ORA CAT QUICKIE!! GO AND CHECK IT OUT!

I have a more in-depth video coming up, once I get hold of the Cat for a full weekend, but I've had a little bit of time in it so far, and I'm kinda in love with the Cat....
You REALLY need to include this in your list of EV's to check out. A lot of the early issue's people in the UK were talking about have been rectified (e.g. being an annoying nanny).
It's an amazing car, which is MUCH bigger than you think it is from video's and photo's.... you really need to see it in person to realise it's an ID4 size, and has a very spacious interior.
Remember I said in my Dolphin vs MG that the base Dolphin had a lot of great features (aka fruit), but was let down by the weak 70kw motor? Whereas the MG4 Excite 51 has a decent motor but without much of the fruit (and also cheaper materials).... so it was whether you preferred driving over fruit? Well, the Ora Funky Good Cat (yes, it's just called boring 'Ora' in Australia, but I don't care, I'll call it what I want ) has all the fruit, the same motor and basically the same battery as the MG4, with great quality materials, and for just $40k.
Oh, and it can play video's off USB as well! Chilling While Charging.
Exterior design was by Emanoel Derta, who designed at Fiat, Maserati, Alfa Romeo and Porsche (amongst others), and I'll tell you more about the Porsche design inspiration in the full video in a couple of weeks. Oh yeah, the Ora Pretty Much a Mini Cat is using the same EV platform developed with BMW for the next Mini EV.... and obviously 'borrowed' some of the interior buttons as well.
The Ora Bloody Good Pretty Funky Squished Porsche Big Ass Tiny Boot Cat.... go check it out.

[@colinbastow1057]

I have seen a few reviews about this car which did not recommend it. A pity as there is a local dealer in Mandurah which would have made servicing of the vehicle easier 🤔 I am seriously looking at the MG4 but need to test drive one before I make a final decision on buying one. Plus the MG brand has John Cadogan's endorsement 😊😊😊😊 while the GWM is still a bit of a riskier brand 😮😮😮😮 in his opinion.

[@stormjuice]

I saw JC's video. He's pretty good (though I don't always agree with him, especially when he blames a ship fire on an EV (totally unproven, but possible).
OK, here's my take atm, having just had the MG4 for a day, and having had the Ora for a day or so as well (I'll be having it next weekend to get more in-depth with it). These are thoughts in my head atm, but will mostly be what I put in a video, so now you may not need to watch the next few videos (MG4 impressions, full Ora review, MG4 vs Ora) :)
- They are both risky propositions, as MG (Geely) don't exactly have a stellar rep for quality (e.g. the MG petrol cars and also the ZS EV, which is crap). Both are new to EV's, and both are Chinese (no offence, but they don't have the quality rep yet of the Jap/European cars (American cars are crap (look at reliability charts), so they are probably better than those already). All manufacturers are new to this, except Tesla. They all have good/bad points.
MG4 (Essence tested):
- drives brilliantly. As good as a Tesla, with a much better (amazing actually) turning circle
- one-pedal driving in the MG4 is as good as Tesla. I was very surprised
- it looks very cool and aggressive
- great boot size
- interior plastics/materials are cheap(ish), but actually it didn't bother me
- front seats are comfortable (some reviewers have said they aren't after a couple of hours.... I was driving about 40 min at a time and it was good)
- seating adjustment for driver was very good..... it can go very low and very high. I'll have to check the Cat for this
- Android Auto worked really quickly... within seconds.... WHEN it worked. It kept losing Android Auto at different times (sometimes within a couple of minutes, sometimes 10 min). VERY FRUSTRATING. I had to unplug/plug in each time to get the map back (MG4 maps wasn't working in the test car.... neither was voice control). The last time (taking it back to the dealer this morning), Android Auto didn't switch off once (30 min drive).... same phone, same cable. Is it a cable issue? I would have said that was a possibility if it had been dodgy again this morning, but as it wasn't I'm inclined to think it's a software issue
- Cruise Control when no-one is in front of you works well, as you'd expect
- Adaptive Cruise Control absolutely sucks. It doesn't know what it wants to do, and slows down WAY too much, before it realises it has 10km (ok, I'm exaggurating) of space ahead of it and can actually speed up. Sometimes, at 70km/h with ACC, it went down to 45 before I got too scared and accelerated then shut it off. It's ERRATIC, and that's dangerous. Feck that. In the Tesla, Ora, Subaru Outback etc they all work well... careful, but not stupidly careful and erratic. It's like it's still programmed for Chinese roads and drivers. No thanks. Too scary to use. I tried it a bunch of times, and it was always going too slow then picking up, then slow, then... you get the idea. The 45km one when someone had already turned left was just stooooopid though
- I like the look of the rear on the Essence (the full light bar and the roof spoilers), my friend didn't.
- he liked the white. I think white is boring.
- the Orange ISN'T metallic! It says metallic on the site (Volcano Orange Metallic).... wtf? They won't be getting these in Wangara until October. Orange was my fave colour, but if it's just flat... nope.
- the infotainment hardware obviously has a cheaper CPU in it than it should have (though it's not as laggy as the ZS EV). It's not a soft-touch screen.... you definitely have to press hard to make sure it's actually getting it, and then it's half a second (may not sound like much but imagine that on your phone) before it goes to the section you want. When you are in a section (e.g. driving modes), it's ok in speed when changing settings.
- when you turn the car off, all your settings are lost, so you have to go in again to turn on one-pedal driving, sport mode etc
- it has a bunch of driving mode options... very customisable too
- unlike the Cat, the MG4 allows you to stay in one-pedal when switching between ALL modes, EXCEPT 'Snow' mode..... why we have a snow mode, I don't know, so it will probably never get used, but bear in mind it turns off one-pedal mode when you do tackle those blizzards
- it's FAST (nearly, or maybe as fast as a Model Y)... need to drag race those two. Model 3 is still faster
- it goes around bends and corners like it's on RAILS... glued to the road. I didn't go crazy, but it handles really well
- the service costs are a rip-off. Nearly $300 in year 2 (ok), then $907 in year 4 (!!). A joke. And yes, I'll be saying exactly the same in my review. I don't do sponsorship or censorship. I'm not doing this for the manufacturers. I mentioned this to a clever EV friend, and he said that you can always get it serviced by a qualified EV mechanic elsewhere (e.g. Tiago in Osborne Park) for cheaper, and MG can't do anything about it... you are protected under Aussie Consumer Law. MG wouldn't be able to refuse a warranty repair. Would be a bit of a PITA to argue with MG though (if they decided to argue)
- the Excite 51 is $39k. It's missing the larger battery (another 100km range added with that), blind spot assist, rear traffic collision detection, 3d birds-eye-view camera and whatever else (I'm checking on this), plus the funky full rear light bar and spoilers. Is the Essence worth an extra $9k on top, for those features? I don't think so atm, to be honest
- LOVE the steering wheel shape and thickness (girth is important muhahahah). Very comfortable.
And here, is where the Cat wins... it's base model ($40k) has all those safety features and 3d camera included, and has basically the same range as the Excite 51.
Ora sexy funky probably slightly overpriced Cat:
- I love the styling and retro look. Especially the aqua blue/green one. And normally I HATE cream
- yeah the boot is small, but for me that doesn't matter. My pram and kids sports days are OVER :) Plenty of room for all the normal shopping stuff and even 6 bags or more (I'm guessing) of garden mulch from Bunnings (as it's deep)
- one-pedal-driving is good (I'm going to refresh how good next weekend to see if it's as good as the MG4... from memory I don't think it stops as quickly... this is all preference though). If you don't have auto hold selected it WILL roll backwards down a hill when you stop though (MG4 would probably do the same, but auto hold is always on I think)
- one-pedal is GONE if you change driving modes (e.g. into Sport) or select Cruise Control (MG and GWM need to fix this idiocy in their software)
- the infotainment system has a great cpu (Snapdragon) in it, so it's snappy and doesn't cause rage
- As with MG4, the software needs improving (the logic, the graphics). Hopefully both improve with time (just like Tesla). Both have to be taken in for s/w updates though, which sucks. In Europe they both have Over-the-air updates
- Ora is great to drive, but not as great as the MG4 (different engineering and target markets I guess)
- Ora service is just $99 per year. Take that MG and BYD!
Kinda summing up.... my head says MG4, my heart says Ora Cat. Your mileage may vary. If I was going to get the cheapest one though, it's definitely the Cat. It's fast enough (faster than my Leaf, which is no slouch), has all the essential safety features (I love blind spot monitoring... my Leaf doesn't have that), better quality materials, and invokes emotion. How many times do I need to pretend I'm in Gran Turismo? Saw the movie today.... BRILLIANT!

