MG Astor

It’s been nearly four years since the MG Astor has been on sale in India without any significant update. It sits in a highly competitive segment with rivals like Hyundai Creta, Kia Seltos, Maruti Grand Vitara, Honda Elevate, Toyota Hyryder, and Skoda Kushaq. 

When launched, the MG Astor’s speciality was its interior quality, which stood out with its premium finish. Since then however, the segment has moved on with major facelifts and new models. So how does the MG Astor stack up against its rivals, and does it have enough to convince you to have a look at it once? Let’s find out

The MG Astor comes across as a simple and well-proportioned SUV, which isn’t shouty or in-your-face. It might have been launched four years ago, but it still has some elements that grab your attention and doesn’t look outdated.

The nose gets a ‘Celestial’ explosion-like pattern, which is beautifully finished and adds flair to the front. The LED headlights look detailed and sporty at the same time. The gloss-black elements around the bumper and fog lamps look rather sophisticated.

From the side, the size of the SUV is masked by its shape. The profile is clean and gets flared wheel arches and a kinked up window line towards the back to add a bit of muscle. It sits on black and silver dual-tone 17-inch alloy wheels, which look sophisticated.

I reckon the rear is likely the only place where the Astor has started to show a bit of its age with the design just feeling a little too simple. The large MG logo doubles up as the boot release handle and alongside the Astor badging, you will also find its ZS name and the ADAS tag. Just like the headlights, the taillamps too get detailed LED elements, which look particularly good when the sun goes out. 

Overall, Astor’s subtle design gives it class, and while the design might not be outright modern, it still doesn’t feel out of place. There are 5 monotone exterior colour options available with the MG Astor: Havana Grey, Aurora Silver, Glaze Red, Starry Black and Candy White. Only the Candy White colour is available with a dual tone black roof.

Design and Quality

The MG Astor has a premium cabin which feels well built. The design is simple but looks sporty with generous use of bright red soft touch materials of the dashboard, centre armrest and door pads and the leatherette seats, which complements the black of the dashboard and door panels. Even the top portion of the dashboard is soft-touch plastic.

While the dual tone Sangria Red theme is limited to the top-spec variant, there’s a dual tone Ivory theme in the other variants, which feels more sophisticated and airy.

Coming back to the quality of the cabin, even the steering wheel feels upmarket and all the controls, be it for the windows, infotainment or steering mounted, have a positive tactile feel to them. Only the centre armrest lock feels flimsy; and the door pads, apart from the leatherette, feel hard. But these elements are cleverly placed and won’t hamper the cabin experience in daily drives.

Front Seat

The MG Astor offers easy ingress and egress. Once inside, the well-contoured seats feel supportive for regular size people, but can feel intrusive for larger frames. Finding the ideal driving position is easy, thanks to the 6-way powered driver seat and height-adjustable steering. There is enough space for tall passengers to get comfortable. A front armrest is available as standard in the MG Astor.

Rear Seat

The rear seat of the 2025 MG Astor is comfortable too, save for the seat base which feels short and results in inadequate under thigh support. Otherwise, there is plenty of leg, knee and headroom for even taller occupants.

Compared to its rivals, the width feels limited too, and it will be best used by two occupants only. You do get a central adjustable headrest, but the space is only enough for a kid to sit comfortably in the middle. In terms of features, you get rear AC vents, two USB chargers, and an armrest with cupholders.

Storage and Practicality

The MG Astor offers good usable storage spaces inside the cabin with big door pockets up front, a decent-sized glove box, centre armrest storage and a place to keep your mobile phone. Rear passengers get 1-litre bottle pockets, seat back pockets and two cupholders in the central armrest.

Charging Options

The MG Astor gets five USB type-A ports, two at the front and two at the rear. There is also a wireless charging pad and 12V socket for the front occupants, but no type-C port.

Features 

The Astor comes with a 10.1-inch touchscreen infotainment system with Apple CarPlay and Android Auto connectivity. The high-resolution screen has a good touch response, but you can experience a slight lag in some scenarios, especially while switching between different menus. It does get wireless Android Auto and Apple CarPlay.

