Squatter moves in with Don

I haven’t been able to drive our test MG ZS EV much over the past few months, but that doesn’t mean I didn’t learn anything about it, says Damien O’Carroll.

While the country has been trying to surf the wave of Delta and dealing with lockdowns, won’t someone spare a thought for the New Zealand’s poor motoring journalists? We live and breath cars, but haven’t been able to get out to go for a proper drive for ages.

Oh, right. No-one cares. . . there are bigger problems than spoilt kids who don’t get to play with new cars and all that. I get it, but at least spare a thought for poor little Don, our long-term MG ZS EV.

After several months of being punted around Auckland like a hot hatch, the little blue fella has been sitting in my car port gathering cobwebs and a hefty layer of pollen that coats literally every damn thing around my house at this time of year.

The odd trip to the supermarket is all it has been treated to over the past few months, plus a vigorous wash to take care of the pollen.

The cobwebs came back though. I think we have a resident spider now.

However, the lack of use has led to a few interesting insights when I jump back into it after a long time. First and foremost, I hate the driver’s seat height.

The ZS is cursed by that irritating bit of motoring industry sleight of hand that tries to trick your brain into believing that a small jacked-up hatch is really an SUV by bumping the seat height up to give you the feeling of a commanding ride height.

I hate it in all small (and a lot of medium) SUVs, and I realised the other day that I hate it in the ZS too. It feels unnaturally high, like you are sitting on the car, rather than in it. It’s something Ford always used to do to all of its cars, for some really weird reason and, as I may have mentioned, I hate it.

Well, for the first trip, at least, then I get used to it, and it doesn’t bother me so much.

However, the second impression of the MG’s seating is more positive – seat height aside, I love the actual driving position and the fact that it is super-easy to find the perfect position.

And while we’re on Don’s seats; while the fake leather is as icky as all fake leather is, they are brilliantly soft and comfortable.

The second, totally unsurprising insight is that I still absolutely love the way Don utterly smashes off the line – that feral, instant blast of acceleration is utterly out of character for a small baby blue SUV, and utterly hilarious. Every. Damn. Time.

Get your throttle input just right and the MG digs in and blasts away from a standing start. Get a bit too eager and then there is a little howl of protest from the front tyres, and then it blasts away, which just makes me laugh all that much harder.

I have in the past commented on Don’s relatively limited electronic brain that struggles when it comes to processing simple requests, but this time it threw a new wrinkle into things.

After firing it up after a week or so of inactivity, its little brain seemed to get a tad confused as to what was going on and flashed up a message saying that the ‘‘high voltage battery wasn’t active’’.

Yet everything was on and working fine. The message persisted, and Don blatantly refused to drop into drive.

Applying the age-old tech fix of ‘‘turning it off and on again’’ (the next step is ‘‘hitting it hard’’), cleared things up, and we were able to go about our business with no further signs of whatever the hell it was that had confused Don.

I guess it was kind of a similar reaction to the one I have when woken up on a Sunday morning.

And that really has been the story of our relationship so far – a few hiccups due to our respective quirks and oddities, but generally we get along brilliantly well.

Sadly, my time with Don is almost over, with the lockdown having ruined a lot of the plans I had for it, but the time I have spent commuting in the MG I have thoroughly enjoyed.

Any concerns I had around charging due to my lack of easy access at home were quickly

dispelled, and I came to realise that range anxiety around town is really only a massive problem for people who don’t actually drive EVs – you adjust your thinking so quickly, that concerns really do fade away. At least, mine did.

As for longer stuff? Well, lockdown has dented those plans, but I still hold out hope to do something a bit more road trippy yet. . .

DAMIEN O’CARROLL/STUFF The MG ZS EV long termer has been relegated to the car port during lockdown, next to the bins and with only a spider for company.

Don’s electrical bits have proven to be excellent. The brain that controls everything can be a bit flaky though.

A spider seems to have taken up residence somewhere in Don during lockdown.

The seat doesn’t need to be this high. Or, at least, it should be able to be lowered.