Interior – Front
The front doors of the Hector open and close with a triple-stage action. They have a good amount of weight to them. While there isn’t a very satisfying thud when you shut them, they still feel robust. The doors open wide enough and the running board is not too broad, especially for an SUV of this size. The floor is at a decent height, while the roof is on the higher side. Getting in and out is easy.
On the inside, the Hector offers ample legroom and headroom for the front occupants. The roof does slope down a bit from the B-pillar towards the rear, but it doesn’t affect the headroom & the rear windshield is of an acceptable size. The big side windows and sunroof let in a lot of light into the car.
When you step in for the first time, the tablet-ICE & panoramic sunroof do add to the “wow” factor and we’re certain, it closed a lot of sales. The dashboard is black with silver highlights and dominated by that large 10.4-inch touchscreen head-unit. It looks contemporary and while an all-black scheme can make the interiors too dark for the occupants, the roof and pillars are grey, which help matters. The doorpads, seats, carpets and floor mats are black as well and will conceal any signs of soiling.
The plastics on the dashboard are soft touch and the front portion is covered in leather with white stitching. The quality is better than we had expected and it feels at par with other cars at this price point. Yes, there are some hard plastics used, but they are well finished with no rough edges to be found. The seat upholstery gets faux leather with contrast white stitching. The same leather is also used on the doorpads, gear lever and steering wheel. In terms of ergonomics, the cabin is well laid out, except for the wide-spaced pedals (more on that later). All controls are within reach.
The quality and feel of the buttons and switches is satisfactory. They appear to be built to last. That said, there are not a whole lot of buttons thanks to the portrait-oriented touchscreen on the dashboard. We sure wish the air-con got dedicated physical knobs.
MG Motor has added features like auto headlamps and wipers, electric seat adjustment, an Infinity surround sound system, connected car technology called i-Smart and a panoramic electric sunroof.
Dashboard is well-screwed together and nicely finished. One can’t find any rough edges anywhere:
Cowl on top of the instrument cluster looks good. It gets leather with contrast stitching:
Nice and high driving position. Windshield is large and offers a good view of the road ahead. Some will appreciate that they can view the bonnet while driving:
A-pillars are not excessively thick and do not cause major blind spots. Lateral view and all-round visibility are satisfactory: 
3-spoke, flat bottom leather-wrapped steering wheel gets a silver insert and thumb contours. It is just the right size and has just the right thickness! Steering feels great to hold and offers satisfactory grip. It looks and feels very premium. The steering-mounted control buttons are one size too small, but they are well laid out and so, easy to operate. That said, I feel there are too many buttons on the wheel and it looks extremely cluttered! Further, the hornpad isn’t easy to reach for those with shorter thumbs and it is a little firm to press:
Left spoke houses the MID navigation and cruise control buttons. The right spoke houses the infotainment system, telephony and voice command buttons. The call disconnect button doubles up as a mute button:
A close look at the perforated leather and stitching pattern on the steering wheel:
Steering adjustment lever is smooth to operate and doesn’t have too much weight either:
Steering gets both tilt and telescopic adjustment. GTO, however, wished the steering tilt adjustment went a little lower:
Start / stop button gets a silver ring around it. A red light glows if you press the engine start/stop button without pressing the clutch (“ignition on” mode):
The light turns green when the engine is running:
Except for the needles, the instrument cluster is all black when you get into the car. Looks very wicked!