The 6-speaker sound system, too, isn’t that great. You will miss that premium surround sound feel that its rivals offer with branded audio systems. 

For the driver’s instrument cluster, there is a 7-inch display, which is easy to read and gets speed and tachometer on either side. The functions are well laid out and easy to scroll through.

The camera quality of the 360-degree surround view camera is strictly average, but there’s not much to complain about from the execution of the rest of the features. 

One thing that the Astor does differently to its rivals is its cute AI assistant on the dashboard. It is essentially an interactive and animated voice command function, which can control car functions like the sunroof, driver side window, climate control, calls, navigation and media. The in-car functions happen quickly but the internet-based features depend on your internet connectivity. The assistant has a head on top of a plastic body with animations. It blinks, thinks, communicates and compliments, all with cute emoticons. In fact, it even turns and looks at you when you call it, almost making eye contact, to further enhance the human-ness of the interaction. All of this is really cute and entertaining, and the kids in the family will love it.

The Astor packs all the basics as standard, while features like 6 airbags, tyre pressure monitoring system, reverse parking camera/360-degree camera, and front fog lamp with cornering assist get added in the higher variants.

It also gets radar-based Level-2 autonomous driving assistance features (ADAS), including features like lane keep assist, adaptive cruise control, forward collision avoidance, and blind spot detection. These features have been tuned for the erratic Indian traffic conditions, and function best on well marked expressways only.

The MG Astor has not been crash tested by the Global or Bharat NCAP yet.

The MG Astor’s boot feels narrow and shallow. Just putting one large suitcase takes up most of the space. If you start with fitting in medium and small sized suitcases, it makes putting in a soft bag a hassle.

You will have to remove the parcel tray to fit in a large and medium suitcase with a soft bag in the mix. There is a 60:40 split in the rear seat, which can be used to store large items.

The MG Astor is only available with a single 1.5-litre, naturally aspirated, four-cylinder petrol engine, which can be had with either a 5-speed manual or CVT automatic gearbox. The 1.3-litre turbo-petrol engine was discontinued as part of the 2025 model year update. There is no diesel engine available either.

1.5-litre NA Petrol

The one and only engine option in the Astor’s lineup offers a smooth experience, and is best used in a relaxed manner.

City Performance

The MG Astor’s NA petrol engine offers an easy-going drive in the city. It picks up speed in a linear manner. It feels smooth in slow moving traffic, and there’s enough power to make overtakes in the city. 

You won’t really have any issues using the manual transmission, but the CVT compliments the relaxed nature of the engine best. It is a pairing that will give you a super smooth drive experience in the city with its virtually jerk-free experience. 

Fuel efficiency isn’t impressive, and you can expect a figure of around 8-9kmpl in the city.

Highway Performance

The NA petrol engine of the MG Astor starts feeling stressed when you ask it for quick overtakes. Hitting triple digit speeds takes time, and while it does sit at speeds of 100kmph with ease, overtaking around those speeds requires planning. 

Having the manual here helps as you can downshift early, but the car takes even more time to  accelerate with the CVT. The experience can get even more tedious with a full load inside the vehicle. 

There’s a marginal increase in the fuel consumption on the highway and you can expect an efficiency of around 10-11kmpl.

The MG Astor offers a comfortable ride in the city and keeps occupants comfortable in most cases. It offers good cushioning over speed breakers and regular potholes, and does so while remaining silent. Although, it does feel a little stiff over sharp speed bumps and patchy surfaces, which can result in vertical movement inside the cabin. But you can solve it by slowing your speed down over those road imperfections. 

It feels safe to handle and high speed stability is good. The steering has three modes: Normal, Urban, and Dynamic. The heaviest one (Dynamic) imparts good confidence around corners. It feels communicative and lets you know how much grip you have left. While there is body roll, it is controlled, and you will feel safe and have fun driving it on a twisty mountain road.

