Jaecoo J8: The Chery on top

by Alistair Kennedy  What is it? Yet another new name for Australian buyers to grapple with, Jaecoo is one of three sub-brands of the Chin...

by Alistair Kennedy 

What is it?

Yet another new name for Australian buyers to grapple with, Jaecoo is one of three sub-brands of the Chinese Chery brand.

Chery is the leading exporter of Chinese vehicles worldwide and Australian sales have more than tripled over the past 12 months.

Marketed as the group’s premium brand, Jaecoo was launched in March with the J7, a mid-sized SUV powered by either petrol or plug-in hybrid powertrains.

It was joined recently by our test vehicle, the J8 family-sized SUV.

Although they are built on different platforms, they do share many of the same design elements, of which the Waterfall Grille is the most noticeable, with 20 vertical chrome and piano black bars and the Jaecoo name centre.

J8 differs in that it comes only with a single power option, a 2.0-litre turbocharged petrol engine -- although it seems likely that a PHEV will follow.

What’s it cost?

Although J8 is significantly larger in all dimensions than the J7, both are five-seaters.

It’s highly likely that a third row will be added later to allow it to compete against similarly-sized vehicles like the Hyundai Santa Fe, Nissan X-Trail, Kia Sorento and Toyota Kluger.

The J8 comes in two variants, Track 2WD priced at $49,990 and the Ridge AWD at $54,990. Both prices are driveaway.

Chery’s design team, headed by a former Mercedes-Benz stylist, have done an impressive job with its two vehicles.

Both have an understated but stylish appearance, and proved to be real head-turners wherever we drove, invariably followed by the need to explain that Jaecoo is the upmarket version of the Chinese carmaker Chery.

With an extra 320mm of length, the J8's stretched, slightly tapering roofline is just crying out for an extra row of seats.

There’s LED lighting all round, both external and internal, with a light bar connecting the tail lights

In contrast with the J7's portrait-style screen,  the infotainment screen in the J8 reverts to the conventional landscape design.

The touchscreen is 12.3-inch and butts up against a driver information cluster of the same size -- to become a single, panoramic screen.

Both screens are crisp, clear and easy to access.

There’s in-built satellite navigation that can be displayed on both screens.

There are USB -A and -C ports front and rear, with 12-volt power outlets located in the front and in the boot, and there is a 50W wireless charger in both variants.

Audio is through an impressive 14-speaker Sony surround system.

Apple CarPlay and Android Auto are both wireless.

J8 is yet to be tested by ANCAP, but shares all of its safety features with the J7 which received a maximum five-star rating in May this year.

Track has eight airbags including front centre and driver’s knee bag. Ridge adds side airbags for the outside rear seats.

Both variants get Chery’s advanced driver assistance system (ADAS) package that includes forward collision warning, autonomous emergency braking, adaptive cruise control, traffic jam assist, integrated cruise assist, blind spot detection, rear collision warning, rear cross traffic alert and braking, lane departure prevention with emergency lane keeping, driver monitoring system and tyre pressure monitoring.

Ridge adds extra drive modes, torque vectoring and continuous damping control.

There are also four-lane deviation and three driver inattention/speed limit monitoring systems.

All can be turned off temporarily, although, fortunately, they are nowhere near as intrusive as others we have come across.

One thing that impressed us, with both Jaecoo models that we tested, is that the vehicle will not move unless the driver’s seatbelt is fastened.

It's such an obvious safety feature, but one that very few other manufacturers have adopted.

We understand that ANCAP may add this to its testing regime in future.

What’s it go like?

The quality and premier feel of the Jaecoo J8 extends to the cabin.

The front seats are heated and cooled with massage function and four-way lumbar support.

The Ridge variant adds heating and cooling to the outer second row seats.

The driver gets an eight-way power-adjust seat with extended thigh support, four-way lumbar support and memory function.

The front passenger has six-way power adjustment.

The rear seats get their own air conditioning controls and a folding centre armrest.

There’s even an in-built fragrance system located below the dashboard in Ridge with replaceable cartridges.

One feature that we haven’t encountered before are speakers that are built into the front seat headrests.

We received a few phone calls during our test – backseat drivers indeed!

Boot space is a huge 738 litres expandable to a van-like 2021 litres with the rear seatbacks folded.

Note that these measurements are to the roof

Both variants come with a full-sized spare wheel.

The J8 is powered by a 2.0-litre turbocharged petrol engine that produces 183kW of power and 385Nm of torque from 1750rpm.

It is paired with an eight-speed automatic transmission and comes in either front-wheel drive with Track or all-wheel drive in the Ridge.

Fuel consumption is a claimed 8.6L/100km and the engine requires a minimum 95 RON premium unleaded fuel.

Retractable handles for all four doors open automatically when the key comes in range.

Unlike most other vehicles with such door handles that can be awkward to open those in the J7 open fully square for easy opening.

Visibility isn’t great with about half of the narrow rear window blocked by the rear seat headrests.

The A-pillar is wide and sharply angled which, together with the large side mirror, does restrict left-side vision for the driver.

As is rapidly becoming the norm, almost all vehicle functions are accessed through the touchscreen rather than using physical controls.

While these are among the many important safety features in the vehicle, and no doubt many drivers will appreciate them, they can be quite intrusive and frequently require the driver to look at the touchscreen instead of the road ahead.

They can be turned off, although with most vehicles they default to back on when the engine stops.

Fortunately, with the Jaecoo that’s not the case and, apart from the driver distraction alert, they remain off until turned on again.

Another problem we found was the location of the gear selector on the right-hand steering wheel stalk.

Typically, that is the location of the right turn indicator or windscreen wiper controls.

On a number of occasions, we inadvertently moved the vehicle into neutral when we went to use either the indicator or wipers.

The drive experience from the Jaecoo J8 is predictable enough for a large boxy and relatively heavy vehicle, but that applies equally to most vehicles in the medium SUV field.

It does what the typical family owner wants and does it well.

It provides a smooth, quiet and comfortable ride both around town and on the motorway. Steering is light.

Note that, unusually for a relatively large vehicle, J8 does not have any tow rating.

Both variants get an adjustable head-up display.

What we like?

• The price
• Long warranty
• Quality feel
• Full-size spare
• Impressive Sony sound

What we don’t like?

• No hybrid option (yet)
• No third row
• Gear selector location
• Rear visibility obscured
• How much can it tow?

The bottom line?

Although the Jaecoo brand doesn’t have the prestige of European vehicles of similar size, the J8 offers incredible value with prices starting from just under $50,000  driveaway.

The standard Jaecoo warranty covers eight years and unlimited kilometres. There’s also 12 months of complimentary roadside assistance, that can be  extended for the full warranty period provided that the vehicle is serviced by a Jaecoo dealer.

Another Jaecoo initiative is a “Future Price Promise” that guarantees a minimum resale value subject to specific conditions being met, including the aforementioned servicing criteria.

The Jaecoo J8 certainly gets our nod as one of the best offerings yet from China, certainly the best SUV.

The combination of its, excellent interior space and comfort, safety equipment and pricing make it well worth checking out.

 

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