If everything goes as it should, potential buyers in this segment will be interested in a Volkswagen Tiguan, Skoda Kodiaq, Hyundai Tucson, Mazda CX-5 or something else traditional in this segment instead of the Omoda. Their price niche is currently occupied by a new product from Chery worth 2.43 million to 2.7 million rubles – besides the physical one in car dealerships.
Therefore, the main problem when talking about Omoda is not to consider this crossover through the prism of the cars mentioned above, since they are not available at dealerships. Although not easy. In fact, in Russia, even the recall of the Chery brand along with “Omoda” should eventually fade into the shadows, as the Chinese split Omoda into a separate brand for new markets, likening the Acura and Honda tandem. Although the company itself offers to compare this symbiosis with SEAT and Volkswagen, here the concern Chery plays the role of the latter.
With a hint of luxury
Among the pluses of the new product, you can write a good look from Chery, for which the star of Chinese automotive design Steve Hume, an American-born Korean, who previously worked at Ford, Hyundai and GM, was responsible.
A large, bulging grille with many diamond-shaped cells is striking – this really makes the Omoda stand out in the parking lot. Although in profile the car is much simpler – in the spirit of modern Japanese and Korean models. The influence of an expensive foreign car is not lost inside either – and we are talking, first of all, of seats in the style of the Bentley Continental GT.
The headrests of these seats are integral with the backrest and have a hole at neck level – as if the driver will be restrained by four-point sports belts instead of the standard “belt”.
The chairs themselves are textured with enhanced lateral back support, but the short “telescope” of the steering column prevents comfortable sitting. The angle of placement of the driver’s feet is significantly narrowed, on the one hand, by a wide central tunnel, and on the other, by a large flow of the door handle. And here, of course, it can be blamed that this “SUV” will mow a well-fed person, but it must be admitted at once that this is initially a compact B-class crossover.
Moreover, even against the background of Hyundai Creta and Renault Kaptur, which are well known to Russians, the Chinese C5 is generally less. It wasn’t originally “bring a bag of potatoes from the shack”, but rather a car with a claim to a relatively young (and therefore body-facing) audience on the money.
That is why the main emphasis in the cabin is not on practicality, but on modern automotive “high-tech” aesthetics. However, two 10-inch multimedia screens combined into a complex are responsible for this. Unlike other “Germans” and “Japanese” references, here the multimedia and regular display are quite compactly written into the “dashboard” – it is comfortable for the eyes, and the vision does not overlap.
The brightness and sharpness of the pictures of drawing applications, screen views are top-notch. The tactile key response is good, but not a solid five, but from personal experience, no automaker has yet reached “iPhone” screen responsiveness to fingers.
The “eco system” of the driver as a whole is quite competently organized – everything is at hand. There is a platform for wireless charging of a smartphone, but if you need to plug in a USB cable, you will have to go under your right foot to get into one of the two charging sockets – according to Chery tradition, they are hidden under the “floating” central tunnel.
Despite its compact size in the passenger seat, the C5 is free. A slightly above average (male) driver can easily sit behind himself. But the volume in the trunk can be more: three backpacks fill it almost completely.
How is it going
The front-wheel drive crossover enjoys the benefits of lightness while driving on Russian roads like other Chery cars. Acceleration is effective, a 147-horsepower half-liter engine, despite a rather modest thrust (210 Nm), is enough to bypass the passing trucks.
During acceleration, the engine is expected to be noisy, the power rolls in a small and short avalanche, so you have to carefully calibrate the glass for the driver’s move. The variator does not produce the declared fuel economy indicators of 7 l / 100 km in the combined cycle. The combined consumption on highways with fast acceleration when passing through settlements with different speed limits and bypassing trucks is about 9 liters of gasoline per “hundred”.
The steering wheel lacks a bit of sharpness but is tolerable. The transition stabilization system is installed quite faithfully to the driver. At low speed on a gravel road, the ESP bites the brake discs at the moment of slip development.
The entire navy of active security assistants is certainly a godsend, but stubbornly takes control. And every time you start the engine you have to turn off all that active steering and beeping. However, the management of the group promised that this problem will be resolved – the reaction went to headquarters. I would like to believe that with the new firmware, customers will have the right to independently decide when and which electronic assistant will help them.
The Omoda C5 is made and designed differently, in general it represents a truly new generation of cars from the Chinese concern. It handles like a hatchback with its 18-inch design wheels, looks like a futuristic concept and is sold for the price of a Volkswagen Tiguan. In this case, we are talking about a small mono-drive SUV with a variator and a small-capacity unit. Is it worth paying for “new prices”, which are essentially simple but seemingly attractive Chinese cars? I still don’t have an answer to this question.