the Bucket: Bucket Seat: Chery Tiggo 8 Pro

There's a big shake up that has hit the motor industry and its not surprise that it's coming from China. Long has the country been labelled has the "cheap export" market where most things that are manufactured there come in at less than half the price of competitive products but with a very low quality standard compared to the so called originals but what we've come to learn over the past decade is that China also has a host of reliable exports that have amazing build quality and still much cheaper than anything that comes out of Europe or the Americas. I've personally seen the rise of this in the tech space with many companies sky rocketing in market share with their mobile phone devices and other electronics. People slowly began to learn that everything that comes out of China isn't "cheap" or will break within a week, that there are reputable brands coming from this power house country that you can trust. We've seen this trend hit the motoring segment over the past 5 years, while on the early onset a lot people were quite skeptical but with the competitive pricing and what was on offer, people took the chance and were not disappointed with the product. This gain in confidence in the local market took a bit upswing when the new models started arriving in the country over the last two years, with new modern designs, cars packed with tech selling for less that 50% to what anything else was offered in the market. They even had the Japanese beaten on most fronts, while reliability and long term performances are still a bit of an unknown to many, the warranty's being offered make it seem that the brands are extremely confident in their offerings so it was worth the risk to the buyers. A few weeks ago I got to spend a week with my first Chinese test vehicle, the Chery Tiggo 8 Pro. Chery isn't new to the locals but have undergone and extreme makeover ,they've changed their entire brand strategy. So far, this has been working like a charm in the local market with their introduction model, the Tiggo 4 Pro, a compact SUV being extremely well received by the local market, the 8 Pro being the brands range topping model is aimed to compete with some of Europe's finest and here are my thoughts on it after spending a week with it.

DESIGN

Gone are the weird and whacky designs that we were accustomed to coming out from China, Chery's range is a very stylish, Euro look with bold accents and modern lines but still has that unique trademark from the company. The Tiggo 8 Pro catches your eye with its large diamond/ crystal speckled grille. The modern lines on the LED head lights give it a very menacing "Tiger like look" which suits the big body profile quite well. Being a 7-seater SUV, the overall design could become quite cumbersome but Chery have employed some of the worlds best stylist as per their website claim, and they have done a great job in keeping the car sleek and straight but still giving the occupants a very large and spacious interior. Fitted with 18-inch bi-colour alloy wheels, it certainly looks the part. The detailed on the LED lights both in the front and back make the car stand out at night, it really is an eye catching feature on the car. Moving onto the interior, Chery have done a brilliant job in this aspect as well. The entire cabin is very modern with top quality finishes. The seats have a diamond like stitching and most of the dash is finished in this premium feel leather and good quality plastics. The center console consist of two touch screen units which will be explained in detail further on in the blog, but the overall look and feel definitely rivals and trumps some of the German models in the market.

PERFORMANCE

The Tiggo 8 Pro is available in two models, the Distinctive and Executive with the difference being the extras as both are powered by the same 1.6L Turbocharged diesel engine. It's tied into a 7-speed DCT automatic gearbox which performs some witchcraft to keep the cars revs under 2000RPM at cruising speeds above 100km/h. The engine itself produces 145kW and 290Nm of torque which was perfect for me driving alone but I fear with a full load it might become a bit of an issue. Also while the revs were kept low, the fuel efficiency of the car wasn't the greatest considering it is a diesel with me averaging around 10L per 100km in mixed use driving. It's not the worst figures for a car this size but I just expected better but at the same time I didn't find the ride being sluggish or lacking performance. While the car isn't a fully fledged off-roader I did have to take a slight detour on my one trip which forced me to do some off-road driving on gravel roads, up mountainous escarpments and I must say, the Tiggo 8 Pro held its own and managed to navigate the tricky terrain quite well and even crossed a low river with ease.

COMFORT

As mentioned previously, the finishes and quality of materials used in the interior of the Tiggo is very good. Nothing feels cheap or plasticky in the cabin, in other words, nothing feels like it will fall off with a week, moth or year in the car. The leather seats have a great premium feel to them and are extremely comfortable. The driver seat is a 6-way electrically adjustable with a 4-way adjustable lumbar support and has memory settings. The front passenger gets 4-way electrical adjustable seating. The driver and front passenger have dual climate control which is controlled by a cool touch screen interface just below the aircon vents, there are toggles located below the screen if the touch screen is switched off or cumbersome to use while driving. The second row can seat 3 people with ease and has it own vents for the passengers. The 3rd row seats which I had folded down for majority of my time with it seems spacious enough to fit two adults with the leg room dependent on the second row seats. The Tiggo 8 Pro had a large panoramic glass sun roof which allowed a lot of natural light into the cabin and made if a nice space to drive from. The car is loaded with tech and during my time I quite enjoyed playing around with the voice command feature which controlled everything from opening the sun roof to closing the automatic tailgate. The car has a large infotainment touch screen which I swear is taken exactly from the BMW design and slapped on but has a user interface very similar to that of iOS. Like most new cars, the Tiggo 8 Pro came with built-in mobile applications so most of the time I had Android Auto being projected on the screen. The instrument cluster is fully digital and has a host of information that can be accesses by the multifunction steering wheel. It also has unique animations of the rev and speed counter, this changes in colour depending on what driving mode you have it in. The car is loaded with safety functions like blind spot monitoring, adaptive cruise control as well as a 360 degree camera which activates every time you indicated from a standstill, making sure you can check the surrounding before heading off.

VERDICT

I think peoples perception of products from China is changing and brands like Chery and Haval are here to shake up the current market much like the Koreans did a few years ago and the Japanese before that. With more and more opting to purchase them over the higher priced German brands, this could trigger a shake up in the market that we needed given the ongoing heavily inflated prices we've been facing over the past few years. While the cars on offer are still combustion based, I won't be surprised to see some EV offerings from the brands in the near future. As it is another Chinese brand Hongqi have launched their own range of EV's so I guess its only a matter of time before the likes of Chery come out with their own. Brands like Chery and Haval are giving motoring journo's a headache when it comes to reviews because many can't find anything that's drastically wrong with the cars and with their price point being so keen, there is nothing to fault in the offerings. As I said earlier on the blog, there is this skepticism on long term performance but with Chery offering a 10 year, 1 000 000km warranty on their engine, they sound pretty confident on their offering. Time will tell I suppose but get ready to see a whole lot more Chinese brands on the roads of South Africa in time to come.