Medium SUV takes on big names with $31K sticker

Overtaking big names and outselling established brands such as Jeep, Volvo and Renault, MG is having its best year to date. Yet it has bigger fish to fry — and its new medium SUV, the HS, could be the bait to lure people into showrooms.

Pitched as an alternative to the likes of Mazda’s CX-5 and the Toyota RAV4, the HS combines spacious family-friendly dimensions, impressive safety kit and connectivity on par with the best in class for $30,990 drive-away.

That’s about $5000 less than the cheapest automatic Mazda CX-5, which can’t match the 10.1-inch infotainment screen with smartphone mirroring in the MG’s surprisingly plush cabin.

Up-to-date safety kit includes autonomous emergency braking, active cruise control, blind spot monitor, lane departure warning and rear cross traffic alert.

The mid-grade HS, the Excite, is on sale from $33,990 drive-away and gets satnav, LED headlights, power tailgate and 18-inch wheels.

Power for both comes from a 1.5-litre fourcylinder turbo with 124kW and 250Nm, driving the front wheels through a seven-speed automatic transmission.

It looks attractive in the metal, with Mazdalike headlights that flow into a Mercedesinspired grille. Similarly, it’s not hard to find borrowed styling cues from Volkswagen, Hyundai and Alfa Romeo in the cabin.

A top-grade version will arrive in the first half of 2020.

We might have to wait until then to drive it, as MG is reluctant to put journalists behind the wheel of new models.

Minimal media coverage hasn’t hurt the maker’s light car, the $15,990 drive-away MG3 — last month it came within 40 sales of knocking off the VW Polo, Mazda2 and Kia Rio in its segment.

MG Australia chief executive Peter Ciao says some customers at his 47 dealerships defect from other brands but many choose MG as their first new car.

“For some, their original idea was to purchase a used car,” he says.

“If you’re going to purchase a used car, why not purchase a new MG?”

Ciao aims for MG to eclipse the ailing Holden on the sales charts in coming years.

“This is our goal,” Ciao says. “We have a 15year strategy.”

“[Holden] did a good job in the past 30 years. They are a big brand, they have a bigger business in Australia.”

Foreseeing a “very great” future for MG here, he says: “We have the confidence.”

Marketing director Danny Lenartic agrees Holden is “one (brand) that’s in our sights”.

“We don’t sit in directors’ meetings and pick apart a brand,” he says. “We work out how to become the best we can be.

“Whoever doesn’t do it as well, we hope we can create an opportunity there. Then the (sales tally) looks after itself.”