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Dear John. It is always a pleasure to listen to your no B/S commentary. I'm a Subaru Impreza owner and could not be happier with the car 2017 and 40ks on the clock. However, we are finding it a little challenging in getting in and getting out as my wife and I are in our late seventies. I am thinking of the new Cross Track, and with that, your MG / Subaru presentation is very interesting. Keep up the good work. With kind regards.
Having driven a MG as a rental while my vehicle was under going repair, my impression was that while it was up to pussy's bow with technology, it felt very plasticy and turned like the Queen Mary.
Not sure about the MG but the Eyesight and the Collision Avoidance equipment in the Subaru, especially for an elderly gent make the Subaru my pick. I just wish they'd release it in Australia with the 2.5L (no replacement for displacement)
I don't know if the Subaru 2.5L is the same as the older one [circa 2007], but if it is, it will be a dog. The 2..0 L is an excellent engine. It is still running excellently in my 2007 model, and I have spent nothing except on servicing and consumables. But the 2.5L is a dog because it is just a bored out 2-litre, so there is much less gap between the pots. This leads to things like cylinder head and gasket problems. having too little meat [metal] between cylinders mean hot-spots that don't dissipate heat as well, so something is likely to fail. At least that is what my mechanic tells me, and he worked at Subaru for over 12 years. Some people are lucky with the 2.5L, but I believe most or all of them had turbos, which makes for even more stress on the engine.
@@roberthunter6927 new 2.5L is called the FB25 which started in 2010. Chain driven camshafts are a big improvement over the belt driven 2.5L I had in a 2005 Outback. I don't know it's direct relationship with the FB20
@@trk1973 My 2007 had the 2 litre with chain drive, perhaps because it is an Impresa rather than an Outback. Not sure of the engine designation, but at least one 2 litre series engine got morphed into the 2.5 by essentially an overbore. There was no redesign for the block of the 2.5, again according to my mechanic. Maybe he was wrong I don't know?
@@oscarsusan3834 You might not know much about vehicle designs. Often, a major component, such as an engine, might have a 10, 20 or 30 year design life. I think the old VW beetle engine stayed the same for about 40 years!] Yes, improvements are made, such as fitting a turbocharger, fuel injection etc, but things like engine blocks don't normally change much. The cylinder head might change to add extra inlet or exhaust valves, or to accommodate direct injection. The inlet manifold may be modified for inlet fuel injection and so on. Making major design changes will often require extensive re-tooling. That means the production line has to shut down, and the new machinery fitted. So manufactures like to have long production runs, especially for major items. In my comment above, I described how the Subaru 2L was bored out to make it 2.5 liter capacity, by the factory. This reduced the amount of "meat" [metal] between the cylinder bores, thus leading to potential heating problems [hot spots between cylinders]. It also made the 2.5 liter engine susceptible to premature cylinder head gasket failure, so there's that.
I spoke to one of the mechanics on smoko behind the service centre I take my Wife's Hyundai Tuscan and asked about MG. it was a large multi brand franchise and he said of all the cheap new brands MG are much more like a hyundai than a SSANGYONG and while getting some parts can be a bit of a pain the parent company does actually really try to get them to service centers as quickly as possible and it's actually worse than some big brands at the moment. They have a couple of QC issues but they actively acknowledge it and sent a bunch of parts in advance to service centers to fix the issue if customers have a problem between services. Things like window switches and door sensors failing early. I'm pleasantly suprised at how they're turning out. Somehat funny that a chinese reboot of MG is looking far more reliable and well built than it's original namesake.
@GuitarsRockForever Chinese manufacturering hasn't been half as terrible as rhetoric would have you believe for a long time. When I worked in fabrication for a small minning start up we found that Chinese components were often 95% as good as Japanese or German components for about 2 thirds the cost. If you get the cheapest possible crap you generally get garbage but step up a grade in manufacturers/suppliers and you get a huge bump in quality and support. When it came to some components like variable frequency drives for motor control the Chinese units were better than slightly more expensive units from other countries and performed just as well as the high end brands that cost 3 times the price. The only downside was that documentation and programming was a bit harder to do but their capacitors, controllers, inducters etc were just as good or better quality.
Two items that should be taken into consideration are the following: MG: service interval 12 months 10,000 Klms. Subaru 12 months 15,000 Klms MG: Uses Premium Unleaded Petrol. Subaru uses regular unleaded petrol.
Long intervals may be a trap. Manufacturers have probably worked out that reducing the service intervals does not affect reliability.....until AFTER the warranty....The trick is to get it to the point where the service intervals are really attractive to prospective buyers, but the vehicle sh*ts itself after warranty expiry.
Very well explained as usual thanks John. I am looking at purchasing a MG HS with the intent of doing some light towing aswell. Unfortunately MG do not have a towbar for the AWD 2.0ltr variants; you can only get a towbar for the 1.5 ltr (got me stuffed why but there must be a reason)
I'd be going for the Crosstrek because A. Boat ramps, in my view, are high consequence driving scenarios, and B. I live in a hilly, wet suburb of Melbourne, including my own driveway. Editor's note: 300L of fuel is $600 these days, which I'd rather spend on rubber dogshit than give to ExxonMobil.
