MG ZS Review & Prices

The MG ZS is a great-value compact SUV. It has a powerful hybrid engine, loads of space in the back and is generally much better to drive than most of its cheap opposition - but it’s not quite as efficient as it should be and MG’s reliability record may make you raise an eyebrow.

The ZS is heavily based on the MG3, which is one of our favourite small hatchbacks. It’s like those people who don’t let being a parent change them - yes, they have to worry about pushchairs and car seats now, but they’re fundamentally the same as they were before rather than letting their newfound practicality define them.

In among the yummy mummies, the MG ZS has strong competition. There are plenty of small SUVs out there such as the Volkswagen T-Cross, Peugeot 2008, Jaecoo 5, Toyota Yaris Cross, Chery Tiggo 4, Dacia Duster or Renault Captur, all with their own USPs. The MG, by contrast, is more of a jack of all trades, not really standing out in any one area.

The styling reflects this, because it’s smart without being too eye-catching. The wide grille at the front is reminiscent of the MG3, as are the sculpted sides. The rear is pretty dull and generic, though, and the wheels look a little too small for the boxy body.

It’s a similar story on the inside, though it’s here where the MG’s budget roots shine through with some pretty conscious cost-cutting. There are plenty of low-rent materials on the doors and dashboard, and build quality is a bit creaky. It looks smart, though, and the touchscreen infotainment system is pretty easy to use for all the key tasks.

You also get loads of equipment. Top-spec Trophy models undercut most of the alternatives in base spec, but come with climate control, sat-nav, wireless phone charging, leather upholstery and a full suite of driver assistance aids.

Space is another area where the MG ZS bats above its price tag. There’s enough legroom for four six-footers to get comfortable, and an impressive 443-litre boot that’s bigger than the Yaris Cross or Tiggo 4.

Under the bonnet, there’s a choice of two engines. You can more or less ignore the base 1.5-litre petrol - it’s cheap, but not cheerful. Noisy, slow and thirsty, it’s worth avoiding in favour of the excellent hybrid engine instead.

With 190hp, this feels very powerful for what’s quite a small car - it easily outguns the hybrid Renault Captur or Toyota Yaris Cross - and because it has quite a powerful motor and a large battery you’ll find it runs on electric power much of the time, making it great to drive in town.

On the motorway it’s rapid, and the suspension is quite comfy, but you feel a lot of wind and road noise, while on a twisty road it’s not as much fun as the MG3 it’s based on. Still, for the price, you can’t complain too much.

Verdict

The MG ZS is amazing value for a car that’s roomy, well-equipped and decent to drive. It’s not as good on the road as the Toyota Yaris Cross, or anywhere near as efficient, but you save a lot of money opting for it in the first place. There are only two big problems - MG’s questionable reliability record, coming bottom of the Driver Power survey for three years in a row - and the Chery Tiggo 4, which offers pretty much the same package but is even cheaper.

If lots of power and equipment for a low price capture your imagination, check out our best MG ZS deals right here. You can find a used MG ZS for sale here, or search other used MGs for sale. And remember that Carwow can even help you sell your old car when the time comes.

The MG ZS range kicks off at just over £20,000 for the petrol car, rising to a little under £23,000 for the Hybrid+ model in SE trim. Higher-spec Trophy models clock in at just over £25,000 and are only available as a hybrid.

That means that the top-spec ZS Hybrid+ is a good chunk cheaper than a Renault Captur E-Tech or Toyota Yaris Cross, and the SE model is even a bit cheaper than the full hybrid Dacia Duster. It's just pipped to the cheapest hybrid SUV spot by the staggeringly inexpensive Chery Tiggo 4, though.

With such a low price tag in the first place, there’s really not much reason why you shouldn’t splurge on the top-spec Trophy model and enjoy nicer interior trim and heated seats - it’s the model we’d recommend going for. Trophy cars are only available as a hybrid, but that doesn’t matter since we’d avoid the pure petrol version anyway.

The MG ZS is quite powerful, but it is a bit lumpy over bumps and it’s not very refined on the motorway

In town

The MG ZS uses the same hybrid system as the MG3. It pairs a 1.5-litre petrol engine with around 102hp to a powerful, 136hp electric motor. It also uses a 1.84kWh battery - more than double the size of most alternatives.

