2024 MG 3 Excite review

The new MG 3 – overhauled after eight years of its predecessor being on sale – has arrived on our shores, but it’s no longer the cheap and cheerful model of old.

Prices are up for Australia’s best-selling city car, which now comes in two model grades, Excite and Essence, with both offering the option of petrol or hybrid power, but in exchange for your cash you are getting a lot more kit – and crucially more safety features too.

While the previous incarnation was an easy go-to for a cheap car – coming in under $20,000 drive-away – and particularly popular with young singles, there may be method in the madness of raising prices.

The new vehicle is larger, new inside and out, has a more extensive features list, and offers a lot more safety tech than the one it replaces. This gives peace of mind to parents potentially buying it for the teenager as a first car, or for those wondering if the hatch could be used as a family run-around.

Launched in June this year, the new MG 3 was $7000 dearer than the old version. Yet two weeks later, the cost had already been cut by a smidge over $1400 to give petrol variants a cheaper national drive-away price.

Confused? Yes, we know. Currently the MG 3 Excite, the grade I had on test here, has an asking price of $24,990 drive-away nationally but hybrid models have drive-away deals that vary by state.

As standard, the base-level Excite gets a reversing camera, six-speaker sound system, fabric seating, three USB ports (two USB-A and one USB-C), 16-inch alloy wheels, and electric folding side mirrors.

The top-spec Essence offers a few more thrills such as a 360-degree camera, keyless entry, projector LED headlights, satellite navigation, and a sunroof, and the trim is slightly nicer as it gets a leather steering wheel and a blend of polyurethane (leather look) and fabric seating. But that nudges the outlay up to $26,990 drive-away, and that’s before you throw the hybrid options into the mix.

Standard exterior paint colours are limited to Dover White (as I had here) Pastel Yellow or Brighton Blue, with black, silver, red, and grey metallic paints all attracting a $500 premium.

An updated version of its key competitor, the Suzuki Swift, also arrived in Australia in June and also priced from $24,990 drive-away for the base GL; however, the new Swift is offered as a mild-hybrid only.

Meanwhile, its other notable rival, the Toyota Yaris, starts from $28,500 plus on-road costs, or around $32,000 drive-away (depending on location) for the entry-level Ascent Sport. 

The new MG 3 is larger than its predecessor, and though it’s not all that easy to tell from the outside, you can feel the benefit of the extra space on the inside – you can fit more in than you’d think.

For example, two child seats fit in the second row on the outboard seats (one rear-facing and one booster), and I could fit reasonably comfortably in-between sitting in the middle without being too squished either side or on my knees.

Equally, though the boot offers only 293 litres of space – not bad for a hatch given the Swift and Yaris offer 265L and 270L respectively – I still managed to fit in five full-to-the-brim shopping bags and my kids’ two backpacks. 

Adding a pram at the same time might not work, though, unless it was a small fold-up stroller, which is something to factor in for families with young ones.

The MG 3 is 4113mm long, 1797mm wide and 1502mm tall with a 2570mm wheelbase, making it substantially bigger than both the Swift and Yaris.

The fabric trim on the Excite is nothing to write home about, but for the cheapest version of a city hatch it is quite good. The padding on the dash and doors, combined with a tartan-effect grey strip and contrast brown stitching just above the glovebox, punches above its weight – looking quite elegant for a car of its class. If this is your first car, you’ve just seriously levelled up.

There’s also ample room for drink bottles, with four holders in the front centre console area, room for one in each of the front doors and in the back too – though the door spaces are slimmer than average.

Both Apple CarPlay and Android Auto are available, but are wired only and are accessible through the MG’s infotainment system.

The Excite gets a 10.25-inch infotainment screen and 7.0-inch instrument cluster, which is unchanged no matter how high up the pecking order you go. It is a nice size and cleanly laid out, though in all honesty there aren’t that many features contained therein, so you’d be hard-pressed to get lost.

All grades also use a six-speaker sound system, though only the Essence versions gain embedded satellite navigation and DAB radio.

In comparison, the new Swift GL only gets a 9.0-inch infotainment unit and a two-speaker audio system; however, it conversely benefits from DAB radio, getting its own satellite navigation system, and has wireless Apple CarPlay and Android Auto as well as wired.

Similarly, the Yaris gets DAB radio, a six-speaker sound system, wireless Apple CarPlay/Android Auto, and satellite navigation – but its screens are smaller still, just 4.2 inches for the cluster and 8.0 inches for the infotainment in the Ascent Sport grade.

MG does not offer remote access via a companion app for the entry-level MG 3 Excite, however the higher-grade Essence includes one year of complementary access to the iSmart app which allows remote lock/unlock, vehicle location, and vehicle status checks from a paired mobile phone.

The current generation MG 3 is unrated in Australia by ANCAP, or by its European counterpart Euro NCAP.

Drive understands the new model is currently undergoing testing by both Euro NCAP and ANCAP.

The MG 3 now joins other members of the car maker’s line-up in having up-to-date safety kit. Previously it had remained a bit of an outlier by missing key features now expected from new cars, such as autonomous emergency braking (AEB), lane-keep assist, and driver attention monitoring.

The list of equipment is now quite extensive for a vehicle still priced under $25,000, and includes six airbags, rear parking sensors, seatbelt pretensioners (on all outboard seats), adaptive cruise control, intelligent cruise assist, blind-spot detection, rear cross-traffic alert, a reversing camera, and electronic brake force distribution.

Crucially to keep with the times, it also now has forward collision warning, lane-departure warning, autonomous emergency braking, intelligent speed assist, lane-keep assist (and emergency lane-keep as well), and a driver warning function.

