This British SUV, named after a Greek hero, and made by a Chinese-owned company for the Indian market, ‘listens’ to you, talks back, and takes away a lot of driving-related tasks.
First launched in 2019, MG Motor India has sold over 100,000 units of the Hector. Now, the Next-Gen model has arrived which we drove in and around Delhi.
While exterior changes are subtle, the biggest change is inside the cabin and under the body.
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Among other things, the new Hector gets India’s largest touchscreen; at 14-inch, it’s double the size of most other car touchscreens (6-8 inches). It also gets ADAS level 2 driving features, i.e. it’s a semi-self-driving car.
The cabin
You can ‘tell’ the car to open the sunroof, set cabin temperature, navigate to a new place, play your favourite song, find a restaurant … anything. The extra-large touchscreen makes it easy to operate most features.
In the top-end variant that I drove, the quality of material used is as almost good as you find in German luxury cars. The Hector is available in 5, 6 and 7-seater configurations, and the feeling is space is enhanced by a massive glass area—the entire roof is made of glass.
The drive
There are three powertrain options: 1.5-litre turbo-petrol MT, 1.5-litre turbo-petrol CVT and 2.0-litre diesel MT.
I drove the CVT variant.
The cabin is very quiet. It’s a heavy SUV, at over 1.5 tonnes and 1.5-litre engine may seem small, but it’s a turbocharged unit and is provides good acceleration. The Hector has some amount of body roll, as it’s a tall SUV. On highways and at high speeds, the steering wheel appears a bit light and disconnected from the road, but in city driving the steering response is very good.
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It can drive itself in a lane, maintain safe distance from the vehicle in front, and has automatic turn indicators (as you turn the steering wheel 90-degree, turn indicators automatically switch on). While I found these more of a gimmick, MG Motor India said automatic turn indicators are useful when the driver fails to put on the indicator while entering the road from a parking space or during a U-turn.
Prices start at Rs 14.72 lakh (ex-showroom) for the 5-seater petrol variant, going up to Rs 22.42 lakh for the 7-seater CVT.
Diesel variants are priced from Rs 19.05 lakh to Rs 22.2 lakh.
Its competitors are Tata Harrier and Safari, Mahindra Scorpio and XUV700, Jeep Compass, Hyundai Tucson and entry-level variants of Toyota Fortuner.
