MG 3

Cheap-as-chips supermini makes way for all-new hybrid aimed at bereft Fiesta fans

- KRIS CULMER 

TESTED 23.4.24, SUSSEX ON SALE NOW

More than 4000 Brits bought an MG 3 last year. Impressive, even if this supermini was one of the country's cheapest cars, having been launched over a decade ago. The somewhat crude dynamics and especially its rough engine signalled that pretty clearly.

The new 3 is an entirely different proposition: a modern design, with new underpinnings, MG's first fullhybrid powertrain and a fancier interior with new infotainment and a digital dash. Indeed, MG says it has effectively skipped a generation. So it's "see ya, Dacia Sandero" and "how ya doin', Renault Clio?" as the base price jumps from £14k to £18k.

As such, almost all of its buyers will be 'conquests', and MG expects there to be a lot of them: it has more 3s on the first ship from Nanjing than all the cars it sold here in 2017. Projected annual volume is 10,000 just under half of what the Toyota Yaris achieves. MG claims volume is what enables it to undercut rivals by thousands, yet Toyota is the world's biggest car maker, so MG being ultimately owned by the Chinese state might have more to do with it.

That said, MG has retained some British roots: it has a design studio in London and an engineering base in Birmingham, where work was done to tune the 3 for European tastes.

To all intents and purposes, the 3 looks like a cut-price Clio E-Tech: the dimensions match, standard kit is similar and the powertrain is a 1.5-litre petrol four working with an electric motor. However, the motor is twice as strong here (134bhp plays 48bhp) and the gearbox is a three-speed automatic, whereas the Clio has a complex multimodal unit.