Planning for Diesel SUV Around ₹25 Lakh? MG Hector Can Be Option

Diesel SUV Around ₹25 Lakh: When planning to buy a new car around ₹25 lakh budget in the mid-size SUV segment, there are handful of options to choose from, which comes with a diesel engine. One of the popular choice in the segment, which you can check is the MG Hector. It was first launched in 2019, is feature-loaded, and comes with a petrol or a diesel engine option. Talking about the rivals, it competes with the SUVs like the Tata Harrier, Hyundai Alcazar, Mahindra XUV 700, Jeep Meridian, and others.

Recently, we drove the MG Hector Sharp Pro Diesel variant for 1000 km on the city and highways and tested its fuel efficiency, comfort, and other parameters. Checking out its main highlights can help you decide if it fits your needs and preferences in its segment.

Let’s get started!!

Performance

The MG Hector diesel variant is equipped with a Fiat sourced 2.0L inline four-cylinder diesel engine, which makes 170 bhp and 350 Nm of peak torque. It is paired with a six-speed manual gearbox.

Talking about the performance, there is ample grunt on offer. It redlines around 3,500 RPM, and you can get good fuel effiiceny, if you make upshifts under 2,000 RPM. Since it is offered only with a manual gearbox, the performance is great from the engine. There is some low-end lag, and you need to make downshifts to prevent the car from stalling. Additonally, it is a BS-6 diesel SUV, during hard acceleration, you do not get pinned to the seats as it used to be in earlier diesel SUVs.

The gear shifts are smooth but the clutch is a bit on the harder side. In traffic jam situation, it can give a pain in your left leg and you may think that MG should have offered an automatic transmission with this engine. Getting used to it can take some time and you might end up burning the clutch a bit early.

Fuel Efficiency

Since we drove the MG Hector diesel manual variant for 1000km, on the city, on highways, and on hills during our test, we got a real world fuel efficiency of 13.4 km/l.

Ride Quality

The MG Hector has a soft ride quality on offer. It comes with 18-inch alloy wheels, running on 205-section tyre. Since it has a soft ride quality, it glides on the road and bad bumps and potholes effortlessly. However, when you are at triple-digit speeds, and making quick overtakes, there is some vertical movement which you can feel and it stays planted on the expansion joints, but it bounces if there are some uneveness on the roads.

The steering wheel is light and easy to manuever in the traffic conditions. Moreover, on high-speeds, it feels a bit disconnected, and there could have been more weight added to the steering wheel for better response and driving pleasure. 

The front seats are comfortable. The rear seats have good amount of kneeroom, legroom, and shoulder room. With the recline function, the comfort of the rear seat enhances and the flat floor board helps in accommodating three passengers comfortably.

Also Read: Volvo XC90 500 km Review: Is This the Best Luxury SUV Under ₹1.25 Crore?

Features

The MG Hector is a feature-loaded offering in the segment. It has a 14.1-inch vertical infotainment screen, ambient lighting, wireless connectivity for the Apple CarPlay and Android Auto, front ventilated seats, and others. Additionally, there is a wireless charger, a panoramic sunroof, automatic climate control, intelligent turn indicator which turns on the signals as you move the steering wheel to either direction. It also gets voice commands, and using them was simple and it responded quickly to our commands.  

The 14.1-inch infotainment screen is quite big to use. The touch is responsive, and the colours are fine. However, there is some lag which we felt at times, and the responsiveness needs a bit improvement. For music lovers, it has an eight-speaker audio system from Infinity. The music output is good, and we enjoyed the experience and the audio notes were crisp.

Since the Hector is big on dimensions, MG offers a 360-degree parking camera. The camera quality is decent, and we expect a better camera in its future updates. Additionally, it has LED projector headlamps, and fog lamps. The throw of the headlamps was decent, however we wish the high beam can be more stronger.

Price

The price of the MG Hector starts at ₹16.72 lakh (on-road, Noida) for the base Style 1.5 Petrol MT variant and goes to ₹27.59 lakh (on-road, Noida) for the Savvy Pro 1.5 Turbo CVT Dual Tone variant. We drove the Sharp Pro Diesel MT variant, which has a price tag of ₹26.52 lakh (on-road, Noida). Around its price, it competes with the Mahindra XUV 700, Tata Harrier/Safari, Hyundai Alcazar, and others.

Conclusion

If you are looking for the diesel SUV, around ₹25 lakh, the Hector is a decent option to consider. It has great road presence, offers good ride quality and comfortable cabin space. It has decent fuel efficiency as well. Though, vibrations are evident from the engine and the diesel clatter is also there, the soft ride quality can be a bit bouncy. 

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