[@colinbastow1057]

@@stormjuice Thanks for your comments above. Being in WA, I not sure how practical an EV would be as a main vehicle due to lack of recharging facilities especially in country areas. Therefore my main vehicle will be a plugin Mitsubishi Outlander (whenever it arrives). So the EV is intended to be a second vehicle at either drives locally or to Perth and back (around 180km round trip).
I have large number of solar panels on my house so recharging the EV at home should not be a problem except for very cloudy days. Which is important if your intending to be GREEN, as our power grid is still very fossil fuel focused.
A few things that I need in a car that is important to me is room in the boot for wheelchair although the Outlander will mainly be used for this purpose and not having the vehicle too low as this is an issue for me to get in and out of.
The wife does NOT like the look of the orange colour and wants the green, which only comes with the X Power MG4 model. Not sure when this model will come to Australia. But we are considering it and the long range version at this time.
I have also heard some MG4's have a leaking back diff problem.
Agree with your comments about servicing as an EV should be cheap to do. Also the ability to be served remotely from the dealer is important as the closest MG Dealer is in Rockingham. Although the local Ora Deal is in Mandurah and I use them to service my current vehicle.

[@stormjuice]

What town are you closest to? You can check plugshare.com (there's an app as well for your phone), and once you put in your car details it will show you where all the charging options are.
Re colour: Get white, and get it dipped to whatever you want (see my other video), if you really want a green.... especially good protection for all the chips and bugs you'd get on the country roads.
Wheelchair... depends which one.... pretty compact fold-up... MG4 would be fine (Ora, not). Tesla Y would be the best (for everything). In fact, if you got a Tesla Y, you wouldn't need another car (except if you really needed two, then get a cheap ICE like a Picanto or something for around town (not the 110km roads... it's too weak).
I think you're wasting your money on a new Outlander. The battery doesn't last long at all, and is a miniscule range (we have a friend with one), and you use petrol to charge it up again... a bit of a con, to be honest. I'd cancel the Outlander and get a Y if at all possible.... even 2nd hand (one is going up on sale soon which is only a year old... could get it for $60k?). I saw it on FB a minute ago.... Jake Taylor... Perth Tesla group.
MG diff leak seems to have been fixed. The green one is the X-power and will be Tesla price, easily. May as well get a Model 3 (my general rule of thumb is if something is within $10k of a Tesla... get the Tesla). If you really wanted an MG and LR battery (64kwh), I'd get the one which is the Excite, but 64kwh battery.
email me [e-mail] or on FB Gary Thomas Storm.....