CARS OF THE WORLD

MG Astor 2022.

MG Astor crossover debuted with a voice assistant.

Until now, this car has been known as the MG ZS. The compact 4.3-meter-long parkcar made its debut in 2017 and was MG’s first truly successful model after it moved under the wing of Chinese concern SAIC.

On the Chinese market, the ZS model finds 120,000 buyers a year. Moreover, last year 20 thousand of these cars were sold in Europe, 12 thousand in Thailand and 5494 copies in Australia.

The next new market for the crossover will be India, where the brand MG is present since 2019 and even has its own plant in Halole: the enterprise was bought from the General Motors concern, when the latter was winding up business in this country.

In India, the MG ZS crossover arrived under the local name MG Astor and with a number of modifications. And one of them appeared on MG cars for the first time.

We are talking about the voice assistant, which is not just integrated into the media system, but materialized as a separate monitor on the top of the front panel.

It has eyes drawn on the screen and some «mimics» and additional symbols are put in the program. This face helps to control the secondary functions of the car, does the online search and can read the latest news.

Indian Astor differs from the ZS model by the radiator grille with diverging rays, other overlays on the bumpers, as well as instrument graphics (seven-inch color display is adjacent to the digital scales).

There is climate control, panoramic roof, electric driver’s seat drive, and MG Pilot second-level autopilot, that is adaptive cruise control with functions of lane-holding and road sign reading.

It is claimed that the Astor has become the first compact crossover with such «autopilot» on the Indian market.

The engines are the same as in the Chinese MG ZS, but they have lost a little power. Basic 1.5 atmospheric engine (110 hp) is linked to a «manual» or variator and a 1.3 turbo engine (140 hp) — only with a six-speed «automatic».

Drive is only front. The Astor will be available locally in India, and will be on sale from October, with the local Creta becoming the main target for the MG crossover.

The car stands out from the competition because it has the best safety complex in the segment.

And the part of the equipment, which is established on MG Astor, can be found in models of the level of Genesis G90.

In this regard, it is not surprising that many owners call this crossover the best among compact parkettes.