Chery V5 Crossover 2.4 Review

If you have tasted Beijing cuisine, you will realize the Chinese love a dish known as 'hotpot,' or also known in Singapore as 'steamboat', basically a huge array of ingredients, such as beef, chicken, fish, vegetables, and seafood thrown into a boiling broth, usually chicken stock or the famously spicy Sichuan stock.

This hodgepodge meal seems to be reflected in the way the Chinese design their vehicles, unfortunately. Many of these vehicles appear to be designs of Japanese and European makes chucked in together but with a touch of cheap materials and ill fitting panels everywhere. And it was with that thought in mind that the sgcarmart team took in one deep breath, looked up to the sky for divine protection, and then, walked towards our test car™

Presentation

Our signature dish - the Chery V5 crossover - complete with foreign ingredients that were already brewing in that fondue. Hyundai Avante-like front, Honda Stream-like body and the Toyota Estima-like dashboard. Talk about Déjà vu.

We gave the door a nice resounding tap, followed by a hollow sound. Didn't sound too good.

Forcing a smile at the salesgirl, we collected the car keys.

The first surprise morsel that popped out from within the bubbling mixture was a classy flip key with a remote alarm! Call us bumpkins, but we would never have expected such a classy looking device to come with a China-made automobile. After fiddling with the switch-blade style flip key, it was time to savor the first bite.

Texture

Some people, when feeling depressed, resort to comfort food such as ice cream or deep-fried chicken wings. In this case, the seats fulfill such said function. We looked at each other and smiled as we set our butts down, where the white leather hugged snugly.

While the steering angle and seating position was a lot more MPV-oriented, you can't deny the Full leather treatment and sporty, luxurious touch. It came with volume controls, so you can "let your fingers do the walking" instead.

Alas, not every piece of meat in a hotpot can be thoroughly cooked, and this form of rawness was apparent in the choice of leather seats. White (or was it beige?) leathers stain easily, and a few off-coloured patches caught our hawk eyes. The dashboard and steering wheel's lacquer finish did not blend well with the cheap, silver trimmings of the gear lever, the leather wrapped handbrake and door panels.

The dash boxes were apparently pieced together by some worker eager to rush home for his reunion dinner. Shutting them tight was an immense challenge. The power windows did not have a one touch auto-up or down feature, leaving a rather frustrated yours truly to hold it 'till the cows come home.

Impressions

A positive surprise bubbled to the surface upon sparking the ignition. The automatic climate control air conditioning cooled the metal cauldron's boiling temperatures, drying up the salty sweat of its tubby occupants. The built in sound system gave enough bass and 'oomph' to vibrate various interior panels with the hits from Class 95FM.

Then again, a vibrating door panel from thumping bass isn't such a good sign of quality workmanship.

And so, you might want to reheat that pot of cold soup. No problem. Simply slide open the sunroof on top and activate the switch in between the reading lamps. The electric system tilts the sunroof slightly open, allowing rays of light in for that vitamin D boost or to broil you to luke-warm or piping hot, depending on the weather.

Families with pesky overactive kids, take note. The front and middle sections of this hotpot MPV are fine, but the rear seats are really tight. Only kids below 10 years old, Hobbits from Middle Earth, and babies can fit, although it could also mean that team SGcarmart could have had one buffet too many.

There is no DVD player built in, which could be a challenge in getting your little ones to settle down and keep quiet. May we suggest using the mother in law as a practical alternative instead?

Flavour

As mentioned earlier, some hotpots are served with plain broth, and some served spicy. We were expecting the former as the vehicle hit the expressway.

The sound of the automatic central locking provided an ominous warning.

We were under the impression that a nice smirk would appear on the face of the neighbouring taxi driver on our left, as well as the Toyota wish driver on the right as we gave it the beans. Four seconds later, drivers of both those cars wore bewildered faces as we screamed past them, and a host of other cars.

The fiery broth had just burned our tongues, just before we drove into a carpark to lift the ill-fitting hood of the V5 crossover.

There, sitting placidly under the hood, was a Mitsubishi-sourced 2.4l SOHC 4G64 engine - nothing like the workhorse 4G63 performer but still a monster when it came to torque. As an encore, it brings the car to 100km/h from standstill in only 11 seconds.

This was done with the automatic shifted into 'tiptronic' mode. The major limitation here was that there were only 4 speeds to play with, soaking up the 'fun' factor from the overall driving experience.

Talk about the lack of fun, the braking and suspension setup felt soft and unresponsive, and it took a long while for the Chery to come to a complete halt. The car only feels good when driving dead straight. Present it with a set of corners though, and the amount of under-steer was very much on the side of alarming.

The stock Maxxis set of rubbers need to be replaced by something much more decent, pronto.

You might want to savour this pot of steamboat a little more slowly. Drive at a constant speed of 90km/h, and you'll find that the engine tones down to become much more quiet, and the car eases into turns a little more normal, rather than when driven like Colin McRae. The classical music blaring from the sound system managed to soothe the rather savage beasts (ed. the occupants).

The verdict

The Chery V5 forms the economical, and straightforward dish, or in other words, a poor man's Honda Stream. Correct as of 20th January, it retails for $63,999, which is $11,000 less than the abovementioned Japanese counterpart.

If China made vehicles before were like plain, boring chicken broth hotpots, this one might just be the Sichuan hotpot.

Yes, it's still an unoriginal potpourri of design influences from other makes, the interior panels still shake, rattle and roll; and even the 2 airbags, ABS, EBD fail to prevent me from saying the Lord's Prayer when I step on board.

However, you can't deny the punchy Mitsubishi engine, 'tiptronic' gear shift, comfortable interior and nifty accessories such as an electric sunroof, auto climate control, and third row of seats for the family who doesn't need a fancy car.

Appearance wise, the V5 crossover will always be a huge enigma. It should be marketed as a sporty MPV with silver/carbon fiber panels, black leather seats, a slightly lowered suspension setup, 17'' alloy rims with low profile tyres and a full body kit with HID lights.

Or will Chery market it as a luxury MPV?

The hotpot continues to boil.