Turn on the car and the needles do a clean sweep. I think we’ve had enough of this gimmick though and manufacturers should stop it now:
Speedo on the left and the tacho on the right with a 7-inch MID in the middle. It is well laid out, but visibility suffers during the daytime. The rpm meter is a disaster – it runs counterclockwise! Differentiation just for the sake of it, killing usability & against common sense. Both the petrol and diesel get the same tacho marked till 8,000 rpm (surprising lack of attention to detail in a premium car). Dials are difficult to read in a glance on the move. The markings simply aren’t prominent enough – they are too dim. The Hector gets digital fuel and temperature gauges at the top, while it displays the selected gear, odo and distance to empty counter at the bottom of the MID: 
Toggle up/down and you will see the MID showing current speed and instantaneous FE, current driving time and range, 1st trip meter & average fuel consumption and 2nd trip meter & the average speed:
Pressing the top left button on the LHS of the steering wheel will display the TPMS, media, phone, navigation with turn by turn directions, backlight illumination level and warnings (including overspeeding and fatigue). The MID also shows the exact door that is open: 
Chunky stalks are of good quality. Left stalk controls the front / rear wipers and the rear foglamp, while the right one controls the headlamps and foglamps. Automatic headlights work as expected, but the auto wipers are very finicky at times. They are unpredictable in the rains – we switched to manually operating the wipers several times. Tap the light stalk once to activate the lane change indicator:
Air-con vents get a C-shaped silver surround and a chrome insert in the air flow direction controller. The air flow can be shut (almost) by rolling the volume controller wheel downwards:
Switches for the MID illumination, headlamp leveller, ORVMs and boot release are located below. These are nice & tactile to use:
A small cubby hole to store toll receipts / coins. It has a prominent lip, which ensures the contents won’t fall out:
Fuel flap release and bonnet release levers are located further down on the dashboard. Notice how the bonnet release is wider, so you don’t need to look at them while opening them:
Doorpads get a similar theme as the dashboard – all-black with silver inserts. This will ensure they do not get soiled easily. They are well finished and there are no sharp edges. The armrest is covered in leather: 
Metal-finished door handles are standard on all variants of the Hector. They feel sturdy & look fabulous:
Silver handle to pull the door shut feels premium. While the plastics are all hard, the armrest is padded and covered in leather. White stitching looks cool:
Power window switches get silver inserts and a piano black console. The driver’s window gets auto up/down with anti-pinch functionality. All of these are illuminated:
Door pockets can easily accommodate water bottles + other knick-knacks: 
Front seats are upholstered in leather and comfortable, even for larger drivers. The seats are firm and the headrests are soft. Under thigh support is adequate. Despite missing out on adjustable lumbar support, the seats offer good support on long drives:
Sharp variant gets powered seats for the driver and front passenger (6-way adjustments for the driver and 4-way adjustments for the passenger). The hybrid version gets a battery below the passenger seat and misses out on the powered front passenger seat: 
Fore & aft travel range is enough to accommodate tall & short drivers alike:
Height adjustment range is healthy as well. Short or tall, no one will complain:
A look at the seat pattern. The side bolsters are supportive:
Center armrest has soft leather cladding. MG has given the Hector so many features that they should have given it a sliding armrest too! Current one is alright for our 5’10” driving positions, but shorter drivers might find it to be too behind:
Front seatbelts are adjustable for height. They get pretensioners and load limiters:
Check out the MASSIVE gap between the clutch & brake pedals! Awfully strange. You could even fit your XL-sized shoe in between:
My whole foot can easily slide between the pedals. This also causes the clutch pedal to be placed too close to the dead pedal:
Dead pedal is a piece of rubber stuck on the floor. While its angle is perfect, it’s not very wide:
Folks with wide feet will find the dead pedal completely useless. I use size 10 shoes and my foot kept brushing with the clutch every time I kept it on the dead pedal. In fact, I preferred to keep my left leg on the floor instead!
