MG has launched its first ute.

The MG brand, now Chinese-owned, has been building hybrid and EV city cars and more recently SUVs, but this is a crucial step into the mainstream, especially in Australasia, where 4WD double-cab utes reign supreme. It’s no small thing: Aussie 4WD ute sales top 200,000 a year, and MG’s Chinese owners know how important it is to get this right.

The MGU9 has been made possible because the parent company, SAIC, also owns LDV, which showed its Terron 9 ute at New Zealand’s Fieldays farming expo last year. MG’s version adopts Terron’s chassis, running gear and overall look, but with key design tweaks that make it clearly a different product.

We’ve driven it off road in Aussie, on and off road at the New Zealand launch (Boomrock North out on the Clevedon coast), and now for a week in a mix of urban and gentle offroading around south Auckland and the northern Waikato.

The U9 enters a very hot market segment, but has a strong proposition for buyers looking for a good big 4WD ute suitable for weekday work and weekend family fun.

It’s a ‘midsize-plus’ ute, so like its cousin the LDV Terron 9 and the GWM Cannon Alpha it’s bigger than the Ranger/Hilux/Triton/Navara 4WD utes that have dominated the market so far. That’s great news for those who want a ute that does all the cargo-towing of the big four products, has a big diesel engine mated to a ZF eight speed transmission, and also has loads of room for up to five occupants.

Midsize-plus can be seen as a halfway point between the main segment and the much bigger Chev and Ram utes. This one is 5.5-metres long, has a 3.3-metre wheelbase, is 2.26-metres wide (there’s that narrow bridge vs bloke towing a boat scenario), and is 1.87-metres high. Stands out in the supermarket car park, for sure.

As a new entrant to the ute segment, it also comes slathered with top-end tech and luxury spec. More for less, as it turns out, because dollar for dollar, the big four struggle to match the U9 at any of its three spec levels.

As is always the case with any auto brand, the U9 on MG’s media fleet is the top of the range, the Explore Pro.

In New Zealand, the MGU9 range starts with the Explore at $60,990, ramps up to the Explore X at $63,990, and then to the $68,990 Explore Pro. All three share the same 2.5-litre turbo-diesel four-cylinder engine making 160kW and 520Nm. All three have an eight speed ZF automatic transmission and Borg Warner 4WD system. Low range is electronically activated, and the Explore Pro has front and rear diff locks.

The MG team has spent a lot of time on testing and configuring the U9 in Australia, and it shows.

While other 4WD utes coming out of China and its Asian neighbours get a little nervous on twisty, bumpy B-roads down-under, the U9 feels well sorted. The nose doesn’t dive excessively under heavy braking (big thanks to the gentleman towing a big Haines fizzboat and straddling the road entering a very narrow gateway out near Orere Point, you were a huge help!) The U9’s size does take some getting used to, especially in the back blocks where corners are tight and often blind.

For many, the biggest differentiating factor between this ute and the big four will be ride quality.

The MG’s rear suspension uses a multilink independent set-up. Though leaf-sprung live axles are considered by many to be essential when towing 3.5-tonnes, MG’s independent setup is well sorted. It doesn’t harm towing ability, because it’s still rated at a full 3.5-tonnes.

And in the plus-sized tray, the Explore is rated for an 870kg payload (835kg on the X, and 770kg on the Pro).

The Explore gets an electronic rear locking differential, 18-inch alloy wheels, and a full-size spare. Inside there are a pair of 12.3-inch screens within one wide sweep of display. One is for the infotainment system, and one for the driver’s digital instrument cluster. If the driver wants to turn the ADAS awareness features down or off, there’s a switch in the infoscreen called ‘Driving preference’ that allows this. There’s also an “Offroad expert” button that controls features such as hill descent control and ‘crawl’ mode, which is like a cruise control for rough tracks.

The rear-view mirror is digital, using the reversing camera feed.

That huge sunroof gives light and air to the cabin, extending back far enough that rear seat passengers get to see the sky; it has a robust button-operated sliding sunshade that can be brought forward enough to shade those rear seat passengers or slid all the way forward once the sliding glass has been locked closed.

A wide row of buttons under the display cover often-used functions, meaning there’s no need to be flicking through screen menus to adjust functions like air con. Like every new vehicle these days, Wireless Apple Carplay and Android Auto are standard.

Explore X gets 19-inch wheels and heated external mirrors. Inside it adds a heated steering wheel and heated front seats.

The Explore Pro gets 20-inch wheels, adds a front locking differential, and a panoramic sunroof. It also gets the clever dual-step opening tailgate. MG’s Smart Hatch is offered as $6,190 extra. It allows the rear of the cab to be folded down, opening up access between the cabin and tray. Handy for moving long or large items, or even wanting to camp under the stars (more of an Aussie thing really).

It creates a 2.4-metre-long load space – coincidentally, sheets of Gib or ply are 2.4-metres long. Imagine that.

The ‘sailplane’ wing incorporates lighting for the tray area.

Tray size is important to private and commercial users alike. Dimensions are 1,500mm wide and 1,561mm long, with four static tie-down points and a sturdy-looking sliding rail on each side.

There’s a leather interior on our Explore Pro, with synthetic leather on the lower grades. Seat heating’s there, but the best aspect of the Explore Pro’s seats is the cool air function which is a lifesaver in soggy Auckland summer.

The sound system is by JBL, and has decent grunt through its six speakers.

Across all models, there’s a sophisticated camera package that includes that weird but useful 360-degree ‘helicopter’ view. That’s super handy off road in tight going.

The MG’s shape will tens to limit it in gnarly offroad work. It has a 29-degree approach angle, 25-degree departure angle and a ramp-over angle of 20 degrees. Ground clearance is good: 220mm unladen. Wading depth is 550mm.

The shape of the ute is bold and blocky outside, dominated at the front by that enormous grille and MG logo. At the rear, that clever tailgate is a true innovation both for step access and also to reduce the load-in distance by getting the load much closer to the tray deck itself.

As mentioned earlier, the U9 handles Kiwi back roads well, though its width requires some attention from the driver in tight turns or over narrow bridges. Its 4WD system is very capable, probably assisted by the long wheelbase and definitely even better when the diff locks are engaged. Visibility offroad is very good, and that 360-degree camera enables accurate wheel placement in the rough. The bonnet does obscure the track when approaching steeper downhills, where a slower approach using the 360-degree cam is advisable.

On gravel roads the U9 tracks straight and true even over wash-boarding and there’s plenty of useful road-wheel-to-steering-wheel feedback – in part because of the vehicle’s unibody design, which communicates movement to the driver more accurately than a body-on-chassis design.

Braking, too, is straight and true on any surface, the four-wheel disc brakes coping well with the vehicle’s 2.5-tonne weight.

On our mixed urban/rural/offroad drive we didn’t hit the manufacturer’s fuel economy claim of 7.9l/100km. Off the road we were sitting at around 11.5l/100km, while in urban going we got 8.5l/100km. Motorway driving got us to 8.1l/100km and would probably have brought us down to 7.9l/100km over a longer period. The fuel tank capacity is 80-litres.

Conclusion

For a Chinese-owned brand to make such an assured debut in an utterly foreign market segment is truly impressive. The U9 is an assured and very capable 4WD ute that will appeal to a wide range of buyers, most of them likely to be private owners who want a true multi-purpose 4WD ute.

- words and images by Mark Baker