I own the 2018 version of the XV and I wonder about this minor point, if you drive a demand 4WD and you shred a tyre, you buy two tyres as it’s basically a front wheel drive and the tyres wear differently front and back. On the AWD, if you shred one, you might be up for four tyres as just replacing two tyres strains the drive train if the existing tyres are half way worn and you put two new tyres on the front.
I believe that is a problem on the AWD too....I knew someone with a BMW X5 that had a problem with the AWD system - the diagnosis was that the tyres had not been rotated over time leading to a relatively large difference (a few mm as I recall) in diameter between the front and rear tyres. This lead to the AWD sensing slippage and trying to engage on high traction surfaces.
@@GuitarsRockForever My point was that it happens in the non full-time so-called AWDs ( I should have been more Pacific about that, apologies). You know, the ones with all the sensors that detect wheel rotations and slippage and transfer power accordingly. I would expect that would not happen in a full time 4wd/AWD due to the open centre diff. That is just my uneducated guess though, given a Mitsubishi in 4H has no issues on high traction surfaces.
A recent observation whilst doing some work at a smash repairer. Panel beater was repairing a bumper on an MG and it was very complicated to reassemble. Panel beater described the MG as a piece of shit and said the best cars on the market are Subarus and Mitsubishis, Toyotas are way over rated and Audis are the worst to work on. They had 3 MGs and an LDV in for repairs. Biggest issue was parts supply and rusty bodies. I wouldn't buy a Chinese car purely based on the fact that war with China will occur at some stage.
Nobody knows the future but my educated guess is that there won't be war with China. The US wants to have a war while they still have a good chance of prevailing but the Chinese understand that and don't want it. The US has just reiterated its policy of no Taiwan independence and the Chinese can tolerate the status quo. After all, Taiwan based firms invest on the mainland and a million Chinese from Taiwan work on the mainland. Political stuff aside, the status quo still works.
Well my son's Subaru Impreza had some Bozo back his square ender Hilux ute into his boot, looked small damage, boot still opened but latch pulled the bumper fittings in a bit, Panel beater said $11,000 damage, insurance assessor oked it.
Heh John, at 10:50mins of your video, you seem to imply that the Subaru cvt somehow magically slip in the cones/belt to mitigate starting from standstill (vs the dct system). I think the Subaru still use a torque converter system connected to the cvt, please check and maybe do a video on how cvt drive trains transmit power to the wheels in a future video. Alternatively pretty sure Honda used to use a different wet clutch system in their early cvts.
The mg HS AWD models have a diff lock button allowing the AWD system to stay on up to 60klm and then turns off after that but will come back on when below 60klm again I am yet to try it off road would be interested in seeing how the dct went off road tho, also the tow capacity of the AWD mg is 1500kg and 150 for the ball weight with my current tow bar the tag unit.
@@mrsrhardy own the HS AWD 2.0ltr myself and contest to the fact it's an awesome package don't let the Chinese thing sway your decision it really is a quality product it is cheaper but they did not scrip on anything.
wow john doesn't seem to understand how CVT's work. they don't "shear" the oil between the belt and cones to provide slip. in fact they do have clutches like on the gen1 jazz, or torque converters like on more modern CVT's
Even with my old Pajero in 4wd I would sometimes find in deep, soft sand I would need to turn off the anti skid in order to take off. I would hate to be in an all wheel drive in the same situation.
I have a 2018 XV and I joined the Subaru4WD club, on a trip they told me to turn off the traction control for going through big boggy mud patches. With traction control on the vehicle sits in the mud and goes “rrrrrrrr”, I turn off traction control and away I go. Other members say they turn it off for the whole day.
Regarding the download limit being 100kg instead of the 160-190kg when using the 10%. You said the tyres play a part in this. As these items can be changed out. Can that limit be changed if a set of higher rated tyres are fitted? And is that recommended for small weights such as discussed here?
Any new car you sit in will look & smell nice. Try a few different cars. Seats, visibility, your style of driving all contribute to how enjoy your car. I wouldn’t part with my cash without finding the best option.
Thanks JC - having owned 10 Subarus for me it’s a no-brainer because you always have AWD - the problem with all the other pretenders is that it’s generally too late when you need really need the on-demand system to engage - when Toyota launched it’s new RAV4 some years ago it failed to climb a modest track in the Flinders Ranges with reps from Japan to look on in dismay - also I wouldn’t touch a Chinese built MG with a barge pole.
I'd go with the Subaru XV. I had a 4m Quintrex Hornet with a 40hp Honda, and the Subaru had no problem towing it, boat ramps, sand, and dirt roads. Incidently, it also had no problem climbing Big Red sand dune in the Simpson Desert.
