44 days living with the MG Comet

A super compact hatch in a super busy & construction-laden city like Mumbai has been most convenient for my daily commutes & yet I've found range anxiety or rather battery discharge to be my biggest worry.

You see MG claims a driving range of 230 km via its 17.3kWh battery pack but in the past 44 days I've seen only 200 km on my instrumentation after a full charge & to be honest, I haven't had the confidence to see the battery drop below 30 percent and so I've ended up with overnight charging sessions every 4 - 3 days which isn't a big deal when you have a home charger in your garage.

Another perk of the Comet is the proximity auto-unlock function which is great for someone like me who drops the key inside a bag and forgets about it altogether but isn't great if you're absent-minded about turning off the AC button or the fan switch inside the car before locking it daily. You see my watchman, who also attends to washing my car daily, happened to tell me he noticed the AC turn on every time he walked close to my car which then solved the mystery of 2 percent battery discharge overnight without the odometer reading changing & made me mindful of shutting the AC & fan switch before exiting the car.

I've also had a one-off tech glitch recently when the infotainment switched off completely and there was no way of reviving it. Miraculously though after a couple of hours, it was back to normal. I guess it must have been a loose connection issue somewhere.

Now the Comet is a great conversation starter & most people I meet are curious about the rear seat space and request me to take them for a short drive to which I heartily oblige cause it's spacious for 2 adults but there is a catch. But if you think you can ferry four passengers during peak rush hour without any cause for worry then you might want to think again. While comfort is not in question it's a quick exit from the rear seat which is slightly distressing. You will have to inconvenience your front passenger to step out and fold their seat to let the others out which isn't ideal at all. So the Comet is most suitable for two passengers or in my case just me to head to work & back.

Coming back to the charging process I like the charging graphic on the Comet's instrumentation screen but I would have liked MG to have provided an unlock button inside the car to remove the charger. While you cannot remove the charging cable unless the car is unlocked, the idea of my car cleaner being able to pull the charging cable out easily when he has the key is at times worrisome.

Next on my agenda, I plan to attempt a longer distance with the Comet. I shouldn't try to get too adventurous but I think with good planning the Comet can seek some adventure until next time then!