MG Astor - An SUV with a Robot mg zs astor price | mg astor on road price

                        MG has had the Hector, the Hector Plus and the Gloster and those are typical SUVs and now there's a fourth member to join the MG family, more crossover than the ideal-typical SUV and that is this. Welcome to India, the MG Astor. Of course, as I mentioned, more crossover than SUV in its typical sense, but, it's a sharp-looking thing, isn't it? Now why it is called the Astor, there is still a ZS badge behind, on the boot and that's because this is essentially the MG ZS that we've seen as an EV in India, this of course, is the fuel-powered version.

                        Now, this essentially is the facelift version of what the MG ZS is and it is much sharper, now as I mentioned, so you get these new headlamps which have these lovely little crystal LED embellishments all over it, they look cool, you get this new grille and this is what MG calls a Celestial design language, now, of course, that's marketing spiel, but in real life, in the way it looks, especially in this really rich red colour, it's a sharp-looking car. You also get these big 17-inch alloy wheels which are, in typical, 2021 fashioned, multi-toned with this brushed and black finish and one of my favourite little features, the red brake callipers. Remember that ZS badge I talked about earlier? Well, there it is. Of course, it still has this new Astor badging all over and the boot opens very much like a VW with the badge opening this way, but on the whole, maybe the exhaust, fake exhaust tips could have been done away with, but on the whole, it's got a whole bunch of cool details. 

                            Remember those LED elements in the headlamps? They've moved those same LED elements in the tail lamps as well. So all these bejewel little pieces, almost Bentley like, isn't it? I could stare at this all day, it's got so many little different lighting elements in it. And I am a complete sucker for small details, so here's something that I thought I'd talk about. Remember the rear wiper that has the cap that gets getting stolen, look this, it's all integrated into one little piece and people can't steal it. For MG, yes of course been talking about how sporty the Astor is in general and when you get in, that sportiness is exuded by a whole bunch more by the interior. Now the interior is red, on a sub Rs. 20 lakh car you get soft-touch everything and this red leather, it is high quality on the dashboard or red perforated leather on the seats, and in general, like nice big chunky steering wheel as well.

mg astor on road price?

                    In general, this feels and looks like a much much, much more expensive cabin, instead of a sub Rs. 20 lakh car. It feels like an Rs. 60-70 lakh German performance SUV and that's saying a lot, isn't it? Of course, if you're not a fan of the red, which you should be, you can get an all-black interior or you can have a lighter coloured palette because of course, Indians, we love our beige and our whites don't we? And that brings us to the little robot in the room, this. Hello, Astor. I am listening. Tell me who Freddie Mercury is. Freddie Mercury was a British singer, songwriter, record producer, and lead vocalist of the rock band Queen. Okay, I'm going to shut it there because it's going to go on and on.

                What it is, well, it is a bit of a gimmick, but it is a cool gimmick to have because instead of putting your idol there, which you would normally do, you have this little robotic AI thingy, which will answer your questions. Now, of course, you might not get bored in your car, but there is a chance that your kids in the backseat might drive you completely crazy by asking Astor here a whole bunch of questions, but, on the process at least, they'll learn a thing or two, isn't it? Now, there are a whole bunch of things to talk about on the screen as well, so, you get a whole bunch of settings in the way the screen looks and the screen itself, the 10.1-inch screen, it's a lot smoother, a lot more responsive, a lot sharper, and very high definition as compared to what early MGs used to have. 

                They had a bit of a a lag issue in the early cars, I can tell you for a fact, all of that is completely thrown in the bin, this screen is good. You of course get themes, you get a lock screen where you can put your picture, of your family, this of course has some diyas right now but you're gonna have a picture of your family or your dog or of your car, an MG Astor Inception, maybe, but on the whole, there's a whole bunch of stuff that you can do, if you go to vehicle settings, you can also go to EPS which is electronic power steering, and just like a Tesla gives you a whole bunch of choices of how your steering feedback, you want it to be urban, for as light as you want to get, normal and dynamic if you want to have that slightly more feedback. 

                    So, the Astor does give you a lot of options to play with, and I haven't even got to the ADAS functions yet. Adaptive Cruise Control, lane assists in various forms, automatic braking, rear cross-traffic alerts, and a lot more is what the Astor has to offer. And just as we mentioned in our shorter first look video, this inclusion of ADAS now in the Astor will make a whole bunch of competition sit up and take notice as at the end of the day, these features do make a car a lot, lot safer, and not only in terms of a crash rating but also in realtime on-road scenarios. 

                 let's quickly wrap up with the engine options and unlike the Hector, this does not have a diesel, which of course will offend a lot of people because Indians still love the diesel engine, but you do get a choice of two petrol engines, now, the less powerful but the A bigger engine is a 1.5-litre naturally aspirated motor that gets 110hp and 144Nm of torque. 

            That comes with a manual option or it comes with a CVT, the smaller but more powerful engine is a 1.4-turbo and that gets 140hp and gets 220Nm of torque and I think that's the one that I want to get my hands on. That engine also comes with a good old fashioned torque converter automatic, so, it'll probably be very, very reliable as well. 

What do you think of it? 

I think it looks quite sharp, isn't it? 

            Oh, I need to get a new word in my dictionary, isn't it? I've been saying sharp all this while cause I genuinely think this is a nice looking car, I like the way it looks well, in the greater scheme of things. So there you have it, everything you need to know about this new MG SUV, we will get our hands on it very soon and we will bring you that first drive review as soon as we can in our typical PowerDrift style.