The MG Gloster was one of the most anticipated cars of 2020. And, as first looks go, it is imposing. It towers over the competition (Toyota Fortuner, Ford Endeavour); its intricately designed LED lights, dual exhaust pipes and octagonal front grille gleam almost menacingly. The Gloster also has a lot to offer inside, and not just under the hood.
MG Motor has made its mark over the past couple of years by providing innovations like internet connectivity. The Gloster, too, comes with its own USP—it is India’s first autonomous Level 1 SUV. This means features like self-parking and auto-following the car in front adaptively (Level 5 would be the driverless car). And, no, you cannot go to sleep (yet)—driver vigilance and monitoring is advised for all these actions at present.
But, what good is an SUV if you cannot take it off-road? And that is where the real fun comes in, with many drive modes like sand, rock, mud and a snow mode, which we gleefully tried though we were in the hot and dusty hinterland of Haryana. In our defence, we tried it on a rather slippery, slushy patch.
The electro-mechanical differential lock or EDL translates into a sort of spell with the torque, intelligently transferring it to the wheel with traction. Mighty useful if you go off-roading and are not shy of doing some gravity-defying moves on a particularly challenging incline or uneven terrain.
Complementing the SUV’s size, the twin turbo diesel engine delivers satisfactory power and torque, and there is, of course, the four-wheel drive (only in the higher models) and sport option. But this giant not only roars, but can purr on request with perks galore. The design and interior features that push the envelope range from a driver’s seat that can be adjusted 12 ways (eight ways for the co-driver seat), a PM 2.5 filter (MG Motor, after all, is headquartered in Delhi NCR!), a voice-command based song search through the in-built Gaana app (in the three higher variants), seat heating, tyre pressure monitoring, wireless charging, compatibility with both Android and Apple, and more. In fact, true to MG’s internet-centric evolution in India, the iSmart 2.0 technology in this car comes with more than 70 internet-connected features.