M.G. Hector: A Worse Creta at a Higher Price
I test drove the M.G. Hector crossover1, both in the city and on the highway, and evaluated it against my requirements. Based on this, I wouldn’t recommend buying it. It costs 29 lakh, and the Creta and the Seltos are both better and cheaper at 262.
The Hector may have been really good when it was introduced many years ago, but it has been surpassed.
If you got what you wanted, you can stop reading now.
If you want to understand the Hector’s strengths (+) and weaknesses (-) in detail, read on:
+ 80 kph didn’t feel like 80 at all.
- The car comes only with a CVT. It accelerates extremely smoothly from 0 to 100. Unlike a DCT where I could feel a slight change in acceleration, but it’s a minor difference. If a CVT’s smoothness is 10/10, a DCT is 9/10. Where the DCT wins, and wins hugely, is in spirited driving. So, if you’re a driving enthusiast, a DCT is much better. Flooring a CVT tends to damage it.
- The car uses leather in its interior, which I don’t like, since it involves cruelty to animals.
+ ORMs close when you lock, plus you can press a button
+ The steering is light.
- Significant engine braking. I instead like to coast, which is a more comfortable ride than alternating acceleration / deceleration cycles.
- The car has eco, drive and sport modes, but they make almost no difference. Why offer multiple modes, then?
- Tailgate opens and closes electrically
+ Auto hold
+ 360 camera. You can have a 360-degree view, or a 2D view on any one of the four sides.
- Can’t honk with a finger. I had to take one hand off the wheel and press hard.
Comfort
- My stomach is pressed. I can fix this by increasing the seat height, but that gives me insufficient headroom. In other words, I’ll have to suffer, but I can choose whether to take it in my head or my stomach.
- After a 2½ test drive, I developed a pain in my right leg just below the knee. It dissipated soon after I exited the car.
- When you put your left hand on the center armrest, it keeps sliding back and forth, distracting you when driving.
- Rear windows don’t roll down fully.
Digital features
+ You have a software key that you can share with two people.
- No USB-C port
+ The car has a SIM
- Built-in Map My India map
- CarPlay is wireless, which is less reliable than wired. Besides, since I’m going to plug it in to charge anyway, I’d prefer wired CarPlay.
+ 14 inch portrait screen, and it’s more intuitive to control, like iPhone vs Nokia. But unsafe.
- The screen isn’t as responsive as a smartphone, but more so than the 2022 Creta.
+ Multitouch
Cooling
+ Panoramic sunroof
+ Ventilated seats. These are the best among all the cars I’ve test-driven, where the ventilation is subtle. With the Hector, if you came in from the summer afternoon sun and your back is hot, it will cool quickly.
+ Climate control
+ You can turn the AC on remotely using the app
+ The under-arm storage is cooled
- No rear window sunshades.
Safety
+ ESC
+ Seat belt pretensioner with force limiter
+ Airbags, not just front, but also side, covering head, chest and hip
+ Blind spot monitoring
+ Lane departure warning
+ Automatic lanekeeping
+ Auto headlamps
+ DRLs
According to ChatGPT, the above reduce deaths and permanent disabilities.
- The ADAS warnings all beep, and I couldn’t understand what I was being shouted at for. So I asked the salesman to turn it off. By contrast, in the Creta, I knew what the warning was for more easily, because the sounds or icons were more clear or unique, unlike the Hector, where everything produces the same beep.
- I have to use the touchscreen to control the AC, which is unsafe when driving.
- The Hector has a unique feature where when I turn the wheel enough, the turn indicators come on. But when I need to maneuver in small roads and turn the wheel 30°, the turn indicators come on, which is unsafe, since I’m not turning. Even when I do make a turn, the indicators need to come on 4-5 seconds in advance, not at the instant of making the turn.
With a unibody / monocoque construction.
All prices are on-road, Bangalore, for the top-end petrol.