Luxury MPVs are predominantly judged by how comfortable and feature-rich their rear seats are, and MG’s new flagship, the M9, dives head-first into this expectation. It promises a business-class airliner-like seating experience on the road for the second-row occupants. And while it delivers on many fronts, including seating comfort and features, the experience is just shy of perfect. Here’s a detailed look at what works and what doesn’t when it comes to the M9’s rear seat experience.
Let’s start with the second-row ottoman seats. These are fully loaded with 16-way power adjustment, heating and ventilation, and no fewer than eight massage modes. Each of these seats also comes with a dedicated touchscreen control, integrated into the armrest, offering access to various features like massage settings, seat positioning, ambient lighting, sunroof operation, and even AC controls.
With triple-zone climate control, dual sunroofs (a single pane in the front and a panoramic unit at the rear), ambient lighting with 64 colour options, and a rear 220V V2L power outlet, the M9 doesn’t hold back on features. Additionally, there are Type A/C USB ports and something called boss mode, which allows the left-hand side rear passenger to move the front passenger seat using buttons on the side of the backrest.
Surprisingly, the sunshades aren’t electrically adjustable, which feels like a strange omission given how loaded the rest of the cabin is. The MG M9 isn’t without its flaws. There are some areas in the cabin where the plastic quality doesn’t match the rest of the cabin, particularly lower down the door pads and around the centre console in the second row.
More critically, the M9’s ride quality leaves something to be desired. For a car of this size and intent, the suspension feels surprisingly firm. At lower speeds, especially over patchy roads or sharp bumps, you can feel the imperfections making their way into the cabin. This becomes even more apparent when seated in the rear, where the ride doesn’t isolate you from the road as much as you would expect in a vehicle designed for comfort. That said, the cabin remains hushed and impressively quiet even at highway speeds. There is hardly any wind or road noise despite the brick-like profile of the M9 and its huge tyres.
The MG M9 is a genuinely impressive MPV when it comes to rear seat comfort and features. The seating comfort is on par with similarly sized luxury MPVs and the long list of features is going to be a big draw. However, some misses like the firm ride, inconsistent plastic quality, and the lack of sunshades for the third row take a bit of the sheen off an otherwise stellar package. All in all, the M9 makes for a very strong case for those who spend most of their time in the second row of a car. Our full review of the MG M9, including the driving impressions, will be out in a couple of days so stay tuned to CarWale.
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