It’s robust being a brand new automobile model in 2024. For the longest time, the market was dominated by nationwide carmakers alongside established names from Germany and Japan, with bit gamers just like the Koreans and the French preventing for scraps. Simply ten years in the past, any suggestion that Chinese language vehicles would register something greater than a blip on the native car gross sales charts would’ve gotten you laughed out the room.
However when Proton began promoting Geely-based merchandise in late 2018, the penny dropped. Out of the blue the general public was getting snug with shopping for good-looking, effectively made and (comparatively) inexpensive vehicles from the Center Kingdom. Quick ahead to as we speak and you’ve got a wealth of largely SUV choices from China from the likes of BYD and Chery, each of that are reporting robust gross sales.
Success, nonetheless, breeds familiarity – and with it, contempt. Nearly each automobile you see on the highway proper now’s a middling household crossover with both a small turbocharged engine or an electrical motor, a lot of which come from China. And that’s earlier than gross sales of budding manufacturers like GAC or MG have really taken maintain. You begin to see how troublesome it could be for any new model to face out.
Enter Jaecoo, a brand new model developed by Chery. This upstart younger marque is positioning itself as a extra upmarket and rugged various to its mother or father firm – consider it as Land Rover for the plenty. Its new J7, set to succeed in clients’ arms within the third quarter of the 12 months, is being touted for its off-road capabilities – uncommon at the moment. However do its claims truly maintain water? We wade by means of a few of that water (and lots extra apart from) on the Malaysia 4WD Coaching and Expertise Centre (M4TREC) to seek out out.
If the M4TREC acronym sounds acquainted, that’s in all probability as a result of this 4×4 proving floor in Semenyih is identical one utilized by Jaecoo to check out the J7’s go-anywhere talents. There are enormous mounds to check axle articulation, curler ramps designed to interrupt traction and stump subpar all-wheel-drive techniques, and naturally, loads of hills that may seaside your automobile should you’re not cautious.
Fact be instructed, the obstacles – whereas actually spectacular trying – may be simply cleared by any 4×4 or pick-up truck price its salt. However the J7 is neither of these items, as a result of whereas the blocky design carries shades of cut-price Vary Rover, strip it to its core elements and also you’ll realise it’s only a common SUV.
Right here, you gained’t discover a low-range gearbox, locking differentials, air suspension and even all-terrain tyres. And whereas the J7 is offered with all-wheel drive, it’s a full-time system aimed extra at growing traction in slippery situations relatively than for critical off-road use.
Actually, the J7 shares its platform and far of its underlying {hardware} with the Chery Tiggo 7 Professional. This contains the 197 PS/290 Nm 1.6 litre turbo four-cylinder petrol engine, the seven-speed moist dual-clutch transmission and even the eight-speaker Sony sound system. That’s worrying, as a result of whereas the (admittedly front-wheel drive solely) Chery is tipped to start out at beneath RM130,000, Jaecoo is asking someplace round RM160,000 for the range-topping J7 AWD.
However the J7 will not be fairly a Tiggo 7 Professional sporting cargo pants and an Garmin smartwatch. It’s truly way more carefully associated to the China-only Chery Discover 06, albeit with a a lot much less showy waterfall grille. Which means you get the identical chequered-flag daytime working lights and taillights, contrasting gloss black L-shaped D-pillars and flush pop-out door handles, the fantastically damped motion of which shames many supposedly premium manufacturers.
Inside, the J7 sports activities a curious mixture of Land Rover (chunky silvery door handles, tall and broad centre console, Jaecoo steering wheel strip) and Volvo (vertical nook air vents with rotary open/shut dials) design cues. By-product it could be, however all the pieces feels solidly well-built and is basically lined in soft-touch supplies – even when one or two iffy laborious plastic panels nonetheless stay.
The tech additionally seems to be pretty agreeable, consisting of a ten.25-inch instrument show, a large 14.8-inch “floating” portrait touchscreen and a head-up show. We had restricted time with the automobile, however from what little we may play with it, the infotainment system works moderately effectively however nonetheless lacks the final diploma of polish. Specifically, the drive mode being spoken aloud as you alter it has a whiff of low-cost Bluetooth speaker to it (“Sand mode!”). However hey, a minimum of Apple CarPlay and Android Auto are commonplace, proper?
