Great Joe

A "hot hatch" is a hatchback that goes fast, right? You take a hatchback, you give it performance upgrades at the factory, and boom. There's your hot hatch. There's plenty of examples of the form, the Honda Civic Type R, the Ford Focus RS, the Hyundai i30 N, all of them generating between 200-400 horsepower, with suspension and transmissions to match. That's what makes them hot hatches, right?

Well, if you ask most reviewers: No. That's not it. They'll tell you it's not, because the MG4 XPOWER has that and more. It just doesn't have what THEY look for in a hot hatch.

It's loud noise, it's a gear shifter with too many gears, it's a stereo with a discrete subwoofer and amplifier, it's obnoxious styling in the cabin and flashy graphics on the gauge monitor. None of that makes the car faster, but it does attract a very distinct demographic.

they swapped out some strut rod links as well as the rear drum brakes, and man. It is wild going from a car that's a creaky, whiny mess that jiggles at every turn, to such a silent, smooth ride. I found myself subconsciously bracing for bumps that never came, it's nice.

EVs are definitely lower maintenance. But they're not no maintenance. There's always gonna be stuff that moves and deteriorates. I'm glad I got this done.

When I got this thing, I promised myself that I'd hand it over working better than how I got it. This means taking care of a couple annoyances

• There's no lock remote. I genuinely regret not getting one when I bought the car, without it I have to unlock the car with a physical key any time I have to start or end a charge. Keyholes freeze over, it's a thing.
• The GPS came with a map from 2016. I'm in a new neighbourhood. I drive on roads that don't exist in there. I've tried installing a map from 2020 (there's no newer one), but I couldn't get it working nice with the rest of the data. Gonna see if I can get the professionals to flash it with a set of files that all work together.
• I'm not sure exactly what happened, but where the front tow eye should be, there's a hole. I've ordered a plug, it's OE, but it's gonna need a professional paint job because the black paint has some sort of glittery effect on it.
• I try my best to use the regen brakes, but I strongly suspect it needs new pads.

I've a couple weeks off. Gonna take my time, get as much maintenance done as I can, and hopefully I can get a dealer to accept a trade-in or something next month.

I think it's weird that BMW brought the Mini badge back and just kept making them bigger. Like, half the manufacturers are making smaller cars than the smallest Mini.