MG HS delivers a surprisingly engaging drive in a crowded SUV segment

It took just a few hundred metres of driving to make me realise that the MG HS was refreshingly different from most of the other Chinese SUVs I’ve driven recently. I knew right away that this was a car I could happily pilot on a daily basis.

Then the bings and the bongs started, but we'll get to that later.

MG is a storied British brand, saved from certain death by Chinese auto giant SAIC. Today, the company churns out a full range of products, including a hatchback and an electric sports car, catering to a broad segment of the market.

While the vehicles are built and predominantly engineered in China, a fair amount of design and engineering work still takes place at facilities in the UK that aim to preserve the brand’s heritage as far as possible.