The result of this system is that, around town, the ZS mostly uses its electric motor, with the petrol engine kicking in as a generator rather than driving the wheels. This means it’s easy to make smooth progress, as you’re basically driving an electric car.

Don’t expect the silent progress of an electric car, though, as the engine comes in and out as needed, and has quite a coarse edge to the sound and often seems to rev higher than you might expect. It’s not obtrusive, but the smoothness and seamless operation of the hybrid system in a Toyota Yaris Cross is better.

The ZS has good visibility out of the front, and you sit quite high up. The suspension is quite firm, which means you feel more of the road’s bumps and lumps than you do in a Renault Captur - even when the latter’s on its largest alloy wheels.

On the motorway

With so much power at your disposal compared to a Renault Captur or Toyota Yaris Cross, the MG ZS feels like it gets up to speed with much less effort and that there’s more in reserve when you need to overtake. However, it’s not quite as smooth under heavy acceleration - the gearbox only has three ratios, which means there are quite large gaps between them, and if you’re putting your foot down the power surges quite disconcertingly.

If you drive more normally, it’s not quite so big an issue, and the alternatives are guilty of similar things - like the Yaris Cross and its CVT gearbox which often holds the revs very high for long periods.

The ZS’s suspension still feels firm on the motorway, and you can definitely notice things like expansion joints on bridges. But it’s not quite as irritating as it is around town. What we found more annoying is that the ZS has quite a lot of wind and road noise at speed, where alternatives are much more refined.

Every ZS gets MG Pilot as standard, which is a full suite of assisted driving options including adaptive cruise control and lane-keeping aids. It works quite well, though we found even the closest following distance is very generous.

On a twisty road

The ZS has light steering that doesn’t give you very much feedback, and so it’s not particularly satisfying to drive quickly. There’s plenty of grip and you never feel like it’s incapable of taking corners fast, but there’s no pleasure to be had in doing so - a Renault Captur or Yaris Cross are both better to drive on a twisty road.

The powertrain does have a Sport mode, which makes it feel even more eager but adds unnatural-feeling weight to the steering. We left it in Normal mode most of the time, especially given the driving mode switch is positioned quite far back on the centre console and not the easiest to press without looking.

The MG ZS is really roomy in the back seats and the boot is a good size, but you don’t get much in the way of clever storage features

Storage up front in the MG ZS is a mixed bag. The glovebox is a good size, as are the door bins, you can easily fit a big water bottle inside either. Better hope that’s enough to keep you hydrated though, as the cupholders are tiny.

There’s a flat tray ahead of the gear lever which is a useful spot to sling keys or wallets, and another next to it (in automatic models only) which is a bit useless because the surface isn’t very grippy and the edges are raised. It looks like the perfect place to keep your phone, but as soon as you hit a roundabout it’ll slide straight off.

The seat adjusts plenty for drivers of all sizes, and in a rarity for an MG there’s adjustable lumbar support too. Early cars didn’t have reach-adjustable steering, but the later models do - if you’re buying used, make sure to check this out.

There is a USB-A and a USB-C port up front, though annoyingly the latter is only for charging devices and you have to use the older standard to connect your phone.

Space in the back seats

Considering it’s a small SUV the MG ZS has loads of room in the back seats. There’s space for a six-foot rear passenger to stretch out behind a driver of a similar size, and there’s even room under the front seats to slide your feet. Our 6’2 frame was quite comfortable.

It’s not the widest cabin, so it isn’t the best for three, but two adults should be able to get very comfy. It’s a shame there’s no fold-down centre armrest, though you do get air vents and a USB-A port in the middle console.

There are ISOFIX points for mounting a child seat on the outer two rear seats, and there’s enough space and the doors open wide enough that we found fitting even a bulky rear-facing car seat was easy.

Boot space

With 443 litres of space, the ZS has more room in the boot than a Toyota Yaris Cross (397 litres). The Renault Captur hybrid has more space with its rear seats slid forward, but with them in the rearmost position it has only 348 litres on offer.

