leg. Fortunately the bleeding soon stopped!

The centre screen takes around a minute to boot up after the nicely animated MG logo fades out, so if you’re in a hurry you’ll have to just use the mirrors instead of the cameras. Visibility all-round is good so it’s not a big problem.

Low-speed ride is firm and made itself apparent on some of the poorly-surfaced roads in central New Plymouth, Not harsh or crashy, but firm compared to similar SUVs. At higher speeds this wasn’t noticeable and the MG HS felt smooth and quiet. At cruising speeds and low revs there’s barely any engine noise, it’s all very refined. 

Like all new cars, the MG HS has several safety systems which are on by default and turn on every time the car is started. This is not an MG thing, it’s something almost all new cars do to get the full ANCAP 5-star rating. So if you go 1kph over the speed limit, 3 beeps. This is good, but it often detected speed limits as lower than they were and would be beeping about me doing 45 in a 50 because for some reason it thought there was such a thing as a 25kph limit.

Go too close to the left or centre lines, and you get beeps and the steering wheel vibrates. This is a good thing! But on rural roads most cars tend to trigger too often due to the inconsistent road markings, this car included. Then there’s the most irritating, Driver Attention Alert. Look at the speedo too long, it beeps, look down to read the message and see why it beeped, it beeps and says “pay attention to the road”, wear dark sunglasses, it beeps more. It’s frustrating! I thought about taping over the camera but when I covered it, it beeped and said “Camera obscured”. Sigh.

On our trip, every time I restarted the car the process was: wait for the system to boot, swipe left for settings, click Vehicle, click MG Assist, scroll to speed warning, turn off audible alert, scroll to Driver Drowsiness, turn off, say yes I am sure, turn off Driver Attention, say yes I am sure. Hit the home button.

Because of the clean, sparsely buttoned dash, turning on the front and rear fog lights requires a similar process. Swipe left, go to Convenience, then scroll down to find the control. Not ideal.

If you have the centre screen set to map, you get many more beeps. This is an MG thing. It beeps when you enter or leave a town. It announces every school zone, sometimes twice, and seems to beep for other things too, but I’m short-sighted and need reading glasses, so some of the writing on-screen was impossible for me to squint at and read before it disappeared. Fortunately this can be turned off and it stays turned off.

Anyway enough griping about beeps, how does the MG HS drive? The MG brochure says the HS has been “Reimagined from the ground up to offer an unparalleled driving experience”. I have to admit I was sceptical of this. Almost every medium SUV I have driven feels pretty much the same. Quick enough, comfortable enough, handles safely and with no character. Well I was pleasantly surprised!

Because I had three teens on board for the first few days we spent more time evaluating the stereo than the performance. The 8-speaker system in the MG HS Essence is great. I set the equaliser to auto and left it alone. It has good clarity, good bass, and goes nice and loud. The only complaint from the teens was what was in my playlist. Oh, and at first there seemed to be no way to adjust the volume other than the steering wheel controls, but it turns out you have to swipe down from the top of the screen to reveal the extra controls.

I wasn’t going to be doing any spirited driving with kids on board, but driving around, and up Taranaki Maunga, there were a few little hints from the HS that it was going to be more fun than expected. On a quiet back road there were a couple of tractors to overtake, and though there was a fraction of a second delay on planting my foot, the HS took off with a lot more enthusiasm than I expected, and performed the overtaking manoeuvre quickly and safely. Driving up and down the mountain roads to the visitor centre and ski field, I felt myself safely taking corners just a little faster than expected, and no-one complained from the back seats.

On the way to Wellington, I made quite a bit of use of the radar cruise control, which is well set-up and maintains distance smoothly. It also maintains the set speed perfectly down hills, which some systems don’t do unless there’s a vehicle to follow.

I dropped off the teens at their various homes, using the built-in satnav to get there, which works well but is very British-sounding and absolutely mangles the Te Reo street names – imagine how an English person fresh-off-the-boat might say a name. Some localisation improvement needed, MG!

