I am a huge fan of small turbocharged petrol engines, if I was buying a used modern car (>7 years old) it would have to be a turbo lump.
Now I haven't driven the vauxhall 1.0 turbo (engine in zs?) but the vag 1.2 & 1.4 tsi are great motors, I especially like the 1.2tsi (110bhp), the ford ecoboost is the best of the bunch untill you put the noise factor in the equation.
My reservations with vauxhall engines would be the likelyhood of it being just like the rest of the engine lineup, rattly cam chains early in life or some other disaster that is likely to fall.
That said, if you don't keep it forever why not?
I really don't see any reason to choose the 1.5 nasp when the 1.0turbo does everything so much better?
Competition...
The ZS really doesn't need to be a good car when you look at the competition!
The woefully bad Nissan Joke, the renault Cadjar, which is basically the same thing but cheaper and a better choice of engines, but why buy a clio on stilts when you could buy the clio?
Kia - good cars now, but is the only competition in the range the Soul? - and the Soul is not a nice car to drive. - Kia/Hyundai have been slow on the uptake of the turbocharged petrols which for me puts them out of the equation.
But then came the Seat thing, whatever its called. Now if your buying new this has to come into the equation.
The DSG box is superb, the TSi engines are the best and more refined than anything else in the market.
As for nav - if you can get it great, 10 years ago it was so important, but now every person has a smart phone which has a form of nav, nearly every new car pairs to a smart phone and I'm just not seeing the importance of Nav anymore.
In the used car market Nav seems even less important unless you are guarenteed up to date maps.
I don't know how good or bad the ZS is going to be in years to come, but considering the competetion (with the exception of the SEAT) I think its not a bad option in 1.0t form and well worth looking at - drop in the SEAT and I think you'd be a fool not to compare the two, even if the SEAT is more money it will always have the residuals.
Residuals.
The 6 lost money faster than Sicily lost it to the Mafia, the 3 stabilised things more, but 3's can be had 3 years old, low miles for 4k - now that sounds bad until you realise they were being given away by MG with crazy overpricing of the old shitters being traded in - so really people didn't do so bad as long as they paid naff all in the first place!
The ZS is unlikely to be a car to hit mainstream fleet, so to an extent the dealers can control residuals a bit like Kia residuals, meaning a private sale could be OK, no doubt the dealers will kick you in the shins 2k under retail at disposal.
The SEAT is a guarentee of strong residuals.
All in all, the MG is well worth a look
