Mg MG6 Magnette 1.8 Turbo S 4dr Car Review - March 2012

The MG6 Magnette's 1.8-litre turbocharged petrol engine develops 158 bhp at 5500 rpm and 158 lb-ft of torque at 1750-4500rpm. This means 0-62mph takes 8.4 seconds and flat out you'll be doing a limited 120mph. It's not a bad engine but it's noisy.

The steering lacks response but other than that the quality of the drive is high. There is plenty of grip and the suspension does a good job of smoothing out imperfections on the road. The engine generates a little noise when working but wind noise is hushed within the cabin, making the drive comfortable. There can be some disruption from noise from the road, especially on uneven surfaces, but this is fairly minimal.

The MG6 Magnette is fairly bland and, stylistically speaking, has more in common with the more forgettable Korean cars on the road than it does with previous MGs. The interior feels tacky and dated and some of the interior plastics could do with improvement.

Standard features include power steering, central locking, stability control, alloy wheels, air conditioning, electric door mirrors, electric front windows and a stereo system with both CD and MP3 connectivity.

Unfortunately, the car does compromise on some luxuries and many additional features are not available with this model. These include a built-in sat nav, Bluetooth connectivity, climate control, cruise control and rear parking sensors.

In terms of practicality, the car offers a fairly decent amount of room within the cabin and even the rear seats can comfortably fit a couple of large sized adults. This makes the car a great vehicle for families and an impressive boot space increases the car’s practicality even further. Even with all the seats up the boot offers a more than reasonable 498 litres.

A three year warranty for 60,000 miles is offered as standard but unfortunately the fit and finish of the car is inferior to rivals on the market and this makes the MG6 fall short of the mark.

The MG6 only managed to score four stars in the Euro NCAP safety tests which is less than almost all of its rivals.

At £15,995, the MG6 Magnette is very reasonably priced for a family saloon.

Running costs are expected to be high as the car lacks the fuel efficiency of other models, achieving just 35.6 mpg on the combined cycle. Road tax falls under a fairly steep tax band (I) due to high carbon emissions of 184g/km although insurance premiums fall under a fairly low-range insurance group (13).