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MG TF160
Our Thoughts
Britains best selling roadster is getting a little long in the tooth - can it still cut the mustard?
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Exterior Styling
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| Tweaked exterior - more sporty and more aggressive |
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We've actually tested two TF160s, the first shown here was a Trophy Blue car with blue hood. The colour is nice and
bright and really shows off the car's styling. The second car was a Xpower Grey car with a green hood, again this looked very
good.
Styling wise the car is more aggressive than the original TF thanks to additional spoilers and beefier exhaust pipes.
The fundamental shape is the same though and benefits from the fact the wheels are close to each corner. Additionally
the car is quite low, just over one meter (1.26m to be precise) which reinforces the sporty feel.
I've always felt the MG looked too nice, the revised styling helps and to be honest when you are close to the car it
looks very good indeed. From a distance I still feel it needs some more horns.
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Interior Styling
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| Dated interior lets the car down |
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Like most MGs the interior of the TF is beginning to show it's age and then some. The overall look of the cabin is a
bit low rent. It's functional but a bit tired looking, the plastics are definitely off the class standards.
The worst part of the interior is definitely the sun visors which are extremely flimsy and don't instil much
confidence. The roof is impressive in that it is a single skin, and with that in mind the sound insulation is
impressive. Another advantage is that it provides some more headroom. The headroom is just under one meter (0.96m),
when you compare that the height of the vehicle it pretty impressive.
I was surprised that I did not feel claustrophobic
with the roof up, but I didn't. In fact, I did not drive with the roof up much - maybe its the novelty factor or maybe its because one
of my pet hates is drivers of convertibles having the roof up when it's not raining. I braved the elements at every
possible opportunity even on long runs, including on motorways and dual carriageways.
With the roof down there is a lot of wind noise, the optional wind-deflector reduces noise and makes driving
more comfortable over long distances especially at motorway speeds. Again it's not the sturdiest piece of kit
but it does the job. I don't know if it was psychological but the wind seemed to get worse as the journey progressed.
I caught myself bending down to reduce the wind a few times.
The seats are a little soft for my liking and when you're my height the adjustability doesn't amount to much.
In fact it was a good job, as the winder to recline the back of seat is almost impossible to turn, as it is so
close to the side of the car. With the seat as far back as possible the legroom was just about adequate for my
6'1 frame. However once on the move such niceties were soon forgotten and even after several hours of driving I
wasn't uncomfortable.
Headroom-wise it's getting close, shall we say. Roof up there is surprisingly good headroom. Roof down things are
more interesting. More than once I caught myself trying to work out what would touch the floor first, if the car
went upside down, the windscreen or my head. I somehow managed to convince myself it would be the car.
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Ride, Handling & Steering
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| Epic traction and Grip from mid-engined TF |
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The thing that first struck me about the TF is the outstanding amount of grip. This is noticeable both under hard
acceleration and through hard cornering. Standing starts are impressive as the tyres hook up immediately - the
mid-engined setup resulting in superb grip. Through corners the car hangs on way beyond what you'd imagine. When
pushed the car has a tendency to slightly understeer. Getting the car's rear to play is pretty hard work, the grip
is that good. Compare this to the MX5 which practically helps you get the rear out.
Steering-wise the TF is sharp, and reacts quickly. The car is also really well setup and there is little body movement.
In fact its really good fun threading the car down B-roads.
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Engine, Gearbox and Performance
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| Nope not there - mid-engined and hardly visible at all |
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The car has a 1.8 VVC 4-cylinder engine, producing 158bhp and 128lb ft. The power peaks at 6,900rpm so it's not
much surprise that you need to rev it to get the most out of it. The good news is that the gearbox is good with
a nice short throw and so gear changing is not a pain. The engine can be described as course but has a traditional
noise to it and it kind of suits the car. The position of the engine also means you get to hear it quite a bit.
Although, when you get to 90mph the wind noise is more prevalent that the engine noise (which is revving just of 4k rpm).
Unlike the sportiest MX5 (1.8i Sport) the MG only has 5 gears but this doesn't seem too much of a handicap. The gearing
is slightly lower than the similarly engined ZS180 in all but top gear.
Performance-wise we were unable to match the published time for the TF, even though we got a good hook up from the off.
In fact we were over 1 second off the pace at 60mph. The car is no slouch though and 21.9secs to 100mph is pretty credible.
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| Acceleration | 0-30 | 0-40 | 0-50 | 0-60 | 0-70 | 0-80 | 0-90 | 0-100 |
| MG TF 160 (2) | | | |
(6.9) | | | | |
MG TF 160 (2)
FastSaloons.com |
(2.66) |
(4.22) |
(5.91) |
(7.94) |
(10.54) |
(13.30) |
(17.56) |
(21.90) |
*All FastSaloons.com stats are performed on private roads and repeated several times with the average displayed.
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Practicality
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| Quite small cabin, Pretty big boot. No room under the bonnet. |
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Ok 'Practical' and a mid-engined two-seater sports car don't go hand-in-hand but we are talking relative practicality
here. Inside the car the car has a glove compartment, central console cubby hole and also a compartment between the
seats. But this isn't that much space - plus there is no space behind the front seats.
Things are better when is comes to the boot. For a start there actually is one, and it's bigger than expected - even
though the car is mid-engined. Suprisingly, the bonnet hasn't got that much room as most of the space is taken up with
the spare wheel plus various sundry parts like the distributor.
Economy-wise the car did pretty well with mpg of 26.7/49.6/37.6 for urban/extra urban and combined. During the seven
day test we clocked up quite a lot of miles and still had over a quarter of the 50 litres (11 Gallons) tank left. This
was even with some performance testing and general spirited driving. Good to know you can still have fun even with the
oil-crisis looming.
Environmentally the car scores 179g/km which is also pretty good.
Insurance wise the car is a group 16.
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Conclusion
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At £20,395 the TF160 is not a bargain, in fact you can get the top of the range version it's closest rival the MX5
for a good £2,000 less, so too the MR2. Other alternatives aren't initially obvious the bottom of the range Elise
is a mere £3k more, a more hardcore choice may be a Caterham or Westfield both of which fall into this price range.
The VX220 turbo and S2000 are both a good £6k more. The Z4 2.2i slots in c. £25k, the 200K SLK £25.7k.
So it's really TF vs. MX5 vs. MR2 - the choice is as much about styling as performance and the MG is a real contender.
Flying the flag has some credence here as the last true British car its got to count for something - but £2k more -
well that's not taking into account discount which you may be able to negotiate. Besides if you fancy it but it's still
a little rich for you - how about a 2002 model with 5,00 miles on the clock for a mere £12k - oh but it's yellow !
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Neil
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