In contrast, the Suzuki Swift doesn’t have blind-spot detection in the base grade, or rear cross-traffic alert – and neither does the Toyota Yaris.

It’s a huge step up for the MG 3, giving parents of new drivers the reassurance that the car their teenager is getting behind the wheel of is not only on the more affordable end of the spectrum, but is really well kitted out when it comes to safety. And equally parents with young children don’t feel like they have to compromise either.

Another win for the MG 3 right now is the warranty – it’s industry leading. As of 1 August 2024, MG has stretched out its warranty to 10 years – up from seven for vehicles sold before 31 July this year. 

However a 250,000km distance limit applies, rather than unlimited kilometre warranty offered previously. This still allows up to 25,000km of travel per year, well above the national average. Vehicles used for commercial purposes (such as taxis, rideshare, or delivery) have a reduced seven-year/160,000km warranty

In comparison, Suzuki and Toyota offer a more common five-year warranty with unlimited kilometres, with Toyota adding two additional years of drivetrain warranty under certain conditions. 

Service intervals are every 12 months or 10,000km, with the cost at year three being $909 and $1838 at year five. The first service will cost $234.

Suzuki and Toyota set their intervals at 12 months or 15,000km and the first service for the Swift and Yaris costs $319 and $195 respectively. Over five years, though, Suzuki’s servicing costs are vastly more than Toyota’s, and slightly more expensive than MG’s.

The MG 3 Excite will cost $1570 per annum to comprehensively insure based on a comparative quote for a 35-year-old male driver living in Chatswood, NSW. Insurance estimates may vary based on your location, driving history, and personal circumstances.

On paper, the MG 3's claimed fuel consumption on the combined cycle is 6.0 litres per 100 kilometres, made up of 7.8L/100km on the urban cycle and 4.9L/100km extra urban.

However, on test I found the vehicle averaged out at 7.0L/100km through a mix of long freeway commutes and short trips around town doing errands and the school run.

The hybrid variants, of course, perform better, offering 4.3L/100km combined.

In comparison, though, even the MG 3 Hybrid is bested by its competitors – with the Suzuki Swift offering a claimed 3.8L/100km with a manual transmission or 4.0L/100km with an automatic, and the Toyota Yaris hybrid claiming 3.3L/100km combined.

The MG 3 entry-level Excite is powered by a 1.5-litre inline four-cylinder petrol engine sending 81kW and 142Nm to the front wheels via a continuously variable automatic transmission (CVT).

The 1.5 is relatively quiet at low speeds, but put down some pressure on the accelerator and it’s suddenly rather loud and strained-sounding even if you've not really gone anywhere. Wind and tyre noise otherwise are unremarkable – you wouldn’t consider it quiet, but neither are they particularly intrusive.

The CVT is the real letdown here, though. It’s not well calibrated, which causes the engine to underperform. It feels as if the CVT is sapping power from the engine, because it can't seem to find the right gearing – which is particularly noticeable when accelerating and asking for more than 20 per cent of the throttle input.

The steering is quite light, but for a car of its size, it wasn’t a problem and I still felt I had plenty of control. I liked the position and shape of the steering wheel itself, but the swap from leather to plastic leaves a sour taste in the mouth as the material is now quite cheap and lacks grip.

Driving at low speeds around town and the MG 3 is even quite cruisy when you're not asking much of the transmission. And while there’s no obvious body roll as such, there’s a strange disconnect felt in roundabouts, as if the wheels are turning and the front of the car still wants to keep going.

The ride quality is very comfortable, both for the driver and for passengers, with the low position proving popular with me and my son, who loved how easy it was to get into the car compared to the higher-riding SUVs he’s used to.

Yes, but not very much. The vehicle has a rated braked and unbraked maximum towing capacity of 500kg.

There’s no doubting that despite a higher purchase price, there is a lot packed into the new MG 3 for the money you’re paying – even in the Excite grade, and in reality, we all need to accept that brand-new cars just don’t come that cheap anymore.

The MG 3 Excite in its petrol form would be a solid choice of first car for any new driver, and could even make a perfectly good daily run-around for a family with two children, but there are some qualifiers worth taking into consideration.

There is now a hybrid option, and while it’s not the model on test here, it is slightly better equipped and has a significantly lower claimed fuel consumption. For both first-time drivers and young families, lower fuel bills would be hard to say no to right now.

Equally, the rivalling Suzuki Swift is currently on offer for the same drive-away price of $24,990 and that only comes in mild-hybrid form now – with an even better fuel-economy rating. But the MG 3 is bigger, which may still make it more tempting for those with young children. 

Another factor to take into account is that, of the three, only the MG 3 comes with blind-spot monitoring and rear cross-traffic alert, which may give some reassurance to the parents who are probably the ones actually footing the cost of the car for their P-platers.

MG’s new industry-leading 10-year warranty is also tempting, particularly as it’s non-conditional – unlike Mitsubishi’s, which is invalidated if you service outside the dealer network. 

However, despite it being the most costly when looking at the sticker price, the Toyota Yaris costs significantly less to maintain – with servicing over five years a fraction of either the MG or Suzuki, and with the lowest fuel consumption claim it would cost less to fill at the bowser too.

The next step on the purchase journey is to check the MG website for stock of your preferred MG 3 variant. You can also find MGs for sale at Drive Marketplace.

We strongly recommend taking a test drive at a dealership before committing because personal needs and tastes can differ. Find your nearest MG dealer via this link. We’d also recommend test-driving the Suzuki Swift GL to test its similarities and differences in both performance and styling, as well as the Toyota Yaris because it is also popular with consumers.

If you want to stay updated with everything that's happened to this car since our review, you'll find all the latest news here.