MG 5 long-term test: report 4
The MG 5 is one of the cheapest electric cars on sale, and the only electric estate, but is it any good? We're living with one to find out...
The car MG 5 EV Exclusive Long Range Run by Kiall Garrett, senior videographer
Why it’s here To see whether an electric estate car can support the practicality needs of What Car?’s videographer while getting him around the country with relative ease
Needs to be Spacious, have enough range to travel to far-flung film shoots, and be comfortable to drive
Mileage 7629 List price £31,995 Target Price £31,679 Price as tested £30,495 Test range 167 miles Official range 250 miles
22 July 2022 – A cavernous tourer
My favourite thing about my MG 5 so far has to be its boot.
Before it had even turned up, I was genuinely excited at the prospect of having a full-blown estate car. My company car life before the MG was spent hopping between SUVs of different sizes, transporting my video camera equipment and cases.
An estate seemed like an exciting change from bulky, high-riding cars like the Peugeot 5008 and Suzuki S-Cross, but would the MG 5 be just as practical?
Well the MG sports a 464-litre boot with the rear seats up, and that’s a noticeable step up from the 400-litre boot I was using in my previous car, the Seat Arona.
Admittedly, the MG loses out to larger family SUV boots when it comes to numbers. But it’s been perfect for me so far, because the boot can hold all my equipment and cases. In all the other cars I've run bar the massive 5008, I've had to lower the rear seats to make everything fit.
The MG’s boot isn’t especially long, but it’s wide; I can have my tripods and stands neatly placed in sideways so they take up less space, and they’re all more than a metre long. There is also a slight loading lip at the entry point of the boot, which helpfully means that nothing tends to fall out when I open the boot after a long journey, although it does give me an extra bit of height to heave heavier items over.
The boot floor is height adjustable, too, and it adds a good few inches of depth, freeing up even more space if I need it. That said, I tend to keep the floor in its highest setting, so I can get cases out easier; this also leaves me with enough space underneath to store the bulky charging cable. However, the dream would be to have an additional storage space under the bonnet of the car (something the MG 5 doesn't offer, unlike plenty of other electric cars), so I didn't have to unload the boot to get to the cable.
The actual boot opening isn’t quite as large as that of an SUV, but it still provides a good space to allow for easy loading and unloading. My 6ft 2in stature has led to several head bumps so far, though – admittedly more because of my own carelessness rather than anything being badly wrong with the MG’s design.
I have noticed that you don’t need much room behind you to open the tailgate fully. Therefore, parking in tight spots or quite close to a wall doesn't prevent access to the boot; this helps, because the MG 5 is already a fairly long car.
But my assessment of practicality is not just based on the amount of equipment I can fit into the boot; I also ideally need some space in which to set things up.
Having the rear seats clear allows me to put empty cases and bags on them during shoots so I can free up a bit of room in the boot to use as a workstation to set up cameras and gimbals.
This allows me to be able to work easily from the MG 5 on shoots and not have to be continually shuffling bags and cases around. As a mobile office, it's fulfilling the brief perfectly.
For all the latest reviews, advice and new car deals, sign up to the What Car? newsletter here
