MG has added more safety equipment to its entry-level model, netting it a better ANCAP rating than before.
The Chinese auto brand quietly added a front centre airbag and a driver monitoring system to MG 3 vehicles produced from April 30, 2025 onwards.
These changes, plus improvements to the light hatchback’s collision avoidance capability, have seen independent auto safety authority ANCAP award the MG 3 a higher four-star rating following another round of testing.
That’s up one star from the safety rating it received last year, also under the same 2023-25 test protocols, and it applies to the entire MG 3 lineup.
An MG Motor Australia spokesperson confirmed there have been no changes to pricing for the MG 3 despite the safety upgrades, so MG’s rival for the Mazda 2 and Toyota Yaris is still priced between $20,990 before on-road costs for the base petrol-powered Vibe and $31,990 drive-away for the hybrid Essence.
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The updated MG 3 received an adult occupant protection score of 74 per cent, a child occupant protection score of 75 per cent, a vulnerable road user protection score of 81 per cent, and a safety assist score of 70 per cent.
That’s up from last year’s scores of 72 per cent, 74 per cent, 76 per cent and 58 per cent, respectively.
The ANCAP report notes the MG 3’s autonomous emergency braking (AEB) system has been enhanced, and can now autonomously brake to avoid crashes when turning across or into the path of an oncoming vehicle.
While ANCAP praised MG for taking steps in the right direction, it sounded caution over the MG 3’s performance in one particular crash test.
In the frontal offset crash test, which simulates a head-on collision at 50km/h with another vehicle travelling the same speed, “the right-side adjuster of the driver’s seat failed”.
ANCAP said this caused it to twist during the impact, resulting in greater loads on the driver dummy’s right leg and subsequently a Poor rating for protection of that body part.
“The driver dummy’s head was also observed to ‘bottom out’ the airbag against the steering wheel, and head protection was scored as Adequate,” the safety authority said in its release.
“This uplift from three stars to four stars is a step in the right direction, yet the seat latch failure is not something we expect to see, and is cause for caution,” said ANCAP chief executive Carla Hoorweg.
“It is clear that MG is trying hard to bring improved products to market. What we want to see, however, is a focus on quality as well as safety. These elements go hand-in-hand.
“The failure of the seat adjuster increased the risk of injury to the driver. Key vehicle components like this should be able to withstand this typical urban-environment crash.”
Ms Hoorweg said she expects MG to update the hatchback once again, even though current testing protocols don’t apply penalties for this specific failure beyond the overall effect on ratings for vehicle occupant protection.
“We expect MG to make a running change to rectify the fault, and move to retrospectively fix affected vehicles already in the market,” she said.
ANCAP has flagged it’ll work with Euro NCAP to review this aspect of its testing protocols, effectively threatening to ding brands that “opt not to rectify or improve failed safety elements”.
The safety authority says it has a role as a consumer advocate to hold manufacturers to account.
“MG is committed to continuing to improve safety across our range of vehicles wherever possible. We’re proud to see the MG 3 receive a higher safety rating across its range,” said an MG Motor Australia spokesperson.
“Our team has worked to improve the safety of this model and to ensure it was re-tested. We have taken ANCAP’s testing results and feedback on board and will incorporate this information into future models.”
All MG 3s come standard with the following safety equipment:
- Adaptive cruise control
- Intelligent Cruise Assist
- Lane-keep assist
- Emergency lane-keep assist
- Driver monitoring system
- Tyre pressure monitoring
- Reversing camera
- Rear parking sensors
- Front, front-side and curtain airbags
- Far-side airbag
Excite variants additionally get blind-spot monitoring and rear cross-traffic alert, with Essence variants also featuring a surround-view camera.
The MG 3 isn’t the only model from the Chinese brand to receive safety upgrades and then be re-tested by ANCAP.
After receiving a zero-star rating in 2023, MG made updates to its MG 5 small sedan, which saw it receive a three-star rating this year.