Chery Tiggo 9: Maybe the communists are onto something

What have we here?

It’s the Chery Tiggo 9. A very long, surprisingly powerful and reasonably luxurious seven-seat plug-in hybrid (PHEV) SUV. It is from China.

From China? Like the Omoda 9?

Almost exactly like the Omoda 9. Chery International is the holding company for Chery, Omoda and Jaecoo. Sort of like a Chinese Volkswagen, if you will. Jaecoo are those cars you see everywhere these days that look a bit like Range Rovers but are not Range Rovers. Soon you will probably see quite a few Cherys and Omodas too, I would imagine, although they do not look like Range Rovers. Omodas look like Audis. Cherys look like, well, I’m unsure as of yet.

Why would you imagine that?

Because they are very reasonably priced considering the amount of technology and luxury you get as standard. The Tiggo 9 has massage seats, for example.

How much is ‘very reasonably priced’?

It is £43,105.

And what does £43,105 get you?

It gets you the aforementioned massage seats, 428bhp, seven seats, air filter system, and a claimed combined range of more than 650 miles. It will also do about 90 miles on just its battery, and is rapid-charge compatible. Apple Carplay, Android Auto, and so on as standard, and a punchy Sony sound system.

That is quite a lot. There are many benefits of living in a western society underpinned by the unrestrained forces of capitalism. You get lots of nice things, and you get plenty of choice. Chery, being Chinese, is less interested in choice, but is plenty interested in nice things. So the car comes in one trim level only, with one engine, but you are allowed to change the colour if you so wish, which is very thoughtful.

While it is nice to be able to customise a car to the exact specifications you desire, in practice it is complicated, misleading and annoying. A car is advertised at a price, but when you decide to include the things you actually need and want, it is much more than the price initially offered. There will be salespeople involved, who will try and push various luxury packs on to your car, for larger wheels and enhanced leathers and plug sockets in the back. Has anyone ever used a plug socket in the back? Actually? It’s all a very stressful experience.

For Chery and their subsidiaries, a decision was taken to include all the things that most people want (good infotainment system, a bit of leather, Apple Carplay), add in a few luxuries to impress your friends (massage seats, panoramic roof, air filter) and just sell that. Walk into a Chery showroom, ask to buy a Tiggo 9, choose a colour, and go home again. It’ll probably turn up quite quickly too, because they are not being built to order.

Calm down Karl Marx, what’s the car like?

Sorry, yes, the car.

The car is good, if unexciting. It is very comfortable, drives well enough, although it is probably a bit overpowered, and like the Omoda 9, with which it shares the Super Hybrid System engine, seems to use almost no petrol.

The steering is a little vague, and if you were to unleash all of the power around the corners, the car does roll. If you decide not to drive the Tiggo 9 like James Bond, however, it is perfectly happy pootling around rural England, on the motorway, and in town. Like all new cars, it comes with plenty of safety tech, but nothing is too overwhelming or invasive. As an experience, it is smooth if uninspiring, like a Liberal Democrat.

Keep politics out of cars

Sorry

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The interiors?

Decadent if undefined. As mentioned, many times by this point, the Tiggo 9 comes with plenty of luxury. What Chery has yet to master, however, is an identity as a brand. Volvo is minimalist functionality. Audi is serious and sharp. And so on. Everything in the Tiggo 9 is present and correct, but none of it feels like its telling me something about the brand. This is not a dealbreaker, but it is interesting to me at least.

All the buttons and touchscreens and so on are very easy to use, and it all feels very nice. The Sony soundsystem is not the type of ‘knock-your-eardrums-out’ quality you’d get from premium Bowers & Wilkins systems, but is excellent for the price level and features speakers in the driver’s headrest, which is fun. For the price level, everything is extremely refined.

Seven seats are delivered by three rows of seats, of which two could be used for adults, and the boot space when the third row is folded down is cavernous. But then again, so is the car, which is 4.8 metres long, but is also pleasingly narrow. There are lights on the inside, and you can change the colours of that too, which is also fun.

There doesn’t seem to be a whole lot wrong with it?

There isn’t really, and plenty that is right. The main criticism is that Chery is such a new entrant to the UK market that the brand is still trying to establish an identity, but that will come with time, and isn’t really a criticism at all, when you think about it.

Chinese cars are becoming ever present on UK roads, and it seems that plenty of ‘as standard’ toys and competitive pricing is more than enough for most buyers to look the other way from any anti-Chinese sentiment. Even if such sentiment persists, Chery and its children are not going away, with more dealerships opening almost by the week.

Much will depend on the reliability of these cars, but Chery are putting their money where their hypothetical mouths are, by offering a seven-year/100,000 mile warranty that outstrips almost anything on the market.

So you like this car? You would say it is a good car? You would not laugh or cry if your friends were about to buy one?

It is a good car. It doesn’t look as nice as an Audi or even Skoda Kodiaq, but it has Audi-level kit for a Skoda-level price. And as an overworked and overindulged millennial, I am very much onboard with the simplicity of the buying and owning process. I also like nice things at reasonable prices. And massages.

The Tiggo 9 is a very utilitarian automobile, which perhaps should not be a surprise considering where it’s from. Perhaps the communists have a point after all. Perhaps choice is a corporate illusion to sell us too many things we don't need. Perhaps the Tiggo 9 is the totem that will free us from unfettered excess.

Probably not. But it is a lot of car for £43,000 and that's worth some praise indeed.

On the road: Chery Tiggo 9

Price: £43,105

Power: 428bhp (ICE and electric)

Top speed: 112mph (limited)

Acceleration: 0-62mph in 5.4 seconds

Range/MPG: 650 miles/470mpg (WLTP)