The ZS gets a movable boot floor, so you can choose between maximum volume and a flat loading floor. Fold the rear seatbacks and you do get loads of space as well as an almost totally unobstructed load bay - good for trips to the flat-pack furniture store. It’s a little short on clever features, though - underfloor storage is limited, bag hooks are pretty puny, and there’s nowhere to store the large, rigid parcel shelf.

The MG ZS doesn’t have a particularly stylish interior, but it’s well-built and the touchscreen works pretty well

MG’s latest cars - the MG3, HS and ZS - all have a fairly cohesive exterior design, but you can’t say the same about the interior. Though the switchgear is shared, the ZS has a totally different interior design to MG’s other cars, and that brings some positives and negatives.

It’s more traditional than the MG3, with a 7.0-inch digital instrument cluster in a recessed portion of the dash rather than a pod on the steering column. The infotainment screen is integrated into the dashboard too, and it sits lower than it does on other MG models - making it a bit easier to interact with.

That screen is 12.3 inches across, and it runs an updated version of MG’s interface. So while it’s similar to the screens on the 3, 4 and HS, it’s quite a lot more responsive and the controls have been made larger and easier to hit. That’s great news, as the fiddly interface of the infotainment systems was a key complaint of these other models.

It’s still not as easy to use as the Android-based infotainment system of a Renault Captur, but compared to the screen in a Yaris Cross it’s actually a little better. There’s a row of shortcut keys under the screen which give quick access to a few functions, but we’d love to see a couple more given to dedicated climate controls. The latest MG electric cars have a separate climate control panel, which would be great to see when the ZS is updated.

It’s also a shame that, while Apple CarPlay and Android Auto functionality is included, it’s wired-only - most new models have wireless integration. There’s also no wireless charger, though you probably won’t need it much if you’re using the smartphone integration as plugging in will keep your phone topped up. But it’s a pity that it’s not even an option.

Quality is a mixed bag. The ZS feels relatively solidly built, though not as good as the bank-vault quality of a Yaris Cross. But lots of the materials are much cheaper than they appear, such as tinny-feeling fake chrome and scratchy plastic atop the door cards.

There are two engine options for the MG ZS, with very different fuel economy figures. The petrol ZS has a claimed economy figure of 43.5mpg and CO2 emissions of 145g/km, so it’s quite a hard sell next to the hybrid’s much more impressive 55.4mpg and 115g/km (figures correct as of 4/12/2025).

In the real world, we saw about 48mpg out of the hybrid model when driving normally, and with a lighter foot that rose to just over 50mpg. That’s a little down on the Yaris Cross and the Captur, both of which claim over 60mpg - and driven carefully, can in fact deliver it. So it’s not as efficient as its main alternatives, but that’s to be expected given it’s so much more powerful than they are.

Its emissions put it two BIK bands higher than the Yaris Cross or Captur for company car tax, but they’re still appreciably lower than the petrol model. First year road tax is reasonable but a plug-in hybrid alternative, even a larger car, would make a more cost-effective company car option.

Euro NCAP rating (2024): 4/5

Adult occupant: 75%
Child occupant: 82%
Vulnerable road users: 73%
Safety assist: 76%

The MG ZS scored four stars when tested by Euro NCAP. That's an improvement on the old ZS, which scored just three stars way back in 2017 on a much less stringent test. For a budget model, four stars isn't bad, and its 75% and 82% ratings for adult and child occupant safety are reassuring.

Safety equipment is all present and correct including the obligatory speed warnings and driver monitoring tech, all of which is quite easy to turn off through the menus should you want to - though it’s a shame there isn’t a way to map these functions to one of the steering wheel shortcut buttons.

*the basic three-year warranty is extended by a year with each approved service

MG came a flat last in the 2025 Driver Power owner satisfaction survey, with motorists rating it poorly for reliability. MG is much more optimistic that its latest cars will be more reliable than those which came before them, though, and has invested heavily in its dealer network as well as parts supply to hopefully improve the speed and service when it comes to fixing problems which might arise.

At least you shouldn’t be put out of pocket for issues with the ZS - MG covers all of its cars with a seven-year, 80,000-mile warranty, which is one of the longest around.