However none of these issues matter right here. Look as a substitute on the tweaks Jaecoo has made to make sure the J7 can go a bit additional on the tough stuff. Sure, it could have Tiggo 7 Professional underpinnings, but it surely comes with an extra 25 mm of floor clearance. Okay, so at 200 mm it’s nonetheless not precisely Borneo Safari worthy, but it surely does have a formidable most water wading depth of 600 mm. That’s Land Rover Discovery Sport territory.
The J7 additionally comes with seven drive modes, three of that are for off-road use and are unique to the AWD model – Snow, Mud, Sand and a normal Off-Highway setting. Method and departure angles are 21 and 29 levels respectively, that are first rate however not particularly noteworthy. Blame the entrance chin spoiler for that.
To check out the J7’s off-roader chops, Jaecoo has devised an impediment course that features the aforementioned curler ramps, twisting undulations and even a facet slope to see how effectively the J7 can maintain its footing, plus a reasonably benign water-wading part. A second, more difficult course, reserved for the driving instructors, takes the automobile over the horseshoe-shaped facet slope and right into a deeper physique of water.
Proper from the get-go, the J7 feels remarkably snug even over tough floor, exhibiting not one of the head-tossing side-to-side movement you normally get in additional agricultural 4x4s and pick-ups. This bodes extraordinarily effectively for its on-road trip – an space that, to be truthful, Chinese language carmakers sometimes excel at.
A lot of the legwork all through the course is being carried out by the J7’s stability management. Driver aids have turn into vastly refined over the past decade and at the moment are in a position to simulate torque vectoring by braking the wheel with the least traction. This, along with the AWD system’s means to shuffle torque fore and aft (in as little as 0.1 seconds, Jaecoo claims), helps guarantee unhindered progress when the going will get robust.
You possibly can hear the ABS working furiously all through this course, and to good impact. Even when stopped on a hill with three of its 4 tyres on rollers, the J7 is ready to have interaction the entrance left wheel alone, which – after a short scrabble to seek out buy – pulls the entire automobile upwards by itself.
Over the massive mounds, which ship the J7 see-sawing and placing two wheels up within the air for dramatic impact, the automobile stays unfazed. Its punchy turbo engine comes into its personal right here – circa-200 hp doesn’t sound like a lot for an SUV today, however its torque determine is among the many highest within the section, permitting the Jaecoo to get out of any state of affairs just by gently squeezing the throttle.
Nevertheless it’s when the instructors take over that the J7 begins to point out off, clambering over the horseshoe hill with out a lot as a scrape from the underfloor. It then proceeds to dive headfirst right into a pool of water that just about fully covers the low-mounted headlights, taking it fully in its stride – no stuttering, no smoke from the again.
General, I’m impressed by the J7’s talents. Greater than something, its efficiency exhibits that trendy all-wheel-drive crossovers are extra succesful off-road than we give them credit score for, they usually can do way more than merely cross a muddy discipline. Some are extra succesful than others, nonetheless, and the Jaecoo sits someplace close to the highest of its class on this respect.
What stood out throughout the expertise was simply how civilised and comfy the J7 was all through. A couple of particular person famous that sitting within the automobile felt fully uneventful in comparison with how dramatic a number of the sequences appeared on the skin. It felt that method behind the wheel, too – there was little or no kickback even when the automobile was being tipped sideways.
Negatives? Effectively, the digital gear selector wants a bit of labor. It has a sequential guide mode (which the trainer beneficial for off-road driving), however you’ll be able to’t merely knock the gearlever to the facet to interact it – as a substitute, it is advisable to press an M button, then row the lever forwards and backwards to alter gear.
You possibly can see the issue with this method already. If you invariably have to make a three-point flip in a good off-road course, you’ll be able to’t simply push the stick forwards to interact reverse – you must press the M button first to return to the R-N-D format. There are additionally no paddle shifters on this automobile, which isn’t nice on this RM160,000 automobile.
As you’ll be able to think about, this brought about a little bit of an annoyance throughout our time with the automobile, and even the trainer stated it was a frustration for him. He added that the J7 may additionally use only a bit extra floor clearance, however apart from that, he had no complaints.
Finally, the Jaecoo J7’s off-road efficiency is basically educational, as a result of the overwhelming majority of patrons aren’t going to take it off the tarmac (I imply, most Land Rovers by no means deal with any type of difficult terrain until it’s climbing kerbs on Jalan Telawi).
However the model’s outdoorsy bent does set it aside from its rivals – one thing the corporate certainly hopes will translate into additional gross sales. We’ll simply have to attend and see the way it performs on the highway.
GALLERY: Jaecoo J7 previewed in Malaysia
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