Help with car

The MG HS is the size of a RAV4. For the needs you describe, I think it is as small as you can go, without being mashed.

I personally would stick with a hybrid, but not an all electric.

My last UK rental we were given a Hyundai Tucson and there were four adults. Even with carry-on sized luggage, there was barely enough storage room. If all the luggage had been 22x14x10, there wouldn’t have been enough room. Fortunately, our companions’ luggage was smaller.

With the infrastructure the way it is, especially in the areas you mentioned, there’s no way I’d get an all electric vehicle. On both our Scotland and Germany trips only one of the lodgings had a charging point. In one town we stayed in in Scotland there was only one charging station and it was a half mile from our hotel. Even if there are charging stations there’s no guarantee they are operational. Plus, you’d need to find something to do while the vehicle is charging. We had a hybrid in Germany and it was fine.

You can search for “charging station” on Google maps for the areas you’ll be in to see where there are supposed charging points.

It would be a shame to have to plan your trip or lodging based on where you can charge a vehicle or which hotel is near a charging point rather than where you really want to go or stay.

Do not rent an electric car. The charging infrastructure is not good enough yet and you will drive yourself demented trying to manage the charging.

I don’t know the vehicle so can’t help with the size.

I’m guessing that the posters above are not electric car owners. There is absolutely no problem hiring an electric car these days, as long as you plan a bit.
We have had an electric car for 6 years. For the first 5 it was as a second car together with an ICE car, although in truth we used the electric as first choice for most journeys. For the last year we have had just one electric car, an MG5.
Just make sure that you do a bit of homework. Know where an electric charger is at each of your accommodations, either on site or nearby. If you that and charge up every night you will firstly pay very little and secondly rarely have to stop en route unless you are planning long drives

I don’t have an electric car but recently I’ve had 2 family members visit me in an electric vehicle and it’s been a right pain.

First they’ve had to stop for ages to charge up at the service station en route. Then when they get here they have to find somewhere to charge it again. The information on the apps isn’t always accurate. It says it’s a fast charger and it’s painfully slow or out of order. It just seems to me like an unnecessary hassle when the OP has limited time and is not really going to get much benefit. Unless your accommodation has a charging point you can’t charge it overnight. You will have to drive somewhere and wait while it charges.

Helen - it does sound to me that your friends must have a relatively old electric car with a low range and slow charger. Our first car that we got 6 years ago was like that but we then had an ICE car so long trips were not an issue.
These days any newish electric car will have a decent range and the ability to charge up pretty quickly. If they are spending ages at a motorway service station then they must have a slow charger.
Over Christmas we drove down to our son’s house in London, 240 miles. We stopped once each way for about 20-25 minutes, which we would do anyway for a journey of that length.
Anyone hiring an electric car now will get a car with good range and a fast charger. I looked yesterday for another thread and you can hire a Polestar from Hertz at Heathrow for keen prices and they have both bigger range and faster charging than my new MG5.

Thank you all for your input re car rental . Joe and Jamie since you mentioned capacity of car holding for luggage which car model would you suggest to hold the size luggage I described along with our backpacks ? Thanks Susan

Get a vehicle one size larger. If everybody is careful packing it should work.

I had not heard of an MG HS until reading this.

Doing some quick research it looks to be close to a Mazda CX-5/ Honda CRV, Toyota RAV4, Nissan Rogue.

The MG cargo space seems a bit closer to the CX5 or Rogue (~32 cubic ft) than the RAV4/CRV ( ~38 cubic feet). However it is possible for 32 well designed cf to work as well as the larger size if it is oddly shaped.

Another question is whether you actually get the MG or one of the "or similar" models the rental co. may have.

If you have the four 22" roll aboard bags and the backpacks fit as the under seat bag on the airplane, any of these models would hold your group and its bags. May have 1 or 2 backpacks as the 'armrest' for the backseat passenger.s.
The wheel well intrusion on the MG looks less than what our RAV4 has.( photo of MG here-- https://www.whatcar.com/mg-motor-uk/hs/hatchback/review/n20298 )

None of the the models above are going to be able to hold all the bags under the cargo cover. So if you have to leave the car parked while touring, baggage will show. If this is an issue then a larger model is definitely needed

Know anyone with one of the models mentioned so you can do a fit test?