ORVMs are sufficiently wide and tall. They give a good view of the action behind. That said, for an SUV of this size, I would have liked the mirrors to be a size bigger. The housing is large enough, but the glass area could have been bigger:
IRVM covers the entire rear windscreen:
Sadly, the IRVM only gets manual day/night adjustment. It is quite shocking in a car that is otherwise so well equipped. Uniquely, there is a USB power port for your dashcam. Pretty nifty! It powers up only when the ignition is in the “ON” position. So, no worries of draining the battery:
Like most large SUVs, the rearward view is strictly average. The small windscreen and thick D-pillars restrict visibility. While the side windows help matters, it’s best to use the reversing camera and parking sensors:
Center fascia is slightly tilted towards the driver and houses a vertically-oriented touchscreen head-unit:
C-shaped silver inserts are present on the outer edges of the vents. They look awesome! The 10.4-inch touchscreen gets a piano black border. It’s covered in detail in a separate post:
Physical buttons have been provided for the volume, defogger and screen on / off. AC controls are touch based and you need to take your eyes off the road if you want to adjust them on the move. Of course, you can use voice commands for the climate control too & it works rather well (although we still insist that physical controls should have been provided – for ease of use & in case the touchscreen packs up):
Weirdly, the ESP off button is on the passenger side of the touchscreen. Hazard light button is on the driver’s side:
Air-con controls get permanent shortcuts at the base of the touchscreen. The Hector comes with a single zone climate control, 8-level fan speed adjustment and a temperature range from 17 to 32 centigrade before hitting LO and HI respectively. The fan is silent at levels 1 & 2, audible at 3 & 4, loud at 5 and very loud at levels 6 and 7. Cooling performance is fantastic, although we didn’t get a chance to test it in summer. So, we will rely on owners’ feedback for the system’s real world performance. One downside I found was getting the driver’s side center AC vent aligned perfectly. It took a lot of trial and error. Also, it threw more air than expected at lower blower speeds:
1 AUX & 2 USB ports with a plastic cover are located at the base of the center fascia. The left hand side USB port can be used for charging devices, while the one on the right can be used to connect your smartphone to the infotainment system. The cover is robust enough:
360-degree view and parking sensor on/off buttons are located just behind the gear lever:
Two cup-holders are located to the left of the handbrake. There should have been a storage cubicle in front of the gear lever. With 2 coffee cups, I’m not sure where to keep the phone: 
Center armrest has a deep but narrow storage compartment underneath. Thanks to the handbrake lever, the base has 2 different heights. The square portion gets a rubber mat:
12V charging port with a plastic cover has been provided inside. The cover makes it difficult to put a longer-than-average-sized plug. A close-up to show how much space the cover takes up when open:
Glove box is fairly accommodating. Owner’s manual placed here for reference: 
A cooling vent has been provided:
Roof bezel consists of individual map lights, sunroof controls and a sunglass holder. All cabin lights go out with a theatre-dimming effect. Even if the cabin lights are left in the “ON position”, they will go off when you lock the car from outside (to prevent battery drain). The Bluetooth mic is located behind the perforated bit on the right, while the sunglass holder gets a silver insert. The 2 buttons on the top left / right are for the sunroof’s electric sunshade 
Sunglass holder has a soft opening action and a protective lining on the inside to prevent your sunglasses from getting scratched:
Sunvisors are well built and feel solid. Driver’s side unit gets a ticket holder and a vanity mirror with a cover + illumination:
Passenger’s side unit too gets an illuminated vanity mirror:
Dual airbags are standard on the Hector. Apart from these, the Smart variant gets…
… side airbags to make it a total of 4 (no seat covers here please):
Top-end Sharp variant adds curtain airbags as well (6 in total):
Massive panoramic sunroof is just wow! It gets an electric shade. By default, the shade opens till the halfway mark, unless you keep pressing the sunshade button:
The sunroof spans the length of the cabin and lets in a lot of light, even when shut. Only the front half is openable:
A wind deflector pops up the moment the sunroof is opened:
The front portion slides over the rear (we don’t like this about panoramic sunroofs – looks ugly from the outside). The opening is large:
Things are neat and tidy even in places where most owners won’t look. There are no loose wires or cables dangling anywhere. Here’s a peek below the dashboard in the driver’s footwell… 
…and the passenger’s footwell:
Last edited by GTO : 1st November 2019 at 11:06.
