This may be the year in which so many new Chinese car brands finally hit UK showrooms.
Within a soup that has been augmented with new ingredients only rarely over the years, we will rather suddenly have Jaecoos, Havals, Leapmotors, Xpengs, IMs and more to get to know.
We will need to work out what the hell the plural of a Seres is, then, and explain to everyone that Skywell makes not air-conditioning units but electric cars.
The EU’s tariffs on EVs imported from China may now draw these brands to the UK market sooner than anticipated, making us continental experts on these newbies.
Are we to be flooded with them? You can bet that certain quarters of the national press will say so. But it’s okay: we can all just agree not to buy the rubbish ones, and if you’re not sure which those are, well, you know where to find out.
Brits are, of course, already buying the good ones. One Chinese import in particular was on the fringe of the UK’s top-five best-selling new cars in 2024, as recorded by the Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders: the MG HS.
MG sold more of these combustion-engined, mid-sized SUVs than Audi did A3s or Volkswagen did Polos. Chinese imports from brands including BMW, Citroën, Smart and Volvo failed to even come close to emulating its success.
Since I had no first-hand experience of such an important and successful car, I considered it my duty to spend some time in one recently.
Was I illuminated? A little. Surprised? Perhaps. Reassured? Less so, mostly because I’ve had plenty of experience of other current MG models and already knew that the brand is way beyond pushing sub-standard products for junk prices.
Suffice to say that, if you are labouring under that kind of misapprehension, a few days in an HS would be enough to cure you of it.
It is, first and foremost, that budget-brand old chestnut: a lot of metal for the money. It’s a family-sized SUV with practicality and space that you could compare with, say, the Audi Q5 but can get for the price of a Skoda Kamiq.
MG actually pitches it against the likes of the Kia Sportage, Hyundai Tucson and Citroën C5 Aircross, although it undercuts even them on price, as well as outreaching many of them for usable space.
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I think there's such a thing as too much choice,I'm not going to buy a car because I get more for my money if it's an unknown quantity,I'd sooner go secondhand and buy a brand I know and that's even after reading a couple of reviews.
i am not convinced the UK will support so many new brands, and i wouldnt want to try to run one of these chinese cars after they have pulled out of the UK, or worse still, gone bust. I dont think it really matters if they have matched European cars in terms of how good they are at point of sale, what really matters is will they keep on going for 15 to 20 years like a decent European car.