Road test: G

O on, indulge yourself. You’ve worked hard for your money and it’s time to spend some of it...

If the Bentley of your dreams is still a little out of reach here’s a car to consider that you may not even have heard of, it’s so new.

And so relatively cheap you may be able to afford the poshest version without wincing.

Say hello to the new MG ZS, latest entry to a car market flooded with mid-size SUV models as the world clamours for cars a little taller and tougher looking than a run-of-the-mill hatchback.

Built in China but mainly designed in Longbridge in the British Midlands, this latest wearer of the famous octagonal badge starts at £12,495. And the most you can pay is £17,495 before dipping into the very short options’ list.

So a Bentley it ain’t. Instead, we have a car designed to double sales in a brand that seemed to be idling in neutral until now.

Even with a hoped for 10,000 MGs nudging out of 90 dealer showrooms in 2018 it will still be a ripple in the car sales’ pond, but heading in the right direction at least.

Helping will be a warranty stretching to seven years or 80,000 miles - far enough, says MG, to mean most buyers will always be covered. The vast majority of owners will be private purchasers doing modest miles each year, not motorway-hogging business users.

Every new SUV seems to shared the looks of something already out there and the ZS is no exception, with obvious shades of Mazda CX-3 above all else.

Which, with the Mazda a bit of a looker (and starting at precisely £1,000 more than the dearest MG) will do the newcomer no harm at all.

Rivals on size (the ZS is 4,314mm long) include the Nissan Juke, Renault Captur and Ford EcoSport but they are all dearer, in some cases much dearer.

If the looks tempt you to peer deeper into the ZS you’ll discover a cabin spacious enough to seat big people with space to spare in front and rear and a boot perfectly capable of swallowing their luggage.

It also looks well finished with just enough soft touch surfaces to shake off thoughts of budget motoring and, with a touchscreen and restricted button count, looking modern in an iPad sort of way.

Standard kit on the entry level XS Explore (£12,495) includes 15ins steel wheels, cruise control, trip computer and Bluetooth. Move to the mid-level Excite (£13,995) and you’ll add 17ins alloys, air con, parking sensors, heated and electrically adjusted door mirrors and Apple Car Play.

Then, move to the top Exclusive trim (from £15,495) and you find posher alloys, satellite navigation, reversing camera and remote locking.

Behind the assertive