Rent MG ZS in Phuket

MG ZS or MG3?

Take the ZS when the trip has bags, hills or a villa with a steep drive. The MG3 is shorter and narrower and slips into gaps the ZS will not take. The ZS pays that back with a higher seat, more room behind the rear bench and extra clearance under the bumper.

Who ends up happier in which

A couple travelling light and staying in Patong or Kata will not miss anything in the MG3. A family with suitcases, a stroller and a house up a hillside road is a ZS booking. You feel the difference on day one, at the airport kerb, when everything goes into the boot at once.

If you land in Phuket with family and luggage, we can have an MG ZS waiting at arrivals: automatic, first-class commercial insurance, refundable deposit, the total for your dates fixed in chat. Send the dates in the chat and we check which ZS is free for them.

• Two people, cabin bags, a hotel in town — MG3, easier to park on narrow streets
• Family with suitcases — MG ZS, the luggage goes in once and stays out of laps
• Villa with a steep driveway — MG ZS, the higher nose clears the crest at the top
• Rainy-season trip — MG ZS, more height between the road and the underside

What that means for the car

On Phuket's climbs the ZS drives like a small family SUV. With four people and luggage it goes up the Patong hill pass steadily, but it has no spare punch for passing on the slope, so wait for the flat. Going down, move the selector to the low range and let the engine hold the car instead of riding the brake pedal.

Clearance is the honest reason to pick it. Condo ramps, speed humps at village entrances and the lip where a steep driveway meets the road scrape low hatchbacks. Take them slowly and at a slight angle and the ZS gets over them without that sound from underneath.

The wet season is where the height earns its keep. After a downpour water collects along the edges of the coastal roads, and a taller car passes shallow puddles without throwing a wave over the bonnet. If the kerb has disappeared under brown water, that is not a shallow puddle: stop and wait.

A dark SUV left in the noon sun turns into an oven. Start the engine, set the air conditioning to full and give it a minute with the doors shut before the children climb in.

Where to park

A ZS is longer and wider than a hatchback, so the side streets of Patong and the lanes around Phuket Town ask for more patience. Hotel car parks and the big supermarket lots are the easy answer. Roadside bays in the busy beach towns fill up quickly in high season, and squeezing an SUV between two scooters rarely ends well.

At a villa, look at the gate and the turn before you arrive after dark. Many hillside drives are steep and tight at the top. Reverse in on the first visit while you can still see the edges, and every departure after that is a simple forward move downhill.

Luggage, children and seats

The rear bench seats three adults for a short hop to the beach and two in real comfort on a full day out. Behind them the boot takes a family's suitcases for the airport run, which is the main reason people ask for this car.

Count the bags before you book. If the luggage alone would fill a taxi boot twice, the ZS will be tight as well, and the answer is a bigger SUV rather than a suitcase on someone's knees. Travelling with a small child? Mention the child's age in the chat when you send the dates.

Documents, age and deposit

You need a passport, your national driving licence and an International Driving Permit; the IDP counts only together with the national licence. The driver must be 21 or older with at least one year of licence. Premium cars and large SUVs are released from 23, and the chat confirms which rule applies to the car you book.

A second driver is added in advance with the same documents. A driver who is not on the agreement, or who has no valid licence, voids the insurance, so do not hand over the keys on the road.

The deposit is refundable: held at handover and returned when the car comes back. For the MG ZS it is 5,000 ฿, as the search shows. Delivery to your point is counted separately, and the total for your dates is fixed in chat before you fly.

At handover we walk round the car together, agreement in hand, and check the body, tyres, air conditioning and fuel level. Photos of any old marks on your phone take two minutes and save a discussion at return.

Which SUVs compare with the MG ZS?

Next to the MG ZS in the search are the Mazda CX-3, a five-seat SUV with a 2.0-litre petrol engine, and the Toyota C-HR, a five-seat SUV with a self-charging hybrid engine; all three are automatic.