• Well made interior, some cheap plastics
• Some physical controls for infotainment
• Good touchscreen and digital instruments

How’s the quality and the layout?

It’s fair to say that MG needed to do the most work here, as the old 3 wasn’t exactly an exemplar in this department, being more ‘cheap and cheerful’ than ‘ruggedly solid’. The new MG3 Hybrid feels much better in this department, although it doesn’t yet trouble the class-leading Skoda Fabia or Renault Clio here.

But it’s no worse than class average, with some of the touchpoints, such as the steering wheel and door pulls being particularly nice. Elsewhere, hard-scratchy plastic is the name of the game, which wouldn’t be so bad if they felt durable. But they don’t and it will be interesting to see how they bear up in the long term.

Finally, the load area is reasonably trimmed, although some poorly fitted materials on the seat back look distinctly low rent and undo a lot of the good work done in upping perceived quality upfront.

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Infotainment and tech

The dashboard loses the useful dash-mounted bracket for your smartphone that the old MG3 came with, but there’s more than enough room to accommodate it in the centre console. I mention this, because when plugged in, both Android Auto and Apple CarPlay sync-up almost instantaneously and work very well indeed.

The factory-fit infotainment system is good. You’re presented with a generic Volkswagen-style twin-screen set-up, with a 7.0-inch digital instrument screen in front of you, and a 10.25-inch central system. Both work well, with bright and responsive displays, although some of the settings are a little more buried in menus than I’d have liked, and it takes a little learning to get the best from it.

There’s a bank of physical piano-key switches below the centre screen, which act as hot keys to the climate control system and driver assistance systems, for example, although finer adjustment of both are still done onscreen. The steering wheel control buttons can be slightly confusing for newbies, while voice control works only via Apple CarPlay or Android Auto.

Comfort

• Front seats lack long-distance support
• Not so good in cornering, either
• Rear is adequate for two

Although the MG3 Hybrid’s seats look inviting at first glance and offer plenty of adjustment, I found that they don’t offer enough lower back support on longer journeys. Nor is there enough side support in corners when driving enthusiastically.

It’s worth saying that the seats do feel well upholstered and the quality of the trim is more than acceptable. But do closely check the driving position, as the steering wheel may adjust for height, but it doesn’t telescope for reach – annoying if you like the wheel particularly close or prefer to have more stretched arms.

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