I have been driving my dad's 2013 Subaru Impreza (2L, CVT - so essentially the same drivetrain) a lot in recent months, and the performance is...um..."leisurely", but on the plus side, averages 7L/100km long term, on regular unleaded. His car has been faultlessly reliable (as have his previous ones: '92 Liberty GX and a '01 Liberty RX, this is his third Subaru) and the only gripe I have is the drivers seat is overly bolstered (sporty?) for a small 2.0L auto, and on long journeys can become less comfortable. So if your viewer can live with the lack of performance (still o.k if you're not in a hurry), and finds the seat comfortable, I'd recommend the Subaru every time (nothing against the MG). Cheers!
The Sube's electronics and safety systems are world leading in these kind of vehicle classes, it wouldn't be a full sale for me but it is for some people. Its engine is not particularly great having to drag its fat arse around with a CVT so its hardly an enjoyable vehicle. However I think its worth considering the resale value of the Sube will probably fairly good most of the time
I clicked Like for: "drag its fat arse around with a CVT" Oh they are nasty, like a rubber-band that never actually reaches the point of going twang! I drive heaps of rental cars, and the only CVT that I even quite liked was Mitsi Outlander- driven two different eras of those and really, not-bad; though it is clear even in them, that the engine is making-up-for the failure to transmit torque.
@@muzzthegreat I drove one of the 2nd gen Outlanders on a long trip to Brisbane once and it was really a chore to get it up to highway speeds and keep it there. Sort of like a little sub-litre car when you end up wringing its neck for every bit of power all the time.
Rod buy a 20 year old Subaru Forester, manual or auto, it will do the job and you won't be disappointed when the arse of the car rusts out from backing it into salt water.
There's an uncomfortable lump in my throat when I hear one of your Subaru stories as I remember my Impreza RS compared with my wife's MY14 XV. As you have stated, Subaru in Australia is strangling their car owners' enthusiasm and driving enjoyment. The difference between the US is chalk and cheese (maybe that should be coal and cheese in a can) where they still manufacturer some of the cars for their large consumer base, value performance models across the range, and treat their Subarus as capable off-road vehicles (albeit mud and snow not 1000s kms corrugations to D.P.Ck.), while we are expected by someone, not sure who, that only a massive 4WD will suffice. I've "enjoyed" some American reviews, but they do make me jealous. ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-AoxXyoVSZGk.html ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-dxTgj0LC2MU.html
I don’t even need to watch this video….the Subaru all the way for me! Full disclosure, I own a Subaru and it’s the best car in the world! So slightly biased in my decision.
Spot on I don't own one but really Japanese vs the other becomes a no contest especially with Subaru's history of quality and warranty in OZ - worth the price for peace of mind.
"My MG is amazing, I love it" Your MG is new! My corolla isn't amazing, and nobody "loves" it. It's still going strong 30 years and many hundreds of thousands of kilometers later with no component failures, now that's "impressive"
Correct me if I am not wrong, but I think your XV figures are related to the hybrid XV, not the NA XV/crosstrek. As to my knowledge, the NA has 115kw vs 110 for the hybrid.
My views on the HS have been made in another recent video (I think it is a terrible piece of shit to drive) but when I took my rental HS back, the company said they were getting rid of all their MG's and replacing them with VW's which should tell you something as to their experience as well.....
I'd pick the MG over the Subaru any day of the week. I've encountered plenty of Subaru drivers that are world class flogs, but MG drivers tend to be OK.
That's funny. Like comparing a traditional pizza to a frozen supermarket pizza. Sure, they are both pizzas, but one is just better. John gets paid selling "new" cars, he probably doesn't give a flying pizza how the car is to own decades and hundreds of thousands of kilometers later.
MG not distributed by ATECO. Which means they will have better support ...dare I say it, not unlike KG Steel now standing behind Ssangyong product in Australia. Dealer network & sales numbers are better for MG - however any manufacturer will pull support when the profit isn't there. Cough...Holden. They used to be big here for a while too. MG are SAIC products. The LDV utes are also SAIC. John makes much of the case for LDV being rusty shitbuckets that no-one should touch with a ten foot pole. So there's that. Never owned a Subaru, never really had the urge to own one. Certainly don't want to own an XV. But if they were the only two cars left to choose from, I'd choose the one that was more likely to be reliable and not smoke clutches if driven like a normal auto. Now if only we could get a similar rational discussion about the shortcomings of vehicles like the Musso, GWM ute et al. I'm looking for a new ute, but waiting 6 to 12 months for Isuzu, Toyota & Mitsubishi while paying through the arse for entry to the club has (surprisingly enough) taken a bit of the shine off it all.
Just to let you know John that I won't be dealing with RU-vid again. Nothing to do with your channel, but more to do with the rubbish they send our way with impunity.
Actually otherwise I really enjoy your videos and style and interested to see how your approach has changed over the years; much less conservative now. Good job.
Sorry John !. Just about the GSV70R Camry so v6 with Atkinson cycle capability , please go hard on the light with that!ha!. I know yous’ ave them there!!! .Dave kiwi 😮❤. !!!!!! Dogs dicks or ducks 🦆, it’s not like Mike or Keith are around 😢 , only cosworth !!!. Of course group A touring cars !!!! . Brother ❤