Overall, the MG Astor offers a reasonable balance between comfort and dynamic ability, if not the best.

MG offers the Astor in five variants: Sprint, Shine, Select, Sharp Pro, and Savvy Pro.

Astor Sprint

• Base variant gets LED headlights, LED DRLs, chrome highlights on the window beltline, and door handles, 16-inch steel wheels and turn indicators on the body coloured ORVMs.

• Dual tone Ivory and Black interior theme, fabric seats, satin inserts and soft touch material on the dashboard.

• Top features include auto AC, rear AC vents, all power windows, power adjustable ORVMs, and rear seat armrest with cupholders.

• Gets 10.1-inch infotainment system with bluetooth connectivity, 4-speakers and steering mounted audio controls.

• Safety kit gets dual airbags, rear parking sensors, rear wiper and washer, hill hold and descent control, ISOFIX mounts, and all four disc brakes.

Astor Shine

• More premium styling with LED taillights, satin silver roof rails, and 17-inch alloy wheels.

• Functional improvements include cruise control, push button start/stop, keyless entry, and 5 USB ports.

• Adds features like six speakers, panoramic sunroof, and LED reading lamps.

• Improved safety kit with features like reverse parking camera, and front fog lamp with cornering assist.

Astor Select

• Entry-level CVT variant.

• Exterior updates include only an LED position lamp, but the interior gets perforated leatherette seats, leatherette-wrapped steering wheel, and front and rear LED map lighting.

• New features include rear seat middle headrest, auto headlights, driver side window up/down, power folding outside mirrors, and wireless phone charging (CVT only). 

• Driver gets a 7-inch digital display, connected car technology and wireless Android Auto and Apple CarPlay.

• Safety kit gets additions like electronic parking brake (CVT only), tyre pressure monitoring system, and heated outside rear view mirror.

Astor Sharp Pro

• Looks like the top-spec variant with its ‘celestial’ grille design, and 17-inch dual tone alloy wheels.

• Adds feel-good features like ventilated seats, hinglish voice commands, 6-way powered driver seat, and auto dimming inside rear view mirror.

• Safety kit gets rain sensing wipers, and a 360-degree camera.

Astor Savvy Pro

• Same exterior but interior gets sportier dual tone Sangria Red and Black theme.

• Offers the same creature comforts as the last variant.

• Only improvement is in the safety kit with Level-2 ADAS features like adaptive cruise control, lane keep assist, and autonomous emergency braking.

CarDekho Recommends:

• If you just want a compact SUV on a budget, but don’t want to make any electric aftermarket fitments, then the base Sprint variant offers good value on a budget. It will only require wheel covers.

• The mid-spec Select variant of the Astor feels the most value-for-money with its combination of functional, creature comfort and safety features.

In a segment that’s not short on options, the MG Astor doesn’t excel in any particular parameter. Its powertrain options are limited, features and safety kit is only on par with the segment, space and practicality is adequate, and rear seat comfort could be better too. It’s only the interior quality that stands out. This might not be reason enough to consider it over better equipped, more modern rivals.

Other Cars To Consider Instead Of MG Astor

Kia Seltos/Hyundai Creta

Reasons to consider

• Modern styling

• More powerful turbo-petrol engine

• Option of diesel engine

• Better rear seat comfort and amenities for two

Reasons to ignore

• Top variants are more expensive 

Toyota Hyryder/Maruti Grand Vitara

Reasons to consider

• Much more fuel efficient (Hybrid)

• Better ride quality

• Better rear seat space and comfort

Reasons to ignore

• Cabin doesn’t feel as premium

• No ADAS features

Honda Elevate

Reasons to consider

• Slightly better ride comfort

• Better rear seat space and comfort

• Bigger boot space

• Top variant undercuts by nearly Rs 1 lakh

Reasons to ignore

• Misses out on a few features

Volkswagen Taigun/Skoda Kushaq

Reasons to consider

• Sportier styling

• More powerful turbo-petrol engines

• 5-star safety rating

Reasons to ignore

• Less premium cabin experience

• No ADAS