Both my wife & I are EV aficionados, having owned an E2O before and an iQube now.
BHPian herculesksp recently shared this with other enthusiasts.
We added an MG Comet (Plush) to our garage a few days back. We had booked this as soon as bookings opened in May. Subsequently, we decided to buy it via my Wife’s company lease plan and the process took a little bit of time. After about a month since they started commencing deliveries, we received our MG Comet last Thursday.
This complements the Hyundai Alcazar in my garage and fits very well.
There were two primary reasons for getting this car:
- The wife wanted a compact car for her driving. She lost confidence once European design cars started coming about (and she couldn’t see the bonnet corners anymore) and I also wanted a compact car for city runabouts. Most of the EVs coming out today are huge (except for Tiago EVs) and a pain to drive on narrow roads and park in any nook or corner.
- We really really wanted an electric car as the second car. We previously had an E2O which we loved. We also own a TVS iQube and used to have a TVS Scooty Teenz Electric almost 15 years back. So we are hard-core EV aficionados.
Mini-review:
Having driven it for about 60-70 km in the last 3-4 days, I am fairly satisfied with the purchase and the intention of buying it. Following are my observations.
Pros:
- Super compact and easy to drive on crowded roads and also to park. The width is about the length of a 2-wheeler.
- Smooth and refined and good power – good overtaking prowess
- Interiors feel luxurious and premium
- Tall seating and visibility are very good for someone about 5’5″ or under
- Wireless Android Auto and Apple Carplay that runs on Bluetooth. Even my Alcazar doesn’t have it.
- Open area under the dash is awesome and makes it fun to jump between the driver and the passenger seat. I can park in tight spots and slide out through the other side.
- Cubby holes just below the A/C vents are nice to keep drinks cool. I haven’t tried to see if it actually fits a coffee cup or Coke can. The key fob in there gets very cold though.
Cons:
- The ride is a tad uncomfortable. It is very bouncy at speeds > 40kmph and body roll is very high when you take corners at speed.
- Seats aren’t the best. There is no under-thigh support and after about 30 mins of driving, my hamstrings hurt. The pedals are too forward and could have been more inside the footwell.
- Visibility for taller drivers (I’m 6′) is very bad. The IRVM blocks my view to the left and creates huge blind spots when turning left or at intersections
- The instrument/entertainment cluster is poorly placed. The part where they overlap is covered by the steering wheel. So for those that use Apple Carplay, you cannot see the rightmost column with the app switcher/time etc.
- There is no glove box or trays behind the gear dial. This makes it tricky to place items like mobile phones (esp when charging), documents etc.
- A/C temperature setting is hit or miss. I might be spoilt by auto climate control, but I have to keep jumping between the L2 A/C setting which gets super cold, and L3 which starts heating up the cabin. There is no smooth grading of the temperature setting.
- The car doesn’t seem to get DRLs. The front bar of light turns on when I switch on the pilot lights which include the rear bar and the license plate lights. This is a miss. The front bar will make an awesome DRL.
- It has rear fog lamps which I don’t find useful for a car this size. It has a weird rocker switch – I need to check if this works or is defective.
- Rear left visibility is pretty bad due to the thick C pillars. I also need to get used to estimating the left side of the car. It feels weird without a bonnet to judge the front left of the car. Maybe this is how the Maruti Omni feels too?
Other things – I am definitely spoilt by the Alcazar and it’s creature comforts.
The 360 camera makes it way more easier to drive than the Comet even though it is twice the size. I also miss the automatic everything on the Alcazar – auto A/C, auto headlights etc. The sound system is adequate for the podcasts that I listen to on my commute.
I had also ordered a dual-tone white with a black top, but the car came without a black top. They said that the black roof painting is done by the dealers using factory equipment, but the factory delivers only full candy white cars. I find this hard to believe. They said the painting equipment was defective and hence they couldn’t paint it before delivery. I now need to give the car for 3-4 days so that they can paint it. I am worried about this but I need to go through it since the car is registered as a dual-tone car in the R/C.
Interestingly, the car didn’t come with any accessories like idols, perfume etc. While I’m happy they didn’t force that on me, I now need to go look for an idol for the car. I didn’t have that problem for the last 15+ years.
Keyword: Pros & cons of our MG Comet: How it complements my Hyundai Alcazar