So, Teens dropped off, I cruise-controlled my way north back towards Taranaki. I was actually looking forward to finally reaching Surf Highway 45 and seeing how the MG HS handled the curves and undulations of that road. After a stop in Hāwera for a rejuvenating McCoffee, it was just coming up to dusk, the weather was perfect, and the views of Taranaki Maunga were stunning against the evening skies.

As the sun got lower in the sky, I did have an issue with the cruise control. The front camera must have been overwhelmed by the sunlight as the display said “environmental condition detected” followed by “ACC unavailable”. This was for maybe five minutes, then everything came back to normal.

My suspicions were confirmed, this thing is actually fun to drive! It feels composed and sure-footed on corners, and the DCT seems good at finding the gear you need when you need it. There’s a manual mode, but I stopped using it after a couple of tries and just let it do its own thing. It does want to be in the most efficient gear all the time, so there’s that fractional delay when you boot it, but once it changes down it goes really well. The 1.5T engine makes 125kW, and that’s plenty for a car like this to feel perky. It makes a pleasantly muted little growl at higher revs but is otherwise quiet and refined, barely making itself heard.

I found myself grinning as I pitched the HS into a corner, applying power a little early to compensate for the downshift, feeling the body roll slightly and letting the front wheels pull the car around the corner and out, easing off so as not to break the speed limit. I’m struggling to put my finger on exactly what it is, but something about the way this car feels and handles is confidence-inspiring and fun, and makes me want to keep driving. It’s no sports car, obviously, but it doesn’t feel like every other SUV either. And I did not expect to be saying that!

As the sun went down and the unlit highway got very dark, I slowed back to cruising speed and appreciated the LED headlights, which are excellent and give a wide, bright, clear light. The automatic high beams work well but are a little over-sensitive to reflections from signs, turning off and back on when there is no traffic. It’s better than the other way, blinding oncoming drivers.

Finally fuel consumption; MG quote 6.9 litres per 100km combined, and over 1,100km, some around town, two climbs up the mountain to 1000m altitude, one long trip, with a little spirited driving, I averaged 6.4l/100km. Pretty impressive.

READ ON TO CHECK OUT OUR SUMMARY OF THE 2025 MG HS ESSENCE.

2025 MG HS Essence – Specifications

Vehicle TypeMedium SUV
Starting Price$42,990
Price as Tested$42,990
Engine1.5-litre 4-cylinder turbocharged Direct Injection Petrol
Power, Torque
kW/Nm
125/275
Transmission7-speed dual-clutch
Spare WheelSpace saver
Kerb Weight, Kg1,630
Length x Width x Height
mm
4655 x 1890 x 1655
Boot Space / Cargo Capacity,
Litres
(seats up/seats down)
507/1,484
Fuel tank capacity,
litres
55
Fuel Economy,
L/100km
Advertised Spec – Combined – 6.9
Real-World Test – Combined – 6.4
Low Usage: 0-6 / Medium Usage 6-12 / High Usage 12+
Towing Capacity
Kg, unbraked/braked
750/1,500
Turning circle
metres
11.3
Small: 6-10m / Medium 10-12m / Large 12m+
WarrantyNon-commercial use
10 years / 250,000km (whichever occurs first)
Commercial use
7 years / 160,000km (whichever occurs first)
Safety informationANCAP Rating – 5 stars – Link
Rightcar.govt.nz – 5 Stars – QTG117
REVIEW OVERVIEW
Driver Technology
8
Economy
9
Handling
8
Infortainment
9
Interior
9
Performance
8
Ride
7
Safety
9
Styling
8
Value
10
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Rob Clubley
I love everything about cars! Driving, looking at them, modifying. It's great to see what people do with cars, the different car cultures. If I was rich, my garage would be bigger than my house!
2025-mg-hs-essence-car-reviewThrow off any preconceptions you might have about MG, and just go and try one. The build quality and finish are excellent, features and space are very good, and performance and handling really impressed me. This is a great family car and should absolutely be on your radar. <br><br> Add in the low price and industry-leading warranty and you have a winner. <br><br> If only new cars didn’t beep so much!

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