The parking lot near Grozny Airport gets crowded in the morning. Taxi drivers filling the site with tourists almost completely block the entrances and exits before the next flight arrives. An old man carrying the keys to an old Lada Granta saw our parked car and excitedly asked what kind of car it was and where we were going with it. When he learned the name of the brand, he doubted whether it was wise to drive a Chinese car into the mountains, but wished us good luck and added that the road would not be easy.
Jaecoo is a new brand of the Chery concern, which will sell urban crossovers with advanced off-road capabilities in Russia. According to the official statement, the brand name comes from the combination of two words: German Jaeger (“hunter”) and English Cool (“cool”). Here is a very simple game with words in Chinese style.
whalebone
The mid-size Jaecoo J7 SUV is the brand’s first model in Russia and has a length of 4500 mm and a wheelbase of 2672 mm. Its signature feature is a massive radiator grille, which the Chinese call “whalebone”, narrow LED headlights with a checkerboard pattern, a large hood and 19-inch wheels.
If you do not know the country of origin of the crossover, it can be remotely confused with one of the Jeep models.
On the side there are protective linings for wheel arches, sills and bumpers, thin moldings, as well as red calipers, which are the privilege of the top modification. At first glance, fashionable retractable door handles are not the best solution for our climate, but the company assured that the machines were tested in winter and there should be no problems with the mechanism. The rear of the Jaecoo J7 also looks modern thanks to the LED headlights and dual exhaust pipes integrated into the bumper.
In terms of technology, Jaecoo J7 can hardly be called original, it is built on the basis of the well-known Chery Tiggo 7 Pro Max in Russia and in terms of dimensions it is almost no different from this new product. But that’s where the similarities end. The debutant looks much bigger and bigger than his donor.
wheeled gadget
The first thing that catches your eye in the cabin is the huge vertical infotainment screen with a diagonal of almost 15 inches. There is no question about performance: the system is powered by an octa-core Qualcomm 8155 processor with 16 GB of RAM. The menu scrolls without delay and the necessary options are activated instantly.
Interior trim is decent: Most materials are good in both look and feel. The plastic is moderately soft, the fabric and eco-leather are of quite high quality, the only controversial point is the abundance of chrome parts, which, on the one hand, make the interior bright, and on the other, a little pretentious.
You can adjust the height and depth of the driver’s seat in a few seconds; electrical adjustments help. The chair itself is a bit hard, has a short cushion and poor lateral support. Although my back did not get tired on the road, my body did not slip during lateral overloads. There are no complaints about the steering column of the Jaecoo J7, it is adjustable both in reach and angle.
From the helm you can see everything going on around you; large exterior mirrors and all-round cameras help. Secondly, it helps eliminate the possibility of accidents when maneuvering in the parking lot.
The Chinese rear seat turned out to be extremely successful. There is enough room for a tall, long-legged passenger to sit behind the driver and not rest his knees on the front seats.
The nearly flat floor allows seating for three adults, although those sitting in the middle will be slightly disturbed by the protruding lintel and central tunnel. But the backrests are adjustable in angle, there is a wide armrest with cup holders, three-stage heating of the sofa and two USB ports.
There are also LED elements on the rear doors that start flashing when a car passes from the left or right. This was done to prevent passengers from accidentally stepping in front of a passing car.
The weak link is the trunk: with the seatbacks of the second row raised, its volume is only 412 liters, and if the seats are folded, the space increases to 1332 liters. The closest competitor, the Volkswagen Tiguan crossover, has higher figures: 615 and 1665 liters respectively.
A full-size spare tire fits under the floor, and you can make the trunk split-level with the help of removable shelves. This is useful if you want to separate some things from others.
The fifth door is equipped with an electric drive; You can only adjust the opening height in the multimedia system menu.
How does it ride?
Under the hood of the Jaecoo J7 is the undisputed 1.6-liter gasoline turbo engine with 186 horsepower (third generation Acteco series). Chery Tiggo 8 Pro and Exeed TXL crossovers are also equipped with such engines. The advantage of this unit is that it is the first engine in China to meet Euro-6 environmental standards. The transmission is a seven-speed Getrag robot with two clutches. The all-wheel drive system is based on a multi-plate clutch created with the help of ZF engineers.
The J7 feels like a duck to water on the traffic-congested streets of Grozny: you have a high seating position by crossover standards, a great view and a “short” light steering wheel. Having jumped out of the metropolis, we try to accelerate well, fortunately, the quality of the roads in Chechnya is not bad.
The crossover reacts predictably and smoothly to increased fuel supply and does not make you particularly nervous when overtaking slow-moving vehicles. But that’s all the machine can do.
You can cheer up by turning on the sport mode, which changes the settings of the engine and gearbox. But in reality this does not help – the acceleration of the car remains the same measured and equal.
There are also questions about the suspension; it’s firm and short-traveled, and follows the profile of the road in great detail.
By the way, one of the trump cards of the “Chinese” is sound insulation. Road noise does not penetrate the cabin even on rough, rocky asphalt, while the engine can still be heard at high speeds.
After passing Chechnya and Ingushetia, we run into the mountains of North Ossetia. The first half hour of driving on rocky winding roads showed that the car copes well with dirt roads. The declared ground clearance of 196 mm to the lower edge of the bumper allows you to pass through shallow pits and holes filled with water.
To assist the driver, four-wheel drive off-road modes are offered: “Snow”, “Sand”, “Rocks” and “Off-Road”. The washer in the central tunnel is responsible for activating them. The feel of these modes is not much different from each other.
Fun fact: Jaecoo claims the J7’s all-wheel drive system activates a second and a half quicker than rival cars, and the electronics can simulate differential lock.
During one of the long climbs, the crossover at some point stopped responding to the gas pedal and stalled at the top. Shortly afterwards two more J7s stopped nearby with the same problems. Apparently the gearboxes went into protection mode due to overheating. We had to make a preemptive stop to allow the “robots” to cool down. The company announced that they will make adjustments to the functioning of the electronics.
Despite the minor shortcomings, Jaecoo J7 has excellent potential, the main thing is not to go too far in prices.
Besides the all-wheel drive version, the J7 is also available with front-wheel drive. This version is considered the most affordable and costs 3.34 million rubles, without taking into account the benefits of trade-in and car loan – about 2.7 million.
The basic package includes 18-inch wheels, LED optics, 10-inch color instrument cluster display, multimedia system, cruise control, driver’s seat ventilation, heated all seats, six speakers, dual-zone climate control.
In the maximum configuration with all-wheel drive, panoramic sunroof, head-up display, dual-zone climate control and adaptive cruise control, the car costs already 3.75 million rubles. The price of Chinese car is quite high and will scare some people, but we understand that there will be no cheap cars anymore and prices will continue to increase.